Formula 1: Articles & News Reports.

[Fortitude]

No surprise about Zandvoort F1 departure: 'Verstappen was a temporary hype'.
The Grand Prix of the Netherlands will take place two more times at Circuit Zandvoort. After 2026, the pinnacle of motorsport will definitively say goodbye to Max Verstappen's home race. Does this surprise F1 analysts? Not if it's up to Ralf Schumacher, at least.
28 Aug 2025
Kevin Doldersum
GPblog.com

"Yes, it's a pity, but that's just the way it is. Fair is fair: Max Verstappen has become a lot calmer over the years. This is because the fans get used to it and because he doesn't win as much anymore," judges the German analyst in the Backstage Boxengasse.”

The underlying cause is clear, according to Schumacher: "This means that a hype like this is always only temporary. You also notice this in the revenue from the sponsorship." The worries about the profitability of the Grand Prix at Zandvoort led to the organization deciding to say goodbye to Formula 1 after 2026.

Schumacher came up with a fitting statement for those who might criticize this decision. "We mustn't forget that we have to look at ourselves before we criticize others. If I want to sell my bike and a nice person offers me 200 euros, but someone else comes with an offer of 400 euros, you know yourself what you would choose. And that's just Formula 1," he said somewhat frustrated.

'Verstappen was a temporary hype';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/no-surprise-about-zandvoort-f1-departure-verstappen-was-a-temporary-hype


Zandvoort deluged by thunderstorm as Dutch GP weather fears grow
The weather forecast earlier this week indicated rain would strike Zandvoort over the race weekend. Those predictions have already come true in a big way.
28 Aug 2025
RacingNews365

Large pools of water collected throughout the paddock, whilst an access tunnel underneath the circuit was completely flooded. The downpour rendered the tunnel impassable on foot, forcing organisers to use golf karts to transport people from one side of the track to the other.

The heavy shower will undoubtedly raise concerns about what is to come over the remainder of the weekend. While a degree of rain can often add an element of unpredictability to a grand prix, too much could threaten its running altogether, as was painfully demonstrated at the 2021 Belgian event.

‘Zandvoort deluged by thunderstorm’;

https://racingnews365.com/dutch-gp-paddock-under-water-after-major-thunderstorm-hits-zandvoort


Bring Inters: Zandvoort’s Weather Could Detonate Dutch GP
Aug 28, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
Fastest Lap

Friday – Practice
FP1 (12:30 local): Overcast and cool, with the first raindrops threatening. The FIA forecast pegs the chance of rain at around 40%, air temperature near 18°C. Not much grip to start with, so any early running matters.
FP2 (16:00): That’s when the tap could really turn. An 80% chance of rain, with 5–10mm expected before potential thunderstorms roll in Friday evening. Teams may split programs: bank dry laps early if there’s a window, then pivot to intermediate and full-wet data. If you’ve brought new bits, you might not learn much.

Saturday – Final practice and qualifying
FP3 (11:30): Still unsettled. Another 80% chance of rain in the morning with gusts around 15–25 kph. It’s one of those sessions where the clock is as important as the car — catching the driest five minutes could determine your read on tyres for qualifying.
Qualifying (15:00): The outlook eases but doesn’t clear. Showers remain a threat at around 40%, with air temp nudging 19°C. If it’s stop-start wet, we’ll see that familiar Zandvoort tension: brave early laps on the crossover, or wait for the track to come to you? Either way, traffic management will be everything on a narrow, evolving surface.

Sunday - – Race
Grand Prix (15:00 local; 14:00 UK): A soggy morning should wash away most of the rubber laid down, resetting the surface for the main event. The afternoon trend looks kinder, with conditions improving as the race approaches, but there’s still a 40% chance of rain during the Grand Prix itself. Air temperature around 20°C.

‘Zandvoort’s Weather Could Detonate Dutch GP’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/bring-inters-zandvoorts-weather-could-detonate-dutch-gp/


Verstappen’s private jet makes a stop in another country on the eve of Dutch GP
26 Aug 2025
Tobia Elia
Cas van de Kleut
GPblog.com

This week, Max Verstappen and his fellow Formula 1 drivers are preparing for the Dutch Grand Prix after a four-week break. On Tuesday afternoon, his private jet made a stop in England, as revealed by the X account VerstappenJet. Before heading to the Netherlands, Verstappen’s aircraft was picked up on radar over England. The Red Bull Racing driver landed near Milton Keynes, home to the team’s factory. It seems likely that a quick visit there was the reason for the detour just days before the Dutch Grand Prix.

‘Landed near Milton Keynes, home to the team’s factory’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/verstappens-private-jet-makes-a-stop-in-another-country-on-the-eve-of-dutch-gp


Key Fred Vasseur Ferrari ally is ‘under pressure’ amid ‘deteriorating’ relationships at Lewis Hamilton’s team
28 Aug 2025
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari will hope to come out of the summer break at the 2025 F1 Dutch Grand Prix able to record a strong end to the year, but they are enduring turmoil in Maranello. The pride of Italy travel to Zandvoort this weekend for round 15 of the 24 due in the 2025 F1 season. But while Ferrari sit in second place in the F1 constructors’ championship before the Dutch GP, they trail McLaren by 299 points and are still without a Grand Prix win this season.

Ferrari chassis technical director Diego Tondi is now ‘under pressure’. Now, RMC Motori reports that Ferrari’s rear suspension upgrade is the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ in Maranello, having cost them €1m (£862k) to design. Ferrari are pointing the finger at their chassis technical director Diego Tondi, as well, and he is now ‘under pressure’.

Ferrari think Tondi, who has worked for the Scuderia since 2007 and took his current role in September 2024, is ‘unable to react’, which has led to ‘deteriorating personal relationships’. Two key figures even left Ferrari during the summer break as they were ‘at odds’ with Tondi. Ferrari think Tondi, who has worked for the Scuderia since 2007 and took his current role in September 2024, is ‘unable to react’, which has led to ‘deteriorating personal relationships’. Two key figures even left Ferrari during the summer break as they were ‘at odds’ with Tondi.

‘Deteriorating relationships’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/key-fred-vasseur-ferrari-ally-is-under-pressure-amid-deteriorating-relationships-at-lewis-hamiltons-team/


McLaren set to match very special record at Zandvoort this weekend
28 Aug 2025
Tobia Elia
Estéban den Toom
GPblog.com

McLaren could match a very special record at Zandvoort during the Dutch Grand Prix. For that to happen, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will need a bit of luck and every ounce of performance from their car. And of course, Max Verstappen can’t be the one to ruin the party on Sunday—otherwise, the record will have to wait.

If Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri secure another one-two finish—regardless of the order—McLaren will draw level with Mercedes and Ferrari. The record stands at five consecutive one-two finishes. Ferrari first set the benchmark early in Formula 1 history, all the way back in 1952. For sixty years it remained out of reach for every other team in the sport’s top category, until Ferrari themselves matched it again in 2002.

It wasn’t until 2014 that Mercedes had their turn, with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg finishing first and second in five straight races to equal Ferrari’s record. Mercedes even had the chance to claim the record outright, but fell just short. This Sunday, McLaren could once again draw level with that milestone—and if they succeed, the opportunity to break the record would come at Monza, with the Italian Grand Prix set for early September.

‘One-two finish record’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/mclaren-can-match-a-very-special-record-at-zandvoort-in-formula-1


Leclerc highlights one unique Zandvoort trait when thinking about Dutch GP
28 Aug 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

The highly anticipated Dutch Grand Prix, the fifteenth round of the season after the summer break, is just around the corner. Charles Leclerc spoke about his connection to Zandvoort and the first thing that comes to mind when he thinks about the Dutch race.

Several drivers have spoken highly of the Dutch circuit, but what exactly connects Leclerc to Zandvoort? ''At the Dutch Grand Prix, the first thing that comes to my mind is the orange army,'' the Ferrari driver stated. ''It's really nice to see so much passion and to be completely honest, there's always so much respect also for all the teams and all the drivers. And I think that's what we all enjoy at the Dutch Grand Prix, mostly because there's respect as well.''

Hamilton, on the other hand, focused more on the characteristics of the circuit, which he considers unique in the F1 calendar: “It's got lots of imperfections. I think the undulations really give it a huge amount of character as well. A lot of tracks are built on flats, whereas it's built in a time where they didn't have that technology and it's aged. There's bumps from like things on the ground all over the hills moving so that just creates for me one of the best tracks that we get to race on.''

‘Unique Zandvoort trait(s)’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/general/leclerc-highlights-one-specific-zandvoort-trait-when-thinking-about-dutch-gp

[Fortitude]

Dutch GP: Norris leads Piastri in messy FP1 session.
Lando Norris set the pace in the opening practice session for this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, leading McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri in a strong showing at Zandvoort.
29/08/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

The session unfolded under cool, windy conditions, a stark contrast to Europe’s recent heatwaves, as the Formula 1 season resumed after the summer break. The one-hour work-out saw immediate action as all 20 drivers tackled the beachside circuit. Championship leader Piastri initially topped the timesheets, followed by home hero Max Verstappen and Norris.

Verstappen briefly led before yellow flags waved 11 minutes in due to off-track incidents. Yuki Tsunoda spun at Turn 12 but continued, while Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli understeered into the gravel at Turn 9, triggering a red flag. The session resumed after an eight-minute delay, only for Carlos Sainz to slide off at Turn 12, highlighting the track’s challenges.

Despite the messy running, McLaren asserted dominance as Norris posted a blistering 1m10.278s on soft Pirelli tyres, with Piastri close behind at 1m10.570s, narrowing the gap to 0.292s. The pair’s pace went unmatched, with other front-runners like Verstappen focusing on varied run plans.

‘Lando Norris set the pace’;

https://f1i.com/news/546860-dutch-gp-norris-leads-piastri-in-messy-fp1-session.html


Dutch GP: Free Practice 1 Results
Full results from Free Practice 1 for the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix.
29 Aug 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

POS. NO. DRIVER TEAM TIME / GAP LAPS
1 4 Lando Norris McLaren 1:10.278 34
2 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.292s 31
3 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +0.501s 24
4 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.563s 24
5 23 Alexander Albon Williams +0.893s 32
6 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.940s 23
7 63 George Russell Mercedes +1.108s 28
8 55 Carlos Sainz Williams +1.180s 32
9 5 Gabriel Bortoleto Kick Sauber +1.231s 29
10 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine +1.335s 29

‘Full results from Free Practice 1’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-dutch-grand-prix-zandvoort-free-practice-1-fp1-results/


FP1: Norris sets the pace from Piastri and Stroll during first practice in Zandvoort as Verstappen suffers late off
Lando Norris has kicked off the second half of the season by going quickest in Free Practice 1 at the Dutch Grand Prix.
29/08/2025
Formula One - Official Site

Lando Norris has set the pace during the opening practice session at the Dutch Grand Prix, the McLaren racer going fastest from team mate Oscar Piastri and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll. After a few weeks without racing during the sport’s summer break, the drivers were greeted by dry but windy conditions as the session got underway at Zandvoort, with Nico Hulkenberg leading a queue of cars out of the pit lane when the green light appeared.

Most of the field had bolted on the medium compound for their opening runs, on a weekend in which Pirelli are celebrating their 500th World Championship Grand Prix. Amid a busy start – with potentially heavy rain forecast for later in the day – Lewis Hamilton was the first to suffer a big moment, the Briton experiencing a 360-degree spin that triggered the yellow flags. “I’ve got flat spots all round,” Hamilton subsequently reported.

‘FP1: Norris sets the pace from Piastri and Stroll’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/fp1-norris-sets-the-pace-from-piastri-and-stroll-during-first-practice-in.1kyvSHvZ9d8fH7BZHLRBgj


Verstappen finishes FP1 in the gravel for Dutch GP
29/08/2025
Fastest Lap

‘Action photograph’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/news-summaries/verstappen-finishes-fp1-in-the-gravel-for-dutch-gp/


F1 fans tell Max Verstappen to ‘relax’ after ‘close call’ for Red Bull at the Dutch Grand Prix
29 August 2025
Shay Rogers
F1 Oversteer

F1 fans tell Max Verstappen to ‘relax’ after ‘close call’ for Red Bull after Dutch Grand Prix practice. Verstappen ‘isn’t better’ than Ayrton Senna or Alain Prost, according to Jacques Villeneuve, who doesn’t think he would stand out in their era.

Unfortunately, he was standing out for all the wrong reasons after FP1 at the Dutch Grand Prix, where he found the gravel following a practice start. On X (formerly known as Twitter), it has led to quite a response from fans, warning him after the silly incident. “Close call, Max should relax,” commented one individual, while another agreed, saying, “That was close, even the best can have a shaky moment. Shows how tricky these cars can be.”

Red Bull told what Laurent Mekies must do to create success for Max Verstappen. Verstappen is now on his longest run without a podium for seven years, dating back to the final year of Red Bull’s partnership with Renault in 2018. Since then, he has always been at the front, reaping the fruits of an excellent Honda deal, which helped to transform them into regular title contenders.

‘Relax’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/f1-fans-tell-max-verstappen-to-relax-after-close-call-for-red-bull-at-the-dutch-grand-prix/


Verstappen causes confusion with unusual off, after the chequered flag in FP1
29 Aug 2025
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Max Verstappen found himself in the Turn 1 gravel, but after the chequered flag fell in the opening practice session for the Dutch Grand Prix. He was left to walk away from his beached Red Bull in what was a very unusual moment.

It was a better session for Verstappen, who was sixth fastest, although he was still 0.940s slower than Norris. However, he was made to walk back to the pit lane after a very unusual off that took place after the chequered flag. Joining his rivals on the grid for a practice session, Verstappen got away cleanly only to go straight on at Turn 1. “And keep up the pace Max,” said his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. “Oop…”

Walking around the rear of his Red Bull, Verstappen began to dig the gravel away from the front of his RB21’s rear right tyre. Sky F1’s Karun Chandhok explained: “He doesn’t want them to damage the floor when they are picking the car up.” That was about the only thing in the incident that made sense.

‘Verstappen causes confusion’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/max-verstappen-causes-confusion-with-unusual-off-chequered-flag-fp1-dutch-gp


Clarity on Verstappen's update: This is what has changed on the Red Bull
14:26, 29 Aug
Norberto Mujica
Cas van de Kleut
GPblog.com

On Friday morning, it was reported that Red Bull had updated the front wing for the Dutch Grand Prix. The team's chief engineer, Paul Monaghan, for Max Verstappen's squad, has explained the adjustment to the car.

In the presence among others GPblog, Monaghan was asked whether it is a specific update for Zandvoort, or a part of the car's development. "It's not a whole new front wing," Monaghan said. "It's quite literally just a flap extension. We're struggling a little bit for balance, so you just extend the chord.”

"It's nothing unusual: you glue it onto the existing one and off you go.” Monaghan continued: “So yes, it's not quite as dramatic as you think. It's very similar to what we did in Hungary, just slightly further because we've had the time to make some more bits.”

‘Clarity on Verstappen's update’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/clarity-on-verstappens-update-this-is-what-has-changed-on-the-red-bull


Minimal upgrades as teams unveil car changes for the Dutch Grand Prix
29 Aug 2025
Sam Cooper
PlanetF1.com

Upgrades are few and far between as F1 resumes from its summer break with just three teams making any alterations. The summer shutdown, which enforces no work to be done at the factory, plus an increasing focus on 2026 suggested it was always likely there would not be a huge amount of changes for this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix and that has proven to be the case.

‘Minimal upgrades’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/upgrades-teams-unveil-car-changes-dutch-grand-prix

[Fortitude]

Dutch GP: Norris edges Alonso in FP2 – heavy crash for Stroll.
Norris’ consistency signals McLaren’s strong form, while Alonso’s pace hints at Aston Martin’s potential despite Stroll’s setback.
29/08/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

McLaren’s Lando Norris continued his dominance at the Dutch Grand Prix, topping the second practice session with a commanding performance on Zandvoort’s 4.226km seaside circuit. The session was disrupted early on when Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll suffered a heavy crash at Turn 3’s high banking. Carrying too much speed, the Canadian slammed into the outside wall, wrecking the front and rear right-side of his AML25, triggering an immediate red flag.

At the time, Haas rookie Oliver Bearman briefly led with a 1m11.113s lap on soft tyres, ahead of Norris and Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto. The session faced further chaos when Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar stopped on track due to a power loss, prompting a Virtual Safety Car with only half the session remaining.

With interruptions limiting data collection, teams face a challenging setup for Saturday’s sessions. Verstappen, sitting fifth, remains a threat on home soil as Red Bull aims to close the gap.

‘Norris’ consistency signals McLaren’s strong form’;

https://f1i.com/news/546890-dutch-gp-norris-edges-alonso-in-fp2-heavy-crash-for-stroll.html


Dutch Grand Prix Free Practice 2 - Results
29/08/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Full results from Free Practice 2 for the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, round 15 of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship.
2025 Dutch Grand Prix - Free Practice 2 results
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:09.890s 27
2 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.087s 19
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.089s 28
4 George Russell Mercedes +0.384s 24
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.588s 22
6 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.848s 21
7 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +0.905s 25
8 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.944s 22
9 Franco Colapinto Alpine +1.067s 25
10 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber +1.190s 24

‘Full results from Free Practice 2’;

https://f1i.com/news/546888-dutch-grand-prix-free-practice-2-results.html


Lance Stroll crashes heavily in Dutch GP practice as Aston Martin destroyed
Stroll unharmed after heavy Zandvoort crash but Aston Martin left with overnight repairs
29 August 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

Lance Stroll brought out the red flags during Free Practice 2 at the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix after a heavy crash at Turn 3 in Zandvoort, leaving his Aston Martin badly damaged but escaping without injury.
The Canadian lost control coming out of Turn 2 and carried too much speed into the banked right-hander, locking up before slamming into the barriers. His car sustained significant damage on the right-hand side, bouncing back onto the track before coming to a halt.
“I’m okay,” Stroll confirmed over the team radio, easing concerns after the impact. He was able to climb out of the wreck unaided and quickly returned to the garage with his team. The incident forced an immediate red flag as marshals cleared debris and recovered the Aston Martin. The stoppage lasted several minutes before the session resumed, though there was little track activity at first as teams reassessed their run plans.

‘Aston Martin destroyed’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-dutch-gp-2025-lance-stroll-crash-fp2-aston-martin/


What happened in second Dutch GP F1 practice session
Aug 29, 2025
Ben Anderson
The Race

Lando Norris kept McLaren on top in second practice for the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix, but only narrowly from Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin in a session that featured crashes for Lance Stroll and Alex Albon and a high-speed spin for Lewis Hamilton. Russell ended the session fourth quickest for Mercedes, just under four tenths off the pace, with Max Verstappen’s Red Bull fifth and Lewis Hamilton sixth for Ferrari, despite a high-speed spin exiting Turn 9 after touching the grass.

Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull, Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, the Alpine of Franco Colapinto - which set its best time later in the session than the rest - and Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber rounded out the top 10. This didn’t look like an easy session for the Ferraris, which were almost a full second off the pace in FP2, and even though Verstappen enjoyed one of Red Bull’s calmer Fridays, he was still almost six tenths off the pace.

‘What happened’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what-happened-in-second-dutch-gp-f1-practice-session/


Lewis Hamilton suffers second costly error as messy Dutch GP start continues
Things are going from bad to worse for Lewis Hamilton at Zandvoort...
29 August 2025
RacingNews365 Staff
RacingNews365

Lewis Hamilton has completed his second 360-degree spin of the Dutch Grand Prix weekend, with a pirouette on the exit of Turn 9 in FP2. The seven-time F1 drivers' champion made a similar mistake during FP1 at Zandvoort on the exit of Turn 2, but has managed to avoid crashing his Ferrari on both occasions.

In trying to find the limit of his SF-25's capabilities, the 40-year-old has endured a messy start to proceedings, but was able to go fourth-fastest soon after his second incident, quicker than team-mate Charles Leclerc, who encountered traffic on his run. His spin came between red flag crashes for Lance Stroll and Alex Albon, in what is becoming a heavily disrupted second free practice session.

‘From bad to worse’;

https://racingnews365.com/lewis-hamilton-suffers-second-costly-error-as-messy-dutch-gp-start-continues


WATCH: Stroll suffers heavy crash in FP2 at the Dutch Grand Prix
Lance Stroll crashed in the opening stages of Free Practice 2 at Zandvoort.
29 August 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Lance Stroll’s Free Practice 2 at the Dutch Grand Prix came to an abrupt end with a heavy crash at Turn 3. With rain on the horizon, drivers were keen to set their timed efforts early in the session and gather the maximum amount of data early on.

Running on medium tyres, Stroll – who’d gone an impressive P2 in Free Practice 1 – appeared to misjudge his braking point, locking his front-left tyre before understeering his Aston Martin into the barriers.

‘Stroll suffers heavy crash’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/watch-stroll-suffers-heavy-crash-in-fp2-at-the-dutch-grand-prix.4Ki7nyfwLwkHAk3mTMa6dJ


Norris Sweeps Friday; Alonso Splits the Papaya at Zandvoort
August 29, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
Fastest Lap

Dutch GP FP2: Norris completes Friday sweep as Alonso splits the orange, Stroll walks away from Turn 3 hit McLaren kept the hammer down at Zandvoort, Lando Norris topping FP2 to complete a Friday clean sweep at the Dutch Grand Prix. The gap shrank, though: Fernando Alonso muscled his Aston Martin between the papaya pair, just 0.087s shy of Norris, with Oscar Piastri third as 0.089s covered the top three.

The session had a little of everything Zandvoort likes to throw at you—brooding clouds, a packed pit exit, and a couple of hard reminders that the banking bites. With rain threatening, the queue at the end of the pit lane looked like rush hour. Norris laid an early 1:12.615 on mediums before Carlos Sainz (hards) and then Alonso (mediums) had a go at the top.

Tensions surfaced early too. Alonso was left fuming after feeling impeded by Kimi Antonelli through Turn 7, while Yuki Tsunoda earned a radio rebuke from Charles Leclerc coming off the final corner. It was that kind of scrappy, elbows-out practice hour. The first big jolt came at Turn 3, where Lance Stroll smacked the wall on the banking and brought out the red flags. “I’m fine,” came the immediate radio call, which will have soothed Aston Martin as much as the green cars’ pace. When the session resumed with just under 40 minutes to go, radar updates suggested the heavier rain would skim by rather than drench the place.

‘McLaren kept the hammer down’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/norris-sweeps-friday-alonso-splits-the-papaya-at-zandvoort/

[Fortitude]

Lando Norris completes free practice clean sweep for F1 Dutch GP.
The Brit’s 1:08.972s saw him top the timesheets for the third consecutive session at the Zandvoort circuit, with team-mate Oscar Piastri propping a McLaren 1-2.
30 August 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Lando Norris completed a clean sweep of free practice first place finishes on Saturday afternoon ahead of qualifying for Formula 1‘s Dutch Grand Prix. Piastri was two tenths behind Norris, with George Russell’s Mercedes third, a further sixth tenths back. Carlos Sainz placed his Williams fourth with a 1:09.913s, with home favourite Max Verstappen fifth.

Charles Leclerc was sixth for Ferrari, with Alex Albon in the sister Williams seventh. Lance Stroll recovered well from his huge FP2 shunt to go eighth fastest. Isack Hadjar was ninth for Racing Bulls, with Fernando Alonso rounding up the top 10.

Liam Lawson was 11th, followed by Yuki Tsunoda in 12th, the Japanese four tenths adrift of his team-mate’s time. Gabriel Bortoleto was 13th, with Lewis Hamilton 14th, the Brit hoping for a more positive finish in qualifying.

‘Free practice clean sweep’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/08/30/lando-norris-completes-free-practice-clean-sweep-for-f1-dutch-gp/


F1 2025 Dutch GP – Free Practice 3 Results
Norris completes clean sweep of Dutch GP practice sessions as rivals struggle to keep up
30 August 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Dutch GP 2025 FP3 results
Check out the full Dutch GP 2025 Free Practice 3 results from the third and final practice session in Zandvoort below.

Pos Driver Team Time
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:08.972
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.242
3 George Russell Mercedes +0.886
4 Carlos Sainz Williams +0.941
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.953
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.966
7 Alexander Albon Williams +1.127
8 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1.131
9 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +1.194
10 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +1.260

‘Free Practice 3 Results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-2025-dutch-gp-free-practice-3-results/


Dutch GP: Norris secures practice hat-trick as Alonso and Russell face post-FP3 investigation
30 Aug 2025
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Lando Norris secured the practice hat-trick at the Dutch Grand Prix as he beat Oscar Piastri by a quarter of a second with George Russell third fastest. The Mercedes driver is off to see the stewards after the session after a scary moment with Fernando Alonso that almost saw the Aston Martin driver crash into the pit lane entry wall.

Overnight rain meant that while the rain had abated ahead of FP3, it was declared a wet session as there were damp patches around the circuit. As such there were no immediate takers when the light went green, Ferrari still working on the setup of the SF-25s. The battle at the front, though, was all about the McLaren team-mates as Piastri nipped ahead of Norris, who was over four-tenths clear of third-placed Hamilton.

There was bit of drama late in the session as Alonso came up on the right side of Russell only for the Mercedes driver to suddenly pull to the right as he wanted to pit. The two narrowly avoided what could’ve been a big crash. Race Control noted the incident, which will be investigated after the session. The session ended with Norris fastest of all ahead of Piastri, with Russell third.

‘Could’ve been a big crash’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/dutch-grand-prix-2025-fp3-report


WATCH: Russell and Alonso have a close call in unusual incident during FP3 in Zandvoort
There was a dramatic moment for Mercedes' George Russell and the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso during third practice at the Dutch Grand Prix.
30 Aug 2025
Formula One - Official Site

George Russell and Fernando Alonso had a very close call that saw them narrowly avoid contact in an unusual incident during third and final practice at the Dutch Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver was in front of Alonso heading out of the final corner but, as they approached the pit entry, the two-time World Champion had to take evading action when Russell suddenly moved over as if about to pit, only to then continue on for another lap.
Alonso, left with nowhere to go, dived into the pits himself, leaving the Aston Martin man to remark: “They don’t look at their mirrors.”
The incident was investigated after the session, with Mercedes handed a €7,500 fine and Russell a warning.

‘Close call’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/fp3-norris-dominates-practice-again-from-mclaren-team-mate-piastri-ahead-of.2nBOMcXMqk9hwxSIJ2GYRf


FP3: Norris dominates practice again from McLaren team mate Piastri ahead of Dutch Grand Prix
Lando Norris finished fastest again at Zandvoort as McLaren dominated proceedings in Free Practice 3.
30 Aug 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Lando Norris completed a clean sweep of fastest Free Practice times ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, finishing more than two-tenths clear of McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri in the third session. The duo stamped their authority on proceedings ahead of Qualifying on Saturday afternoon, finishing well clear of the rest of the field, which was headed by George Russell and Carlos Sainz.

Heavy overnight rain left the track damp at the start of the one-hour session, with drivers in no rush to head out on to the Zandvoort Circuit for several minutes. Isack Hadjar was eventually the first to venture out, the Racing Bulls driver keen to make up for a lack of running in FP2 after coming to a stop on track with no laps under his belt.

But the Frenchman completed just one lap on the intermediate tyre before pitting, stating over the radio that "the track is very green" as Kimi Antonelli was the next to explore the circuit but on medium Pirelli rubber. Antonelli moved back to the top with a 1m 13.740s and times began to tumble with the majority of the field performing installation laps approaching the 10-minute mark, with Franco Colapinto and Gabriel Bortoleto both jumping to the head of the standings on the hard tyre.

‘FP3: Norris dominates practice’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/fp3-norris-dominates-practice-again-from-mclaren-team-mate-piastri-ahead-of.2nBOMcXMqk9hwxSIJ2GYRf


Orange Shock: Verstappen Fears Zandvoort Fight Just for Top Five
30 Aug 2025
Fastest Lap

Max Verstappen’s home weekends usually come with grandstand expectations and a sea of orange waiting for the inevitable. Not this time. After a muted Friday at Zandvoort, the three-time Dutch GP winner says even making the top five in qualifying could be a stretch. McLaren set the tone early. Lando Norris topped the times on Friday, and Verstappen ended FP2 in fifth, just under six tenths off the McLaren.

He was beaten by both MCL60s across the day, with Fernando Alonso slipping his Aston Martin ahead and George Russell keeping Mercedes in the conversation. Lance Stroll’s hefty crash in FP2 interrupted Aston Martin’s program, but on pace alone they looked lively enough to spoil a Red Bull recovery. Zandvoort hasn’t always been hospitable to anyone not named Verstappen. Since the Dutch GP returned in 2021, he won three straight and turned 2022–23 into home coronations.

The streak snapped last year when Norris ran away with it and Red Bull had no answer. On early evidence, 2025 might rhyme with that. Verstappen sounded resigned rather than rattled after FP2, describing a car he’s been unable to unlock. He and the team tried plenty of setup directions on Friday without shifting the underlying weakness. The headline issue is front grip. At Zandvoort, with its long, loaded corners in the middle sector, that understeer costs lap time and confidence, and there’s no instant fix from the garage overnight. “A massive turnaround” isn’t on his bingo card.

‘Verstappen sounded resigned’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/orange-shock-verstappen-fears-zandvoort-fight-just-for-top-five/


F1 driver's future plunged into doubt on the eve of Dutch GP
The 2025 Formula 1 season continues in Zandvoort.
30 Aug 2025
Marcus Chan
SPORTbible

Since then, the 22-year-old has largely struggled; he is yet to score this season and sits 20 points behind teammate Pierre Gasly. Speaking ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, Alpine's de facto team principal, Flavio Briatore, expressed his disappointment in Colapinto's performances. The Italian said: "I've seen everything already, so I don't think I need to see anything more. I think for this driver, it is very difficult to cope with this car as they are very, very heavy and very, very quick for a young driver in Formula 1.”

"Maybe it was not the [right] timing to have Franco in Formula 1, and maybe he needs another year to be part of F1." Briatore continued: "I'm not happy with the result; this is what is important, and he tries very hard, we try very hard with the engineering [team], but it is not what I expected from Colapinto. We changed Doohan with Colapinto, and maybe Colapinto had the same problem - too much pressure to be in F1.”

“Last year, he had two or three good races, but maybe to be in the team with a good driver like Pierre, and always to be in competition with him, maybe we put too much pressure on him." Under the current rules, Alpine can make one more driver change in 2025, and Colapinto could be looking over his shoulders very soon.

“Maybe too much pressure to be in F1”;

https://www.sportbible.com/f1/dutch-grand-prix-f1-driver-news-078363-20250830

[Fortitude]

Piastri stuns Norris in incredibly close Dutch GP qualifying.
Oscar Piastri overturned his deficit to McLaren team-mate and Formula 1 title rival Lando Norris when it mattered to claim a narrow pole position for the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.
Aug 30, 2025
Ben Anderson
The Race

Norris had the edge on Piastri throughout practice, particularly through sector one, but Piastri did “the definition of peaking at the right time” in Q3, outpacing Norris by just 0.012 seconds in what turned out to be the crucial first runs, as neither could improve in the final stages when many drivers struggled to find time on a windy circuit. Defending F1 world champion Max Verstappen was one of those who did find time on his final run, but it was only good enough to be a closer third, 0.263s off pole in his Red Bull.

Rookie Isack Hadjar delivered another stunning Saturday performance to qualify a season’s best fourth for Racing Bulls, beating the Mercedes of George Russell and the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. Hadjar’s team-mate Liam Lawson was eighth quickest in the other Racing Bulls, ahead of Carlos Sainz’s Williams and Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, which lacked the impressive pace that split the two McLarens on Friday but was still good enough to mix it in the top 10.

Tsunoda suffers Q2 elimination at hands of Lawson. Tsunoda was hanging on to a top-10 spot before the driver he replaced at Red Bull, Lawson, pumped in a lap good enough for eighth. That put Mercedes rookie Antonelli on the bubble, but he too fell after Alonso jumped up to seventh with a last-gasp lap just 0.053s down on Russell’s Mercedes.

‘Piastri stuns Norris’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/dutch-grand-prix-f1-qualifying-report-2025-piastri-norris/


F1 2025 Dutch GP – Qualifying Results
Piastri edges Norris as McLaren dominance continues in Zandvoort qualifying
30 August 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Dutch GP 2025 Qualifying results
Check out the full F1 Dutch GP 2025 Qualifying results from Zandvoort below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:08.662
2 Lando Norris McLaren +0.012
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.263
4 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +0.546
5 George Russell Mercedes +0.593
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.678
7 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.728
8 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +0.838
9 Carlos Sainz Williams +0.843
10 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.968

‘F1 Dutch GP 2025 Qualifying results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-2025-dutch-gp-qualifying-results/


McLaren details how Oscar Piastri has turned the tables on Lando Norris at F1 Dutch GP
30 Aug 2025
Taylor Powling
Motorsport Week

Explaining how Piastri seized the initiative when Norris had looked in control, Stella attributed the Australian’s progress to finding incremental gains over the weekend. “In reality, even yesterday, when at times Oscar might have been a little distant from Lando, I think the distance was not large at all,” Stella told media including Motorsport Week.

“We knew, the drivers knew, that what we were saying in our debriefs that the situation was very close between the two drivers, and each of them had some corners in which there was a margin to improve. And like I’ve said several times, having two competitive drivers makes the whole team and the car look better because they can pick from one another.”

“So I think what Oscar has done, likewise Lando has done, they have seen where there was the opportunity to go a little bit faster, adjust the driving input and, I would say that for both Oscar and Lando, this is the way in which both have found some performance more than some set-up adjustments. So it was more in the driving and in adapting to the wind rather than finding some relevant solutions with car set-up or car specification.”

‘How Oscar Piastri has turned the tables’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/08/30/mclaren-details-how-oscar-piastri-turned-the-tables-on-lando-norris-in-f1-dutch-gp-qualifying/


Zandvoort showdown: Orange roar or papaya repeat?
30 Aug 2025
Fastest Lap

Summer break’s done, the dunes are awake, and Zandvoort’s grandstands are about to turn a very loud shade of orange again. The Dutch Grand Prix returns this weekend, with Max Verstappen carrying the weight of an entire nation’s expectation — though last year, it was another shade of orange (papaya) that stole the show when Lando Norris nicked the win.

Here’s everything you need to know to catch the race live, wherever you are. When does the Dutch Grand Prix start? The Dutch GP gets underway at 3:00pm local time on Sunday 31 August 2025. That translates to:

‘Orange roar or papaya repeat?’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/zandvoort-showdown-orange-roar-or-papaya-repeat/


Mekies after qualiffying in Zandvoort: 'Max did an incredible job'
30 August 2025
Julien Lemmen
Verstappen.nl

Laurent Mekies, team principal of Oracle Red Bull Racing, said after qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix: "I think P3 was the absolute best Max could have done today, there were a lot of teams competing for P3, Mercedes, Ferrari and probably Fernando in the Aston as well. Max did an incredible job to have such a strong Qualifying and so did the Team. It has been no secret we have struggled with car balance all weekend and the Team kept trying things out on both sides of the garage, which ultimately put the car in a better window, so credit to them."

Mekies continues: "We unlocked some performance in the car and are extracting just about everything we can from it. Generally, the car has improved from where it was for most of the weekend and with that, we should be able to see performance in the race. It will be similar to Quali and a big fight behind the McLarens with four or five cars on very similar pace. Yuki has had a weekend where he has again shown progress, he has been at a reasonable gap to Max on a difficult track. He didn’t improve on his second set in Q2 and missed out by just one tenth, so it is still close and he is still building up.”

'Max did an incredible job';

https://news.verstappen.com/en/article/5924/


Jacques Villeneuve spots crucial Lewis Hamilton change after ‘strange’ observation
31 Aug 2025
Elizabeth Blackstock
PlanetF1.com

A major topic of conversation for the Sky Sports F1 team after Dutch GP qualifying. Former driver turned pundit Jacques Villeneuve pointed out that Ferrari is “not far off” the pace, and that with “a tenth or two,” they could have been P4.

“It’s not as bad as it looked earlier,” the Canadian pointed out. But he then contrasted the perspectives of both Ferrari drivers. “It’s funny, and it’s weird to see how different the two drivers are,” Villeneuve said. “Like, Charles is really upset and berating himself, beating himself up — and Lewis actually super happy, like ‘Oh, that’s quite good.’”

“If you look at the last race, and now, he’s on par with his teammate. He’s had a good weekend. It’s up here. He’s changed his mindset, and it’s affecting his driving.”

‘Ferrari is “not far off” the pace’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lewis-hamilton-mindset-jacques-villeneuve-dutch-gp


David Coulthard has spotted a surprising change in Lando Norris at the Dutch Grand Prix
31 August 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

David Coulthard was reporting from the Dutch Grand Prix for Channel 4 and explained: “It seems to me that there seems to be nothing between the drivers other than brilliance. It could have gone either way. Just at the start of the weekend, I had a chance to talk to Lando. I felt quite nervous going into the interview, because I’m thinking, this guy could be world champion, or he could finish second. And I don’t want to state the obvious, but I came out of the interview feeling very relaxed. It’s like he’s taken a chill pill during the summer.”

Lando Norris ‘a little disappointed’ with Dutch Grand Prix qualifying result.
Norris lamented his luck running out in qualifying but also admitted that Piastri drove well to take pole position. He said in an interview that he ‘wasn’t as fast as he needed to be’ in several corners, but it felt as though he was seeking perfection with those comments, something Piastri is far more accepting of that fact that it’s almost impossible not to make small mistakes when you’re pushing right at the limit.

Speaking in his official post-race interview, Norris said: “I’m pleased to be starting on the front row, but I’m a little disappointed to not be on pole. “It was close – it’s been close the whole weekend, and I had decent laps, so it’s not the end of the world. We’re in a good position to fight. It’s a long race with a lot of laps, and we’ll see what the weather holds. We’ll have some fun tomorrow.” The change Coulthard and Brown have noticed in Norris could prove pivotal in the final races of the season.

“He’s taken a chill pill during the summer’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/nervous-david-coulthard-has-spotted-a-surprising-change-in-lando-norris-at-the-dutch-grand-prix/

[Fortitude]

Piastri wins Dutch GP as Norris's race goes up in smoke.
ZANDVOORT, Netherlands - Oscar Piastri won the Dutch Grand Prix to take a mighty 34 point lead in the Formula One championship on Sunday as McLaren teammate and title rival Lando Norris suffered a smoky retirement in a significant setback to his title hopes.
31 August 2025
The Straits Times

On a dramatic afternoon at Zandvoort, with Ferrari drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc crashing out in separate incidents, McLaren were heading for a record-equalling fifth successive one-two win when Norris suffered late despair. After saying he could smell smoke in the cockpit, the Briton slowed and retired from second place on lap 65 of 72 with visible evidence then seen coming out of the back of his stricken car as he pulled over.

Norris did his best to deal with the disappointment after sitting slumped in the sand dunes near the seaside track with his helmet on. "I just want to go have a burger and go home," the despondent winner of three of the four previous races told Sky Sports television. "It was a positive race but it didn't mean anything. I couldn't get past. Oscar deserved it today. Just not my weekend. That is life, I just take it on the chin and move on."

‘Mighty 34 point lead’;

https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/formula-one/piastri-wins-dutch-gp-as-norriss-race-goes-up-in-smoke


F1 2025 Dutch Grand Prix – Race Results
Piastri takes control as Norris retires and Hadjar celebrates first podium finish
31 August 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Dutch Grand Prix 2025 Results
Check out the full F1 Dutch Grand Prix 2025 race results from Zandvoort below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren Leader
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull +1.271
3 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +3.233
4 George Russell Mercedes +5.654
5 Alexander Albon Williams +6.327
6 Oliver Bearman Haas +9.044
7 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +9.497
8 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +11.709
9 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +13.597
10 Esteban Ocon Haas +14.063

‘Dutch Grand Prix 2025 Results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-2025-dutch-grand-prix-race-results/


'Long way to go' – Piastri cautions title talk after pivotal Dutch Grand Prix victory and Norris retirement
With his seventh win of the season and Lando Norris retiring, Oscar Piastri now sits with a 34-point lead in the Drivers' Championship.
31 August 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Dutch Grand Prix winner Oscar Piastri claims "there is a long way to go yet" in his quest for a maiden Drivers' title, having taken a substantial points lead over McLaren team mate Lando Norris after his retirement.

"I controlled the race when I needed to and obviously incredibly unfortunate for Lando at the end, but I felt like I was in control of that one and just used the pace when I needed to," he said. "It was a bit of a different race to 12 months ago so very happy with all the work we've done to try and improve around here. Very satisfied to come out on top."

'Long way to go';

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/long-way-to-go-piastri-cautions-title-talk-after-pivotal-dutch-grand-prix.3yt9UGl8CIMLYdN3fDjzNk


Dramatic DNF for Norris as Piastri wins Dutch GP
Aug 31, 2025
Matt Beer
The Race

Norris had lost out to a bold Max Verstappen opening lap - in which Verstappen brilliantly caught a wild slide as he completed his move into second - but didn't need long to repass the Red Bull, which was just not on the McLarens' pace at Zandvoort, and start to chip away at the gap to Piastri.

Safety cars twice brought them back together, first when Lewis Hamilton had a solo crash straight after his first pitstop during light drizzle, then when the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc bounced off the barriers after being tapped into a spin by Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes as they battled on Leclerc's out-lap.

Norris's eventual retirement handed second to Verstappen, who couldn't challenge Piastri in the final dash to the flag despite being on soft tyres to the McLaren's hards, and an outstanding third to Racing Bulls' rookie Isack Hadjar - who had run an unflustered 'best of the rest' behind the McLarens and Verstappen all day.

‘Dramatic DNF’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/dramatic-dnf-for-norris-as-piastri-wins-dutch-gp/


Dutch GP: Piastri clinches Zandvoort win as Norris retires, Ferrari suffers double DNF
31 Aug 2025
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Oscar Piastri once again put distance between himself and Norris at the restart as the McLaren teammates dropped Verstappen only for Norris to report “smoke” in his cockpit. Moments later he ground to a halt on the side of the track due to an engine failure. “I’m out.”

The Briton’s DNF elevated Verstappen to second and Hadjar onto the podium with the action underway again on lap 69. Piastri once again pulled away from the chasing pack while Russell hounded Hadjar for the podium with Alex Albon the big winner, up to fifth.

Piastri held on to win the grand prix ahead of Verstappen and Hadjar, with Russell and Albon. Antonelli was sixth at the line but faced a 15-second penalty that dropped him out of the points. Bearman, Stroll, Alonso, Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon completed the points. Piastri leads the Drivers’ standings by 34 points ahead of his teammate.

“I’m out”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/dutch-grand-prix-2025-report


Lewis Hamilton left stunned after rare Dutch GP crash ends Ferrari progress
The seven-time world champion reflects on his first DNF of the season after a rare mistake
31 August 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 Dutch Grand Prix unravelled on Lap 23, when the Ferrari driver lost control at Turn 3 and crashed into the barriers, bringing an abrupt end to what had been one of his more encouraging weekends of the 2025 Formula 1 season. For a seven-time world champion with a reputation for consistency, the rare retirement left Hamilton both disappointed and reflective, even as he tried to focus on signs of progress.

“It was a bit twitchy, the car. I think we made real progress this weekend. My pace was looking pretty decent,” Hamilton explained. “I was catching George [Russell] and I think I had the pace of a few cars ahead of me. Very unusual to not finish a race and to go out so early, it’s definitely not great, but it is what it is.”

‘Lewis Hamilton left stunned’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/lewis-hamilton-dutch-gp-crash-reaction-2025/


Red Bull may now ignore Isack Hadjar’s wishes after first F1 podium at Dutch Grand Prix
31 August 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Red Bull may promote Isack Hadjar after Dutch Grand Prix heroics – contrary to his wishes. A recent report revealed that Hadjar is ‘highly resistant’ to joining Red Bull in 2026. He’s seen former teammate Yuki Tsunoda struggle enormously this season, just as Liam Lawson, Sergio Perez, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly did before him.

Hadjar’s preference would be to stay at Racing Bulls for another year so he can continue his development. That way, by the time he makes the step up, he’ll know he’s ready. But given that Red Bull manage his career, he could be ‘compelled’ to become Verstappen’s teammate.

And writing on X immediately after the race, ESPN journalist Nate Saunders suggested he was now a ‘shoo-in’ for the seat. Tsunoda, who is out of contract at the end of the season, did at least end his scoreless run with a P10 finish. However, Hadjar is now 27 points and eight places above him in the standings.

‘Hadjar is ‘highly resistant’ to joining Red Bull’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/red-bull-may-now-ignore-isack-hadjars-wishes-after-first-f1-podium-at-dutch-grand-prix/

[Fortitude]

‘Big day for Australia’: Webber hails Piastri’s Dutch GP win.
Mark Webber called Oscar Piastri’s Dutch GP victory “a big day for Australian motorsport” after his ninth F1 win put him 34 points clear in the title race.
1 Sep 2025
Ben Waterworth
Channel 9's Wide World of Sports

Mark Webber, who manages Piastri, praised both his driver’s execution and the work of McLaren. “Oh magnificent. He drove so well today,” Webber told Sky Sports. “I think today, a big day for Australian motorsport. We’ve had Daniel [Ricciardo] win plenty, obviously Jack and AJ [Alan Jones], Oscar now having his success so early. This is really a credit to him. He’s put a huge amount of work in executing beautifully. The team have done such a good job as well.”

“[There’s a] long way ago,” he said. “We’ve got races like Brazil where it rains. We’ve got Singapore, Azerbaijan, which are street circuits where anything can happen. We’d rather have the runs on the board than not, but you’ve got to jag the points when you can. He’s had a few misses this year out of his control, so good that he doubled down today.”

“Long way ago”;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-mark-webber-oscar-piastri-dutch-gp-comments-celebration-australian-motorsport-championship/


[B]Piastri still not comfortable with 34-point lead
31 Aug 2025
The Straits Times

ZANDVOORT, Netherlands - McLaren's Oscar Piastri played down his 34-point lead in the Formula One championship on Sunday and said he still did not feel comfortable. "There’s still a long way to go. I need to keep pushing and trying to win races still. I wouldn’t say it’s a very comfortable margin," Piastri told reporters at seaside Zandvoort.”

"As we saw today, it can change with one DNF (non-finish) very, very quickly. So this far out from the end of the year, it’s not a comfortable gap. I controlled the race when I needed to and obviously it was incredibly unfortunate for Lando at the end, but I felt like I was in control of that one and just used the pace when I needed to," said Piastri of his day's work.

"The start of this weekend was looking like a difficult one and (I) managed to get it together in qualifying. I was happy with the pace I had today. Very, very happy. A couple of safety cars spiced it up a little bit, and we weathered it all."

“I need to keep pushing and trying to win races still”;

https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/formula-one/piastri-still-not-comfortable-with-34-point-lead


Piastri vows no let up in Formula One title race
Zandvoort (Netherlands) (AFP) – Formula One world championship leader Oscar Piastri vowed Sunday to keep his foot firmly on the accelerator in his battle with McLaren teammate Lando Norris after opening up a 34-point lead at the Dutch Grand Prix.
31 Aug 2025
France 24

Norris suffered a mechanical failure in the closing laps Sunday as he was chasing down his Australian teammate, his retirement possibly proving crucial in the overall race to the title.

Asked whether opening up a 34-point lead might allow him to race more strategically, Piastri said there would be no let-up from his side. "There's still a long way to go. I need to keep pushing and trying to win races still," said the 24-year-old Australian after claiming his sixth chequered flag this season.

He said the misfortune suffered by Norris showed how quickly fortunes can swing in the fast pace of Formula One. "I wouldn't say it's a very comfortable margin. As we saw today, things can change very, very quickly," he said.

‘Keep his foot firmly on the accelerator’;

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250831-piastri-vows-no-let-up-in-formula-one-title-race


Mark Hughes: Piastri gets payback he deserves in Dutch masterclass
September 1st 2025
Mark Hughes
Motor Sport Magazine

Oscar Piastri finally saw fate swing his way at Zandvoort, as Lando Norris' retirement gave the Australian's championship chances a major boost. Mark Hughes analyses the Dutch GP

Big picture: a dramatic swing of fortune in Oscar Piastri‘s favour after team-mate and title rival Lando Norris retired his McLaren from second with a late-race engine failure, turning what was looking like a seven-point loss to Piastri to one of 25 points. Plus the nine by which he already trailed Piastri, making it a 34-point deficit with nine races left. Against a team-mate who can seem to do no wrong.

Piastri’s performance was calm and resolute throughout the weekend. He turned an initial pace disadvantage around to sneak pole by hundredths and made the perfect conversion of that. Each of the three safety car restarts was brilliantly judged, and he was helped in this by the McLaren, which can get even its hard tyres straight up to temperature just fine even versus Verstappen on a set of softs.

‘Fate swing his way’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/mark-hughes-piastris-zandvoort-luck-brings-overdue-payback/?nowprocket=1


Oscar Piastri pinpoints the ‘hardest part’ of his Dutch Grand Prix victory, ‘didn’t work…’
1 September 2025
Rory Mitchell
F1 Oversteer

Oscar Piastri responds to Andrea Stella’s comments after Dutch Grand Prix win. It was a dominant weekend for Piastri in which he was quick in practice and fastest in qualifying, something that is becoming a trend this season, according to McLaren team principal Andrea Stella. “It’s happened a few times this year where it started a bit slow and then gotten better as the weekend’s gone on. The difference from this year to last year is last year, those weekends that started slow, the middle was slow, and the end was slow,” said Piastri.

“It’s just been good to actually find the time as the weekend’s gone on. Is it an ideal way? Am I doing it on purpose? Not always. I’m trying to build up to things, of course, but was hoping to build up a bit quicker than I did this weekend. I got there just in the end in Q3, but I didn’t go into qualifying the most optimistic. So maybe a little bit slow to get there, but I felt very happy with where I was going into qualifying, not expecting the world, just trying to do my best and see what happened. And in the end that was enough, and a similar thing today. Very happy from that side of things, and I think that part is probably the ‘Oscar-like weekend’.”

‘It started a bit slow and then gotten better as the weekend’s gone on’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/oscar-piastri-pinpoints-the-hardest-part-of-his-dutch-grand-prix-victory-didnt-work/

[Fortitude]

‘Have a burger and go home’: Norris responds to F1 disaster as McLaren reveals what went wrong.
Lando Norris: “F***, I’m out, I’m out ... unlucky, boys” on team radio.
September 1st, 2025
Dane Heverin from Fox Sports
Fox Sports (Australia)

An Australian F1 great has hailed Oscar Piastri’s victory at the Dutch Grand Prix as a “big day for Australian motorsport”, while Lando Norris said “it hurts” to lose 25 points in the title race after he did not finish for the second time this season. Norris was ruled out of the race with only seven laps remaining as an oil leak and engine failure left him to disappointingly say, “f***, I’m out, I’m out ... unlucky, boys” on team radio.

“I just want to go have a burger and go home,” a dejected Norris told Sky Sports post-race. “It’s frustrating, it’s not like I’m happy about today. It hurts and to lose, 25 points outright, it would have been seven points, it would have been smaller. I just have to keep fighting, keep doing what I can. I was quick today. I thought I could fight for a win. If you’re fighting for a win around here, that’s normally just a good job already. “I take the positives, I look on, I’ll try to bounce back. I’ve got tough competition, so it’s never going to be easy, but really make sure I do everything I can.”

‘Have a burger and go home’;

https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport/have-a-burger-and-go-home-norris-sheds-light-on-cruel-blow-as-piastri-rewrites-records/news-story/d5a2c49fb0f2112f71816c4f151528a8


Lando Norris comes to F1 title realisation after McLaren heartbreak
Lando Norris now finds himself 34 points behind team-mate Oscar Piastri following his Dutch Grand Prix heartbreak.
2 September 2025
Jake Nichol & Aaron Deckers
RacingNews365

Reflecting on his situation, Norris (said) "The only thing I can do now is win every race," Norris told media, including RacingNews365. "That is going to be difficult, but I'll make sure I give it everything I can. "I didn't lose out by much in qualifying and felt on top of things, and the pace looked strong [in the race], so there are many positives.”

"It is just close, I have a good team-mate, he's strong and quick in every scenario and situation, but this was a different situation, it is just unlucky, it's not my fault, and sometimes, that is just racing. It's only made it harder for me and put me under more pressure, but the gap is big enough now that I can just chill out about it.”

"The team and HPP have done a very good job over the two years, and this might be the first [engine failure] I can remember that has cost us points. It is not inevitable at this point, because everyone works to such high standards, we don't expect it, so that's why it is just unlucky. It is not like the olden days when you pretty much blew up every other race, so we don't expect it, and it it just really unlucky."

"Win every race";

https://racingnews365.com/lando-norris-comes-to-f1-title-realisation-after-mclaren-heartbreak


Norris discloses his in-race reaction to Verstappen’s start: ‘Knew he’d go for it’
2 Sep 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

At the start, the Briton got a better launch than the Australian. Nevertheless, an error from Norris ended up costing him, he stated to media including GPblog. “My situation with like a decent start, I had a dodgy upshift into third, I think, which cost me my momentum. Otherwise, I think I had a slightly better one than Oscar. And then I was just on the inside, I couldn’t really get left. Oscar then drifted high so I could come inside.”

Meanwhile, Max Verstappen on softs saw the door open up and went for a daring two-wheels-on-the-grass move that nearly saw him lose control of his Red Bull, which he managed to retain. Norris had predicted from the moment he learned of Verstappen’s starting tyre choice that the Dutchman would be going for the overtake. “I mean, as soon as I knew Max was on the softs, I knew there was a good chance he was going to come past. I knew Max would go for it in Turn 2. It was a close one,” he added.

‘Ever-present threat that is Max Verstappen’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/norris-discloses-his-in-race-reaction-to-verstappens-start-knew-hed-go-for-it


Alex Brundle did not have one ‘wild’ Lando Norris prediction on his ‘bingo card’ in 2025 F1 title battle
1 September 2025
Rory Mitchell
F1 Oversteer

Alex Brundle did not think McLaren power unit failure would be on 2025 ‘bingo card’. Although McLaren appeared to be immune to these issues, Norris was forced to retire from the race after a suspected power unit-related problem while running in second place, something Brundle did not think would be possible in 2025. “I’ve been harping on, on air and on podcasts all year, about one race where one of those McLaren duo, that are clearly the class of the field now,” said Brundle.

“There was going to be a race at some point this year, I honestly believed they were going to have a crash with someone like a Charles Leclerc or someone like a Max Verstappen, a wheel-to-wheel thing, but where they didn’t finish. What I didn’t have on my bingo card in a 2025 Formula 1 car was a power unit failure. It was absolutely nowhere near that in terms of a prediction. It’s wild in one of the most, if not the most reliable eras of F1 car ever, that that could easily be the deciding factor of this championship.”

“Didn’t have on my bingo card in a 2025 Formula 1 car was a power unit failure”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/alex-brundle-did-not-have-one-wild-lando-norris-prediction-on-his-bingo-card-in-2025-f1-title-battle/


McLaren hint Zandvoort heartbreak could unlock a ‘new Lando Norris’ in title fight
McLaren boss Andrea Stella believes Norris’ Dutch GP retirement could ignite a stronger title fight against team-mate Oscar Piastri
1 September 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

The sight of Lando Norris climbing out of a smoking McLaren with just eight laps to go at Zandvoort might have looked like the moment his title challenge slipped away. But according to Andrea Stella, that cruel Dutch Grand Prix retirement could be the catalyst for Norris...

“He’s a very mature person,” Stella told the media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “He’s one of the most fair, balanced – in a way I would almost say trustworthy – individuals, before being so as a driver. So when he says he’s going to be full commitment or whatever he said, it just means that if anything, he will try to extract out of himself even more from his incredible potential.”

Stella expects the Briton to thrive under that challenge. “I look forward to seeing what Lando will be conditioned to express because we know that his talent is immense and I’m sure this situation in the championship will give him extra motivation to try and extract it,” Stella explained.

‘Unlock a ‘new Lando Norris’ in title fight’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-2025-dutch-gp-lando-norris-mclaren-title-fight-stella/


McLaren identify cause of painful Lando Norris retirement
McLaren has accepted fault for Lando Norris' crushing retirement at Zandvoort, which at first appeared related to the Mercedes power unit in the back of his MCL39.
1 September 2025
Samuel Coop & Aaron Deckers
RacingNews365

Team principal Andrea Stella explained late on Sunday evening that the Woking-based squad had "identified an issue on the chassis side" of the British driver's MCL39. The terminal problem on Norris' car had initially appeared to be power unit-related, an educated assumption predicated on various factors.

However, that expectation was before Stella's revelation, which provides the most concrete indication yet that it was a rare fault with the McLaren itself. "We’ve identified an issue on the chassis side, and we will do a full review before we go racing again in Monza," the Italian said. "This is the first technical problem for the team after a long run of faultless reliability."

"Reliability has been a strong point at McLaren for a long time," Stella told the media, including RacingNews365. "We have had what looks like a technical reliability problem, which is always disappointing. The whole team will process this, try to take the learning, reviewing the problem, fixing it, and making sure that this is not a factor anymore for the future, not only for the remainder of the championship, even if, obviously, this is the main focus for the moment."

"Reliability has been a strong point at McLaren for a long time";

https://racingnews365.com/mclaren-identify-cause-of-painful-lando-norris-retirement


International media sounds alarm on Norris, Hamilton after 'dark Sunday' at Dutch GP
1 Sep 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

The Hungarian Grand Prix was one to forget for several British drivers, including Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris. Both drivers failed to finish their respective races, and this is how the International media has reacted to their respective outings.

Daily Mail: The British outlet opened its note with an SOS call for Norris, stressing it could be defining on his season. “SOS of the day, perhaps of the season. It could have been for Houston. ‘I might be on fire,’ declared Lando Norris, smelling trouble in his cockpit.”

“No ball of orange flame lapped at him, but the mind-bending horror was just as vivid. His McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri was on his ice-cool path to winning the Dutch Grand Prix and extending his championship lead to 34 points. Now we will find out of what metal Norris is made,” it concluded.

“SOS of the day, perhaps of the season”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/general/international-media-sounds-alarm-on-norris-hamilton-after-dark-sunday-at-dutch-gp

[Fortitude]

Gazzetta Dello Sport: Focus on the outing of Lewis Hamilton, labelling it as a ‘dark Sunday’ before further likening it to some Frankenstein movie.
A thunderstorm immediately breaks out. Frederick and Igor have taken on the guise of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton at Zandvoort,” it wrote.
International media sounds alarm on Norris, Hamilton after 'dark Sunday' at Dutch GP
1 Sep 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Gazzetta Dello Sport: “Have you seen Mel Brooks's masterpiece, "Young Frankenstein"? When Frederick and Igor go to the cemetery to dig up a recently buried body, Frederick exclaims, "What a crappy job!" "It could be worse," replies Igor. "How?" "It could rain." A thunderstorm immediately breaks out. Frederick and Igor have taken on the guise of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton at Zandvoort,” it wrote.

'Dark Sunday';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/general/international-media-sounds-alarm-on-norris-hamilton-after-dark-sunday-at-dutch-gp


Italian media unanimous in 'disastrous' Lewis Hamilton verdict: 'Inexcusable'
The Italian media were particularly vocal about a poor Dutch GP for Ferrari, and in particular, Lewis Hamilton.
1 September 2025
RacingNews365 Staff
RacingNews365

Gazzetta dello Sport: "Ferrari is shattered. Kimi Antonelli pushes Charles Leclerc off the track, Lewis Hamilton is disastrous. Leclerc additionally battled with bad luck once again, while Hamilton made a big, unusual mistake. Leclerc's overtaking manoeuvre [on George Russell] was like Valentino Rossi's overtaking move on Marc Marquez at Assen 2015.”

Corriere della Sera pulled no punches. "Despite Hamilton not going very badly over the weekend at Zandvoort, he comes up just a little short at the crucial moments," it wrote. "He is hungry, but with a 5-place penalty already in his pocket for Monza, the dream already seems to be over. Hamilton's mistake was also inexcusable."

“Lewis Hamilton is disastrous”;

https://racingnews365.com/italian-media-unanimous-in-disastrous-lewis-hamilton-verdict-inexcusable


Italian media 'slams' Ferrari after Dutch GP: 'Endless suffering on track’
1 Sept 2025
Samson Ero
Estéban den Toom
GPblog.com

La Gazzetta dello Sport shared its rating after the race weekend, and Lewis Hamilton was not spared by the newspaper. The seven-time world champion received a five as an evaluation of his weekend. The newspaper wrote the following about his painful weekend in the Dutch dunes. "Difficulties in qualifying, starting from the fourth row. He started seventh, but remained seventh. Until the mistake, going off the road: truly unlike him," was the verdict passed on Hamilton for his outing.

Hamilton also received a five-place grid penalty following the conclusion of the Dutch Grand Prix. Corriere dello Sport understands the pain the Ferrari team has caused its fans lately."Ferrari endless suffering: Hamilton penalized after the Dutch GP," the newspaper headlined above the article revealing the Englishman's grid penalty. "Ferrari disaster in the Dutch GP: Hamilton crashes into the wall," was the title of its other piece discussing both men's crashes.

The crashes of Leclerc and Hamilton were also the main focus at the media outlet Tuttosport. "Ferrari, nightmare in the Netherlands: Hamilton and Leclerc retire. Piastri wins," was the headline of the article. "It's also a dark night for Ferrari, which, a week before the Italian Grand Prix, is dealing with the retirements of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. The Reds' double zero also weighs heavily on their chances of securing second place in the Constructors' Championship," was written in the article.

'Endless suffering on track’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/italian-media-slams-ferrari-after-dutch-gp-endless-suffering-on-track


Ferrari told two drivers would have done a ‘better job’ than Lewis Hamilton next to Charles Leclerc
3 September 2025
Shay Rogers
F1 Oversteer

Peter Windsor has told Ferrari that two current drivers would have done a better job than Lewis Hamilton next to Charles Leclerc in 2025. Peter Windsor believes that Haas’ Oliver Bearman and Williams’ Carlos Sainz would have delivered a higher level of performance than Hamilton in 2025.

“I never saw the point of it from Ferrari’s perspective, and I don’t see the point of it now,” he said on his YouTube channel. “They could have Oliver Bearman in that car, they could have Carlos Sainz in the car again. They could have any number of drivers who would probably be doing a better job than Lewis now.”

“I never saw the point of it from Ferrari’s perspective, and I don’t see the point of it now”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-told-two-drivers-would-have-done-a-better-job-than-lewis-hamilton-next-to-charles-leclerc/


Lewis Hamilton could have his ultimate F1 dream ended by nemesis as bombshell claim made
3 Sep 2025
Connor Andrews
talkSPORT

Lewis Hamilton may again be looking over his shoulder at Max Verstappen, but not defending a corner, instead his seat. In a brief interview with Dutch broadcaster ViaPlay, the Dutchman’s father and adviser was asked about transfer speculation that dominated the first half of the season.

He then dropped a bombshell, adding: “But we are also talking about Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull. It is logical. Max and I are discussing the possible options, and it is the three big teams, apart from McLaren, that can welcome him." Naturally, it would be assumed that Hamilton is at greater risk should Verstappen want to head to Italy, given that he’s now in his 40s.

‘Nemesis’;

https://talksport.com/motorsport/3526409/lewis-hamilton-f1-dream-ended-max-verstappen-ferrari/


Lewis Hamilton has lost what won him seven F1 titles after what Guenther Steiner saw at the Dutch Grand Prix
2 September 2025
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Hamilton’s Dutch GP-ending crash also sparked a serious concern for Guenther Steiner, who wonders if the 105-time Grand Prix winner has lost his ability to make the fewest “mistakes”. He feels it was a vital part of the Briton’s skill set that yielded his vast success in Formula 1. Steiner also questions whether Hamilton’s crash was in part caused by feeling the pressure from Charles Leclerc, who has “always outperformed” the Stevenage-born star. Leclerc has outscored (151-109), outfinished (11-2) and outqualified (11-4) Hamilton so far this season.

“Normally, Lewis is known to make the least mistakes,” Steiner told GPblog. “That is how he won so many championships. He was so consistent. I don’t know, is it the pressure [that led to his crash in the Dutch GP]? Whatever it is, it was a weird mistake, in my opinion. It was very weird how it happened. I don’t know what happened, but I think the pressure can get to all of us, even to Lewis Hamilton. There is pressure now at Ferrari, because he’s always outperformed by Charles.”

“It was a weird mistake”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/lewis-hamilton-has-lost-what-won-him-seven-f1-titles-after-what-guenther-steiner-saw-at-the-dutch-grand-prix/


Hamilton headlines Monza press conference in Ferrari's homecoming
3 Sept 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Lewis Hamilton will be present at the FIA press conference ahead of his first Monza weekend with Ferrari. The FIA has announced the press conference schedule for the race weekend at the Temple of Speed. Thursday and Friday will see drivers and team officials carry out their media duties as the weekend gets underway.

Thursday will feature the young duo of Kimi Antonelli and Franco Colapinto, accompanied by former Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso, kicking off the press conference at 14:30 local time [13:30 BST]. The second group of drivers at the presser will include Yuki Tsunoda, Carlos Sainz, and Ferrari’s newest acquisition, Lewis Hamilton.

On Friday, 5 September, between the two practice sessions, team principals will face the media, with Ayao Komatsu of Haas, Frederic Vasseur of Ferrari, and Red Bull’s new team principal, Laurent Mekies, concluding the line-up.

‘The Temple of Speed’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/hamilton-headlines-ferraris-monza-press-day-in-italian-gp

[Fortitude]

Jacques Villeneuve pours cold water on Ferrari’s Monza hopes: “Won’t cut it”.
Jacques Villeneuve worries for Ferrari as the team approaches its home race in Monza.
Sep 4, 2025
Alex Harrington
Motorsport.com

1997 Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has poured cold water on its Italian Grand Prix hopes as it longs to perform in front of the Tifosi. With a damning assessment of its performance ahead of Monza, the former driver believes its usual home advantage won't be enough this weekend. Speaking on The F1 Show podcast by Sky Sports F1, Villeneuve discussed the Scuderia's chances.

"Normally they have a special engine, special car, but I don't expect that this year. They are way off. The car is not working. Normally the car is kind of working. It's in the battle and then they get a little extra for Monza. A little extra won't cut it right now. Charles is frustrated because he's probably starting to understand that he will never be world champion. It's gone bad, it's gotten worse. Next year is a whole new set of regulations and normally that's not when Ferrari is at its best, so it's a difficult situation for him.’

"He's been there for a long time and his star has fallen a little bit. At least Lewis can rely on the fact that he's a multiple world champion so it doesn't matter if the star falls a little bit. He will always be that big global star anyway, that goes beyond F1. They might finish second in the constructors' championship, but they actually are the fourth horse. They are simply lucky that in Red Bull, there's only one driver scoring points and the same thing with Mercedes."

“Probably starting to understand that he will never be world champion”;

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/jacques-villeneuve-pours-cold-water-on-ferraris-monza-hopes-wont-cut-it/10756088/


Vasseur: Ferrari “must be flawless” to achieve Monza targets
4 Sep 2025
Last Word On Sports

Fred Vasseur has emphasised that Ferrari must put together a clean weekend to deliver results on home soil. Ferrari left Zandvoort empty-handed, with retirements for Leclerc and Hamilton bringing their races to an end prematurely. This weekend is a chance for an immediate response, with the Maranello squad preparing for their home Grand Prix in Italy.

Leclerc claimed his second victory at Monza last year, with intelligent strategy defeating the superior pace of the MCL39’s. Repeating this result will be more difficult this weekend, as Vasseur explained in his race preview. “We are aiming to give our very best to repay them for their constant support. However, in order to do that, we need to put emotions aside.’

“And focus on ensuring that we execute the weekend to the best of our ability. “From the very first lap of free practice, right through to the final lap of the race. Over the course of this season, we’ve made progress in terms of competitiveness. But with such a closely matched field, we must be flawless to get the results we’re aiming for.”

“Execute the weekend to the best of our ability”;

https://lastwordonsports.com/motorsports/2025/09/04/vasseur-ferrari-must-be-flawless-to-achieve-monza-targets/


Lewis Hamilton issues ‘incredible’ rallying cry to Ferrari fans ahead of home race at Monza
4 September 2025
Tyler Rowlinson
F1 Oversteer

Hamilton saw firsthand the true devotion from the Ferrari fans when he and Leclerc made an appearance at the Royal Palace in Milan. Thousands gathered to cheer on their heroes, and the seven-time world champion had just one message.

He said via Sky Sport Italia, standing on the balcony of the Royal Palace: “It’s incredible, we need your support.” Teammate Leclerc then added: “I’ve had the privilege of being a Ferrari driver since 2019, you’re the best.”

While signing autographs for fans in Milan, Hamilton proclaimed that racing in red is truly a special feeling. “It’s wonderful to be here, in such a wonderful place. Being a Ferrari driver is the most special thing ever,” he said. Ferrari fans will absolutely love this from the Brit, but they will want to see a strong weekend.’

“It’s incredible, we need your support”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/lewis-hamilton-issues-incredible-rallying-cry-to-ferrari-fans-ahead-of-home-race-at-monza/


Hamilton looks forward to seeing the 'unique Tifosi support' in Monza
3 Sept 2025
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Lewis Hamilton is looking forward to seeing the Tifosi at Ferrari's home weekend in Monza. "I don’t really know what to expect. Obviously, I experienced what I saw in Imola, which was incredible," the Briton began to GPblog among others.

"I’ve been to Monza and seen how Ferrari has been perceived there. I’m always excited to see the Tifosi. The support this team has around the world from the Tifosi is unmatched. I’m sure it will be a unique experience," the seven-time world champion shared.

'Unique Tifosi support';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/hamilton-looks-forward-to-seeing-the-unique-tifosi-support-in-monza


Lewis Hamilton told 'next year has to work' after more Ferrari misery
Lewis Hamilton has been told next season at Ferrari has to work out for the Brit as he won’t be afforded as much leeway despite being the "only true global superstar driver" in F1
4 Sep 2025
Cameron Winstanley
Daily Star

Lewis Hamilton has been told he must step up next year at Ferrari by former world champion Jacques Villeneuve. Speaking to Comeon Sports following the Dutch Grand Prix, Villeneuve was adamant that Hamilton would not leave Ferrari, but stressed that next season can’t be as bad.

The 1997 World Champion said: “No [Hamilton won’t leave Ferrari], not now because 2026 is a new car, new engine, a whole new package and everybody's waiting for was cheap for them, really. They’ve got so much value out of getting Lewis into the team that it cost them nothing to do it. He is still the only true global superstar driver out there.”

“You don't want to do too many seasons like this because then your value does go down at some point. There's the thing. First season there, new regulations next year, and so on and so on. That gives a little bit of leeway but that's it. Next year? Next year it has to work.”

‘Hamilton won’t leave Ferrari’;

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/f1/lewis-hamilton-staying-ferrari-2026-35848549


Lewis Hamilton told he doesn’t have ‘a leg to stand on’ despite ‘painful’ blow for Monza
4 September 2025
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Lewis Hamilton does not have ‘a leg to stand on’ for his Dutch GP yellow flag infringement. But another “painful” blow awaits Hamilton at Monza, as the seven-time F1 champion must serve a five-place grid penalty in the Italian GP after failing to slow for double-waved yellow flags before the Dutch GP. And Jolyon Palmer feels Hamilton has no defence for the penalty.

Hamilton drew a five-place grid penalty for the Italian GP as the FIA’s stewards at Zandvoort only investigated the Ferrari driver after the Dutch GP over not respecting the double-waved yellow flags when he wrongfully practised attacking the pit entry with personnel on the grid. “The drivers were warned about this,” Palmer said in his F1 TV analysis. “You’ve got a yellow flag on the outside and then you’ve got even more critically a flashing panel coming through the final corner. You pretty much can’t miss that as you’re coming in, but Lewis stays pinned.”

“The drivers want to get a gauge for how quickly they can attack the pit speed limit line, but it’s just dangerous to do on this circuit. It’s narrow, and you’ve got all of the people coming onto the grid. These people are just metres away from Hamilton, who’s flying in. This is not the behaviour that you should have under double-waved yellows. So, Hamilton really without a leg to stand on at that point.”

‘Doesn’t have a leg to stand on’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/lewis-hamilton-told-he-doesnt-have-a-leg-to-stand-on-despite-painful-blow-for-monza/

[Fortitude]

Hamilton leads Ferrari 1-2 at Monza - 2025 Italian Grand Prix FP1 results.
Ferrari enjoys a dream start to its home race, with Hamilton leading Leclerc in FP1.
September 5th 2025
Pablo Elizalde
Motor Sport Magazine

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc set the pace in opening practice for the Italian Grand Prix, raising Ferrari‘s hopes for its home event.

Hamilton, who is facing a five-place grid penalty for the race, made a promising debut as a Ferrari driver in front of the tifosi by setting the quickest time.

Leclerc, last year’s winner at Monza, finished less than two tenths behind Hamilton in second in the opening hour of running.

‘Hamilton leads Ferrari 1-2’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/hamilton-leads-ferrari-1-2-at-monza-2025-italian-grand-prix-fp1-results/?nowprocket=1


2025 F1 Italian GP – Free Practice 1 Results
Hamilton and Ferrari delight Tifosi with dominant start at Monza
5 September 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Italian GP 2025 FP1 results
Check out the full Italian GP 2025 Free Practice 1 results from the first session at Monza below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:20.117
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.169
3 Carlos Sainz Williams +0.533
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.575
5 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.823
6 Lando Norris McLaren +0.904
7 Alexander Albon Williams +0.956
8 George Russell Mercedes +0.993
9 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.997
10 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +1.041

‘FP1 results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-italian-gp-free-practice-1-results/


HIGHLIGHTS: Relive FP1 for the Italian Grand Prix as Hamilton delights Tifosi with Ferrari 1-2
5 September 2025
Formula One - Official Site

As practice began at one of F1’s most evocative venues, it was Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton who took the spoils in Free Practice 1 at the team’s home race of Monza. Ferrari gave their loyal Tifosi plenty to cheer about in Free Practice 1 for the Italian Grand Prix, with new signing Lewis Hamilton heading team mate Charles Leclerc for a Scuderia 1-2.

Hamilton stopped the clocks with a 1m 20.117s lap around La Pista Magica, 0.169s quicker than Leclerc. Carlos Sainz was an eyebrow-raising P3 for Williams at a track where they traditionally run well, ahead of the Red Bull of Max Verstappen and local driver Kimi Antonelli – 12 months on from his FP1 debut with Mercedes, which had ended with him in the wall at Parabolica.

A red flag flew for gravel midway through the session, while George Russell stopped out on track in the closing moments of FP1, bringing out a Virtual Safety Car – curtailing the competitive running of FP1 drivers Paul Aron at Alpine (in for Franco Colapinto), who spun at the second chicane 20 minutes into the session, and Alex Dunne at McLaren (in for Oscar Piastri).

‘Ferrari gave their loyal Tifosi plenty to cheer about’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/highlights-relive-fp1-for-the-italian-grand-prix-as-hamilton-delights-tifosi.72yPwFDIM8CNgw3DqBXKtr


Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton told why he’s ‘lucky’ with his Monza grid penalty by Martin Brundle
5 September 2025
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Martin Brundle thinks Lewis Hamilton is ‘lucky’ with a five, rather than a 10-place Italian Grand Prix grid penalty. F1 and the FIA decided against allowing drivers to practice their pit entry during their laps to the grid due to the narrow working area for the personnel already on the grid. But Hamilton remained flat through the final turn, and he only lifted by 20kph (12.4mph) nearing the pits.

“It was a slam dunk penalty,” Brundle said on Sky Sports F1 (05/09, 12:19). “[He] broke two regulations, because also the entry speed into the pit lane itself. I do believe that [penalty] should have been applied in the race to give them a chance to cycle that penalty through. But two wrongs don’t make a right in that respect. I think the team have to take some responsibility.”

“If you read the sporting regs, and the technical regs, and the international sporting code, and then the race director’s notes on any given weekend, as well, you can’t expect the drivers to absorb all of that. We struggle to absorb it. You just keep reading, reading [and] reading all of the stuff. But he should have been reminded by the team, if he wasn’t, not to charge through the final corner. But I don’t think they can complain about the penalty. In fact, I think they’re lucky it wasn’t a 10-place grid drop.”

‘Lewis Hamilton is ‘lucky’ with a five’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-driver-lewis-hamilton-told-why-hes-lucky-with-his-monza-grid-penalty-by-martin-brundle/


Another blow for Verstappen incoming? Dutchman facing changes in Monza
5 Sep 2025
Olly Darcy
GPblog.com

Max Verstappen faces another potential blow in his increasingly difficult task to chase down the McLaren pair of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris at the Italian Grand Prix. Engine changes incoming for Verstappen and others. However, a potential step back could be on the way for Verstappen after a promising P4 start to his weekend in Monza in the first free practice session. The Dutchman will see a brand new engine put into his RB21 for the race weekend around the iconic Italian track.

However, it is not yet clear if a penalty will be given to the 27-year-old and Red Bull, as this will be the fourth new engine for Verstappen in 2025. It is not just a new internal combustion engine that is being replaced for Verstappen on his RB21; a new turbocharger, motor generator unit-heat (MGU-H), motor generator unit-kinetic (MGU-K), and exhaust system will all be added.

Esteban Ocon, Alexander Albon, Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto will also have all these changes made to their respective machines. Pierre Gasly and his Alpine will have all but one of these changes, with a brand-new MGU-K not being added for this weekend.

‘Another blow for Verstappen incoming?’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/another-blow-for-verstappen-incoming-dutchman-facing-changes-in-monza


Wolff admits to bigger problems for Mercedes than Russell’s DNF at Monza
5 Sept 2025
Olly Darcy
GPblog.com

Toto Wolff admits there may be more than just George Russell's DNF from the first free practice session to contend with at the Italian Grand Prix for Mercedes at Monza. The Brit didn't see the start of his race weekend get off to the greatest of starts in Monza, with an issue for his W16 forcing him to pull over and bring out the VSC, confining him to a P7 finish, while teammate Antoinelli could only come two places higher up in P5.


"It was a hydraulics issue for George, and the engine shutdown to protect everything," Wolff explained while speaking to Sky Sports after the end of the first practice session that saw Ferrari take a one-two in front of their adoring Tifosi.

However, for Wolff and Mercedes, other concerns have arisen after the first free practice session that could be quite significant for the rest of the weekend. "We are lacking a bit of straight line speed, that's what I've just seen on the overlays," continued the Austrian, a concern that the German team will want to conceal before a vital qualifying session takes place tomorrow.

‘Wolff admits to bigger problems’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/wolff-admits-to-bigger-problems-for-mercedes-than-russells-dnf-at-monza

[Fortitude]

Norris P1 in FP2 at the Italian Grand Prix ahead of Leclerc and Sainz.
Lando Norris topped the timing sheets in FP2 at the Italian Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz rounding out the top three to end Friday's proceedings.
5 Sept 2025
Olly Darcy
GPblog.com

After Ferrari earned a fine one-two finish in the first free practice session of the race weekend in Monza, McLaren and Norris answered back. The Brit was the fastest come the end of the soft tyre running at the 'Temple of Speed', with Leclerc taking his second P2 of the day by finishing just +0.083 off the pace of Norris.

Sainz rounded out the top three with another brilliant P3 finish, with Oscar Piastri taking P4 in his first session of the weekend after the Australian made way for F2 driver Alex Dunne during FP1. Lewis Hamilton took fifth place after his P1 finish in front of the Tifosi in FP1 to show Ferrari's speed is to be respected at their home Grand Prix, just seven-thousandths of a second ahead of Max Verstappen in P6.

Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg found some great pace to take P7 and P8, respectively, while Yuki Tsunoda and George Russell rounded out the top ten. There was the need for an early red flag after just ten minutes of the second session of the day, with Kimi Antonelli spinning out and beeching his W16, resulting in FP2 ending prematurely for the 18-year-old in his home weekend.

‘Norris P1 in FP2’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/f1-full-results-norris-p1-in-fp2-at-the-italian-grand-prix-ahead-of-leclerc-and-sainz


2025 F1 Italian GP – Free Practice 2 Results
Norris leads McLaren charge as Ferrari impresses in front of home crowd
5 September 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Italian GP 2025 FP2 results
Check out the full Italian GP 2025 Free Practice 2 results from the second session at Monza below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:19.878
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.083
3 Carlos Sainz Williams +0.096
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.181
5 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.192
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.199
7 Alexander Albon Williams +0.301
8 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +0.363
9 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +0.391
10 George Russell Mercedes +0.398

‘FP2 results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-2025-italian-gp-free-practice-2-results/


Italian GP: Norris edges Leclerc in messy FP2 at Monza
05/09/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Lando Norris set the pace in a lively but once again messy second practice session for the Italian Grand Prix, edging Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by the slimmest of margins at Monza.

The McLaren driver clocked a best lap of 1m19.878s, underlining his intent to close the 34-point deficit to team-mate Oscar Piastri in the championship battle.

The result gave McLaren an early edge heading into Saturday, while Ferrari showed signs of a home resurgence, much to the delight of the tifosi packing the grandstands.

‘Norris edges Leclerc’;

https://f1i.com/news/547676-italian-gp-norris-edges-leclerc-in-messy-fp2-at-monza.html


Norris quickest in Italian GP FP2 at Monza, ahead of Leclerc and Sainz
SEPTEMBER 5, 2025
in Motorsport
Racecars

McLaren’s Lando Norris went quickest in the second practice session for the 2025 FIA Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc just eight tenths of a second off the Briton as Williams’ Carlos Sainz took P3 ahead of championship leader Oscar Piastri. After handing his car over to McLaren test driver Alex Dunne in FP1, Oscar Piastri was one of the first on track at the start of the session and the Australian was quickly into the groove, despite reporting that one of his mirrors was cracked.

The championship leader posted a time of 1:21.212. Team-mate and title rival Lando Norris went quicker, however, and he took top spot with a time of 1:21.012. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso slotted into third place ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell with Max Verstappen in P5.

Norris, then, held on to top spot ahead of Leclerc, Sainz and Piastri, with Hamilton in fifth ahead of Verstappen. Albon finished in seventh place ahead of Hülkenberg and Tsunoda finished the session in ninth place, just ahead of Russell.

‘Norris quickest’;

https://www.racecar.com/news/102505/motorsport/norris-quickest-in-italian-gp-fp2-at-monza-ahead-of-leclerc-and-sainz


Why Piastri avoided grid drop for Italian GP practice infringement
Sep 5, 2025
Josh Suttill
The Race

Oscar Piastri has escaped with a reprimand for an infringement during FP2 at Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix as the stewards made an important distinction to a penalty issued earlier in the season. Piastri and McLaren faced the Monza stewards after FP2 for entering the fast lane in the pitlane prior to the restart time for the session, following a red flag for Kimi Antonelli’s off.

The stewards found Piastri was released from his McLaren garage at 17.13.50, but the restart time wasn’t confirmed by race control until 19 seconds later. This was “clearly in breach of item 22.2 of the race director’s event notes” which states “if the free practice session or qualifying session is suspended, cars may only enter the fast lane after the re-start time is confirmed via the official messaging system”.

“The stewards acknowledge that, in contrast to prior incidents of a similar nature happening in qualifying, no significant sporting advantage could potentially be gained as this happened in free practice and therefore consider a reprimand to the competitor to be appropriate.”

‘Important distinction’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/why-oscar-piastri-avoided-grid-drop-for-italian-gp-practice-infringement/

[Fortitude]

Lando Norris has Italian GP pole in his sights again as Lewis Hamilton calls for 'more juice'.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc finished just 0.021s behind Norris, to bring the Tifosi to their feet. Team-mate Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, was left calling for "more juice" from his SF25 - as Leclerc found - as the seven-time F1 champion was only seventh quickest.
6 September 2025
Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

Lando Norris goes into qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix as the man to beat for the second successive weekend after setting the leading time in practice at Monza. Interestingly, the two McLaren drivers ran different front-wing specifications, with Norris' a higher downforce version compared to Piastri, providing him with greater performance through the chicanes, whilst losing out a little on the straights.

The Ferrari fans had to wait until the closing minutes for Leclerc and Hamilton to emerge on the softs, and the first flyer from the former saw him make a mistake out of the second Lesmo, doing enough to avoid losing the car. At a point when Piastri grabbed the second fastest time, 0.165s behind Norris, Hamilton set the sixth best lap of the session, only to drop a place courtesy of Leclerc's late run that elevated him from 11th to second.

Behind the top three, Verstappen had to settle for fourth, and ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and Gabriel Bortoleto in his Sauber, followed by Hamilton and Hadjar. Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli was ninth quickest, a third of a second down, with Williams' Alex Albon completing the top 10.

‘Bring(ing) the Tifosi to their feet’;

https://racingnews365.com/lando-norris-has-italian-gp-pole-in-his-sights-again-as-lewis-hamilton-calls-for-more-juice


2025 F1 Italian GP – Free Practice 3 Results
Norris beats Leclerc by 0.021s in tense final practice ahead of Italian GP qualifying
6 September 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Italian GP 2025 FP3 results
Check out the full Italian GP 2025 Free Practice 3 results from the third and final practice session at Monza below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:19.331
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.021
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.165
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.167
5 George Russell Mercedes +0.184
6 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber +0.227
7 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.267
8 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +0.272
9 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.365
10 Alexander Albon Williams +0.389

‘Free Practice 3 Results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-italian-gp-free-practice-3-results/


Lando Norris pips Charles Leclerc in FP3 at F1 Italian GP
6 September 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Lando Norris went fastest in FP3 for the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix, pipping Charles Leclerc with qualifying at Monza just hours away. The McLaren driver’s 1:19.331s was enough to secure top spot in the final practice session of the weekend, just two hundredths of a second ahead of the Ferrari.

Oscar Piastri put the second McLaren in second place, a further tenth-and-a-half behind, with Max Verstappen fourth. George Russell was fifth for Mercedes, with Gabriel Bortoleto an impressive sixth ahead of Lewis Hamilton in seventh.

‘Lando Norris went fastest in FP3’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/09/06/lando-norris-pips-charles-leclerc-in-fp3-at-f1-italian-gp/


Italian GP: Norris pips Leclerc in closely contested FP3 session at Monza
6 Sep 2025
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Lando Norris set the pace in FP3 at the Italian Grand Prix, but Charles Leclerc in second wasn’t far behind in a session in which the entire field was separated by less than a second. Oscar Piastir was third fastest ahead of Max Verstappen and George Russell.

Heading into the final 20 minutes, more drivers moved onto the soft tyres including the championship-leading McLaren teammates. Lando Norris hit the front with a 1:19.331, 0.247s ahead of Oscar Piastri before Verstappen split the McLaren teammates with Isack Hadjar up to fourth in the Racing Bulls. Piastri made it a McLaren 1-2 by 0.165s behind Norris.

Verstappen, running the soft tyres, upped his pace to a 1:19.688. Leclerc’s efforts to get into a top position were hindered by a mistake at the second Lesmo as the Ferrari driver put wheels in the gravel. He bounced back on his next, and last, flying lap to go second behind Norris by 0.021s.

‘Closely contested FP3 session’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/italian-grand-prix-2025-fp3-report


Italian GP: Norris ups the pace, tops FP3 from Leclerc
06/09/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Lando Norris set the pace in the third and final practice session for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, narrowly outpacing Ferrari’s home hero Charles Leclerc and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri. With qualifying looming, the session at Monza’s iconic Temple of Speed showcased a fiercely competitive field, with McLaren and Ferrari emerging as frontrunners for pole position.

Norris’ benchmark time of 1m19.331s on soft tyres underscored McLaren’s pre-weekend favoritism, but Ferrari’s late surge and Red Bull’s resurgence suggest a tight battle ahead. With McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes all within striking distance, the 2025 Italian Grand Prix qualifying promises to be a nail-biter.

Norris, chasing Piastri’s 34-point championship lead, will aim to convert his FP3 pace into pole, but Leclerc’s late heroics and Verstappen’s resurgence ensure a fierce fight. As teams fine-tune their setups, the battle for supremacy at Monza is set to captivate fans under the late summer sun.

‘Lando Norris set the pace in the third and final practice’;

https://f1i.com/news/547825-italian-gp-norris-ups-the-pace-tops-fp3-from-leclerc.html


Lando Norris leads 2025 Italian Grand Prix FP3 as Charles Leclerc keeps Ferrari hopes alive
6 September 2025
Rebecca Braybrook
F1 Oversteer

Norris once again demonstrated his skill by topping his second timing sheet of the weekend, although focus turns to whether the Brit can keep the position in qualifying.

Charles Leclerc saw two massive snaps of oversteer during the session, managing to save the Ferrari from a nasty crash. His first snap came at the Parabolica during the early part of FP3, before another at the second Lesmo saw him dip the car into the gravel.

‘Ferrari hopes alive’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/races/lando-norris-leads-2025-italian-grand-prix-fp3-as-charles-leclerc-keeps-ferrari-hopes-alive/

[Fortitude]

Max Verstappen smashes F1 record at Monza as Lando Norris makes late qualifying recovery.
Max Verstappen smashed another F1 record at Monza, taking ownership of the fastest lap in the series' history en route to pole position for the Italian Grand Prix.
6 September 2025
Samuel Coop
RacingNews365

Max Verstappen stormed to pole position at the Italian Grand Prix, setting a new F1 record for the quickest lap in the championship's history. Judged on average speed, the Red Bull driver's 1:18.792 averaged 264.7 kph and 164.47 mph, bettering Lewis Hamilton's pole late at Monza from 2020.

The Dutchman beat Lando Norris by almost a tenth of a second as the pair secured their places on the front row of the grid. Oscar Piastri was third-fastest at the Temple of Speed, ahead of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in fourth and fifth, respectively.

‘Smashed another F1 record’;

https://racingnews365.com/max-verstappen-smashes-f1-record-at-monza-as-lando-norris-makes-late-qualifying-recovery


2025 F1 Italian GP – Qualifying Results
6 September 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Italian GP 2025 Qualifying results
Check out the full Italian GP 2025 Qualifying results from Monza below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:18.792
2 Lando Norris McLaren +0.077
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.190
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.215
5 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.332
6 George Russell Mercedes +0.365
7 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.408
8 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber +0.598
9 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.632
10 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +0.727

‘F1 Italian GP 2025 Qualifying results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-italian-gp-qualifying-results/


Max Verstappen denies McLaren with superb pole position for F1 Italian GP
6 September 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Max Verstappen took pole position for the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix, denying both McLarens top spot in a thrilling qualifying session at Monza. The Dutchman stormed to pole with 1:18.792s at the very end of Q3, with Lando Norris looking set to take pole.

Oscar Piastri could only settle for third spot, with Charles Leclerc maintaining Ferrari interest with fourth. Lewis Hamilton will start 10th, serving his grid penalty having qualified in fifth place. For Verstappen, it was a perhaps unexpected pole position, and with an average speed of 264.681 km/h, it was by mean speed, the fastest ever lap in F1 history.

It also threatens to shake up the race with the title protagonists just behind Verstappen, promising excitement and drama at the Temple of Speed.

‘Max Verstappen denies McLaren’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/09/06/max-verstappen-denies-mclaren-with-superb-pole-position-for-f1-italian-gp/


Verstappen upstages McLarens to steal Italian GP pole position
Sep 6, 2025
Matt Beer
The Race

Max Verstappen upstaged the McLarens to put Red Bull on pole position for Formula 1's 2025 Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Verstappen's first Q3 run benefitted from a tow from team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, but he went even better by himself at the end, and after very briefly losing provisional pole to Lando Norris Verstappen snuck back ahead by 0.077 seconds.

Norris had a fraught session in which he was at serious risk of going out in Q2 having locked up entering the first chicane on his first run, changed his run plan and then underperformed on his next attempt. He was down in 11th until a massive final lap on used tyres got him through, and he then managed to beat McLaren team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri to second on the grid.

Provisional starting grid
1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2 Lando Norris (McLaren)
3 Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
4 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
5 George Russell (Mercedes)
6 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
7 Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)
8 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
9 Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull)
10 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)

‘Verstappen upstages McLarens’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/verstappen-upstages-mclarens-to-steal-italian-gp-pole-position/


Verstappen beats Norris and Piastri to pole for Italian GP in Qualifying thriller
A pulsating Qualifying session at Monza ended with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen beating the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to pole position.
Sep 6, 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen pulled another lap out of the bag to claim pole position for the Italian Grand Prix, pipping McLaren rivals Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in an incredibly close Qualifying session at Monza. Following their “very tough” weekend at the Temple of Speed last season, Verstappen and Red Bull have looked much more competitive at this year’s event, with the Dutchman emerging as a genuine threat to McLaren’s supremacy.

As a heart-stopping Qualifying hour drew to a close, Verstappen initially led the way in the decisive Q3 phase, before being overhauled by Norris but then fighting back with a blistering lap of 1m 18.792s to seal P1 by 0.077s. Piastri was 0.190s back in third, from the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, who could not quite deliver enough for the front row – the seven-time World Champion nonetheless losing five places with his pre-event grid penalty.

‘Pulled another lap out of the bag’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-beats-norris-and-piastri-to-pole-for-italian-gp-in-qualifying.7j6Ls1jDJUp67EqfCoQhiN


Max Verstappen sets the fastest lap in F1 HISTORY at Italian GP as he snatches pole from Lando Norris - while Lewis Hamilton vastly improves
6 September 2025
JONATHAN MCEVOY
MailOnline

Lando Norris found a toe-hold of hope in his faltering world championship bid when he outqualified his rival Oscar Piastri ahead of the Italian Grand Prix – but Max Verstappen took pole by dint of his own genius. Norris overcame a trying afternoon to set the second quickest time at Monza, 0.077sec back from the Dutchman. Piastri was more than a tenth further behind in third.

Charles Leclerc was fourth for Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton fifth, though the Briton will start 10th when his five-place grid penalty from last weekend in Holland is applied – a cruel handicap on his first Italian Grand Prix in red. George Russell qualified fifth for Mercedes, a place above his fellow Silver Arrow driver Kimi Antonelli, competing on home soil.

Verstappen’s pole was his first since Silverstone in July and was a personal achievement, rather than a team one, given that the other Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda was only 10th fastest. Verstappen set a track record – of 1min 18.792sec – in the process. To do so, the Dutchman averaged an astonishing average speed of 264.682km/h throughout.

‘Ffastest lap in F1 HISTORY’;

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-15072441/Max-Verstappen-sets-fastest-lap-F1-HISTORY-Italian-GP-snatches-pole-Lando-Norris-Lewis-Hamilton-vastly-improves.html

[Fortitude]

Verstappen dominates Italian GP as Piastri gives Norris second under orders.
Max Verstappen scored his third victory of 2025 with a dominant performance from pole position at Monza.
7th September 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

The Red Bull driver lost his lead to Lando Norris twice during the race but regained it each time to claim his first grand prix win in four months. Norris followed him home in second place as McLaren tried an alternative strategy as they strived to take the lead. While Verstappen ran a fairly conventional one-stop strategy, albeit with a shortened final stint on hards, McLaren waited until late in the race before switching to softs.

However the team inadvertently triggered a change in positions between their drivers by summoning Oscar Piastri in first. The team reassured Norris they would not allow Piastri to ‘undercut’ him. They reckoned without a slow pit stop for Norris, however. He rejoined the track behind his team mate whom McLaren swiftly instructed to yield second place. He did, albeit reluctantly, and followed Norris home in third place.

‘Verstappen dominates’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/09/07/verstappen-dominates-italian-gp-as-piastri-gives-norris-second-under-orders/


2025 F1 Italian Grand Prix – Race Results
Verstappen triumphs at Monza as McLaren team orders shape podium
7 September 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

Full F1 2025 Italian Grand Prix Results
Check out the complete Italian Grand Prix 2025 race results from Monza below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Leader
2 Lando Norris McLaren +19.207
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren +21.351
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +25.624
5 George Russell Mercedes +32.881
6 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +37.449
7 Alex Albon Williams +50.439
8 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber +57.913
9 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +59.762
10 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +63.350

‘Full F1 2025 Italian Grand Prix Results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-italian-grand-prix-race-results/


Italian GP: Max Verstappen wins at Monza amid fresh McLaren team orders controversy
7 Sep 2025
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

After a few laps of fighting Lando Norris for the lead at the Italian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen took control of the race to secure his third win of the season. The McLaren teammates joined him on the podium with Norris ahead of Oscar Piastri after a brief moment of team order controversy late in the race.

The McLaren mechanics were out on Lap 46 for Piastri, who went with the soft tyres. Norris clarified with McLaren that they would swap positions if his teammate got the undercut on him. A slow stop for Norris with the front left, four seconds, meant Piastri was ahead after the Briton pitted. Verstappen was back up in P1.

And then came the message, “let Lando pass and then you’re free to race.” Piastri made his case to the team, and then moved over for the Briton. Norris quickly moved out of DRS range of his teammate. Verstappen raced to the victory, his third of the season, ahead of Norris and Piastri whose lead was reduced to 27 points.

‘McLaren team orders controversy’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/italian-grand-prix-2025-report


Verstappen charges to Italian GP win over Norris and Piastri
Max Verstappen claimed his third win of the 2025 season with a commanding display at Monza on Sunday.
7 Sep 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen converted pole position into victory during Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, leading home McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri after a dramatic start and end to proceedings at Monza. Verstappen and Norris went wheel-to-wheel almost immediately when the lights went out, getting close to each other down the start/finish straight before the Dutchman skipped the first chicane to keep the lead.

While Verstappen gave up the position to Norris at the start of the second lap to avoid a potential penalty, he was soon back on his rival’s tail and took only a couple more tours to reclaim P1 and surge clear. From there, Verstappen appeared to have everything under control, managing the gap back to both McLarens across their opening stints, pitting earlier than Norris and Piastri to strengthen that advantage and then cruising to the chequered flag.

‘Verstappen charges to Italian GP win’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-charges-to-italian-gp-win-over-norris-and-piastri.6J7R9E9tzOI9Asy6HBmoVf


Italian GP: Verstappen defeats McLaren with Monza masterclass
7 Sep 2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Max Verstappen was in a league of is own in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, the Red Bull charger claiming his 66th career win in F1 with a dominant display at Monza. The Dutchman resisted early pressure from Lando Norris before stretching clear to seal a 19.2-second winning margin, as McLaren’s afternoon was complicated by team orders and pitstop drama.

The opening lap set the tone for a lively race. Norris made the better getaway from second on the grid and went wheel-to-wheel with polesitter Verstappen into Turn 1. The McLaren driver felt he was forced towards the grass as Verstappen held the inside line and then skipped across the first chicane to keep the lead.

‘Verstappen defeats McLaren’;

https://f1i.com/news/548020-italian-gp-verstappen-defeats-mclaren-with-monza-masterclass.html


Michael Schumacher’s Monza record shattered as Max Verstappen makes F1 history
Red Bull star delivers stunning performance in Italy to set fastest race time ever
7 September 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

The Italian Grand Prix has always been synonymous with speed, but on Sunday Max Verstappen raised the bar to a level never seen before in Formula 1. The Red Bull driver stormed to victory at Monza with a relentless display that not only secured his third win of the 2025 season but also smashed a record once held by Michael Schumacher.

Verstappen crossed the finish line in just 1 hour, 13 minutes and 23 seconds, completing the 53 laps at an average speed of 264.681 km/h – making it the fastest race in F1 history. The milestone eclipsed Schumacher’s iconic benchmark of 1 hour 14 minutes and 19.838 seconds from the 2003 Italian Grand Prix

For much of the season, Verstappen has found himself locked in a fight against the McLaren pairing of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, but at Monza the Dutchman left no room for doubt. After briefly handing the lead to Norris following a controversial Turn 1 tussle, Verstappen reclaimed it just three laps later and never looked back, gradually building a gap of almost 20 seconds by the chequered flag.

‘Stunning performance’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/max-verstappen-fastest-f1-race-ever-italian-gp-michael-schumacher/


Monza masterclass earns Verstappen another award after Grand Prix win
7 Sep 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Max Verstappen has been named the Formula 1 Driver of the Day following his outing at the Italian Grand Prix. The Red Bull Racing driver clinched the race in dominant fashion against the McLarens. The 27-year-old, who had earlier set the record for the fastest qualifying lap in the history of the sport, led the Grand Prix for most of the race. Verstappen’s impressive outing culminated in a 19-second gap to second-placed Lando Norris.

The Driver of the Day award, which is voted for by the fans, marked the fourth time throughout the 2025 campaign that the Dutch driver has clinched the prize. With his performance in Monza, Verstappen also cut down the lead at the top of the Drivers’ Standings held by Oscar Piastri. The Red Bull Racing driver will now shift focus to replicating his impressive form as the F1 grid heads to the streets of Baku for Round 17 of the 2025 season.

‘Monza masterclass’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/monza-masterclass-earns-verstappen-another-award-after-grand-prix-win

[Fortitude]

'Needless and silly'? Our verdict on McLaren's Piastri team order.
A slow pitstop for Norris meant Piastri jumped him late on at Monza, with Piastri subsequently asked to drop back behind - a request the championship leader was unimpressed with but ultimately followed.
7 Sep 2025
The Race

Needless and silly, Ben Anderson: I think it would have been interesting to see what Piastri would have done had he not just benefitted from a huge points swing thanks to that broken oil line on his team-mate's car at Zandvoort.

What happens if this is repeated?, Scott Mitchell-Malm: Judging this one solely on those circumstances, it's a tough thing for McLaren to ask and not a good thing to do, but I can see why it was reluctantly asked of Piastri.

McLaren must take this to the logical extreme, Valentin Khorounzhiy; In the next race, it must send out Piastri with a faulty engine to make up for what happened at Zandvoort. But Melbourne wasn't very nice also, and hardly Piastri's fault, so it needs to order Norris to go off into the grass at some point from a top-two position. Piastri got screwed by strategy in Hungary, so McLaren has to make that right, though I can't quite come up with a mechanism yet.

‘Piastri got screwed by strategy in Hungary’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/needless-silly-our-verdict-on-mclaren-oscar-piastri-lando-norris-team-order/


Lando Norris booed on podium after McLaren team orders at Italian Grand Prix
07/09/2025
BreakingNews.ie

Lando Norris was booed after McLaren ordered his team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri aside as this season’s world championship battle took a controversial twist at Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix. Norris was jeered by the Tifosi gathered underneath the podium as he collected his trophy for crossing the line in second, a place ahead of Piastri.

“I heard them, but I don’t know what I am meant do,” Norris said. “The cheers were louder than the boos, and that is the most important thing.” A week after Norris’ engine failure in Zandvoort saw him leave the Netherlands empty-handed, McLaren called on Piastri to trade positions – a decision that did not sit comfortably with the Australian.

“We said that a slow pit-stop was part of racing, so I don’t really get what changed here,” he said, before adding: “But I will do it.”

‘Jeered by the Tifosi gathered underneath the podium’;

https://www.breakingnews.ie/sport/lando-norris-booed-on-podium-after-mclaren-team-orders-at-italian-grand-prix-1804094.html


Nico Rosberg predicts McLaren ‘talks’ after team orders take centre stage
07 Sep 2025
Sam Cooper
PlanetF1.com

“Pit stop times are just a part of racing, and what goes around, comes around,” Rosberg said on Sky F1. “Sometimes one has a faster [stop] than the other. So it’s, it’s a really difficult one internally, and that will require some talks, because I think Oscar is not going to be happy with that.”

“Of course, you look out from outside and you think ‘okay, that’s the only way to do it fair, because Lando deserves second place because he just did a much better weekend.’ But it’s not straight cuts, Rosberg was joined on the broadcast by Jamie Chadwick who said McLaren “put themselves in these awkward positions” ,having done similar last year in Hungary.

“It is an uncharacteristic mistake [from the pit crew] but I think if you look back to Hungary last year, they do put themselves sometimes in these awkward positions,” she said. “It is credit to the drivers that they react the way that they do but the harmony in that team seems to be very good, despite the fact they’re going head to head for a world Championship.”

‘Nico Rosberg predicts McLaren talks’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/nico-rosberg-predicts-mclaren-talks-team-orders-take-centre-stage


Nico Rosberg drops warning after McLaren controversy at Italian GP
Former champion says Oscar Piastri won’t forget Monza team orders as Norris gains crucial advantage
7 September 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

“Pit stop times are just a part of racing,” Nico Rosberg said on Sky Sports F1. “Sometimes one driver gets lucky, sometimes the other. That makes it a really difficult one internally, and it will require some talks, because I don’t think Oscar is going to be happy with that.”

Few drivers are better placed than Nico Rosberg to comment on such scenarios. The German endured one of the most infamous team rivalries in modern F1 when he went head-to-head with Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes between 2014 and 2016. Their battles often spilled beyond the track, testing the limits of team harmony.

“From the outside, you think it’s the only way to do it fair, because Lando had the better weekend,” Nico Rosberg added. “But it’s not so clear cut when you’re the one who has to give up the position. That leaves a mark, and I’m sure Oscar will remember it.”

‘Nico Rosberg drops warning’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-mclaren-team-orders-italian-gp-rosberg-warning/


McLaren team politics spark controversy at Italian Grand Prix as Oscar Piastri is forced to give up place for world title rival team-mate Lando Norris - but Max Verstappen tops the podium at Monza
7 September 2025
JONATHAN MCEVOY
MailOnline

If Lando Norris goes on to clinch his first world title this year, he should send a cheque with plenty of noughts to Mr Andrea Stella, c/o McLaren, Woking. That is because his team principal’s even-handed decision-making, bordering on saintliness, allowed Norris to finish runner-up at the Italian Grand Prix, a crucial place ahead of Oscar Piastri.

The choreography – which resulted in Norris being booed by the Tifosi on the podium – meant the British driver narrowed his deficit to his Australian team-mate to 31 points rather than fall 37 in arrears. Stella’s crucial call followed the McLaren pair’s late pit stops. Piastri was in on lap 45 of 52, when lying third; Norris was in a lap later, from second. Fine so far.

But, as we know, the switch was made, the instruction conveyed to Piastri by his race engineer Tom Stallard. Piastri hardly hurried to burble ‘wilco’, instead protesting: ‘A slow pit stop is part of racing. I don’t really get what has changed here but I will do it.’ Verstappen was informed what had happened and snorted: ‘Ha, just for a slow pit stop.’

‘McLaren team politics’;

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-15074577/McClaren-team-politics-spark-controversy-Italian-Grand-Prix-Oscar-Piastri-forced-place-world-title-rival-team-mate-Lando-Norris-Max-Verstappen-tops-podium-Monza.html


Oscar Piastri ordered to let Lando Norris past as Max Verstappen wins in Monza
Piastri was bitterly disappointed with the decision.
7 Sep, 2025
Philip Duncan
Irish Examiner

Lando Norris’ world championship bid was controversially kept alive by his McLaren team, despite a poor pit-stop threatening to deal the British driver another title blow.

Norris had been on course to finish as runner-up to runaway winner Max Verstappen until he dropped behind title rival Oscar Piastri following a slow change of tyres with seven laps remaining.

However, Piastri was ordered by McLaren to move aside for team-mate Norris, which the Australian did on the 49th lap of 53 at Monza’s Temple of Speed.

‘Piastri was bitterly disappointed’;

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/othersport/arid-41701064.html


'I don't really get what's changed': Oscar Piastri fumes at team order to let teammate past at Italian GP
September 7, 2025
Simon Brunsdon
Channel 9's Wide World of Sports

Aussie F1 driver Oscar Piastri was fuming when ordered to let his McLaren teammate Lando Norris past to claim second in the Italian Grand Prix. Piastri had jumped into second place when Norris underwent a slow pit stop, but team radio later told Piastri to let the Brit past. The Aussie was clearly not impressed.

"I mean, we said a slow pit stop was part of racing," Piastri responded to his team. "So I don't really get what's changed here, but if you really want me to do it then I'll do it." Team radio then said, "Appreciate that was pretty painful in a way, but you've done the right thing".

'I don't really get what's changed';

https://www.nine.com.au/sport/motorsport/f1-news-2025-max-verstappen-wins-monza-italian-gp-from-lando-norris-oscar-piastri-20250908-p5mt4x.html

[Fortitude]

McLaren savaged by the international media after Monza team orders.
Monza was “another monumental stuff-up by McLaren”, a “clanger” and Lando Norris has been told he should “send a cheque with plenty of noughts” to Andrea Stella if he goes on to beat Oscar Piastri to this year’s World title.
8 Sep 2025
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

And no, that’s not all coming from the Australian media, with the British press also unimpressed with McLaren’s use of team orders at the Italian Grand Prix. Under the headline “‘Shameful’: F1 world convinced ugly Piastri conspiracy theory is true”, the Daily Telegraph called Sunday’s events “the smoking gun Oscar Piastri’s legion of fans have been waiting for after months of speculation about favouritism inside the McLaren garage.”

“The move,” added the Australian newspaper, “has definitely got tongues wagging. It has also poured a considerable amount of fuel on the burning suggestions Norris receives special treatment at Piastri’s expense.” The Herald Sun labelled it “another monumental stuff-up by his [Piastri’s] McLaren team that has sent Australian Formula One fans into meltdown.”

The Telegraph claimed McLaren “dropped a clanger” and that “Piastri should have disobeyed instructions”. The Mirror also called out McLaren’s need for “control”, but that “in motorsport, as in life, the best-laid plans of race strategists and drivers often go awry. Luck, fate or whatever you want to call it intervenes. S*** happens. It was, however, the Daily Mail who landed the most brutal blow. “If Lando Norris goes on to clinch his first world title this year, he should send a cheque with plenty of noughts to Mr Andrea Stella, c/o McLaren, Woking.”

‘McLaren savaged by the international media’;

https://www.planetf1.com/features/what-savage-international-media-saying-mclaren-monza-team-orders


‘Filthy’: Tony Jones fires up over Oscar Piastri controversy at Italian Grand Prix
8 Sep 2025
3AW

Tony Jones has fired up over the controversy surrounding McLaren teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris at the Italian Grand Prix overnight.

Piastri was controversial given orders by his own team to let Norris finish ahead of him, and Jones admitted he was “filthy” about the situation. “It’s becoming really annoying, the commentary is effectively a cheer squad for Lando Norris,” Jones told Tom Elliott on 3AW Mornings.

‘Filthy’;

https://www.3aw.com.au/filthy-tony-jones-fires-up-over-oscar-piastri-controversy-at-italian-grand-prix/


'Utterly bizarre': F1 world divided over call that hurt Aussie championship leader Oscar Piastri
September 8, 2025
Zachary Gates
Channel 9's Wide World of Sports

The Formula 1 world is divided after McLaren ordered Australia's Oscar Piastri to give position two back to teammate Lando Norris late in the Italian Grand Prix due to a pit-stop blunder. One leading F1 journalist has argued it was "the completely obvious" call — explaining doing otherwise would have reignited tensions between Norris and the engineers, and saying Piastri was not going to be particularly fazed anyway.

But a popular F1 YouTuber and podcaster has branded McLaren's decision "utterly bizarre" and said the sport's fan base was growing tiresome with the "nicey-nicey-fairness BS". Matt Gallagher, the popular F1 YouTuber and podcaster, took aim at McLaren. "We have the scenario play out ... and Oscar is put in a difficult position, we all get flashbacks to Hungary 2024 again, which we all didn't want to go back to," Gallagher said in a race review on YouTube.

"Utterly bizarre, to be honest with you," Gallagher added, commenting on the Italian Grand Prix controversy. "Oscar quite rightly says you had a slow pit stop, that's part of racing. That's not just a normal undercut. Norris had a difficult pit stop, and Piastri got through — that is racing. I think why people perhaps are finding it hard to get fully invested into this championship fight because of this nicey nicey fairness BS that we are currently watching." Meanwhile, top F1 journalist Nate Saunders wrote on social media that Piastri "has every right to be pissed off".

'Utterly bizarre';

https://www.nine.com.au/sport/motorsport/f1-news-2025-oscar-piastri-lando-norris-mclaren-team-order-radio-reaction-peter-windsor-matt-gallagher-20250908-p5mtc5.html


F1 conspiracy theory erupts as Oscar Piastri is 'ripped off' by own team - but the Aussie wins praise for his amazing response
Piastri clearly wasn't happy. 'We said that a slow pit-stop was part of racing, so I don't really get what changed here – but I will do it,' he grumbled over the team radio.
8 September 2025
IAN CHADBAND FOR AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
MailOnline

Fans were also left fuming, accusing McLaren of conspiring to elevate Norris over Piastri. 'When will McLaren simply ask Oscar to hand Norris the championship?' one asked on social media. 'Any other sport it would have been match fixing. Since when do you rig the result?' questioned another.

Several fans likened the incident to match fixing, with another one raging on social media: 'Manufactured results. Sometimes you have bad luck, sometimes good luck. Let the drivers fight it out on the track. It's basically match fixing telling the drivers what position they should finish in.'

'So glad the rest of the teams are now laughing at the obvious favouritism, McLaren are a joke,' fumed another fan. 'At least Oscar can say he has won every single point on pure skill alone. Unlike Lando who will forever know he had his points given to him on a silver platter,' posted another.

‘McLaren are a joke';

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-15075577/F1-conspiracy-theory-Oscar-Piastri-team-orders-McLaren-Lando-Norris-pit-stop-Italian-Grand-Prix-Monza.html


McLaren's team orders make an appalling mockery of F1 racing
Max Verstappen’s wry chuckle said it all
September 08, 2025
Kevin Garside
i News

Oscar Piastri was right, a slow pit stop is part of racing. Manipulation of results ought not to be, however, and McLaren’s instinct to do right by Lando Norris did an appalling wrong to the sport and to his team-mate. McLaren’s decision to swap the positions of their drivers was intended to compensate Norris for the bad luck he suffered during a slow pit stop late in the race caused by a misfiring wheel gun.

Whilst Norris was down for several seconds, Piastri, stationary for just 1.9 seconds, made up the deficit to his team-mate to claim second place. What was looking like a three-point loss to Norris before the stops suddenly became a three-point gain. Had the positions stood, Piastri would have extended his championship lead to 37 points. Instead he goes to Baku next week with a lead of 31 points.

Verstappen gave a wry chuckle when he was told by his pit wall of the swap. “Ha, just because he had a slow stop?” Verstappen’s reaction echoed about the paddock, a sense of incredulity that a team should want to interfere with the laws of nature in this way. Michael Schumacher needed no help from Rubens Barrichello to establish himself as an all-time great, yet received it at the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix when the Ferrari hierarchy ordered the Brazilian to give way on the final lap to hand the championship leader victory.

‘An appalling mockery of F1 racing’;

https://inews.co.uk/sport/formula-one/mclaren-team-orders-f1-3904344?ITO=newsnow


Oscar Piastri Radio Message Speaks Volumes After Controversial McLaren Call Costs Him at Monza
McLaren's decision cut Oscar Piastri's championship lead...
8 Sep 2025
Tom Jenkins
SPORTbible

Oscar Piastri couldn't hide his frustration over team radio after he was ordered to swap positions with championship rival Lando Norris at the Italian Grand Prix. "I mean, we said that a slow pitstop was part of racing, so I don't really get what's changed here, but if you really want me to do it, I'll do it," the 24-year-old said. "A bit of a tough one," he added following the race. "Once the rear calmed down a bit then it was all right. Bit lively through the race. Thanks for the effort. Not the easiest of weekends. Yeah."

McLaren's decision to force Piastri to relinquish the position in a championship fight has received huge amounts of criticism, with even race winner Max Verstappen baffled. "Ha! Just because he had a slow stop?" Verstappen said over team radio after hearing the news. The result cuts Piastri's lead to 31 points, however, a second place finish would have put him 37 points ahead of his teammate.

‘Oscar Piastri couldn't hide his frustration’;

https://www.sportbible.com/f1/oscar-piastri-lando-norris-radio-monza-588179-20250908


Team Orders Row: Did McLaren Manipulate Monza’s Podium?
Alex Albuquerque
September 8, 2025
Fastest Lap

David Coulthard calls out McLaren over Monza swap: “It felt like the result was manipulated” Coulthard, speaking on Channel 4, didn’t mince words. He acknowledged McLaren’s logic — the team believed Norris had earned track position before their own error flipped it — but didn’t love the optics.

In his view, a rare fumble in the box is part of racing’s rough edges, just like engines blowing or elbows-out duels. Restoring a pre-stop order felt, to him, like shaping the result rather than letting it breathe. “I get why they did it,” the former McLaren driver said, pointing to the team’s clear focus on the Constructors’ Championship. “But it still feels like the result was manipulated, and that sits uncomfortably.”

“Manipulated”;

https://fastestlap.com/news/team-orders-row-did-mclaren-manipulate-monzas-podium/

[Fortitude]

‘We’re not idiots’: Lando Norris explains McLaren’s ‘fair team order strategy at Italian GP.
“Every situation is different, so I think it’s pretty stupid just to assume that kind of thing and just say that’s the precedent you set. We’re not idiots, and we have plans for different things.”
September 8, 2025
Sports Desk
Indian Express

The race also saw the decision-making of McLaren — who asked their drivers to swap places just a few laps before the end — being questioned for the rather controversial decision. McLaren ordered world championship leader Piastri to cede second place to Norris with four laps remaining after a slow pit stop had seen the Briton fall behind his team-mate.

“Today was not my fault. If I came flat out into my box and hit all my mechanics out of the way, I also don’t expect to get the position back, but today was out of my control. In the end, I don’t want it to win this way through getting given positions or anything like that, and the same thing with Oscar. We don’t want to lose or win like that, but we do what we think is correct as a team, no matter what you say or what your opinions are, and we stick to doing it our way,” Lando Norris added.

‘We’re not idiots’;

https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/motor-sport/lando-norris-piastri-explain-mclaren-team-strategy-italian-gp-10237802/


Damon Hill lands ‘give it back’ quip after McLaren’s Italian GP team orders
9 Sep 2025
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Damon Hill recalling his 1993 Italian Grand Prix win. In a race of attrition, Hill moved up to second at Monza when Michael Schumacher’s engine failed, and 26 laps later he was leading when his Williams teammate Alain Prost’s Renault engine also failed. Hill, who clinched his third win of the season, jokingly said on social media that he’s worried that he’ll have to give that win back to the Frenchman.

“In 1993 I won the Italian GP (in part ��) because Alain Prost’s Renault engine blew up,” Hill wrote. “I’m now worried Renault will ask me to give the result back to him! �� What do you make of McLaren’s policy of instructing a driver to sacrifice a guaranteed result in favour of his rival?”

Running a poll in his post, 61.8 per cent of Hill’s followers were ‘not happy’ with McLaren’s actions, while 17.8 per cent were ‘happy enough’ and 20.4 per cent were sitting on the fence. While Hill wasn’t the only one joking on social media about McLaren’s fairness, several posts pondering whether Piastri would have to crash if Norris did or if he would be sent out in Baku with faulty engine to make up for Norris’ Zandvoort retirement…

“Now worried Renault will ask me to give the result back to him!”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/damon-hill-lands-give-it-back-dig-after-mclarens-italian-gp-team-orders


Booed Norris denies team order was Papaya rules
SEPTEMBER 8, 2025
GrandPrix.com

On the podium, Norris was jeered despite moving a few points closer to Piastri in the title fight. “I don't know why”, he said. “I heard them. I hear the cheers louder than the boos, and that's the most important.”

Norris also dismissed the notion of special papaya rules benefitting him. “There are no papaya rules anymore”, he smiled to DAZN. "We never had them. The main thing is fairness.”

“We don't care what's been done in the past - we do what we think is right.” Asked how long McLaren's 'rules of engagement' document is, he replied: “One page - I don't think it's even one page.”

‘On the podium, Norris was jeered’;

https://www.grandprix.com/news/booed-norris-denies-team-order-was-papaya-rules.html


McLaren 'Broke Oscar Piastri Contract Clause' With Lando Norris Swap at Italian GP
McLaren swapped Piastri and Norris in the closing stages of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
8 Sep 2025
Ryan Smart
SPORTbible

McLaren's controversial decision to swap Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris during the Italian Grand Prix could yet have ramifications beyond this year's Drivers' Championship. Although Piastri was diplomatic post-race about McLaren's decision to swap him with Norris, his radio message at the time appeared to suggest he had his own doubts. The Australian told race engineer Tom Stallard: "We said that a slow pit stop was part of racing, so I don't really get what's changed here. But if you really want to do it, I'll do it."

Piastri signed a new long-term contract with McLaren at the beginning of 2025. Although contract details were not disclosed by McLaren - as a general rule, most other teams do likewise - 1997 F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve claimed in April that Piastri's deal contains a specific clause relating to the Drivers' Championship battle.

He told CardPlayer: "They cannot give Lando priority over Oscar because of the contract. He has a contract that protects him. As long as both drivers can win the championship, there won't be team orders unless there's something significantly big for the constructors' title or if one of them is having an issue in a race like last year." For now, though, it appears that there not be too much fallout heading into the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

‘Ramifications’;

https://www.sportbible.com/f1/oscar-piastri-lando-norris-clause-mclaren-italian-gp-635729-20250908


Why McLaren have gone too far with their boring nicey-nicey 'Papaya Rules' - and what's at risk if this farce continues, writes JONATHAN McEVOY
8 September 2025
JONATHAN MCEVOY
MailOnline

Lando Norris claimed that he did not know why the Tifosi booed him on the Monza podium. Which is either a case of wilful ignorance or extreme naivety.

It is clear from a distance as long as the Temple of Speed’s back straight that his finishing position, whatever else it might represent for good or bad, was a distortion of sport’s natural order.

“What's at risk if this farce continues?”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-15077351/McLaren-Lando-Norris-Oscar-Piastri-Papaya-Rules-Monza.html


Oscar Piastri Nine-Word Remark Not Broadcast on TV Emerges after Lando Norris Incident
After a controversial Italian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri made his feelings known.
8 Sep 2025
James Taylor
SPORTbible

Oscar Piastri's nine-word remark that was not broadcast on TV has emerged after the incident involving Lando Norris at the Italian Grand Prix.

In the post-race press conference, Piastri was asked about McLaren's decision to enforce team orders. He replied: “I think the radio call kind of says enough. I’m sure we’ll discuss it again”.

‘Oscar Piastri Nine-Word Remark’;

https://www.sportbible.com/f1/oscar-piastri-lando-norris-mclaren-italian-grand-prix-350675-20250908

[Fortitude]

Wolff Warns McLaren: Monza Team Orders Will Haunt You.
The line that will follow McLaren into the flyaways: “You set a precedent that is very difficult to undo.”
8 Sep 2025
Alex Albuquerque
Fastest Lap

Toto Wolff warns McLaren: Monza team orders set a template that’s hard to roll back. One sticky wheel nut, one calm radio call, and a championship fight nudged onto a knife-edge. McLaren’s decision at Monza to instruct Oscar Piastri to hand back position to Lando Norris after a slow stop has already become the weekend’s most argued moment, and Toto Wolff didn’t miss the significance.

Norris had been ahead of his teammate and chasing Max Verstappen for second when a sluggish front-left cost him track position. McLaren stepped in. Piastri was told to move aside — a repeat of last year’s Hungary logic — and after a brief pushback, he did. Later, the Australian called it a fair request given Norris lost out through no fault of his own. Fair? Many will nod along. Simple? Not even close.

“There’s no right and no wrong,” Wolff said at Monza, before landing the line that will follow McLaren into the flyaways: “You set a precedent that is very difficult to undo.” Wolff knows this world better than anyone — and also knows how badly it can burn. He lived the Hamilton–Rosberg civil war up close, a political thresher that churned through 2016. He doesn’t see that playing out at Woking. “We had two very different animals back then,” he said, contrasting his pair’s all-out, take-no-prisoners mentality with McLaren’s calmer dynamic.

‘Monza Team Orders Will Haunt You’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/wolff-warns-mclaren-monza-team-orders-will-haunt-you/


“Very good Kimi, get them!”: Wolff’s unheard mid-race encouragement to Antonelli
8th September 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

Antonelli made his pass on Tsunoda after the Red Bull driver briefly fell out of range of the cars ahead. Wolff and race engineer Peter Bonnington praised his move.
Lap: 18/53 ANT: 1’23.979
Bonnington Five ahead and behind. Overtake still available.
He passes Tsunoda
Bonnington Overtake to defend. Nice work Kimi, so gap 1.0 behind, you’ve got 1.8 ahead, so let’s get the brakes under control, let’s chase Alonso, put Bortoleto down.
Bonnington Gap 1.9 ahead, 0.8 behind. Alonso, Bortoletto doing 24.2 ahead of them Lewis, 23.7.
Lap: 19/53 ANT: 1’23.940
Wolff Very good Kimi, get them.
Bonnington Bearman has pitted, currently 2.8 safe to him. Gap 1.7 ahead, 1.4 behind.
Lap: 20/53 ANT: 1’23.746
Bonnington Tsunoda in. Just keep your head down Kimi, let’s have the pace you’ve got.
Lap: 21/53 ANT: 1’23.688
Bonnington It’s very low deg. Target lap on Plan A, so still Plan A target lap.
Lap: 22/53 ANT: 1’23.295
Antonelli Update on pace.
Bonnington Stand by, waiting for Alonso to complete. All those cars that have pitted are sat right on our pit window. Main loss last lap was turn eight, min speed, that’s to George. George doing 23.4.

“Very good Kimi, get them!”;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/09/08/very-good-kimi-get-them-wolffs-unheard-mid-race-encouragement-to-antonelli/


Toto Wolff delivers stinging ‘underwhelming’ Kimi Antonelli Italian GP assessment
8 Sep 2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff still has faith in Kimi Antonelli, but gave a damning assessment of his performance at Monza. Wolff was not impressed. “Underwhelming this weekend, underwhelming,” he told PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher and other media outlets of Antonelli’s performance. “He can’t put the car in the gravel bed and then to expect to be there. All of the race was underwhelming.

“Doesn’t change anything on my support and confidence in his future, because I believe he’s going to be very, very, very good. But, today was underwhelming.” Put to him that Antonelli seems to be struggling for a clean weekend, Wolff replied: “I think a clean weekend also means almost, not to carry too much trauma of previous mistakes into the next session or into the next weekend, because that is luggage.’

“You’re not going to attack the corner hard if you’ve been off there before and it finished your session, or maybe you’re not attacking a driver that should not be in your way, like Gasly, because we had this situation with Leclerc. I mean, Kimi shouldn’t lose even a second with Gasly.”

“That is luggage”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/toto-wolff-kimi-antonelli-underwhelming-italian-grand-prix


Mercedes boss Wolff issues ‘silly’ verdict after Verstappen destroys field at Monza
Wolff says Mercedes must improve after Verstappen exposed their weaknesses in Italian GP
7 September 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

Toto Wolff left Monza in no doubt about the scale of the challenge facing Mercedes after watching Max Verstappen dominate the 2025 Italian Grand Prix. While the Red Bull driver cruised to a near-20-second victory over Lando Norris, Mercedes struggled for competitiveness, leaving Wolff to brand the result “frustrating” and acknowledge that his team simply did not have the pace to fight at the front.

“Today, one driver made everyone else look silly,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1, reflecting on Verstappen’s performance. “Overall, we weren’t competitive over the weekend. A fifth and an eighth place are absolutely not satisfactory. I don’t think, with our current set-up, we have a car that we can consistently drive onto the podium.”

“Today, one driver made everyone else look silly”;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-2025-toto-wolff-italian-gp-silly-reaction-mercedes-verstappen-monza/


Red Bull facing ‘Mount Everest’ F1 engine challenge in Wolff warning
9 Sep 2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Red Bull has not sought out a new supplier. Instead, it is building its own engine, in partnership with Ford. The last time Formula 1 revamped its engine regulations, Mercedes emerged as the class of the field. Between 2014-21, the team went on a run of eight straight Constructors’ title wins, an achievement never before seen in Formula 1.

The man at the helm of that success, Toto Wolff, suggests Red Bull has its work cut out as it embarks on its expanded effort. “This project is like climbing Mount Everest,” said Wolff about Red Bull Powertrains, when speaking with De Telegraaf.

“They are taking on manufacturers with decades of experience. But everyone joked when Red Bull entered the sport too. It was like an energy drink manufacturer taking on Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren. Well, they’ve won quite a lot. But given the complexity of the engines, I do think it will be a huge challenge for them.”

‘Mount Everest’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/toto-wolff-red-bull-f1-engine-project-huge-challenge

[Fortitude]

Red Bull told Max Verstappen’s Monza win proves ‘fundamental’ change since sacking Christian Horner.
Laurent Mekies gives Red Bull the engineering expertise they were ‘lacking’ since Adrian Newey left.
9 September 2025
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Gary Anderson even thinks Verstappen’s Italian GP win at Monza last Sunday has proven the fundamental change that Mekies replacing Horner has offered Red Bull. He claims Mekies is now able to plug the technical gap that Adrian Newey created when he left Red Bull in 2024. Anderson told The Telegraph: “I believe something has changed fundamentally at the team since Christian Horner departed and Laurent Mekies arrived.”

“Horner spoke a good game when it came to engineering, but he was not an engineer – Mekies is. He appears to be driving the team like Andrea Stella is at McLaren, with a sound engineering background and a focus on facts. It is a whole different world for the team because the man at the top can help to understand why the car was quick and not just celebrate that it was quick. Red Bull had been lacking in this area since Adrian Newey left last year.”

“It will be interesting to see if they can keep this thought pattern and direction going because last year, and earlier this year, they seemed to be lost and unable to understand their car. This win, and the manner of it, suggests they are on the road to changing that.”

“Mekies is now able to plug the technical gap that Adrian Newey created”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/red-bull-told-max-verstappens-monza-win-proves-fundamental-change-since-sacking-christian-horner/


George Russell Struggles to 'Comprehend' Max Verstappen's Win at Monza
September 10, 2025
Saajan Jogia Newsweek
The Fresno Bee

McLaren has been delivering superior performances on most race weekends, but the race at Monza marked a significant difference in terms of the competitive order as Verstappen crossed the finish line nearly 20 seconds before Norris, leading Russell to highlight the significant shift in performance. Speaking to the media, he said:

"It's difficult to understand the sport at the moment. When you look at Verstappen finishing 40 seconds off the win in Hungary and then winning by 20 seconds here, I struggle to comprehend that swing of performance.”

"We finished 12 seconds behind McLaren in a normal race. That's a pretty successful race. Ferrari is strong right now, and Saturdays are really close as well. So one-tenth faster or one-tenth slower on Saturday can be one or two positions on a Sunday."

“I struggle to comprehend that swing of performance”;

https://www.fresnobee.com/sports/article312058236.html#storylink=mainstage_card


Verstappen's 'super cool' handling of Norris at Monza leaves Schumacher impressed
11 Sep 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Ralf Schumacher shared his thoughts on the opening-lap battle at the Italian Grand Prix between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. The only moment Verstappen’s dominant win at Monza last weekend was even slightly in question came in the opening two laps, when he and Lando Norris engaged in a battle for the lead, ultimately claimed by the Red Bull driver.

Verstappen, who had started from pole, ran wide at the first chicane, cutting it and rejoining the track still ahead of the Brit, who complained over the radio about being forced onto the grass at high speed on the straight. The Austrian team then instructed the Dutchman to give the position back to his rival to avoid a penalty, which Verstappen did. On lap four, after exiting the final corner very closely, Verstappen drew alongside Norris on the outside into Turn 1, overtaking him and reclaiming the race lead.

As a guest on Sky Deutschland’s Backstage Boxengasse podcast, Ralf Schumacher shared his thoughts on the duel: ''It was completely fine that he kept the position. I knew he was going to try. He’s bold enough, but he also realized, okay, that was maybe a bit too much.''
''Especially the approach—he kind of pushed Norris aside there. Of course, the race control and the stewards see that. And I think he handled it like a true world champion, didn’t make a fuss, and took the position back.''

‘Verstappen's 'super cool' handling of Norris’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/verstappens-super-cool-handling-of-norris-at-monza-leaves-schumacher-impressed


McLaren’s ‘big secret’ was exposed at Monza and it explains Red Bull’s conspiracy theories
10 September 2025
Rory Mitchell
F1 Oversteer

Red Bull made key learnings at Zandvoort that enabled them to exploit their car’s potential at Monza, while team principal Laurent Mekies was praised for his ‘common sense’ approach by Verstappen. McLaren’s Lando Norris finished 19 seconds behind Verstappen and while much of that could be down to their strategy, which was waiting for a safety car, it also highlighted the main strength of their car.

Nelson Piquet Jr believes Monza exposed the ‘big secret’ of McLaren’s MCL39 when speaking on the Pelas Pistas, which perhaps put some of Red Bull’s conspiracy theories into perspective. “We never expected that, right? Red Bull is doing so well. It was clear that the Red Bull car was better this weekend, but it’s a totally different configuration from the other tracks. Just straights, there are a few long radius curves, so it’s a very atypical track,” said Piquet Jr.

“I think the whole issue is that when you get into a more technical part, with these tracks like Austria and more traditional tracks that heat up the tyres a lot, everyone has a problem heating up the tyres. That’s why there were stories of water inside the tyre to try and cool so it lasts longer. Monza isn’t a track that heats up the tyres very much, so this is the advantage that McLaren has. The big secret is that they can push harder without overheating the tyres, and Monza doesn’t have it, that’s why it was better for Red Bull.”

‘McLaren’s ‘big secret’ was exposed’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/mclarens-big-secret-was-exposed-at-monza-and-it-explains-red-bulls-conspiracy-theories/


Red Bull boss sets damning 2026 expectation: 'We don’t expect to be winning'
Laurent Mekies is confident in Red Bull's power unit project, but maintains the team is not "delusional" ahead of the 2026 F1 season.
11 September 2025
Samuel Coop
RacingNews365

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies does not expect to be "winning" next F1 season, claiming the Milton Keynes-based squad is not "delusional" about the size of the task ahead of it. Nonetheless, Mekies insists Red Bull knows how to tackle the monumental task facing it, stating the team has all it needs in place to eventually succeed.

"It is indeed an Everest, but we are facing it the Red Bull way," he told Autosprint. "Our company knows how to climb them. We have everything we need to cover the path as quickly as possible, though we are not delusional: we don’t expect to be winning already in 2026"

The 48-year-old is, however, adamant that there is no timeframe for the team to have achieved further success in F1 by. "Only Red Bull in modern times has managed to build a team from scratch and win world titles, and only Red Bull could build a power unit independently," the Frenchman added. "I mean, there is no deadline, but we are capable of anything."

"It is indeed an Everest… …Our company knows how to climb them”;

https://racingnews365.com/red-bull-boss-sets-damning-2026-expectation-we-dont-expect-to-be-winning


Why Max Verstappen alias Franz Hermann is no more
Franz Hermann left his mark on motorsport, but as Max Verstappen works towards his GT debut, there is good reason his popular alias will hang up his helmet.
10 September 2025
RacingNews365 Staff
RacingNews365

Not long ago, the motorsport community was taken by surprise as an unfamiliar driver, Franz Hermann, set a blistering track record on the Nurburgring Nordschleife, widely considered the world's most challenging circuit. The intrigue surrounding this mysterious German driver was palpable. Hermann, as it turned out, was none other than Max Verstappen.

The four-time F1 drivers' champion was testing his skills in a Ferrari 296 GT3. Despite initial intentions to cloak his identity, the secret didn't survive long. Racing fans were quick to uncover the truth behind the alias. As Verstappen advances towards obtaining a Grade A Permit for the Nordschleife, the conditions necessitate him racing under his real name.

This requirement means that should he decide to register for any official racing events, he will have to compete as himself, thereby retiring Franz Hermann from the racing scene. Yet, should Verstappen decide one day to explore another racing class, the story of Franz Hermann might experience an unexpected revival.

‘Franz Hermann, set a blistering track record on the Nurburgring Nordschleife’;

https://racingnews365.com/why-max-verstappen-alias-franz-hermann-is-no-more


The Legend of Franz Hermann (Max Verstappen)
May 17, 2025
Perspective

@F1BastiPH; Verstappen’s alter ego is now my favorite driver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0-FynEnQ1I


The Many Victims of Max Verstappen
Jun 21, 2025
revved up

@laurenz4528: I wouldnt call them Victims, rather collateral damage, its not like he kills them on purpose, Max is just a force of nature, immovable object if you happen to be in its path.... You are done.... Nothing personal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbgwfvAdlwA

[Fortitude]

Luca di Montezemolo saddened by what he’s heard Fred Vasseur say about Ferrari.
Seeing Ferrari’s plight persist saddens former Scuderia chairman Luca di Montezemolo, who has now hit out at Vasseur for issuing bold declarations about title bids without the results to justify his claims. Di Montezemolo even feels Ferrari have “no leadership” under Vasseur.
12 September 2025
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Di Montezemolo told Sky Italia: “The thing that saddens me today is to see a Ferrari [team] that has no leader. There is no leadership and, above all, I see that they lack a strong, determined soul. Announcements are made that often create excessive expectations. First, we get the results and then we make the announcements.”

Di Montezemolo left his role as chairman of Ferrari back in 2014, but he is still yet to see the Scuderia add to the titles they won under his watch from 1974. Vasseur came close to taking the constructors’ title back to Maranello in 2024, but McLaren beat Ferrari by just 14 points. The 2024 season was supposed to act as a springboard for another title bid in 2025, aided by the arrival of Hamilton from Mercedes. But Leclerc scored Ferrari’s only pole position yet in 2025 in Hungary, and they are gaining from Red Bull and Mercedes being one-man teams.

Fighting for second place was not what Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur had in mind back after pre-season testing in Bahrain. The 57-year-old stated that both titles would be Ferrari’s objective in the 2025 F1 season, as the Scuderia have two drivers who “can do it” this term. But Vasseur has conceded the 2025 F1 constructors’ title to McLaren, who can win the title in Baku if they leave next week’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix with a 346-point lead over Ferrari. It will continue Ferrari’s wait to add to their last teams’ title in 2008, and drivers’ title in 2007.

‘Bold declarations about title bids without the results to justify his claims’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/luca-di-montezemolo-saddened-by-what-hes-heard-fred-vasseur-say-about-ferrari/


Ferrari believes Hamilton’s arrival helps Leclerc to his best level yet
10 Sep 2025
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Team principal Frederic Vasseur believes Charles Leclerc has improved in various aspects this season. Vasseur considers today’s Leclerc the best version so far, he explained on the Beyond the Grid podcast, and that can also be attributed to the arrival of Hamilton.

"Probably, yes [this is the best we've seen from Leclerc]. And clearly, I think this (Hamilton's arrival, ed.) helped also a little bit to release some pressure from Charles," he began.
"He did a very good job from the beginning of the season. I think Charles also improved in terms of approach, structure, he's more mature. I don't know if it's a part of the contribution of Lewis, but it's coming from the maturity of Charles."

‘Improved in various aspects this season’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/ferrari-believes-hamiltons-arrival-helps-leclerc-to-his-best-level-yet


Eddie Irvine says Lewis Hamilton hasn’t learned the most important lesson from Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari move
9 September 2025
Rory Mitchell
F1 Oversteer

Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari has so far not delivered on the hype that was generated throughout the pre-season, with the seven-time world champion yet to finish on the podium. It was a poor start to the second half of the season when Hamilton crashed out of the Dutch Grand Prix, then he was handed a five-place grid penalty for a yellow flag infringement at Ferrari’s home race in Monza.

Discussing why Hamilton has struggled to find his feet at Ferrari in an interview with Sky Sports F1, former driver Eddie Irvine thinks the seven-time world champion has not learned from what Michael Schumacher faced when he made the move in 1996. “There is always a price. Michael gave up a lot, probably two or three world championships to leave Benetton to go to Ferrari. In the first few years, nobody had any idea how bad it was at Ferrari,” said Irvine.

“Michael knew there was no point for him because he was so much better than everyone else, he just decided, ‘I’m going to go there’ and it was amazing. People forget it took him four years. He was always in the vicinity, but he was driving the wheels off the thing to be there. So it was very easy for it not to happen. I would love Verstappen to come to Ferrari, I hope he doesn’t leave it too late like Lewis did.”

‘Not learned from what Michael Schumacher faced when he made the move in 1996’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/eddie-irvine-says-lewis-hamilton-hasnt-learned-the-most-important-lesson-from-michael-schumachers-ferrari-move/


How Ferrari mechanics privately felt about Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc’s results at Monza
8 September 2025
Tyler Rowlinson
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari mechanics felt Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc produced the ‘maximum’ they could at Monza. Ferrari’s results move them 20 points clear of Mercedes in the constructors’ championship. But the Tifosi did not get to see their heroes stand on the podium as Max Verstappen claimed the win ahead of the McLarens.

But that did not seem to faze the Ferrari mechanics. Journalist Aaron Deckers noted that they felt Hamilton and Leclerc produced the ‘maximum’ they could in the SF-25 and that they could not do anymore. “Well, of course. It all looked a lot better, actually. Also the free practice on Friday, Saturday morning,” said Deckers via RacingNews365. “Only in qualifying they were suddenly, well, maybe a bit exaggerated, but they were actually beaten well by Verstappen and by the McLarens.’

“And in the race pace, they just really came up short. So it was mainly a bit of disappointment, especially from the Ferrari drivers. The team was still quite optimistic actually, as we just spoke with some mechanics and also within the team. There was a bit of feeling of, ‘OK, this was the maximum we could do, and yeah, what more could we do than that?’” Optimism was high in Maranello ahead of their home race as they believed that they could make a step up on home soil. ‘Everyone’ at Ferrari felt they could challenge McLaren at Monza, but no one dared to admit it. Ultimately, they would come up short…

‘Mainly a bit of disappointment’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/how-ferrari-mechanics-privately-felt-about-lewis-hamilton-and-charles-leclercs-results-at-monza/


Ferrari Eye Shock Hamilton Replacement With F1 Star on Radar
Lewis Hamilton has had a tough start to life at Ferrari.
10 Sep 2025
Marcus Chan
SPORTbible

Ferrari have reportedly identified their top target to replace Lewis Hamilton. At the start of the season, all eyes were fixated on seven-time Formula 1 world champion Hamilton after his high-profile move from Mercedes to Ferrari. However, the 40-year-old has so far struggled to perform at his best as he continues to adapt to his new surroundings. Currently, Hamilton is sixth in the standings with 117 points, 46 behind teammate Charles Leclerc.

As Hamilton's poor form continues, doubts over the Stevenage-born star's future in the sport have grown massively. Recently, it has been reported that Ferrari could look to McLaren when choosing Hamilton's successor. According to Mundo Deportivo journalist Fabio Marchi, the Scuderia are keeping a close eye on McLaren star and championship leader Oscar Piastri. He said on the Cortito y al Pie podcast: "The other day I spoke with an Italian journalist who was certain Ferrari is keeping a close watch on Piastri."

‘Ferrari have reportedly identified their top target’;

https://www.sportbible.com/f1/ferrari-lewis-hamilton-replacement-f1-news-840842-20250910

[Fortitude]

Rosberg to Hadjar: Reject Red Bull’s Poisoned Chalice Now.
“If I am Isack, I’m saying no,” the 2016 World Champion told Sky F1, stressing that a late-season move next to Verstappen can be a career booby trap. That seat is a benchmark from hell. You step in midstream, barely any setup history, up against a driver who can drive around the car’s quirks and is wired into the team — and you’re judged immediately.
September 14, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
Fastest Lap

It’s a warning born from a long, uncomfortable list. Red Bull’s second seat has dealt out harsh lessons for talented drivers in the Verstappen era. The RB21 is quick in the right window but a narrow one, and Verstappen has built the window around himself. Anyone arriving at short notice will be fighting the car, the clock and the comparisons. Jamie Chadwick, on pundit duty, agreed with the risk assessment — just not the practicality. In her view, if the boss calls, Hadjar can’t really say no.

She’d want to keep learning in the car he knows, especially with unfamiliar tracks like Las Vegas and Singapore still to come, but admits the word “no” carries limited currency in that situation. She also called it what it so often becomes at the wrong time: a poisoned chalice. Here’s the thing: Hadjar doesn’t need the chaos. He’s got momentum, he’s banked a signature result, and he’s earning the kind of trust that makes winter decisions easier, calmer and more deliberate. Racing Bulls have been clear they want the season to run its course.

Red Bull know better than anyone that yanking the wheel mid-season can spook a young driver and muddle the data. There’s also the Yuki question. Tsunoda’s form at the senior team is under the microscope, and that pressure doesn’t ease with every Verstappen win-or-bust weekend. But if Red Bull really want to evaluate options, they’ll get a far cleaner read by waiting for a reset — new parts, new tyres, new baseline, new calendar. Not by throwing a rookie into the hottest seat in the sport with eight races and no testing.

‘That seat is a benchmark from hell’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/rosberg-to-hadjar-reject-red-bulls-poisoned-chalice-now/


Podium To Probation: FIA Warns Hadjar After Monza Shortcut
06 Sep 2025
Alex Albuquerque
Fastest Lap

The glow of Zandvoort didn’t last long. Seven days after banking his first Formula 1 podium, Isack Hadjar’s Italian Grand Prix weekend veered off script with a formal warning from the FIA for failing to follow the race director’s instructions — for the second time in Monza. The flashpoint came in final practice. Hadjar, in the Racing Bulls RB01, missed Turn 4 and cut to the right of the gravel at the second chicane without using the prescribed escape road at Turns 4/5.

That shortcut is one of Monza’s most rigidly policed procedures, spelled out in the race director’s event notes. Stewards called in Car 6, reviewed footage and team radio, and accepted Hadjar’s account that it happened at low speed on an out-lap after a left-front lock-up while he was warming tyres. With no cars nearby and no danger created, the panel opted against a sporting penalty — but they didn’t mince words about the pattern.

“Although this is the driver’s second offence of such nature during the weekend and repeat offences regularly warrant more severe penalties,” the stewards wrote, they would stop short of escalating this time. The sting in the tail: the team and driver were told a similar misstep before the chequered flag would “draw a more severe penalty.”

‘The glow of Zandvoort didn’t last long’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/podium-to-probation-fia-warns-hadjar-after-monza-shortcut/


Isack Hadjar slams Carlos Sainz after Monza qualifying clash
The Racing Bulls rookie accused Williams driver Carlos Sainz of disrupting his rhythm and costing him a chance at Q2
7 September 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

The 2025 Italian Grand Prix qualifying session delivered its usual share of drama, but one of the most heated storylines came not at the sharp end of the grid, but in the mid-pack. Isack Hadjar, fresh from his maiden Formula 1 podium at Zandvoort, endured a miserable Saturday at Monza after being eliminated in Q1. The French rookie accused Carlos Sainz of “playing around” on their out-laps, disrupting his tyre preparation and contributing to his early exit.

“We actually were really fast, the car was really good,” Hadjar said, visibly exasperated. “I mean the out-lap was a mess with Carlos, he was just playing around a lot to then let me by. I don’t know why we even went out on track in the first place on new tyres to just cruise around.”

Hadjar admitted he made an error on his flying lap, but was adamant the situation with Sainz had left him unsettled at a critical moment. “It’s my first mistake in quali in a while, so it happens,” Hadjar added. “I was on new tyres, Carlos was on used. He was playing around, trying to make my lap difficult on my out-lap and then not really letting me by properly. I just don’t know what he was doing.”

‘Isack Hadjar slams Carlos Sainz’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-italian-gp-2025-hadjar-sainz-qualifying-clash/


Isack Hadjar takes aim at ‘super annoying’ Carlos Sainz after F1 career first
6 Sep 2025
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

The French-Algerian rookie cut a frustrated figure after the session, with Hadjar heard expressing his annoyance over team radio having suffered a wide moment at Lesmo 2 on his final lap. Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com, Hadjar – who confirmed that he is set to take an engine penalty for Sunday’s race – pointed the finger at Sainz for compromising his outlap.

Hadjar told PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher and other publications at Monza: “He was just super annoying on the outlap. He was not going to push anyway. “I don’t know why he was fighting so hard for track position and then just let me by on my lap, so I compromised the outlap for nothing. And later on, I made a mistake. But honestly, all of that doesn’t matter because I’m starting last tomorrow.”

‘Super annoying’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/carlos-sainz-isack-hadjar-liam-lawson-annoying


What has triggered the latest spat between Racing Bulls and Williams at the F1 Italian GP
07 Sep 2025
Fleur Rogerson
WilliamsF1 Supporters

“Why does Sainz have to be so annoying? Who the hell does an out-lap, a warm-up? I mean, what was he doing?”, Hadjar said on the radio. “He’s just playing around to just let me by like s**t.” The issue ultimately was the run plan that Williams had chosen to use, with Sainz being put through an out-lap and a warm-up lap prior to attempting a timed run.

The peculiar run plan garnered confusion from Hadjar even after the session. “He was just super annoying on the out-lap,” Hadjar told told media including Motorsport Week. “He was not going to push anyway, so I don’t know why he was fighting so hard for track position and to then just let me buy on my lap.So I’m compromised on the out-lap for nothing, and yeah, later on I made a mistake.”

‘The latest spat’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/09/07/what-has-triggered-the-latest-spat-between-racing-bulls-and-williams-at-f1-italian-gp/


Isack Hadjar issues sombre assessment ahead of Azerbaijan GP
13 Sept 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Isack Hadjar has weighed in on what to expect ahead of the upcoming Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Racing Bulls driver has cast a gloomy verdict on his team’s chances at the Baku street race. “I think it’s strong on every layout — it’s just a quick car. But on some surfaces, with weird tarmac or heavy graining, we’ve struggled. In Bahrain and Canada, for example, we were nowhere. So yes, there will be tougher weekends. Baku will be very challenging,” Hadjar said to GPblog.

Speaking with GPblog during the Italian Grand Prix, he stated: “The hardest thing is not to think about it too much. Whether it’s a good result or a bad one, you put it behind you, get back in the car and do your job. It’s actually very easy.”

Hadjar indeed has proven to be a driver with resilience – considering the sort of start he had to his Formula 1 career. The former F2 driver crashed on the formation lap of the season opener in Australia and has since risen from the lows of the incident to claim his first F1 podium finish for the Racing Bulls outfit.

‘Gloomy verdict’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/isack-hadjar-issues-sombre-assessment-ahead-of-azerbaijan-gp

[Fortitude]

‘It’s a complete change’ – Vasseur suggests Ferrari ‘underestimated’ the factors around Hamilton’s move.
Vasseur, though, is not concerned, underlining the various factors Hamilton has been getting used to in an appearance on F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast.
15 Sep 2025
Formula One - Official Site

“I don’t know if we underestimated the importance of the change,” said Vasseur. “Probably, because he spent 10 years at McLaren, then 12 with Mercedes, but it was a kind of continuity – two teams based in the UK with the same engine, same environment.”

“[Joining Ferrari] is a complete change for him, in his life, the culture of the team and everything. To do it in three test days in the winter period is quite difficult – and I think also the expectation was huge. We have to put everything in place, and it’s taking time. We have to also manage expectations and manage the noise around the team.”

“If we are not able to put everything together from the preparation of the weekend, the adaptation to the simulator, blah, blah, blah, until Sunday, you can miss one-tenth there or one-tenth there. This is making a huge difference in terms of pure results.”

“It’s taking time”;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/its-a-complete-change-vasseur-suggests-ferrari-underestimated-the-factors.32nvPi7un6DUU0UiBAZaJX


Schumacher’s Stark Warning: Hamilton’s Ferrari Honeymoon Is Over
Alex Albuquerque
September 14, 2025
14 Sep 2025
Fastest Lap

Lewis Hamilton got through Monza without tripping over himself. That’s the good news. The bad news, according to Ralf Schumacher, is that Ferrari’s new signing is still making mistakes that don’t belong on a driver of his experience — and they’re starting to cost. Hamilton arrived in Italy carrying a five-place grid penalty for failing to slow under double yellows on the formation run to the grid at Zandvoort. Zandvoort was where it unravelled. Hamilton twice looped the car and then lost it for good after putting a wheel on the painted white line into Turn 3 in mixed conditions.

Post race, the stewards added that penalty for the Monza weekend. For Schumacher, watching on for Sky Deutschland, that’s a pattern Ferrari can’t afford. “He needs to be a bit more professional,” Schumacher said. “With his experience, that really shouldn’t happen. He has to be careful with things like that so the fans continue to support him — that could also annoy the Tifosi.”

Schumacher’s broader point is hard to argue. Before the summer shut off, Hamilton’s season sagged under two bruising rounds: back to back Q1 eliminations at Spa across sprint qualifying and the main session, followed by a recovery drive to seventh; then Hungary, where he fell in Q2 and ended up a lap down and out of the points after a skirmish and an off while dicing with Max Verstappen. Hamilton didn’t sugarcoat it, calling himself “useless, absolutely useless” and joking “they probably need to change driver” given Ferrari’s one lap form.

‘Honeymoon Is Over’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/schumachers-stark-warning-hamiltons-ferrari-honeymoon-is-over/


'Lonely' Vasseur's Ferrari slammed as 'soulless' by Scuderia icon
15 Sep 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Former Ferrari President Luca Di Montezemola believes the Scuderia currently lacks 'soul' and 'stability'. Ferrari's former President, Di Montezemolo, has issued his verdict on the team's current form and believes the lack of sporting achievements is a reflection of the Scuderia's internal state. "Today there is no leadership," he said in an interview with La Gazzetta Dello Sport, "and above all there is a lack of soul.”

"I don't know Vasseur and I don't criticise him but I see a lonely man. Too many changes, we need stability in the team." These comments come after Ferrari's 2024 promise shown by nearly snatching the Constructors' championship from McLaren was unable to be carried over into 2025.

“Lack of soul”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/scuderia-icon-issues-scathing-criticism-of-soulless-ferrari


Ferrari's Leadership Under Fire Amid Winless Season
September 14, 2025
Nelson Espinal Newsweek
The News Tribune, Washington

Former Ferrari leader Luca di Montezemolo called out the current race team's leadership during their winless campaign. Despite entering the season with much hype and anticipation, the Scuderia has failed to deliver a race win.

While the team appears united around Vasseur, Di Montezemolo has expressed concerns about the current decision-makers, given the run of disappointing results. "I saw the beautiful images of the fans and then a team that, despite so many announcements on the eve of the race, has not won a single race to date," he told Sky Italia. "And even if it had won a race, Ferrari after so many years must win the World Championship.”

"I think today's Ferrari has even more responsibility towards them. And even if it had won a race, Ferrari after so many years must win the World Championship. The thing I regret today is seeing a Ferrari that has no leader, there is no leadership and above all I see that it lacks a strong, determined soul. Announcements are made that often create excessive expectations. First, we do the results and then we make the announcements."

“Lacks a strong, determined soul”;

https://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/article312104607.html#storylink=mainstage_card


'It was a very sad weekend for Ferrari fans", F1 insider claims
15 Sep 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Dutch F1 pundit Robert Doornbos shared his thoughts over Ferrari’s performance in the Monza home race weekend. Analyzing Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton’s fourth and sixth-place finishes in Italy on The Pit Talk podcast, the former Red Bull driver said: ''There's a lot of pressure on Ferrari. And coming to their home event, they have basically two home races. They have Imola, but Monza is the real one, and they know it, so they have to deliver for the Tifosi.''

''It was a very sad weekend for Ferrari fans. The whole season hasn't been great, to be honest, but I think the Dutch Grand Prix was a definite low, with Lewis Hamilton making a driver error, the seven-time world champion going off on his own and destroying the car. I mean, that's not the Lewis we all like to see, and particularly not Ferrari.' 'Then there was also Charles Leclerc, who crashed out of the race, basically, not to his own mistake, but they just didn't have it.''

''He then added: ''I think coming in Monza, in the Temple of Speed, where they had to show their true pace. They had the set -up, the balance, the speed, and in qualifying it looked reasonably promising with a third place for Charles. Then come the race, they didn't really have the speed anymore.' 'In the opening laps it looks exciting and then they drop back. So fourth and sixth, it's better than crashing out with two cars, for sure. But it's still not where Ferrari wants to be.''

“They have to deliver for the Tifosi'';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/f1-insider-claims-italian-gp-was-a-very-sad-weekend-for-ferrari-fans


Hamilton convinced Ferrari struggles ‘preparing us for better days’
15/09/2025
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Hamilton conceded that the transition has not gone entirely as planned, citing both technical and cultural hurdles. While he had a year to prepare for his move to Maranello following the bombshell announcement in February 2024, the F1 veteran says there were aspects of the change that caught everyone off guard.

“I don’t remember every single season, to be honest, so I don’t really want to compare it to others, but I'm sure there have been plenty of seasons that have felt difficult,” Hamilton explained in Monza last time out. “I remember 2009 was difficult; I remember 2010, 2011 wasn’t great, and 2012 was a pivotal moment for me, and obviously 2022 and 2023, so there’s been plenty of others that were just different. But I was in a different place in my life.”

“There’s been a lot of adjustment, both from my side and the team’s side. They’ve really moved heaven and earth to accommodate me,” Hamilton said, acknowledging the team’s commitment to his integration. “Obviously, there are cultural differences,” the Briton admitted. “Fred made a comment that perhaps they underestimated me joining the team and the year we’ve been faced with in terms of the problems with the car, so it's a combination of all those things. But honestly, the harder it is, the better it can make you. This year has been tough for everyone in the team, but it has prepared us for better days.”

‘Preparing us for better days’;

https://f1i.com/news/548467-hamilton-convinced-ferrari-struggles-preparing-us-for-better-days.html

[Fortitude]

Ferrari have now removed photos of one prominent Fred Vasseur critic from their F1 museum.
Ferrari are no longer displaying Luca di Montezemolo photos in their museum. Luca di Montezemolo is one of the most significant figures in Ferrari’s history. Enzo Ferrari invited him to be his assistant and made him the F1 team sporting director.
16 September 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

After overseeing two titles for Niki Lauda in that role (F1 team sporting director), Luca di later became the Ferrari president. Together with Jean Todt, he acquired Michael Schumacher and turned them into a historically dominant force – they won five titles in a row at the start of the century, an unprecedented feat that hasn’t been replicated since.

Di Montezemolo was part of the set-up until 2014, when he was replaced by Sergio Marchionne. But despite his contribution to the team’s success, Gazzetta dello Sport say there are no longer any pictures of him on display at their Maranello museum. The relationship between the 78-year-old and his past employers is described as ‘broken’. When filming a recent documentary about his career, he wasn’t allowed to shoot any footage at the factory.

Asked about the dispute, he said: “I also say it in the film: jealousy of the past is a bad thing.” It’s unclear whether or not Di Montezemolo’s omission has anything to do with his strong criticism of Fred Vasseur. But one suspects it has contributed. In an interview earlier this month, Di Montezemolo said Ferrari had ‘no leader’. He feels they lack a ‘strong, determined soul’. And during the summer, Di Montezemolo ruled out Lewis Hamilton winning the title for the Scuderia. Ferrari will not appreciate their former president dialling up the already-intense pressure.

‘No longer displaying Luca di Montezemolo photos’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-have-now-removed-photos-of-one-prominent-fred-vasseur-critic-from-their-f1-museum/


Ferrari jealous of the past says Montezemolo.
SEPTEMBER 15, 2025
GrandPrix.com

Former Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has accused the fabled Maranello marque of trying to erase him from its history. Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport while promoting a new documentary about his life, the 78-year-old lamented that Ferrari has distanced itself from his ultra-successful era of leadership.

There's something broken that still hasn't been mended between you and Ferrari, the interviewer suggested, noting that Montezemolo was not permitted to film at Maranello and that photographs of him have disappeared from the company museum. I also say it in the film - jealousy of the past is a bad thing, Montezemolo replied.

Today there's no leadership and, above all, there's no soul, he said. "I don't know (Frederic) Vasseur and I don't criticise him, but I see a lonely man. Too many changes - the team needs stability. I remember when Fiat wanted me to fire Todt, but I refused. I said, 'If he leaves, I'll leave too.' Ferrari has not responded to Montezemolo's latest remarks.

‘Tying to erase him from its history’;

https://www.grandprix.com/news/ferrari-jealous-of-the-past-says-montezemolo.html


Ferrari lacks leadership, says Montezemolo
14/09/2025
GrandPrix.com

Di Montezemolo was personally appointed sporting director by Enzo Ferrari in 1974, subsequently overseeing Niki Lauda's title wins in 1975 and 1977. Though he headed off to lead various factions of the Fiat empire he returned to Maranello in 1991 as president of Ferrari, which was still seeking to recover following the death of its founder in 1988. As well as putting the road car division back on its feet, Montezemolo gradually put in place the various factors that would lead to the Scuderia's domination of the sport in the early to mid-2000s.

Having led such a full and colourful life it is only natural that, like so many others, a documentary has been put together and it was at the premiere of Luca: Seeing Red, that the 78-year-old expressed his concern for the team that clearly remains one of the loves of his life. "It's sad to see a Ferrari without a leader," he said. "It lacks a strong, determined soul. One of the things I learned at Ferrari, and that I've always tried to apply, is that when you win, you have to work even harder,"

He continued. "Today, when we are not winning, this is even more true. It is crucial to choose the right people," he insisted, "in my day, I had highly valuable collaborators, number ones and number twos." The Italian is particularly concerned at the numerous management changes over the years, believing that stability at all levels is vital. He particularly feels that losing Mattia Binotto - now with Sauber - was a mistake.

"It's sad to see a Ferrari without a leader";

https://www.pitpass.com/81061/Ferrari-lacks-leadership-says-Montezemolo


Stop Promising, Start Winning: Montezemolo’s Ferrari Ultimatum
September 14, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
Fastest Lap

Luca di Montezemolo throws down gauntlet: “Ferrari has no leader — results first, announcements later” The banners and smoke flares were back in force. The Tifosi flooded Milan’s “Drive to Monza” and then the Autodromo itself, singing for a team that once made winning feel inevitable. What they got was a fourth for Charles Leclerc, a sixth for Lewis Hamilton, and the unmistakable sound of a Ferrari season drifting off-key.

Luca di Montezemolo, who presided over the most ruthless stretch of Ferrari dominance in modern Formula 1, didn’t dance around it. He called it what he thinks it is — an absence of leadership. “I saw the beautiful images of the fans and then a team that, despite so many announcements on the eve of the race, has not won a single race to date,” he told Sky Italia. “Even if it had won a race, Ferrari after so many years must win the World Championship. Ferrari has not even reached the last race for many years with a driver who can win.”

Di Montezemolo’s words cut because of the history behind them. He was the figurehead when Michael Schumacher rattled off five straight titles from 2000 to 2004. He knows what it looks like when Ferrari is more than fast — when it’s relentless. He’s also lived the flip side, where pressure multiplies and patience evaporates. Because for all the smoke and songs, the Tifosi came for one thing. And the most Ferrari thing of all would be to stop promising it and start doing it.

‘Luca di Montezemolo throws down gauntlet’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/stop-promising-start-winning-montezemolos-ferrari-ultimatum/


Di Montezemolo slams Ferrari: ‘Sad to see a team without a leader’
13 Sep 2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Stability lost after Binotto; Montezemolo was particularly critical of Ferrari’s revolving door of leadership, pointing to the departure of former team principal Mattia Binotto as a costly misstep. “If Binotto could have continued, it would have been better,” he argued. “Constant change means losing one of the most important elements: a team’s stability. Every time you change, you have to start from scratch, and there’s a lot of work to do. Announcements are often made that create excessive expectations: you should achieve results first and then communicate them.”

Montezemolo contrasted Ferrari’s pre-race optimism at Monza with the continuing wait for victories and titles, offering a blunt reminder of the Scuderia’s obligations to its passionate fanbase. He concluded with a stark warning for those in charge at Maranello: “For too long, Ferrari hasn’t even been able to fight for the title at the last race with a driver in contention. I hope things change, first and foremost for those who were at Monza and who continue to show unwavering faith. “Ferrari today has even more responsibility towards them.”

Montezemolo’s words carry weight given his history of leading Ferrari back to competitiveness in the 1990s and overseeing the dominant Michael Schumacher era. But for today’s Scuderia, the former president’s message is clear: leadership, stability, and responsibility to the tifosi must once again become non-negotiable values.

‘Di Montezemolo slams Ferrari’;

https://f1i.com/news/548412-di-montezemolo-slams-ferrari-sad-to-see-a-team-without-a-leader.html

[Fortitude]

How McLaren can win its 10th F1 title in Baku.
Poised with a commanding points lead, McLaren is on the brink of securing the 2025 title in Baku.
September 15th 2025
Pablo Elizalde
Motor Sport Magazine

McLaren stands on the threshold of securing its 10th constructors’ championship in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this week. Having dominated in most of the first 16 races of the 2025 season, its sensational run — 12 victories and 27 podium finishes — has left it 337 points clear of Ferrari following Monza, and just a small step away from the title.

Clinching the title in Azerbaijan would set a new record for the earliest title win by number of races left — seven. The previous benchmark was set by Red Bull in 2023, when it clinched the championship with six rounds to spare.

‘Commanding points lead’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/how-mclaren-can-win-its-10th-f1-title-in-baku/?nowprocket=1


Oscar Piastri spies Azerbaijan GP 'advantage' over title rival Lando Norris
Oscar Piastri is seeking back-to-back wins at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this weekend.
16 September 2025
Fergal Walsh
RacingNews365

Oscar Piastri has suggested he has an “advantage” heading into the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this weekend over title rival Lando Norris. “I’ve got extremely fond memories of Baku last year,” he said.

“I regard that as one of my favourite races ever and it’s always an advantage coming back to a track where you’ve had a big result. My only focus is achieving more of the same this weekend. I am leading the drivers' championship and I am very happy with where my driving is.”

“Street circuits bring a different challenge, and I can't wait to get out there and put myself to the test,” he said. “I’ve been back at MTC [McLaren Technology Centre], working hard to be in the best position to go for another win."

‘Seeking back-to-back wins’;

https://racingnews365.com/oscar-piastri-spies-azerbaijan-gp-advantage-over-title-rival-lando-norris


Mercedes reveals formula to end drought ahead of Azerbaijan GP: ‘We can fight’
14 Sep 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

The Mercedes team have not had the best of outings in recent runs of races, but the German team have their sight set on an improved performance in Baku. Trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, has revealed what the team must do to clinch a podium at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

“For a team like ourselves, that’s always the objective. But we have to be mindful that McLaren has been strong the whole year in almost all the conditions. And also recently, Verstappen has been quite strong as well. So it’s going to be tough. It’s going to be difficult. And we’ll have to make sure that we maximise our one lap performance, and operationally we execute at the best without any error. And then we can fight for it.”

Mercedes’ W16 well-suited to Baku? The Mercedes engineering chief also touched on the W16 machinery being well suited to the demands ot the Azerbaijan street track. Showlin referenced the impressive showing the team had with George Russell during the 2024 race, expressing optimism that a repeat could be on the cards. “It's a good question. Last year, it was a good showing from us with George on the podium. Like I said, the competition is very tough at the moment with all the teams. So it could be a good track, but we have to do everything at our best.”

‘We can fight’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/mercedes-reveals-formula-to-end-drought-ahead-of-azerbaijan-gp-we-can-fight


Toto Wolff drops key insight on what could make or break Mercedes in Baku
16 Sep 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Toto Wolff has weighed in on Mercedes' chances ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Austrian motorsports chief stressed a few fine details would prove pivotal to his team’s success at the Baku street race.

Wolff, who spoke via the Mercedes team press release ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, detailed how he expects the final stretch of the campaign to be pretty intense. The Mercedes team principal also stressed how his team lost points to their rivals last time out in Monza.
“It will be an intense run to the flag in Abu Dhabi, with three teams in the fight for second in the Constructors' Championship. We lost some ground to our competitors in Monza and know we need to perform better in the closing eight races than we did in Italy if we are to come out on top.”

Wolff: Small margins will make the difference. Toto Wolff further highlighted his belief that the little details could largely make or break his team’s outing in Azerbaijan. The 53-year-old old however, concluded by stating that if his team delivered the way they expect to, they should leave Baku with a positive result. “It is a good test for both the car and the driver. The grid is tight, and once again, small margins will make a big difference. If we deliver in the way we know we can, then we can be hopeful of a strong weekend fighting near the front of the field.”

“Small margins”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/toto-wolff-drops-key-insight-on-what-could-make-or-break-mercedes-in-baku


Matt Bishop: Alonso & Stroll are about to make mind-boggling F1 history
September 16th 2025
Matt Bishop
Motor Sport Magazine

On one side of the Aston Martin garage is one of F1's most devastatingly effective drivers. On the other is one who's frequently lacklustre. And yet Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll are about to hit a historic benchmark

As the late-summer sun glints off the Caspian Sea this coming Sunday, September 21, the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix will deliver an arcane, yet oddly evocative, piece of Formula 1 history: the first time that any one team’s two drivers will have driven a combined total of 600 F1 grands prix. Yes, really. Six hundred.

The team is Aston Martin. In Baku this weekend Fernando Alonso will start his 418th F1 grand prix – a magnum opus that is becoming so gargantuan that it is beginning to feel mythological – while Lance Stroll will notch up his 182nd. Pause for a moment. Let those numbers settle in your mind. Six hundred F1 grands prix in one two-driver team.

‘Mind-boggling F1 history’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/matt-bishop-alonso-stroll-are-about-to-make-mind-boggling-f1-history/?nowprocket=1


Hamilton sees Baku challenge: 'Expecting to start on the back foot'
12 Sep 2025
Olly Darcy
GPblog.com

A pessimistic Lewis Hamilton expects that he and Ferrari will be "starting on the back foot" at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Brit has had a challenging start to his Ferrari career after making the move from Mercedes, with the 40-year-old yet to step onto the podium in a Grand Prix.

There have been a couple of bright sparks for Hamilton in his first year with the Scuderia, with a sprint race win at the Chinese Grand Prix and a sprint race podium at the Miami Grand Prix being the best performances of the season. However, there has been some criticism of the seven-time world champion, with former Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine saying the Brit "came [to Ferrari] a bit too old".

Hamilton hoping for more in Baku. At Monza, there was some promise shown from Ferrari, with Hamilton moving up from P10 on the grid to P6 with some lovely moves at the 'Temple of Speed', with the track characteristics at Baku similar. "I think I'm going to go there again, I'll be starting at a track that I've raced with a different car for many years," Hamilton started by saying to GPblog at Monza.

‘Couple of bright sparks for Hamilton’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/pessimistic-hamilton-expecting-to-start-on-the-back-foot-in-baku


2025 Azerbaijan GP Schedule and F1 Session Times
Full schedule and session times for the Azerbaijan GP in Baku
17 September 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

2025 Azerbaijan GP Session Times
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend will run on an earlier timetable than many European races, due to the time difference (GMT+4 local time). Below are the key session start times for the race weekend.
Date Session Baku (Local) UK (BST) US (ET) US (PT) Australia (AEST)
Fri, Sept 19 FP1 12:30 – 13:30 09:30 – 10:30 04:30 – 05:30 01:30 – 02:30 18:30 – 19:30
Fri, Sept 19 FP2 16:00 – 17:00 13:00 – 14:00 08:00 – 09:00 05:00 – 06:00 22:00 – 23:00
Sat, Sept 20 FP3 12:30 – 13:30 09:30 – 10:30 04:30 – 05:30 01:30 – 02:30 18:30 – 19:30
Sat, Sept 20 Qualifying 16:00 – 17:00 13:00 – 14:00 08:00 – 09:00 05:00 – 06:00 22:00 – 23:00
Sun, Sept 21

‘Schedule’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-2025-azerbaijan-gp-schedule-session-times/

[Fortitude]

Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Thursday Press Conference Transcript.
PART ONE – Pierre GASLY (Alpine), Nico HÜLKENBERG (Kick Sauber), Oscar PIASTRI (McLaren).
17 Sept 2025
FIA (Press Release)

Q: Oscar, perhaps we could start with you, please. Now this could be a monumental weekend for McLaren. They can clinch the Constructors’ Championship this weekend, which would be with seven races still to go. It’s been a phenomenal season. Just how different has it felt on the inside to last year’s title success?
Oscar PIASTRI: I think very different, because this year has just looked very different to last year. I think, you know, last season went down to the final race, and a pretty eventful final race as well. So I think this year, clearly the car has been a step better, the team has been performing very well. So there’s much more of a sense of inevitability about this year, which is an amazing position to be in. It’s a testament to all the hard work from everyone at the team. And, you know, I’m the lucky guy that gets to drive the car at the end of the day. So, yes. A testament to everyone’s hard work and very, very proud of everyone.

Q: Nico, if we could come to you now, and we'll throw it back to Monza as well, which was a very, very frustrating Sunday for you. Does the team fully understand why you couldn't make the start there?
Nico HÜLKENBERG: Yeah, of course we did. Obviously, pretty frustrating and bad at the time. But it is what it is. We found the root cause and obviously put some measures and things in place so that this should not happen again in the future.
Q: Let's bring it onto this weekend then. Do you think the low-downforce nature of Baku will suit the car, suit the package?
NH: I think in Monza, we were competitive. Obviously here it’s a little bit similar but also different at the same time. But if you look across the last five, six weekends and different tracks, I feel we have a competitive package and car beneath us. Nothing that suggests here should be different. I think we will be competitive within the midfield. It remains very close with tight margins from P10 all the way to the back. You’ve just got to be good and clean in the execution. I feel there are opportunities.

Q: Pierre, coming to you now. The last couple of races really have been quite difficult for the team. What are you expecting from this weekend?
Pierre GASLY: Yeah, I mean, I think we are aware that it hasn't been as good as we would have liked, and the remaining part of the year is probably going to be also pretty difficult for us. So it doesn’t really change our approach into the weekend. Still trying to do the best we can. But for sure, in terms of performance, we seem to be more consistently struggling to make our way into Q2 and getting close to the top 10. So, yeah, we know it's not going to be an easy task, but still we're going to give it our best.

‘Monumental weekend for McLaren?’;

https://www.fia.com/news/azerbaijan-grand-prix-thursday-press-conference-transcript


Ecclestone warns 'embarrasing' Hamilton: 'People will forget him'
17 Sept 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Bernie Ecclestone, former F1 Supremo, believes Ferrari partnering Lewis Hamilton's most embarrasing aspect is the fact the Briton can't "deliver" what the Italians thought he would. Lewis Hamilton's first year at Ferrari has not been anything to write home about, and Ecclestone even brands the partnership as "embarrasing."

“The most embarrassing thing, in my opinion, for Lewis and Ferrari is that they thought he could do all the things that were necessary,” he told Sport.de. “You must be disappointed that what was supposed to be delivered was not delivered,” he continued, opining from what he believes could be the Scuderia's point of view.

Reaffirming his stance on the matter of Hamilton's future in F1, Ecclestone once against voiced his thought that the seven-time World Champion would do well to call it a day. “He should stop,” the former F1 Supremo stated, issuing a warning to the Ferrari driver that his legacy in the sport might depend on it. “The danger that – if he continues for another year or a year and a half and hasn’t gotten better by then – people will forget him and his achievements.”

“He should stop”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/ecclestone-warns-embarrasing-hamilton-people-will-forget-him


Hamilton expects Ferrari’s “softer” car will suit Baku better than Mercedes did
18th Sept 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

Lewis Hamilton is hopeful his Ferrari will suit the Baku City Circuit better than Mercedes’ cars did because its ride is softer. “It’s a much different car than I’ve ever driven here before, so I’m excited to see how that feels and what I can get from it,” Hamilton told the official Formula 1 channel. “It’s got more mechanical grip,” Hamilton explained. “It’s a lot softer than the cars I’ve driven in the past.”

Hamilton competed in all eight prior races at Baku when he was at Mercedes. He won the 2018 race and was leading the year before when he was delayed by a pit stop to fix a loose headrest. However he doesn’t expect to challenge for victory again this weekend. “A win is a bit far-fetched considering I’ve been sixth, seventh and eighth for most of the season,” he said.

“I would love to get a podium for the team at some stage. Charles [Leclerc] has had four or five of them. I feel optimistic coming into the weekend. I feel like I’ve found a couple things and now I need to work on extracting them. So I really hope that this weekend can be the start of that.”

‘Lewis Hamilton is hopeful’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/09/18/hamilton-expects-ferraris-softer-car-will-suit-baku-better-than-mercedes-did/


Gary Anderson is ‘sure’ Red Bull have made one secret change to give Max Verstappen a McLaren-beater
18 Sept 2025
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Gary Anderson expects Red Bull will replicate Max Verstappen’s Monza set-up in Baku. Verstappen won the Italian GP from pole position, after he denied Lando Norris in qualifying by just 0.077 seconds and utilised the straight-line speed of his Red Bull RB21 to pull away in the race. The Dutchman ultimately won by 19.207s, as McLaren tried an alternative strategy.

Red Bull trimmed downforce off Verstappen’s rear wing at Monza, too, unlike on teammate Yuki Tsunoda’s car, to further improve his straight-line speed advantage. But Gary Anderson expects Red Bull also made changes to Verstappen’s floor to help him beat Norris at Monza. Given F1 teams also use low-downforce set-ups for the city streets of Baku, albeit not to the same extreme levels as for Monza, Anderson expects Red Bull will try to mimic Verstappen’s Italian GP-winning set-up for the Azerbaijan GP. He has previously won once in Baku in 2022.

Anderson told The Race: “I’m sure there were other developments in the underfloor that might mean that the aerodynamic centre of pressure from the actual underfloor moved more rearwards with speed. “If that happens, it will give you more front grip in the lower- and medium-speed corners and more rear grip in the fast corners. This allows you to run a less draggy rear wing, meaning you also get the benefit of increased straight-line speed.”

‘A McLaren-beater’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/gary-anderson-is-sure-red-bull-have-made-one-secret-change-to-give-max-verstappen-a-mclaren-beater/


Max ahead of Azerbaijan GP: 'Important to have stable weekend.'
18 Sept 2025
Stefan Meens
Verstappen.nl

“Monza was of course an incredible result. It really gave everyone in the team a boost. I’m looking forward to seeing how competitive we’ll be around here, but it’s difficult to predict. We made progress, but this circuit is very different compared to Monza.”

The Dutchman continued: “Every circuit has different demands. Baku has a lot of slow corners and a lot of 90-degree corners; that’s never been our strong point. It’s a challenging track with not much grip. Usually, the track surface is pretty green but improves rapidly through the weekend. Like Monza, we need to have a stable weekend and not go to in wildly different directions set-up wise. We’ll try to achieve the same as in Monza.”

After his win in Italy, Max visited the Red Bull Powertrains facility in Milton Keynes. “It was great to catch up and show my face. The facilities are incredible. All that’s needed for this project is available, it’s impressive”, said the reigning champion. “We know it’s a huge challenge to develop our own power unit, but it’s great to see how everything is coming together for when it starts in about six months. It’s not that far away.”

'Important to have stable weekend';

https://news.verstappen.com/en/article/5946/


Why Red Bull resurgence could be real - What to watch at 2025 Azerbaijan GP
Sept 17th 2025
Pablo Elizalde
Motor Sport Magazine

From Red Bull's potential resurgence to McLaren's title duel, tyre strategy gambles, Bearman's race-ban threat and renewed scrutiny on driving rules, Baku promises another weekend of intrigue. Formula 1 swaps the high-speed sweeps of Monza for the unforgiving city walls of Baku this weekend, as the Azerbaijan Grand Prix hosts round 17 of the 2025 season.

The championship fight remains finely balanced, and the streets of the Caspian capital have a history of providing unexpected twists. At the top of the agenda is whether Red Bull‘s Monza breakthrough was the start of a genuine revival or just a one-off flash of form.

‘Why Red Bull resurgence could be real’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/why-red-bull-resurgence-could-be-real-what-to-watch-at-2025-azerbaijan-gp/?nowprocket=1

[Fortitude]

Azerbaijan GP: Norris leads McLaren 1-2 in disrupted first practice.
Norris dominated the early stages of practice, outpacing on Pirelli’s soft compound Mercedes’ George Russell, Leclerc, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
19/09/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

With only 21 minutes left after the restart, teams scrambled for data. Verstappen briefly closed the gap to Norris, clocking a time just 0.043s shy. But Norris responded emphatically, shaving a second off his earlier best to secure top spot.

Piastri, on new softs, climbed to second with a 1m43.014s, three tenths behind Norris, while Leclerc took third, half a second off the pace. Russell and Williams’ Alex Albon rounded out the top five, with Albon impressing on the rapidly improving track.

Yuki Tsunoda shone for Racing Bulls, finishing sixth, narrowly ahead of Verstappen, who abandoned his final run after a mistake at Turn 14. Carlos Sainz took eighth for Williams, followed by Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar. Lewis Hamilton narrowly escaped disaster, grazing the Turn 5 wall but avoiding significant damage to his Ferrari.

‘Norris leads McLaren 1-2’;

https://f1i.com/news/548665-azerbaijan-gp-norris-leads-mclaren-1-2-in-disrupted-first-practice.html


2025 F1 Azerbaijan GP – Free Practice 1 Results
Lando Norris leads Oscar Piastri as McLaren dominate FP1 in Baku, while Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes face mixed fortunes
19 September 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Azerbaijan GP 2025 FP1 results
Check out the full Azerbaijan GP 2025 Free Practice 1 results from the first session in Baku below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:42.704
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.310
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.552
4 George Russell Mercedes +0.553
5 Alexander Albon Williams +0.859
6 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +1.034
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull +1.086
8 Carlos Sainz Williams +1.155
9 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +1.199
10 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +1.271

‘FP1 results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-2025-azerbaijan-gp-free-practice-1-results/


Lando Norris On Top Ahead Of Oscar Piastri In Opening Baku F1 Practice
An in-form Lando Norris set the pace ahead of McLaren team-mate, title rival and championship leader Oscar Piastri in Friday's eventful and red flag-punctuated opening practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
September 19, 2025
Agence France-Presse
NDTV.com

An in-form Lando Norris set the pace ahead of McLaren team-mate, title rival and championship leader Oscar Piastri in Friday's eventful and red flag-punctuated opening practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The 25-year-old Briton, who trails by 31 points in the drivers' title race, clocked a best lap in one minute and 42.704 to top the times, beating his 24-year-old Australian rival by 0.310 seconds. A similar 1-2 outcome in Sunday's race would clinch a second consecutive constructors' championship success for McLaren and leave the duo to fight for the individual title without the spectre of team orders.

‘Lando Norris On Top’;

https://sports.ndtv.com/formula-1/lando-norris-on-top-ahead-of-oscar-piastri-in-opening-baku-f1-practice-9306672


Azerbaijan GP: Norris sets the pace in FP1 as Piastri is momentarily sidelined with PU issues
19 Sep 2025
Michelle Foster
F1i.com

Lando Norris topped the timesheet in the opening practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix while his teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri was momentarily sidelined with an engine issue. The upside for Piastri, the bulk of his time in the garage coincided with a red flag as track marshals set about fixing the Turn 16 kerb that had been lifted.

After a 10-minute delay, Race Control green-lighted the session only to throw the yellow flag as it turned out to be a bigger issue than expected. The good news for Piastri, McLaren were able to work on his MCL39 without him losing track time compared to his rivals. The team revealed: “We’d identified a PU issue, which we believe we’ve rectified. Now planning to get Oscar back out when we get going again.”

Back on track with 20 minutes remaining in the session, a busy track and traffic had Isack Hadjar complaining about one of the Williams drivers, Verstappen went second behind Norris only for the McLaren driver to up his pace and put a second between himself and the Red Bull driver. Piastri was up to third.

‘Norris sets the pace’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/azerbaijan-grand-prix-2025-fp1-report


Lewis Hamilton escapes with minor damage after Azerbaijan GP scare
Lewis Hamilton suffered a minor scare in the first practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
19 September 2025
Jake Nichol
RacingNews365

Lewis Hamilton suffered a minor scare during Azerbaijan Grand Prix practice, breaking his Ferrari front-wing against a wall. With the session heavily delayed due to a separate incident involving a loose kerb at Turn 16, it resumed after a delay of nearly 30 minutes, leaving the field just over 20 minutes of running.

Rounding the left-hander at Turn 5, Hamilton clipped the inside wall, breaking off the left-hand endplate of his car as he crawled back to the pits. Fortunately, the car was otherwise undamaged as he made his way back to the pits for a new front-wing, rejoining to finish 13th overall in the session, with team-mate Charles Leclerc third, behind a Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri one-two for McLaren.

‘Minor scare’;

https://racingnews365.com/lewis-hamilton-escapes-with-minor-damage-after-azerbaijan-gp-scare


George Russell still unwell after ‘sounding terrible’ in Azerbaijan GP FP1
A difficult weekend ahead for George Russell at the 2025 F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
19 Sep 2025
Connor McDonagh
Crash.Net

George Russell continues to battle illness after he “sounded terrible” over team radio in first practice for the 2025 F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver was ruled out of Thursday’s media day in Baku due to feeling unwell.

Mercedes said in a statement: “George is unwell so unfortunately won’t be at the track today, as he’s resting up ahead of tomorrow’s track action.” Russell returned to action on Friday as first practice got underway. It was a fairly encouraging session for the British driver, setting the fourth-fastest time of the day.

Russell was just over 0.6s off Lando Norris’ impressive pace for McLaren. Russell also reported a “serious amount of bottoming” on the long straight in Baku. “There’s a serious amount of bottoming on the straight,” Russell said over team radio in FP1. Russell’s radio message was difficult to hear and it was clear he was struggling.

‘Sounding terrible’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1082021/1/george-russell-still-unwell-after-sounding-terrible-azerbaijan-gp-f1-fp1


Norris quickest in interrupted FP1 - 2025 Azerbaijan GP practice results
September 19th 2025
Pablo Elizalde
Motor Sport Magazine

Norris leads McLaren 1-2 at Baku as a red flag cost drivers plenty of track time. Lando Norris went quickest in opening practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, a session interrupted by lengthy repairs to a kerb.

McLaren driver Norris posted a best time of 1:42.704sec to top FP1 by over three tenths from team-mate Oscar Piastri, second fastest. Piastri’s weekend started off poorly after having to return to the pits slowly before managing to complete a lap.

‘Piastri’s weekend started off poorly’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/norris-quickest-in-interrupted-fp1-2025-azerbaijan-gp-practice-results/?nowprocket=1

[Fortitude]

Lewis Hamilton sends message to Ferrari after topping Azerbaijan GP practice.
Put to him that it looked like a positive day out there, Hamilton replied: “It really has, yeah, thank the Lord”.
19 Sep 2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Lewis Hamilton thanked his Ferrari team for their “patience” and continued efforts after he set the pace on Friday at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. While Hamilton was keen to keep a lid on talk of just how significant that result was, Hamilton said the “progress” being made by he and Ferrari has really started to “come through”, as he headed a one-two result.

Hamilton’s 1:41.293 was enough for him to end Friday practice at the Baku City Circuit on top. He was 0.074s up on team-mate Charles Leclerc, with Mercedes’ George Russell in third almost half a second off the ultimate pace.

That performance marks a continuation of the positive trend which Hamilton has been on since returning from the summer break. With a fresh breakthrough in Baku, Hamilton feels that progress is now being displayed clearly.

“It really has, yeah, thank the Lord”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lewis-hamilton-grateful-ferrari-azerbaijan-gp-progress-showing


2025 F1 Azerbaijan GP – Free Practice 2 Results
Hamilton sets the pace in Baku as Norris crashes and Ferrari dominate FP2
19 September 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Azerbaijan GP 2025 FP2 results
Check out the full Azerbaijan GP 2025 Free Practice 2 results from the second session in Baku below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:41.293
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.074
3 George Russell Mercedes +0.477
4 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.486
5 Oliver Bearman Haas +0.598
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.609
7 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +0.696
8 Esteban Ocon Haas +0.874
9 Alexander Albon Williams +0.884
10 Lando Norris McLaren +0.906

‘Free Practice 2 Results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-azerbaijan-gp-free-practice-2-results/


Hamilton tops FP2 as McLarens hit the wall - 2025 Azerbaijan GP practice results
September 19th 2025
Pablo Elizalde
Motor Sport Magazine

Hamilton tops second practice from Leclerc as Piastri and Norris finish down the order. Lewis Hamilton led a Ferrari 1-2 in second practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as McLaren‘s drivers failed to set a competitive time.

Hamilton used the softest compound to outpace team-mate Charles Leclerc, who has been on pole at Baku for the past three years, by less than a tenth of a second. Hamilton stayed on top of the times for most of the session thanks to a medium-tyre run before Leclerc beat it late on with the soft tyres.

‘Hamilton tops FP2’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/hamilton-tops-fp2-as-mclaren-struggle-2025-azerbaijan-gp-practice-results/?nowprocket=1


Blow for Lando Norris as both McLarens crash in second Baku practice
19 Sep 2025
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Lando Norris suffers setback with crash in Azerbaijan Grand Prix second practice. Lando Norris has suffered an early blow to his Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend with a crash in second practice. The Briton, who is 31 points behind McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri arriving in Baku, touched the wall at Turn 4 after losing the rear of his car while on a flying lap on soft tyres.

“What an eventful day we’ve had here in Baku, with Oscar Piastri starting with an engine problem. That was fixed quite quickly,” Sky Sports F1’s pitlane reporter Ted Kravitz said. “By contrast, I’m not sure the broken suspension at the back of Lando Norris’s car is going to be fixed before the end of the season. Never say never, the fact that it’s on stands doesn’t mean it’s impossible.”

“But I can see the car being taken apart in various other ways that they would normally do between practice two and practice three. The effect of not having the long runs, we saw it with Kimi Antonelli at Monza, how much will it effect Lando? A more experienced driver but in with a chance of the title.”

‘Blow for Lando Norris’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1082042/1/blow-lando-norris-both-mclarens-crash-second-f1-azerbaijan-grand-prix-practice


Jolyon Palmer ‘can’t believe’ what he heard Oscar Piastri say about McLaren team orders at Azerbaijan Grand Prix
19 September 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Oscar Piastri should have said he was willing to give up Monza win to Lando Norris? Early in the presser, host Tom Clarkson asked Piastri whether he would have given the place back had he been leading. There’s a seven-point difference between first and second, but only three between second and third.

Piastri, who still has a comfortable 31-point lead, replied: “But it wasn’t, Tom, so, I don’t know. I wasn’t in that scenario. Would it have made it a bit more difficult? Probably, yes. But I don’t know if the outcome would have been different. I’m not planning on finding myself in that position.”

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Chequered Flag podcast, Jolyon Palmer questioned why Piastri was so hesitant. It was an opportunity to score some points with the McLaren management, without making any firm commitment. After hearing the aforementioned clip, Palmer said: “I can’t believe he didn’t just say, ‘Of course I’d have given the place back, of course I would have done’. Don’t even try and make it tricky! It’s not a case that’s come up. I don’t think I would have given up a Grand Prix win for that.’

‘Can’t believe’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/jolyon-palmer-cant-believe-what-he-heard-oscar-piastri-say-about-mclaren-team-orders-at-azerbaijan-grand-prix/


Marko makes Red Bull prediction in Max Verstappen Baku boost
19 Sep 2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Max Verstappen was forced to settle for sixth at the end of Friday practice, but has no reason to fear, as per Helmut Marko. Red Bull’s senior advisor believes a top three grid slot will be secured, which will put Verstappen in the hunt for back-to-back victories. However, Marko does not see such an alarming gap in need of addressing for qualifying. “The long runs, we are promising,” he began.

“I think we are in a position to fight on the front. On the qualifying lap, we must find one tenth, one tenth and a half. But that’s possible with fine-tuning.” Clarifying that “roughly half a tenth” of the deficit can be explained by the engine mode which Verstappen was using, Marko added: “So that means also in qualifying we are not so far off.”

‘Verstappen Baku boost’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/helmut-marko-max-verstappen-red-bull-can-fight-azerbaijan-gp-win


Brakes Fixed, Beast Unleashed: Hamilton Leads Ferrari’s Baku Blitz
September 19, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
Fastest Lap

Lewis Hamilton’s 1:41.293 put him at the head of the sheet after FP2, 0.074s clear of Charles Leclerc, with George Russell half a second back in the Mercedes. It wasn’t just the headline; it was the way it came together. Ferrari found something between sessions, and Hamilton—still learning the SF-25 at new circuits—clicked with it.

“It really has [been positive], thank the Lord,” he said. “It started out, it wasn’t so positive. FP1 was a bit of a mess. And this is a circuit where you have to have mega confidence in the brakes. I had some problems with the brakes.” Baku punishes hesitation. It’s all long stops and razor-edged walls, the kind of place where if your middle pedal isn’t perfect, your lap isn’t either. Ferrari addressed it between sessions, and Hamilton felt the car come to him.

“We made some changes going into P2 and the brakes finally were working perfect,” he added. “I was able to really make some quick big advantage in terms of gaining on the brakes. So really happy to see the progress.” There’s been a gentle but noticeable reset since the summer break. The rhythm, the feel, the confidence—call it what you like—has crept back into Hamilton’s weekends. And in Baku, with Ferrari showing clean, repeatable speed across both cars, he let the gratitude flow.

‘The rhythm, the feel, the confidence’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/brakes-fixed-beast-unleashed-hamilton-leads-ferraris-baku-blitz/

[Fortitude]

Azerbaijan GP: Norris edges Verstappen in final practice.
Norris’ late-session benchmark on softs not only secured him the top spot but also signaled McLaren’s strong form heading into what promises to be an unpredictable qualifying session at 16:00 local time.
20/09/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

With the wind, low grip, and Baku’s tight walls creating a perfect storm of challenges, FP3 set the stage for a thrilling qualifying session. Norris’ pace gives McLaren a slight edge, but Verstappen’s consistency and the potential for mistakes in the worsening conditions keep the fight wide open.

Ferrari, Mercedes, and Williams will look to capitalize on any errors from the frontrunners, while drivers like Bearman and Antonelli aim to maintain their momentum. As the clock ticks down to qualifying, all eyes will be on whether Norris can maintain his edge or if Baku’s unpredictability will crown a surprise polesitter.

‘Signaled McLaren’s strong form’;

https://f1i.com/news/548798-azerbaijan-gp-norris-edges-verstappen-in-final-practice.html


2025 F1 Azerbaijan GP – Free Practice 3 Results
Norris leads Verstappen in windy FP3 as McLaren stay on top in Baku
20 September 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Azerbaijan GP 2025 FP3 results
Check out the full Azerbaijan GP 2025 Free Practice 3 results from the third and final practice session in Baku below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:41.223
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.222
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.254
4 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.276
5 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.653
6 George Russell Mercedes +0.741
7 Alexander Albon Williams +0.760
8 Oliver Bearman Haas +0.762
9 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +0.923
10 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.986

‘Free Practice 3 Results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-azerbaijan-gp-free-practice-3-results/


Azerbaijan GP: Norris sets the pace in FP3, FIA stewards busy with yet another investigation
20 Sep 2025
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Lando Norris set the pace in the final practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix where he was over two-tenths up on second-placed Max Verstappen. Oscar Piastri was third ahead of Lewis Hamilton, while Franco Colapinto is off to see the stewards in the latest yellow flag infringement.

Heading into the final 10 minutes, Norris overhauled Verstappen by half a second. Alex Albon complained that the “wind is picking up a lot” as he went off at Turn 4. Verstappen upped his pace but remained second by Norris, two-tenths down, with Piastri also going quicker but not enough to challenge his teammate as he went P3 ahead of Antonelli, Albon and Russell.

Hamilton put in a late charge to go third, 0.276s down. His former teammate Russell wasn’t as happy with his performance as he reported that he was locking up everywhere. The session ended with Norris quickest of all by 0.222s ahead of Verstappen with Piastri third ahead of Hamilton. Franco Colapinto was noted for a yellow flag infringement.

‘Norris sets the pace’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/azerbaijan-grand-prix-2025-fp3-report


AS IT HAPPENED: FOLLOW ALL THE ACTION FROM FINAL PRACTICE FOR THE AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX
Follow our live coverage of the third Formula 1 practice session for the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku.
20 Sep 2025
Becky Hart
Formula One - Official Site

Four teams in the mix
A better start to Saturday for McLaren after their difficult Friday then, but they do not have this one all to themselves one bit. Traffic, the tow, the wind, yellow flags - it could be down to who can nail a lap later, and who can get some luck as well.

Verstappen has found something overnight - he might have been two tenths back, but he didn't set his time on fresh tyres.

Hamilton was fourth, Antonelli fifth so Ferrari and Mercedes cannot be discounted today either.

‘AS IT HAPPENED’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/live-coverage-third-practice-in-azerbaijan-2025.4MfaRoqFK85HBkDYuQ0No0


What happened in final F1 practice at Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Sep 20, 2025
Ben Anderson
The Race

Lando Norris answered the big question over McLaren’s pace coming into final practice for Formula 1’s 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix by emphatically setting the fastest time in FP3. Norris and F1 championship rival Oscar Piastri both endured a difficult Friday at Baku, losing valuable track time to wall strikes and struggling to hook laps together.

They weren’t much of a factor in the early stages of final practice either, as Norris complained his car was “sketchy” everywhere. Piastri didn’t really hook a single lap together cleanly until the closing moments of the session. Piastri didn’t look as comfortable as Norris in the later part of the session, where the McLarens were clearly working much better after some earlier setup changes, but was briefly up to second thanks to a tow from Franco Colapinto’s Alpine before Verstappen reasserted himself.

Piastri then managed to hook up a decent enough lap at the end to go third, without the aid of a tow and just 0.032s down on Verstappen’s ultimate best. Hamilton managed to get Ferrari back up to fourth in the closing seconds, but Leclerc found an escape road on his final flying lap so failed to improve and ended the session 10th.

‘What happened’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what-happened-final-f1-practice-at-azerbaijan-grand-prix/

[Fortitude]

Max Verstappen roars to stunning Azerbaijan GP pole after SIX qualifying red flags.
Max Verstappen will start the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on pole for the first time as McLaren imploded in Q3 in a record-breaking session.
20 September 2025
Jake Nichol
RacingNews365

In Q3, Sainz initially set a 1:41.595 on mediums to go fastest as one of the first laps, but Leclerc crashed at Turn 15 moments later, bringing out the red flags with 7:07 remaining. However, during this delay, rain began to fall, with the session resuming before Piastri crashed at Turn 3. Getting too deep on the brakes, he slammed into the wall, leaving a door open for Norris once the session resumed with 3:41 on the clock.

However, Norris could only go third at the time, dropping to seventh, only two places ahead as Verstappen roared to a fifth pole of the season. His time was 1:41.117, with Sainz settling in for Williams as Lawson claimed the best qualifying result for a New Zealander since Chris Amon's third at the 1976 Swedish Grand Prix.

It is Verstappen's first pole in Baku, the 26th different circuit he has set a pole position at. Kimi Antonelli was fourth for Mercedes, ahead of George Russell and Yuki Tsunoda, with Isack Hadjar the lowest-placed Red Bull-backed driver in eighth.

‘McLaren imploded’;

https://racingnews365.com/max-verstappen-roars-to-stunning-azerbaijan-gp-pole-after-six-qualifying-red-flags


2025 F1 Azerbaijan GP – Qualifying Results
Verstappen triumphs in dramatic Azerbaijan GP qualifying
20 September 2025
Adriano Boin
Total Motorsport

F1 Azerbaijan GP 2025 Qualifying results
Check out the full F1 2025 Azerbaijan GP Qualifying results from Baku below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:41.117
2 Carlos Sainz Williams +0.478
3 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +0.590
4 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.600
5 George Russell Mercedes +0.953
6 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +1.026
7 Lando Norris McLaren +1.122
8 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +1.255
9 Oscar Piastri McLaren —
10 Charles Leclerc Ferrari —

‘Qualifying Results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-azerbaijan-gp-qualifying-results/


Liam Lawson had to 'fight his brain' during staggering Azerbaijan GP qualifying
A quite astonishing result for Liam Lawson. What can he do from there? It won't be easy.
20 September 2025
Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

Assessing the nearly two-hour session, the New Zealander said: "I can't even remember what happened, it was so busy. "I said it would be, but I didn't expect it to be like that, honestly, but the car has been good all weekend, and when we needed it to be in qualifying, it was good. So a massive thanks to the guys and girls. The team has been amazing this week so far, but tomorrow is the important day."

Reflecting on the conditions in the final minutes, Lawson added: "It's always sketchy. You can see the rain coming on your visor, and you can feel it, and you can see the gloss on the track, but because the tyres are still warm, you have grip. So you're trying to fight your brain to not back off and keep pushing, but it was definitely tricky."

As to his hopes of a strong result, he said: "It's going to be a very hard race, for sure. We've a great starting position, but we're aware of who we're fighting around us, and that's what we'll be focused on."

'Fight his brain';

https://racingnews365.com/liam-lawson-had-to-fight-his-brain-during-staggering-azerbaijan-gp-qualifying


Chaos at Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying sees a record SIX red flags as Charles Leclerc and title contender Oscar Piastri hit the wall - and Lando Norris starts SEVENTH
20 September 2025
JONATHAN MCEVOY
MailOnline

Chaos in Baku. Six red flags. And then Max Verstappen banged his Red Bull on pole, which is an act filed under ‘G’ for genius. In the wet, his car stuck to the road like glue during a chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix that lasted two hours – and which Lando Norris flunked.

Norris should have been up at the front of the grid, but instead Williams’ Carlos Sainz starts second and Racing Bulls’ Carlos Sainz third. Don’t adjust your glasses. The Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli and George Russell come next. Norris’s chance came as Piastri thudded into the wall at Turn Three during the closing stages of the pole shootout.

Rain intensified at this stage, having been no more than spots before. Sainz joked he wanted a rain dance, for his name led all the rest at this stage, pre-Max’s unfurling of splendour. Norris could not improve his time, so will start eighth, only a place above Piastri, who leads Norris by 31 points with eight races including Sunday’s remaining.

‘Grand Prix qualifying sees a record SIX red flags’;

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-15117013/Chaos-Azerbaijan-Grand-Prix-qualifying-sees-record-SIX-red-flags-Charles-Leclerc-title-contender-Oscar-Piastri-hit-wall-Lando-Norris-starts-SEVENTH.html


Verstappen snatches pole from Sainz after six red flags in crash-strewn session
20th September 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

When Q3 started for the third time there was just three minutes and 41 seconds left on the clock. Williams could taste their first pole position for over a decade – and they came remarkably close to taking it. Norris almost clinched pole for Sainz when he understeered wide into the barrier at turn 15. The McLaren driver kept going but he failed to beat the Williams driver’s time. Nor could Russell take it off him.

Sainz went quicker in the first sector but couldn’t sustain the improvement to the end of the lap. Verstappen, however, immediately found more time, and took pole off his former team mate by over four tenths of a second. Lawson took a strong third while Antonelli comfortably beat Russell to fourth place. Tsunoda took a strong sixth, but the size of the opportunity Norris had missed became clear as he fell to seventh, just two places ahead of his team mate.

‘Verstappen snatches pole’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/09/20/verstappen-snatches-pole-from-sainz-as-six-stoppages-disrupt-qualifying/


Max Verstappen keeps his cool to bag Azerbaijan GP pole in crash-filled session
Six red flags and rain could not stop Max Verstappen from taking 2025 Azerbaijan GP pole, edging Carlos Sainz and Liam Lawson in Baku
20 September 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

Max Verstappen mastered the chaos in Baku to take pole position for the 2025 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, surviving six red flags, changeable conditions, and late pressure from rivals to put his Red Bull on top of the timesheets.

The Dutchman delivered his decisive lap in the dying minutes of qualifying, edging out Carlos Sainz, who had looked set to secure a shock pole for Williams. Rising star Liam Lawson continued his impressive season with Racing Bulls, sealing third on the grid after holding his nerve in the mayhem.

For title challengers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, however, qualifying proved costly. Piastri crashed in Q3 while Norris failed to extract pace from his McLaren, leaving the pair seventh and ninth respectively heading into Sunday’s race.

‘Keeps his cool’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-2025-max-verstappen-keeps-cool-azerbaijan-gp-pole-crash-filled-session/


Carlos Sainz makes Williams declaration after stunning Azerbaijan qualifying result
20 September 2025
Jake Nichol
RacingNews365

Reflecting, Sainz felt the result showed his qualifying prowess was not in doubt. "Honestly, we've nailed qualifying today, every time we were on the right tyre at the right time, and put together some very strong laps," Sainz explained.

"Obviously the top cars were going to put a lap together and we were going to be those four or five-tenths behind, but it was only one of them, which was Max, and for the rest, we managed to beat them, so we are P2 which is great news. I've been putting good laps together in qualifying, that hasn't been my weakness at all, and today, we proved the speed in this car and this team is there. I'm delivering in qualifying when it counts.”

"The races and points are not going the way we want, and I'm not worried. The plan for tomorrow is to try and stick it on the podium, I'm going to give it my best to give Williams a first podium. If it is possible, great, and if it is not, we will see."

‘Williams declaration’;

https://racingnews365.com/carlos-sainz-makes-williams-declaration-after-stunning-azerbaijan-qualifying-result

[Fortitude]

Carlos Sainz eyes turning shock front-row into first Williams podium.
The former Ferrari driver was on course for a stunning pole position after crashes for Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri disrupted a chaotic final part of a drama-filled qualifying in Baku.
20 Sep 2025
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Carlos Sainz is eyeing a first podium for Williams after securing a shock second place on the grid at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. "Very happy, We've nailed the qualifying today. Every time being on the right tyre at the right time and putting together some very strong laps,” Sainz said.

"Of course the moment that a top car put a lap together we were always going to be those four or five tenths behind, but it was only one of them, and it was Max - no surprise. For the rest, we managed to beat them. We're in P2, which is great news. I've been putting good laps together this year in qualifying; it hasn't been an issue or my weakness at all.”

“Again we proved that there is speed in this car and delivering in qualifying when it counts. "Unfortunately, the year in races and in points is not going the way we want but as long as the speed is there, like today proves, the good races will come and I'm not worried.” On Sunday's race, Sainz added: "I'm going to give it my all to give Williams a first podium. We'll see.”

‘Eyeing a first podium for Williams’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1082145/1/carlos-sainz-eyes-turning-shock-front-row-first-williams-podium


Ferrari reveal Baku 'confusion' after disastrous F1 qualifying
Charles Leclerc crashed in Q3 and will start 10th, Lewis Hamilton eliminated in Q2, starting 12th.
21 Sep 2025
Jake Nichol
RacingNews365

Fred Vasseur has revealed Ferrari's confusion in a disastrous Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying after Charles Leclerc's crash and Lewis Hamilton's early exit. Ferrari had shown strong pace throughout practice in Baku, topping FP2 with Hamilton ahead of Leclerc, and reinforced that in FP3, but things went wrong in qualifying.

The team split tyre strategies in the second segment, with Leclerc taking mediums and Hamilton softs, but a mistake at Turn 1 from Leclerc brought out yellow flags, which forced Hamilton to abort. Eventually, Hamilton was eliminated in 12th with Leclerc knocking his team-mate out, as the Monegasque continued his bid for a fifth straight pole.

‘Ferrari's confusion’;

https://racingnews365.com/ferrari-reveal-baku-confusion-after-disastrous-f1-qualifying


Sainz Defies Baku Chaos, Parks Williams on Front Row
Alex Albuquerque
Sep 20, 2025
Fastest Lap

Carlos Sainz didn’t just survive Baku’s madness — he steered straight through it and parked a Williams on the front row. In a qualifying session that was repeatedly torn up and restarted — six red flags, a record for an F1 quali — Sainz owned the moment until the final minutes, when Max Verstappen did what Max Verstappen tends to do. Pole to the Red Bull. P2 to a beaming Sainz and a resurgent Williams. This was a session that kept thinning the herd. Lewis Hamilton fell in Q2. Championship leader Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc both found the wall in Q3. Lando Norris clipped Turn 15 and limped out of the fight. Through it all, Sainz played the game Williams needed him to play: out early, banker lap in, head down while the others blinked. For a solid stretch, he was sitting on provisional pole for good reason.

“Very happy. Honestly, we’ve nailed qualifying today,” Sainz said afterward, his voice more satisfied than surprised. “Right tyre, right time, strong laps. When a top car threaded it together, we knew we’d be a few tenths off — and it was Max. But we beat the rest. P2 is great news.” It’s no secret Sainz has been sharper over one lap than his race results have shown this year, and he didn’t shy away from that contrast. “I’ve been delivering in qualifying when it counts. The races and points haven’t gone the way we want, but the speed is there. The good results will come. I’m not worried.”

The target now is simple: podium. The opportunity is real. Track position in Baku can swing a Sunday, particularly with a car that’s tidy on the straights and obedient in the braking zones. And Williams has a subtle ace up its sleeve: Sainz kept back two fresh sets of hard tyres, the compound that’s expected to be the day’s workhorse. Team principal James Vowles, who’s spent much of the season chasing tyre preparation gremlins in qualifying, credited the garage for a clean execution at a circuit that punishes hesitancy.

‘Baku’s madness — he steered straight through it’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/sainz-defies-baku-chaos-parks-williams-on-front-row/


Lewis Hamilton Reveals What Went Wrong in Ruined Baku Qualifying
Sep 20, 2025
Nelson Espinal Newsweek
Rock Hill Herald

Hamilton looked to get his season going in Baku, aiming for his first potential podium finish with the Scuderia. Instead, he is once again on the back foot for the start of the race, though this time it was the tire choice that cost him.

"The medium tire was just much quicker," Hamilton told the media after qualifying. "The team chose to run me on the medium in Q2, and Charles was meant to run it second run in Q2, but then, because everyone else wasn't out on them, [we] opted to keep it, and then all the top 10 basically had three mediums.”

"We knew that the medium was quicker by, they said it was about three-tenths or something like that, and it felt great, and we should have run it in Q2. One of the things that kind of factored into it was a bit of direction the team were pushing for us to go with some of the setup, that didn't feel as good as [F]P2," the seven-time champion added.

‘What Went Wrong’;

https://www.heraldonline.com/sports/article312193643.html#storylink=mainstage_card


Carlos Sainz sets clear Azerbaijan GP target as ‘huge advantage’ emerges
20 Sep 2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

“Plan for tomorrow, try and stick it in the podium,” he confirmed. “I think I’m going to give it my best to give Williams that first podium [sic]. If it’s possible, great. And if it’s not, we will see.”

Reacting to Sainz’s front row achievement, Williams team principal James Vowles told Sky F1: “What I’m happy about is the team’s done brilliant work over the last 10 days. We have not been good in qualifying, getting the tyres ready and working.”

“And this weekend, the standout for me is that every time we’ve gone out, [F]P1 to qualifying, first lap, we can get that tyre working. So quick car and good result, and well done to Carlos. You saw out there how tricky it is. Brilliant, brilliant driver.”

“Plan for tomorrow, try and stick it in the podium”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/carlos-sainz-azerbaijan-gp-podium-target-two-hard-tyre-huge-advantage


Things that led to Hamilton's horrendous day at Baku following his pace-setting performance on Friday
21 Sep 2025
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

On the back of a highly encouraging practice day at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton endured an incredibly tough day at Baku, to start from the midfield on Sunday.

The British and the Monegasque driver posted impressive lap times in Q1, but their session started to go wrong in Q2. On their initial runs Leclerc went wide, wrecking his lap but also his team mate’s as Hamilton was forced to abort thanks to the resultant yellow flags.

Coming back out as the clock ticked down, Leclerc did enough to make Q3 on Pirelli's medium tyres. However, Hamilton was left out on his worn soft tyres, and the seven-time world champion was unable to make it out of Q2. All eyes were set on Leclerc, but the Monegasque, who always goes well at Baku, crashed just as the rain started to fall in Q3, bringing out the red flags and failing to set a lap time.

‘Hamilton was left out on his worn soft tyres’;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/27807


Sainz will ‘give it my all’ in Baku to claim maiden Williams podium
20 Sep 2025
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Even as he started his final lap, Sainz sensed the potential for a remarkable result. “I think our simulation said at the time maybe only Max and Lando could beat us. So I was thinking about a P3. In the end, it was only Max… It had to be Max!” he said with a wry smile.

“But, in general, I thought as soon as I started my lap at the end, I was actually coming very quick. I was like three or four tenths up on my lap. In one way, I was thinking, great, because this might even confirm or achieve pole, but then I was thinking the leaders are going to be even quicker, no? And that’s exactly what happened.”

Now, with a prime starting position, Sainz is laser-focused on converting his P2 into a podium, a feat Williams last achieved – in normal circumstances – in Baku with Lance Stroll’s third place in 2017. “I'm going to give it my all to give Williams a first podium. We'll see,” he vowed.

‘Give it my all’;

https://f1i.com/news/548900-sainz-will-give-it-my-all-in-baku-to-claim-maiden-williams-podium.html


Charles Leclerc blames Ferrari tyre call for 2025 Azerbaijan GP qualifying shocker
Four-time polesitter at Baku City Circuit crashed out on Saturday
20 Sep 2025
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

Charles Leclerc blames a Ferrari tyre call for his qualifying shocker at the 2025 Azerbaijan GP by criticising a decision to run the medium, as he crashed out at the Baku City Circuit on September 20.

‘Ferrari tyre call’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/charles-leclerc-blames-ferrari-tyre-call-f1-2025-azerbaijan-gp-qualifying-shocker/

[Fortitude]

Verstappen claims dominant Azerbaijan win over Russell and Sainz after Piastri crashes out.
Max Verstappen was never challenged on Sunday in Baku, while Lando Norris brought the gap down to title rival Oscar Piastri after the Australian’s dramatic opening lap crash.
21 September 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Max Verstappen claimed a lights-to-flag victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, while Lando Norris closed the gap to title rival Oscar Piastri to 25 points after the Drivers' Championship leader crashed out on the opening lap.

Verstappen was never headed on the streets of Baku, leading all 51 laps and winning by over 14 seconds from Mercedes' George Russell and Carlos Sainz, who claimed his first podium for Williams having just lost out on pole position.

Kimi Antonelli narrowly missed out on the final step of the podium, having run well all day, but was well clear of a fierce battle for fifth, which was headed by Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson, who claimed a career-best result.

‘Max Verstappen was never challenged’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-claims-dominant-azerbaijan-win-over-russell-and-sainz-after.gT4fbKTwpl3dI79nDmrHS


2025 F1 Azerbaijan GP – Race Results
Max Verstappen led from start to finish in Baku as Oscar Piastri crashed out on Lap 1
21 September 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Azerbaijan GP 2025 Race Results
Check out the full F1 2025 Azerbaijan GP results from Baku below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Leader
2 George Russell Mercedes +14.609
3 Carlos Sainz Williams +19.199
4 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +21.760
5 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +33.290
6 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +33.808
7 Lando Norris McLaren +34.227
8 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +36.310
9 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +36.774
10 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +38.982

‘Race Results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-azerbaijan-gp-race-results/


Max Verstappen dominates F1 Azerbaijan GP as Oscar Piastri crashes out on opening lap
21 September 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Max Verstappen dominated Formula 1‘s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, completing a lights-to-flag victory, as Oscar Piastri crashed out on the opening lap. The Dutchman cemented his pole position advantage at the start and never looked back, as George Russell, battling illness, took second.

Carlos Sainz fulfilled his ambition of a first podium for Williams with third. Team-mate Lando Norris had a a big chance to close the gap in the Drivers’ title, but yet another McLaren pitstop issue condemned him to a disappointing seventh place.

‘Max Verstappen dominated’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/09/21/max-verstappen-dominates-f1-azerbaijan-gp-as-oscar-piastri-crashes-out-on-opening-lap/


Formula 1: Kiwi Liam Lawson finishes fifth in Azerbaijan Grand Prix
21 September 2025
Grant Chapman
Radio New Zealand

Kiwi Liam Lawson has notched up his best result in the 2025 Formula 1 season so far, finishing fifth in Azerbaijan. Lawson started third on the Baku City Circuit, but fell several positions after pitting early, although he held off several contenders for his place in the final laps. Lawson, 23, clocked the third-fastest time of Q3, covering the 6km circuit in 1m 41.707s.

Reigning F1 champion Max Verstappen won the race, leading from start to finish. George Russell took second place, with Carlos Sainz rounding out the top three.

Sep 21, 2025 1:40 PM
RNZ Live
Finish: "Unbelievable race, guys," Verstappen tells his team.
"Super job, George," Russell's team tells him.
Sainz is voted driver of the day and he is jubilant.
Great day for Lawson, not the podium he wanted, after his third in qualifying, but progress, as he tries to secure his drive for next year.

'Kiwi Liam Lawson finishes fifth ';

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/573688/formula-1-kiwi-liam-lawson-finishes-fifth-in-azerbaijan-grand-prix


Max Verstappen takes easy Azerbaijan GP win as F1 title battle takes another twist with Piastri crash in Baku
Verstappen wins Azerbaijan GP after Piastri’s Lap 1 crash, with Russell second and Sainz scoring an emotional podium for Williams
21 September 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

The streets of Baku once again delivered high drama as Max Verstappen stormed to victory at the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, capitalising on Oscar Piastri’s opening-lap crash to spark new life into the Formula 1 title battle. The Red Bull driver controlled the race from lights to flag, pulling clear of George Russell’s Mercedes and Carlos Sainz’s Williams to underline his growing momentum in the second half of the season.

For championship leader Piastri, it was a nightmare that could reshape the fight for the crown. After jumping the start, stalling, and tumbling to the back, the Australian lost control into Turn 5 and hit the barriers at the Baku City Circuit, ending his race before it had truly begun. His first major error of 2025 left him watching helplessly as title rivals fought to chip away at his 31-point cushion.

But Lando Norris failed to make it count. Despite McLaren’s offset strategy and fresher tyres late in the race, the Briton was unable to climb higher than seventh. The net result was only a six-point gain on his team-mate, trimming the championship gap to 25, while Verstappen sits 69 points adrift but suddenly with renewed hope.

‘Another twist with Piastri crash’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/max-verstappen-wins-red-bull-azerbaijan-gp-f1-2025-piastri-out/


2025 F1 championship standings after Azerbaijan GP at Baku
Check out the full F1 championship standings after the 2025 F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix – held at the Baku City Circuit
21 September 2025
RacingNews365 Staff
RacingNews365

F1 championship standings.

Oscar Piastri McLaren
McLaren F1 team 324

2 Lando Norris McLaren
McLaren F1 team 299

3 Max Verstappen Red Bull
Red Bull Racing 255

4 George Russell Mercedes
Mercedes AMG F1 212

5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari 165

6 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari 121

7 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes
Mercedes AMG F1 78

8 Alexander Albon Williams
Williams Racing 70

9 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls
Racing Bulls 39

10 Nico Hulkenberg Stake
Stake F1 Team 37

‘Check out the full F1 championship standings’;

https://racingnews365.com/2025-f1-championship-standings-after-azerbaijan-gp-at-baku

[Fortitude]

Piastri and Norris have let Verstappen back in the title fight.
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris respective failures in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix have allowed Max Verstappen to rejoin the F1 Drivers' Championship fight.
21 Sep 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Given the excellent form McLaren has shown since the beginning of the season, and judging Red Bull's inability to put in consecutive performances, it is almost inexplicable that Verstappen sits 69 points away in the Drivers' Standings after 17 rounds. A trait that characterises Verstappen is his ability to deliver. Weekend after weekend, the Dutchman poses a threat on the timesheets, usually being classed as either the best of the rest, or the leader of the session when his machinery, and others' mistakes, will allow him.

When his car is good enough for pole, he usually claims the first spot on the grid. When his potential and grid position suggests he should win a race, he more often than not does. This is a level of consistency that neither McLaren driver have been able to live up to on a regular basis. In two race weekends McLaren have left the door open, and twice has Verstappen drawn blood, cutting Piastri's lead in the championship standings by 35 points, a third of what it was after the Dutch Grand Prix.

Seven Grands Prix to go and it seem like too short an amount of time to turn the championship around. After all it would require McLaren to lose every race left on the calendar, and Verstappen, on the contrary, would need to win nearly every race, if not all, to secure his fifth consecutive World Championship. An impossibility? One merely needs to look back at the 2023 season to know that he has the potential to do it.

‘Ability to deliver’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/analysis/have-mclaren-opened-the-door-for-verstappens-title-comeback-charge


Piastri crashes out in Baku to end calamitous weekend
21 Sep 2025
The North West Star

Piastri has been left blaming himself for a calamitous weekend at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after he crashed out on the first lap and then had to watch forlornly from a plastic chair at trackside in Baku as his world championship lead was cut.

‘Watch forlornly from a plastic chair’;

https://www.northweststar.com.au/story/9071332/piastri-crashes-out-in-baku-to-end-calamitous-weekend/


'It's just impossible': Disbelief as critics round on Lando Norris' failure to cash in on Piastri crash
September 22, 2025
Emily Patterson
Channel 9's Wide World of Sports

While Oscar Piastri's retirement in Azerbaijan gave McLaren teammate Lando Norris a golden opportunity to gain ground in their championship battle, the Briton could only manage a seventh-place finish, narrowing the gap by just six points. His race was hampered by a slow pit stop and heavy traffic, leaving him stuck behind Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda and Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson despite a long stint on his medium tyres. A slow pit stop also hurt Norris' race at the Italian Grand Prix earlier this month. Speaking afterwards, Norris pushed back against the idea that he failed to seize big moments across the weekend.

"I don't know why everybody says that [it was an opportunity missed]," he said. "I did the best I could yesterday and the best I could today. Of course, today I wanted more. So it was not a good result. But I couldn't do anything more today. It was lost yesterday because of going out a bit early. Not doing the best lap. Maybe you could've gained a couple of positions, but I don't think it really changes anything today. It's just impossible to overtake."

'It's just impossible';

https://www.nine.com.au/sport/motorsport/f1-news-2025-mclaren-oscar-piastri-lando-norris-world-championship-title-fight-azerbaijan-grand-prix-20250922-p5mwyo.html


McLaren must improve F1 pitstop hardware after Azerbaijan GP setback - Andrea Stella
Lando Norris suffered slow pitstops for consecutive races after further troubles with wheel guns at the Azerbaijan GP
Sep 22, 2025
Ed Hardy Oleg Karpov
Motorsport.com

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella reckons his Formula 1 squad needs to improve its pitstop hardware after further struggles in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Lando Norris was the only McLaren driver to score points in Baku as he finished seventh while championship leader Oscar Piastri crashed out on lap one.

But Norris’ bid to progress through the pack was halted by his slow, 4.1s pitstop on lap 38 after a problem with the front right wheel gun. That released him into eighth right behind the cars of Charles Leclerc and Liam Lawson with Norris only able to overtake the Ferrari across the final 13 laps.

“In terms of pitstops, that's an area in which we have already concentrated our efforts,” said Stella. “But as a matter of fact, we need to keep working because there's some important performance that is available through pitstops and we have seen that the racing, if anything, is getting tighter and tighter.”

‘Must improve F1 pitstop hardware’;

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mclaren-pitstop-hardware-azerbaijan-gp-setback/10761472/


Piastri slammed after 'absolutely ridiculous error' in Baku GP
22 Sep 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

F1 analyst Peter Windsor commented on McLaren’s disappointing weekend in Baku, marked by Oscar Piastri’s retirement and Lando Norris finishing only seventh. Windsor slammed Oscar Piastri’s weekend, pointing out that the Australian not only crashed into the wall twice between qualifying and the race, but also made a false start—what he labelled as a serious mistake.

"Two virtually identical accidents, one on Saturday, one on Sunday. His race began right behind Lando on the grid. He was P9 by jumping the start. In these days where you do nothing but watch the lights, it was an extraordinary mistake. And I guess because of that, flustered at the back of the field now, Oscar just went for it. An absolutely ridiculous error, particularly after doing virtually the same thing the day before."

“Absolutely ridiculous error”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/piastri-slammed-after-absolutely-ridiculous-error-in-baku-gp


Did Norris’s slow pit stop really ‘make no difference’ to him? Azerbaijan GP data
21st Sept 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was quick to deny Lando Norris’s race suffered as a result of his slow pit stop on lap 37. Was he right? Compared to the quickest standard pit stops, Norris lost around two seconds. He rejoined the track immediately behind Charles Leclerc, with Liam Lawson ahead of them.

In a best-case scenario for Norris he would have rejoined between Lawson and Leclerc, immediately used his DRS to pass the Racing Bulls car, and then been able to attack Tsunoda without the Red Bull driver having the benefit of DRS. But it’s far from certain this would have happened.

Moreover, the slow pit stop was only the last in a long line of things which went wrong for Norris over the weekend. There was the questionable qualifying strategy, the error on his Q3 lap, losing positions at the start and restart. Given that, it’s hardly surprising Stella doesn’t want to focus on the pit stop alone. However it’s also true that this was the second race in a row in which a slow pit stop compromised Norris’s race, and McLaren know they need to get on top of that.

‘Azerbaijan GP data’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/09/21/did-norriss-slow-pit-stop-really-make-no-difference-to-him-azerbaijan-gp-data/


'A silly, simple error': Piastri crashes out at Baku as F1 championship lead dwindles
21 Sep 2025
The Roar

Oscar Piastri has been left blaming himself for a calamitous weekend at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after he crashed out on the first lap and then had to watch forlornly from a plastic chair at trackside in Baku as his world championship lead was cut.

But while Max Verstappen drove away to a masterful victory in his Red Bull on Sunday, Piastri could at least reflect the damage hadn’t be too bad to his title hopes as his main contender, McLaren teammate Lando Norris, could only finish seventh.

For the third race in a row, Norris had wretched luck, suffering another poor pitstop that ensured he couldn’t get among the big points, and he ended up gaining only six on Piastri to trim his lead to 25 points.

'A silly, simple error';

https://www.theroar.com.au/2025/09/22/a-silly-simple-error-piastri-crashes-out-at-baku-as-f1-championship-lead-dwindles/


Norris fails to capitalise on Piastri crash as Verstappen wins in Baku
Norris could only finish seventh after title rival Piastri crashed out on the opening lap in Baku
21 September 2025
Scott Hunt
The Independent

Oscar Piastri’s F1 title charge survived a first-lap crash at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix without major damage as rival Lando Norris could finish only seventh.

A second crash of the weekend for Piastri ended his 34-race streak of finishing a Grand Prix within five corners and threw the door wide open for McLaren team-mate Norris to make major inroads into his championship lead.

But Norris started sluggishly and overtaking was at a premium during the 51 laps on Baku’s windy streets, meaning he could only take six points out of Piastri’s title lead, which stands at 25 with seven rounds remaining.

‘Could only finish seventh’;

https://www.independent.co.uk/f1/f1-azerbaijan-gp-result-piastri-norris-verstappen-b2830804.html


Who slept worst last night: Oscar Piastri
Sep 22, 2025,
Christian Nimmervoll
Motorsport.com

‘Who slept worst last night: Oscar Piastri’;

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/who-slept-worst-last-night-oscar-piastri/10761524/

[Fortitude]

Stella Warns Verstappen Still a Title Threat Despite Piastri Lead.
Andrea Stella insisted Max Verstappen remains a serious championship contender, saying he would “WRITE IT IN CAPITALS.”
September 22, 2025
Media
F1 Chronicle

Despite McLaren’s dominance, Verstappen’s six pole positions this year are more than any other driver. But with seven races remaining, he still trails Piastri by 69 points and Norris by 44. Stella warned that the situation is complicated by McLaren’s two drivers competing against one another.

“Of course, of course,” he said when asked if Verstappen was still a danger. “We don’t have to forget that first of all he’s Max Verstappen – world champion for the last four years – in a fast car. Like I said before, there are races where McLaren may not enjoy any advantage from a competitiveness point of view. And Lando and Oscar are always there, so they won’t necessarily be maximising the points available.”

“Sometimes it will be a little bit more points for Lando and a little bit more for Oscar, so they may take some points away from each other. We are very aware of this aspect, but we let them race because they both deserve to pursue their aspirations. Therefore, yes, Verstappen and Red Bull in contention for the drivers’ championship.”

“WRITE IT IN CAPITALS”;

https://f1chronicle.com/stella-warns-verstappen-still-a-title-threat-despite-piastri-lead/


Helmut Marko sets Red Bull target ‘to make McLaren nervous’ in F1 title race
22 Sep 2025
Connor McDonagh
Crash.Net

Red Bull’s improved competitiveness, combined with more frequent errors from the McLaren pair, means Verstappen has an outside shot at a fifth world title. Marko believes what happens in Singapore will decide whether Red Bull “can start dreaming” about a fifth title for Verstappen.

“What Andrea said is very optimistic, but I hope he’s right,” he told De Telegraaf. “The gap is still big, and it’s not often that a McLaren doesn’t finish the race. But we’ll see. If we’re competitive in Singapore in two weeks’ time, maybe we can start dreaming.”””

“Not only is it a different circuit, but it’s also boiling hot. Our car doesn’t always like that either. Singapore will be the benchmark for where we really stand. And we’ve always said: we have to be as close as possible to McLaren to make them nervous.”

‘Make McLaren nervous’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1082243/1/helmut-marko-sets-red-bull-target-make-mclaren-nervous-f1-title-race


Wolff Warns: Verstappen’s Long Shot Just Got Dangerous
September 22, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Toto Wolff: Verstappen’s still in this title fight — but it’ll take a swing. Max Verstappen left Baku with something more valuable than a trophy: momentum. Two wins on the bounce have trimmed Oscar Piastri’s championship lead from a chunky 104 points to 69, and the conversation has shifted from “when does McLaren wrap this up?” to “hang on, are we sure?” Toto Wolff isn’t committing to the plot twist just yet, but he’s not ruling it out either.

“You always need to stay with your feet on the ground and humble,” the Mercedes boss said after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. “He’s had a good run, the car is good and with Max Verstappen, you always need to be wary of what he can achieve. What’s the gap? Sixty-nine points. That’s the long shot. Things need to work in his favour. But you can see a DNF for the championship leader, Max scoring 25 points — it can swing quickly.”

Wolff has reasons to mind the Verstappen resurgence beyond the drivers’ standings. Mercedes are locked in a hard-nosed scrap for P2 in the Constructors’ Championship — a target they haven’t hit since 2023 — and the “point machine” in the Red Bull is the fly in that ointment. “It’s a tough fight,” Wolff said. “They’ve got some solid points today and Max is a point machine.” As it stands, Mercedes hold second place by just four points over Ferrari, with Red Bull only 18 further back. That’s the kind of margin that evaporates in a single rough weekend.”

‘More valuable than a trophy: momentum’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/wolff-warns-verstappens-long-shot-just-got-dangerous/


Red Bull boss addresses shock Max Verstappen F1 title bid
Max Verstappen took a big bite into Oscar Piastri's title lead following a run to victory last weekend in Azerbaijan.
23 September 2025
Fergal Walsh & Aaron Deckers
RacingNews365

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has downplayed a potential title push for Max Verstappen following his victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Mekies insisted the Milton Keynes-based squad is not placing focus on the gaps in the championship. "I tell you how we look at it - we really take it race by race, so we don't look at the championship positions,” he told the media, including RacingNews365.

“We don't even look at it from a constructors’ perspective. Yes, it's nice to look at the battle for second place in the constructors’, but we take it step by step in terms of understanding of the car, in terms of unlocking lap time of the car. We got some good answers in Monza, of course,” he said. “We got some good answers here [in Baku]. We are equally conscious that these are two very, very specific tracks.”

“The way we look at the next race is not by looking at the gap to whoever. Singapore is going to be a different challenge. How do we tackle it? How do we apply learnings to that? How much of that we think can be tested there and how much risk do you want to take? At the moment, we try to have a high-risk approach to try to learn as much as we can before the end of the season and [see if] that prevails in championship discussions.”

‘Big bite into Oscar Piastri's title lead’;

https://racingnews365.com/red-bull-boss-addresses-shock-max-verstappen-f1-title-bid


Out of nothing, Max Verstappen is back in F1 title race – here’s why
Analysis: A series of McLaren mishaps in Baku and a revitalised Red Bull car has, suddenly, given Verstappen an outside chance of an unprecedented comeback in the F1 championship fight
23 September 2025
Kieran Jackson
The Independent

It was always likely that a moment of DNF-inducing fallibility from leader Oscar Piastri was needed to reignite this season’s F1 world championship. And, on the typically unpredictable streets of Baku, we got just that. Piastri’s abnormal crash on lap one of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix opened the door for title rival Lando Norris to slice into the Australian’s 31-point advantage.

This was the moment Norris, and his fans, had craved. But by the chequered flag, it wasn’t the Briton who was the main beneficiary, having only managed to finish seventh and cut the gap to 25 points. Instead, it was Max Verstappen. You didn’t forget about him, did you?

Where other frontrunners toiled and trudged in heavy winds on the shores of the Caspian Sea, Red Bull’s four-time world champion oozed composure. A dominant lights-to-flag victory – his fourth win of the season and second in a row – suddenly sees the Dutchman just 69 points off Piastri. With seven races to go, it no longer looks like an insurmountable deficit.

‘Outside chance of an unprecedented comeback’;

https://www.independent.co.uk/f1/max-verstappen-f1-2025-title-piastri-norris-b2831239.html


The biggest gaps overturned in modern F1 history shows the improbable task for Verstappen
23 Sep 2025
Sam Cooper
PlanetF1.com

Max Verstappen is attempting to create history as he looks to overhaul a 104-point gap and win a fifth Drivers’ title. We are focusing solely on the current points system, introduced in 2010, which awards 25 points for the winner, 18 for second, 15 for third, 12 for fourth, 10 for fifth, eight for sixth, six for seventh, four for eighth, two for ninth and one for 10th.

The biggest gaps overcome in F1 title history since 2010
2017 – 25 points (Lewis Hamilton)
2014 – 29 points (Lewis Hamilton)
2010 – 31 points (Sebastian Vettel)
2012 – 44 points (Sebastian Vettel)
2022 – 46 points (Max Verstappen)
2025 – 104 points (Max Verstappen)?

‘Improbable task for Verstappen’;

https://www.planetf1.com/features/the-biggest-gaps-overturned-in-modern-f1-history-shows-the-improbable-task-ahead-of-max-verstappen


Verstappen Smells Blood: Is the Title Race Back On?
22 Sep 2025
Alex Albuquerque
Fastest Lap

That “high-risk approach” is the tell. This is Red Bull pivoting from survival mode back into development aggression — willing to trade setup certainty for speed if the data says it’s there. The question now is whether their Monza/Baku step is circuit-specific, or real enough to travel.

Verstappen isn’t pretending otherwise. “I don’t rely on hope,” he said. “It’s seven rounds left. Sixty-nine points is a lot. I just go race by race, what I’ve been doing basically the whole season — try to do the best we can, score the most points we can. After Abu Dhabi, we’ll know.”

Next stop: Singapore. It’s a venue that’s never quite bent to Verstappen’s will. No wins. No poles. The car will run high downforce, the tyres will cook, and it’s a night race that exposes any weakness in traction and balance. He knows the score. “I’ve never won there,” he shrugged. “We’ll see. It’s completely different… A lot of deg on the tyres. I really don’t know at the moment.”

“I don’t rely on hope”;

https://fastestlap.com/news/verstappen-smells-blood-is-the-title-race-back-on/

[Fortitude]

‘You’ll be behind Sainz’: Russell stunned Mercedes’ strategists with banzai pit entry.
Russell enjoyed the fastest complete pit stop time of the entire race. Thanks to those gains Russell rejoined the track narrowly ahead of Sainz.
22nd September 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

Russell’s radio messages from his pit stop
Lap: 39/51 RUS: 1’48.001
Dudley And now we’ve got Tsunoda in the pit lane.
Dudley So George we’ll be box, box this lap. One second behind Sainz on exit. Preset diff entry, diff mid.

Lap: 40/51 RUS: 2’00.578
Dudley Russell rejoins ahead of Sainz
Overtake available on exit. Watch the white lines.
Russell I thought you said they’d be a second behind?
Dudley Yeah, it was a very good pit stop. Gap 1.7 behind.

It was an especially impressive performance for the Mercedes driver as he had been unwell for much of the weekend and considered withdrawing on Friday. Team principal Toto Wolff congratulated him after the race, saying: “George, really well done. Well driven. Flu does good for you.”
“Yeah, not bad considering I felt like ass all weekend,” Russell replied.

‘Banzai pit entry’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/09/22/youll-be-behind-sainz-russell-stunned-mercedes-strategists-with-banzai-pit-entry/


Uncovered: Russell’s rise from the sick bed to the podium in Baku
22 Sep 2025
Uros Radovanovic
PlanetF1.com

George Russell, alongside Max Verstappen, was the only driver within the top five to start the race on hard tyres – a strategy that later proved to be much stronger. One of the main reasons for this was that, apart from the opening lap, we did not have a single incident that would bring out the Safety Car. This allowed the drivers who had started on hards to stay out longer, with equally good pace, and later have greater freedom in choosing the timing of their pit stop.

In a race with such low grip as this one in Baku, overtaking was difficult, meaning that track position was much more valuable. Despite being on the harder tyres, Russell had a better restart in Lap 5 after the Safety Car, compared to his teammate ahead. This gave him the chance to attack into T1, but the rookie defended excellently and kept his place. George braked harder than usual into T1, even though his teammate had left enough room, which Tsunoda behind took advantage of to steal P5.

George Russell was, alongside Max, the fastest on track. If we compare the lap times from Laps 29 to 39, when Sainz had the advantage of much fresher tyres, Russell was still on average a tenth quicker per lap. And this is exactly what allowed him to constantly increase his gap to Sainz. When the gap was large enough, the team made the call and brought their driver in. A quick pit stop and Russell came out just 1.3 seconds ahead of Sainz, now officially in P2.

‘Rise from the sick bed’;

https://www.planetf1.com/features/uncovered-george-russell-rise-sick-bed-to-podium-baku


Sick, Slick, and Second: Russell Benches Bottas in Baku
Alex Albuquerque
September 21, 2025
FastestLap.com

Sick, slick, and second: Russell guts out Baku podium as Mercedes readied Bottas. Mercedes very nearly called Valtteri Bottas back into service in Baku. By Friday morning, George Russell’s respiratory illness had left the team weighing up a late switch. By Sunday evening, Russell had dragged a bruising weekend into a polished P2 — the sort of salvage job that makes a team’s debrief room go quiet for a minute. The first sign it was serious came on Thursday when Mercedes excused Russell from media duties to help him recover. Even then, Toto Wolff admitted the situation was “touch and go” the following morning.

“It was George himself that said, ‘I’m not sure I can do it,’” Wolff revealed after the race. “Then every day he grew stronger, and to do a one-and-a-half hour race here in Baku without putting a foot wrong — that was a super-merited P2.” Russell qualified fifth on Saturday, and when the grand prix settled into its typical Baku rhythm — quick straights, slower brains — he leaned on the oldest trick in the Caspian playbook: stay out of trouble, manage the rubber, wait for the race to come to you.

An early shuffle dropped him to sixth, but he refused to burn up his tyres in the traffic, stretched his first stint long, and made the overcut bite. When he finally stopped, he came back out second on the road and never cracked. “It was about just staying out of trouble,” Russell said in the press conference. “I don’t think we had a spectacular weekend, to be honest. Carlos did an amazing job, and Liam as well yesterday. But the cars we ordinarily fight made mistakes or underperformed, and we picked up the pieces. The cooler temps helped a little bit, too.”

‘Sick, Slick, and Second’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/sick-slick-and-second-russell-benches-bottas-in-baku/


Mercedes casts positive take on Kimi Antonelli after ‘important’ F1 result
23 Sep 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has cast a positive verdict on Andrea Kimi Antonelli‘s Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix performance, after a summer of discontent for the Italian. “It was a really good rebound after Monza,” Wolff told the media, including Motorsport Week.

“He had such a difficult spell with the European races, and coming here with a solid P4 and running at the front, in the front group, is something to continue to build on and consolidate, and then have more good weekends until the end of the year. I think we always speak very openly with each other; there is no such thing as holding back.”

“He was not meeting his own expectations with what happened in Monza, where the driving just wasn’t what he expected or wanted it to be. Maybe a bit was missing in ultimate performance that maybe made the difference between a podium or not, but it was such a good consolidation, and in my opinion, it was important to score that result.”

‘Positive verdict’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/09/23/mercedes-casts-positive-take-on-kimi-antonelli-after-important-f1-result/


Wolff Explains Context Behind 'Lucky Ba**ard' Comment to Williams Chief
September 23, 2025
Saajan Jogia Newsweek
Bellingham Herald

Mercedes AMG Formula One team principal Toto Wolff has opened up on his "lucky ba**ard" remark… "Lucky ba**ard! Congrats on your first podium as a TP."

Now, Wolff has elaborated on the friendly but "jovial" message and addressed Vowles' leadership capabilities. He told the media: "The lucky ba**ard is more jovial. As team principals, we get lots of the criticism, but also the glory, when others are doing a great job.”

"And I'm 100 per cent convinced that James is a great contributor to the team's success, and to the long-term thinking. Everybody delivered. The driver delivered. The pit stops were good overall. It's a trajectory that I enjoy seeing with him and for the team."

‘More jovial’;

https://www.bellinghamherald.com/sports/article312234771.html#storylink=mainstage_card


Toto Wolff ‘in two minds’ over latest Mercedes customer success in F1 2026 nod
23 Sep 2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

George Russell’s P2 in Baku was not the only Mercedes-powered podium result, as Carlos Sainz delivered an impressive drive to third in his Williams. Add that to the success of McLaren, which is on its way to clinching back-to-back Constructors’ titles as a Mercedes engine customer, and it is a great advert for Mercedes in Formula 1. Yet, the other voice in Toto Wolff’s head hopes Mercedes customers will not be “harming us” in F1 2026.

After Baku, Wolff was asked whether, having seen the performances of McLaren and Williams, he is concerned that a good Mercedes engine in F1 2026 could allow those two teams to mix it up with the Mercedes squad. “Or Alpine. You never know,” he responded. “So the thing is, I’m in two minds. First of all, we represent Mercedes-Benz, and I’d rather have a customer team with Mercedes-Benz engines winning than any other manufacturer.”

“But on the other side, I’m thinking, hopefully they’re not harming us, our campaign, too much. So, I’m happy for them and happy for the brand.” Wolff joked that he may need to take action on the Mercedes engine front. “On the other side, I’d like to take the engines away next year,” he said as laughter broke out. “Maybe they fail a few times!”

‘Toto ‘in two minds’ Wolff’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/toto-wolff-in-two-minds-mercedes-customer-success-f1-2026-competition

[Fortitude]

Guenther Steiner makes stunning Lewis Hamilton claim as ‘some’ Ferrari staff seek Carlos Sainz reunion.
Guenther Steiner says ‘some’ Ferrari staff regret Lewis Hamilton replacing Carlos Sainz.
25 Sept 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Steiner was asked on the Red Flags Podcast if Ferrari regretted bringing in Hamilton to replace Sainz this season and said: “I think some people in the team do. I think obviously management cannot feel regret because you would be admitting that you did something wrong, and you cannot do that, because I’m sure that some of the guys there, the feeling I get, because Ferrari finished eighth and ninth in Baku. Carlos Sainz, now with Williams, finished third, so it’s like, I guess the guy feeling best about it is Carlos Sainz.”

Later in the podcast, Steiner was asked during the Gas or Brake segment whether Sainz’s podium proves that Ferrari made the wrong choice in signing Hamilton. “Gas!” Steiner said, “I mean, Carlos was doing a good job. They wouldn’t have all the interference from outside of Lewis not performing, so the team could focus on going racing, making things better, instead of always trying to find out why Lewis doesn’t like the car.”

“They had a known quantity with Carlos; he could deliver, and Lewis obviously, I mean, I respect Lewis, but in the moment, for the unrest he brings into the team and around the team, is it a worthwhile investment? Maybe not. Also, the investment money-wise, I’m pretty sure it’s a lot higher with Lewis than with Carlos.”

‘The unrest he brings into the team’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/guenther-steiner-makes-stunning-lewis-hamilton-claim-as-some-ferrari-staff-seek-carlos-sainz-reunion/


The mascot that spurred Carlos Sainz and Williams to best F1 result of 2025
23 Sep 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

“You have a new mascot on the back of your helmet, Carlos?” Verstappen asked his former Toro Rosso stablemate in the cool down room after the race. “It’s a unicorn!” he replied. “A fan sent us this, I said I would wear it this weekend,” which prompted Verstappen to urge Sainz: “You have to keep it now!”.

Team Principal James Vowles also noted the mascot’s appearance, saying on a video posted by Williams: “There’s one more thing that is actually quite special, I’m pretty sure either Sparkles or Sprinkles had something to do with this as well at the same time. So, that’s staying, I assume, for a little while.”

In last week’s pre-race edition of Williams’ in-house social media series ‘Call Carbono’, a young fan posed an important question to Sainz: what should she name her toy unicorn? Whilst undecided between the choice of ‘Sparkles’ or ‘Sprinkles,’ Sainz did agree to her request of wearing a unicorn sticker on his helmet for the remainder of the season. And with the unicorn adorning his lid in Baku, Sainz completed a momentous moment for the team by completing the podium alongside race-winner Max Verstappen and George Russell.

‘The mascot’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/09/23/the-mascot-that-spurred-carlos-sainz-and-williams-to-best-f1-result-of-2025/


Carlos Sainz has clear Lewis Hamilton stance after beating him to historic podium
24 Sep 2025
SPORTbible

After the race in Azerbaijan, Sainz was asked for a comparison between himself and Hamilton, but he refused to be drawn in.

He said: “What everyone else does is not my business, to be honest. What I care about is that the first opportunity that I had to score a podium with Williams, and the first opportunity Williams had to score a podium, we took it, we scored it, and there it is.”

“What everyone else does is not my business, to be honest”;

https://www.sportbible.com/f1/carlos-sainz-lewis-hamilton-formula-1-williams-ferrari-899684-20250924


Sainz snatches Baku podium; Ferrari’s Hamilton still waiting
Alex Albuquerque
Sept 24, 2025
FastestLap.com

Carlos Sainz didn’t just put Williams back on a grand prix podium. He did it before Lewis Hamilton managed one in Ferrari red. That’s a neat headline for the season’s biggest driver swap — the man Maranello moved on picking up silverware with Grove while his replacement waits for a Sunday rostrum — but Sainz isn’t interested in the comparison. He’s too busy making Williams relevant on merit.

Baku can make anyone look like a hero or a passenger, and qualifying was the full circus: gusting winds, a spitting track, six cars in the wall and red flags thrown around like confetti. In the chaos, Sainz threaded a lap between stoppages and rain to bag a front-row start, only Max Verstappen finding more when the session rebooted. The real test was always going to be Sunday. Track position is currency in Azerbaijan, and there were faster cars queued up behind the blue-and-white FW47. It didn’t matter.

Sainz managed the afternoon with the poise of a driver who’s been here before — because he has — and carried Williams to third place at the flag, the team’s first podium in a full-length grand prix since this very race in 2017. “I always said to the team from the beginning that whenever a first big opportunity of fighting for a podium comes, as long as we have everything under control and nothing goes wrong and we prove to everyone what we’re doing… then I’ll be OK,” Sainz said, smiling the kind of smile that comes with relief and a little vindication. “It’s exactly what ended up happening today.”

‘He did it before Lewis Hamilton managed one in Ferrari red’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/sainz-snatches-baku-podium-ferraris-hamilton-still-waiting/


Lewis Hamilton not on Sainz’s mind after landmark Williams podium
24 Sep 2025
Elizabeth Blackstock
PlanetF1.com

By snagging third in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz secured a podium with Williams before Lewis Hamilton — who took over his seat at Ferrari — could accomplish the same feat with his newest squad. Carlos Sainz’s landmark front-row start with Williams at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix had many wondering if a strong performance was possible in the race, or if Sainz had simply gotten lucky in an unpredictable qualifying session.

Qualifying is not race pace, and Sainz’s true test was to come on Sunday afternoon. Yet, despite the fact that multiple top-tier cars had qualified behind him, he was able to hold onto third come the chequered flag, giving Williams its first podium in a full-length grand prix since the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. It was a triumph for Sainz, and his team.

“Probably, if you asked many of us yesterday, we didn’t believe the podium was actually achievable with so many fast cars behind. But I think we’ve had good pace this year, we just didn’t have many opportunities to show it. Today we had a very good opportunity to show our very good pace, and we managed to stay on the podium.”

‘Carlos Sainz’s landmark front-row start with Williams’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lewis-hamilton-not-on-sainzs-mind-after-landmark-williams-podium


Carlos Sainz Shrugs Off Lewis Hamilton Comparison After Baku Podium
Sept 24, 2025
Saajan Jogia Newsweek
Macon.com

Williams Racing Formula One driver Carlos Sainz has shrugged off the comparison with Lewis Hamilton after securing his first podium with the team this year at last weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Sainz's milestone in a midfield team is a stark contrast to Hamilton's results in a strong team like Ferrari, as he has yet to deliver a top-three finish this season. Hamilton's Ferrari signing last year meant Sainz had to look elsewhere for a premier class racing seat. Eventually, he signed with the Grove-based outfit, impressed by team principal James Vowles' long-term goal of making Williams a championship-winning outfit.

Quite naturally, moving from a team where he won many races and several podiums last year to a team where scoring points would be a challenge was a difficult pill for Sainz to swallow. Hamilton, on the other hand, was expected to be in top form, given his wish to secure an eighth title with Ferrari. However, he has faced significant challenges in adapting to the SF-25 F1 car, often reporting his dissatisfaction with the car's rear end. Notably, his best result with the Maranello-based outfit was his Chinese Grand Prix sprint race victory.

‘Hamilton, on the other hand, was expected to be in top form’;

https://www.macon.com/sports/article312249700.html#storylink=mainstage_card


Ralf Schumacher suggests Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari should go their ‘separate ways’ if they can’t fix one problem
24 Sept 2025
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

Speaking on a post-Baku podcast for Sky Sport Formel 1, former F1 driver turned pundit, Ralf Schumacher, voiced his opinion on the dynamic between Hamilton and his current employers, suggesting a dramatic end to their highly anticipated partnership after just one season together.

“The way they treat each other isn’t good. Then there’s Lewis’s criticism of the team. I’m sceptical of the combination,” Schumacher told viewers. “And then there’s this failure to swap back with Leclerc before the finish line. Ferrari has to do its work internally, otherwise it’ll tear itself apart from within. A thunderstorm clears the air; that’s a thing of the past. We simply need to talk openly with each other. The limits and expectations need to be defined. If Lewis no longer has trust in the team, and vice versa, that would be a great shame. Because if mistrust develops, then it’s better to let it go and go our separate ways at the end of the year.”

“The way they treat each other isn’t good”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ralf-schumacher-suggests-lewis-hamilton-and-ferrari-should-go-their-separate-ways-if-they-cant-fix-one-problem/

[Fortitude]

Tsunoda, Lawson, Hadjar - Who should join Verstappen in 2026? Our verdict.
Red Bull‘s long-running dilemma of who should partner Max Verstappen shows no sign of ending as the 2026 Formula 1 season approaches.
Sept 25th 2025
Motor Sport Magazine

With just four months to go until testing begins in Barcelona, the team appears uncertain of its choice, as it continues to focus on its own pool of drivers.

The three candidates currently in F1, Yuki Tsunoda, Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar, each bringing a different mix of speed, experience, and potential, but also their own drawbacks.

‘Red Bull‘s long-running dilemma’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/tsunoda-lawson-hadjar-who-should-join-verstappen-in-2026-our-verdict/?nowprocket=1


Has Lawson’s Baku charge helped to secure his Racing Bulls future?
SEPTEMBER 25, 2025 · 10:33 AM
Adam Cooper's F1 Blog

It’s not been an easy season for Liam Lawson, demoted from Red Bull Racing and then largely overshadowed of late by his Racing Bulls team mate Isack Hadjar… …a strong performance from Lawson in Baku that saw him held off a train of cars led by none other than Tsunoda came with perfect timing, and his fifth place will have done him a lot of good. A great lap in Q3 saw him briefly second on the grid behind Carlos Sainz before Max Verstappen pipped them both.

In the end Lawson lost out only to the two Brackley cars as George Russell and Kimi Antonelli pushed him down to fifth. It was a decent result, and the confident way in which he kept a pack of potentially faster cars at bay would have done him a lot of good in the Red Bull camp. “I don’t think we had the speed today to finish on the podium, as much as I would have loved it,” he said when I asked about his race.”

“And when you start there, obviously part of you tries to make it possible, or feels like it’s possible, and we tried everything today. I think we made the right call on pit stops. Tried to cover Kimi, but we just didn’t have the speed today. Part of it’s frustrating, but I think looking at it as a big picture, it’s a great result to finish fifth, and we’ll take that going forward.”

‘Lawson’s Baku charge’;

https://adamcooperf1.com/2025/09/25/has-lawsons-baku-charge-helped-to-secure-his-racing-bulls-future/


Red Bull in no rush to make 2026 driver decisions after strong weekend in Baku
24 Sep 2025
Alan Baldwin
Reuters
The Japan Times

Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda celebrated personal bests in Baku last weekend but both will have to wait for news on their Formula One futures.

Sunday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix was the first race since Russia in 2020 where the energy drink brand's two teams — Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls — had all their drivers score points.

Four-time world champion Max Verstappen won for Red Bull, with Racing Bulls' Lawson finishing a career high fifth after starting third, the highest F1 grid position by a New Zealander since Chris Amon in 1976.

‘Red Bull in no rush’;

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2025/09/24/more-sports/tsunoda-lawson-red-bull-future/


Tsunoda explains why he avoided ‘hero’ move on Lawson
22 Sep 2025
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Yuki Tsunoda celebrated a career-best finish with Red Bull Racing in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, securing sixth and eight valuable points – his best result in F1 since his fourth-place finish in Abu Dhabi way back in 2021. However, Tsunoda admitted that he had to temper his instincts to avoid a risky “hero” move on his rival that could have jeopardized the team’s strong showing.

“I had a lot of emotions that I wanted to overtake, and so some hero thing, some hero stuff in overtaking, but yeah, [I told myself to] slow down,” he said. “I couldn't do some aggressive manoeuvre and lose position to Lando, it matters for Red Bull as a team being ahead of McLaren. The most important thing is to be ahead of McLaren, and both cars were in front.”

Reflecting on the race, Tsunoda acknowledged he could have attempted a bolder move on Lawson just after his tyre change. “In the second stint, unfortunately, if I was able to rejoin two metres faster, probably I would have been able to keep Liam behind,” he said.

‘Temper his instincts’;

https://f1i.com/news/549146-tsunoda-explains-why-he-avoided-hero-move-on-lawson.html


Liam Lawson ridicules Racing Bulls 'easy' theory: 'How can you know?'
Liam Lawson's fifth place in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix helped elevate Racing Bulls to sixth in the constructors' championship.
23 Sept 2025
Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

Following the race at the Baku City Circuit, it was put to Lawson that "a lot of people say that the Racing Bulls is the easiest car". Asked whether he agreed with the theory, speaking to the media, including RacingNews365, the New Zealander gave the idea short shrift.

"Unless you drive every single car on the grid, how can you know what each car is like to drive?" responded Lawson. "It's a consistent car. It's something that we can definitely say, and be proud of, that across the board, at all sorts of different tracks, it's consistently fast.”

"That doesn't mean it's easy to drive, but the speed is in the car, and that's been something we've been able to utilise across the season so far." Describing what unfolded in Azerbaijan as "extremely positive", Lawson added: "The main thing is, as I say, our car has been consistently good across the board at all sorts of different tracks, so that's very positive for us.”

‘Racing Bulls 'easy' theory’;

https://racingnews365.com/liam-lawson-ridicules-racing-bulls-easy-theory-how-can-you-know


‘Team’ orders for Lawson with Tsunoda behind? ‘None at all’
23 Sep 2025
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Liam Lawson’s fifth place at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was never under threat from the Red Bull pit wall despite the Racing Bulls driver keeping Yuki Tsunoda at bay, says Alan Permane. One thing was certain, though, there wouldn’t be any instructions between the two Red Bull-owned teams.

“There were none at all,” Permane confirmed to DAZN. “We weren’t going to let him through, of course. Liam did a great job keeping behind a faster car. Yuki had fresh medium tyres and Liam did a great job holding him off with elbows out.”

“Liam is very tough mentally, very strong. He’s been focused all weekend. He drove perfectly. He’d never raced here in F1, yes in F2 but that’s very different. He kept progressing from FP1, FP2, FP3. Qualifying was extraordinary and the race exceptional.”

‘None at all’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/team-orders-liam-lawson-yuki-tsunoda-behind-none-baku


Liam Lawson reveals hidden issue behind his best F1 result in Baku
The Racing Bulls driver finished a career-best fifth in Azerbaijan but admitted a costly mistake left him powerless in a key fight
21 Sept 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

Lawson ran strongly in the opening phase of the race, holding third behind Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz. But once the pit stops played out, the 23-year-old found himself locked in a duel with Antonelli. Emerging ahead of the Italian after stopping on Lap 21, Lawson thought he had covered the undercut — only for his rival to blast past him on the following lap, exploiting DRS and a drained battery.

Antonelli pulled away to finish fourth, while Lawson regrouped to withstand fierce pressure in a DRS train to secure fifth at the flag. After climbing out of the car, Lawson admitted the incident had been a turning point in his race. “I ran out of energy, it was so frustrating,” Lawson told the press, including Total-Motorsport.com.

“I saw the bar and got to the straight, and I knew halfway down that I was going to have nothing left. It’s something I learned from. When the next pack of cars came, I made sure it never happened again, and I always had the energy to defend.” The rookie conceded that Antonelli would likely have got by anyway, given Mercedes’ superior pace, but stressed that the moment had been a valuable lesson.

‘A turning point in his race’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/liam-lawson-reveals-hidden-issue-behind-best-f1-result-baku/


Red Bull’s 2026 Purge: Will Tsunoda, Lawson Survive?
Sept 26, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Red Bull’s youth squeeze: Schumacher says Tsunoda and Lawson still on the bubble for 2026. That’s the blunt read from Ralf Schumacher, who believes the senior team and junior squad are lining up a fresh reset that could leave both men without a chair when the music stops.

In Azerbaijan, both finally showed some teeth. Lawson stuck his car third on the grid and turned it into a career-best fifth, stonewalling a train that included Tsunoda, Lando Norris and both Ferraris. Tsunoda, on much fresher mediums versus Lawson’s ageing hards and with DRS to boot, couldn’t crack the door — but still banked P6, his best result in Red Bull colours. It felt like a corner turned. Schumacher isn’t so sure.

“Before Baku, I would’ve said both Tsunoda and Lawson were out,” he said on the Backstage Pit Lane podcast, arguing that even with a strong Sunday, the problem is less about form and more about Red Bull’s conveyor belt. The Austrian system looks primed to promote Isack Hadjar to the senior team with Verstappen for 2026, while F2 livewire Arvid Lindblad is widely tipped to step into Racing Bulls. That leaves one RB seat — and, in Schumacher’s eyes, a very real chance McLaren junior Alex Dunne gets it.

‘Red Bull’s 2026 Purge’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/red-bulls-2026-purge-will-tsunoda-lawson-survive/

[Fortitude]

Lewis Hamilton asks for 'love and support' as dog Roscoe in coma.
The seven-time world champion said: “Please keep Roscoe in your thoughts. I want to keep you all updated. Roscoe caught pneumonia again and was struggling to breathe.
26th Sep 2025
David George
National World

Roscoe, who is 12 years old, was diagnosed with pneumonia in April and has been on medication ever since. But this week, the bulldog has suffered a second round of pneumonia and his heart stopped as vets rushed to his aid. Roscoe is now in a coma after what Hamilton, 40, described as a “scary few hours”.

Lewis Hamilton: “He was admitted into hospital and sedated to calm him while they did checks on him and during the process his heart stopped. They managed to get a heartbeat back and now he’s in a coma. We don’t know whether he will wake from this. Tomorrow we’ll try to wake him up. I’m by his side and want to thank you all for your prayers and support.”

Speaking to the Mercedes-Benz F1 team’s YouTube channel in a Q&A session, Hamilton said: “I remember being online, looking online for rescues. There’s some page I found that had like 1,000 bulldogs and I just went through all of them and then I came across this one picture and I was like, ‘That’s him!’ That was like one of the best decisions I ever took in my life.”

“Please keep Roscoe in your thoughts”;

https://www.nationalworld.com/sport/formula-1/lewis-hamilton-dog-roscoe-in-coma-when-did-ferrari-star-adopt-him-and-how-long-is-a-bulldogs-lifespan-5335633


How Lewis Hamilton's Dog Roscoe Shot to Fame With More Than 1M Followers
September 26, 2025
Saajan Jogia Newsweek
Rock Hill Herald

Hamilton adopted Roscoe in 2013, the same year he joined Mercedes, before going on to secure six world titles and play a key role in the team’s eight Constructors’ Championships over the following 12 years. Roscoe accompanied the seven-time world champion at Grand Prix venues, stealing the limelight as he became one of F1’s most loved stars. His Instagram profile features some adorable and hilarious updates of him, often accompanied by Hamilton himself, which boosted his popularity. Shared below is a post of Roscoe’s first trip to the Ferrari garage:

Hamilton shifted Roscoe to a vegan diet in 2020 in a bid to improve his health. Sadly, Roscoe slipped into a coma yesterday after doctors got his heart beating again. The 12-year-old dog is suffering from pneumonia. Hamilton revealed in a post today that it is uncertain if Roscoe will wake up again. Newsweek Sports reported his comments:

“Please keep Roscoe in your thoughts. I want to keep you all updated. Roscoe caught pneumonia again and was struggling to breathe. He was admitted into hospital and sedated to calm him while they did checks on him and during the process his heart stopped.

‘More Than 1M Followers’;

https://www.heraldonline.com/sports/article312277934.html#storylink=mainstage_card


‘Don’t know whether he will wake from this’: Hamilton pulls out of Ferrari tyre test to be with sick dog
September 27th, 2025 8:05 am
AFP from Afp
Fox Sports (Australia)

Seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton withdrew from a tyre test with Ferrari in Italy to be with his sick dog, he revealed on social media. Posting on Instagram, Hamilton said his 12-year-old bulldog Roscoe had been hospitalised with pneumonia and was now in a coma.

“Roscoe caught pneumonia again and was struggling to breathe,” the 40-year-old British driver wrote. “He was admitted into hospital and sedated to calm him while they did checks on him and during the process his heart stopped. They managed to get a heartbeat back and now he’s in a coma. We don’t know whether he will wake from this.”

‘Don’t know whether he will wake from this’;

https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport/formula-one/f1-2025-lewis-hamilton-withdraws-from-ferrari-tyre-test-to-be-with-sick-dog-roscoe-update/news-story/6d9806fd2a234afc5fea292ff2b7e88c


Lewis Hamilton Backs Out of Ferrari Show: ‘I Need to Be With Roscoe'
September 27, 2025
Geca Flores Parade
The Kansas City Star

Lewis Hamilton is prioritizing his dog Roscoe's health above everything else. Amid the 12-year-old doggo's battle with pneumonia, the Formula 1 star is once again stepping away from the spotlight.

In an Instagram Story, he announced skipping another high-profile event, this time Milan Fashion Week, to be with his fur baby, who currently needs medical attention. I was supposed to be in Milan for the Ferrari Fashion Show tomorrow and was really excited about it. But as you know, I need to be with Roscoe right now," he wrote.

Despite the unexpected changes, the 40-year-old racer assured that he will continue to support the upcoming show. "I'll be watching the show on @ferraristyle and want to send my love and support to Rocco and the whole team. I'm sure it's going to be amazing – enjoy the livestream on Saturday at 9:30am Milan time and see you very soon!" he added.

‘I Need to Be With Roscoe';

https://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/article312283160.html#storylink=mainstage_card


Hamilton Sidelined by Roscoe Scare; Zhou Steps In for Ferrari
September 26, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Hamilton steps aside from Mugello tyre test as Zhou steps in for Ferrari. Ferrari will field Zhou Guanyu alongside Charles Leclerc in Friday’s Pirelli tyre test at Mugello after Lewis Hamilton withdrew late on, with the decision coming in the wake of a health scare involving the Briton’s beloved bulldog, Roscoe.

Pirelli confirmed the revised line-up on Thursday evening, naming Zhou in the SF-25 mule car for the final day of running. No official reason was given for Hamilton’s absence, but it followed an emotional post from the seven-time World Champion, who shared an image of 12-year-old Roscoe in an incubator and wrote: “It’s been a scary few hours. Everyone please keep Roscoe in your thoughts and prayers.”

Ferrari hasn’t offered further comment, but the change is understood to be for personal reasons. It’s a compassionate call in a week that was already light on low-hanging positives for Hamilton, who’s still hunting his first Ferrari podium in a season that’s proven more spiky than smooth. Ferrari and customer team Haas are at Mugello to support Pirelli’s development push for the 2026 tyres, using a mix of adapted machinery and “mule” cars tuned to mimic next year’s active-aero era.

‘Hamilton Sidelined by Roscoe Scare’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/hamilton-sidelined-by-roscoe-scare-zhou-steps-in-for-ferrari/


Lewis Hamilton skips Pirelli F1 test after dog Roscoe’s health scare
Lewis Hamilton will not be in action for Ferrari in the Pirelli tyre test at Mugello
26 Sep 2025
Connor McDonagh
Crash.net

Reputable Italian journalist Rosario Giuliana has since reported Hamilton will not take part in the Pirelli 2026 tyre test later today. Hamilton was due to drive alongside Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc at Mugello.

However, the seven-time world champion will be replaced by reserve driver, Zhou Guanyu. Giuliana reported: “For understandable reasons, Lewis Hamilton will not take part in tomorrow’s Pirelli test, with Zhou joining Leclerc in his place.”

The latest Pirelli test will give teams another chance to try out the new rubber for next year. The 2026 tyres are still 18 inches in diameter, but the front tyre width has been reduced from 305mm to 275mm.

‘Roscoe’s health scare’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1082454/1/lewis-hamilton-skips-pirelli-f1-test-after-dog-roscoes-health-scare

[Fortitude]

Newey's shocking working hours: 'He didn't come to retire'.
"It’s because he sees the team’s potential. Newey is working... not 24 hours a day, because he sleeps. But he sleeps very little, I can guarantee you that. And it’s amazing” de la Rosa told the Dura La Vita podcast.
26 Sep 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Aston Martin ambassador Pedro de la Rosa highlights the level of Newey’s dedication to Aston Martin. “Any day you go to the factory at any time, you look and he’s in his office.”

"Any time, I can even tell you at two in the morning. I’ve gone there at that time to pick up things and leave. The Adrian Newey effect isn’t just a marketing hype. It’s a work effect, an inspiration effect, and it’s stretching and inspiring new generations. Everyone is very excited to work and learn with him.”

According to de la Rosa, Newey’s commitment is tied to Aston Martin’s long-term investment in the team. “Newey came to the team because he sees the potential. Because of the investment, which takes many years to materialise in wind tunnels, CFD testing, etc, the potential is there. But we’re going to prove it in 2026. All of this is fine words, but a lifeline speaks volumes.”

"Any time, I can even tell you at two in the morning”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/neweys-shocking-working-hours-he-didnt-come-to-retire


Alonso and Newey Plot Aston Martin’s 2026 Coup
September 28, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Inside the glass-and-carbon corridors at Silverstone, one of F1’s most intriguing partnerships is taking shape. Fernando Alonso finally has Adrian Newey on his side, and the pair are already deep in the weeds, sketching out Aston Martin’s answer to the sport’s 2026 reset. Alonso, never shy about the scale of his ambitions, sounds energised — and a little humbled — by the process. Speaking in-house at Aston Martin, he admitted you sometimes need “full brain capacity” just to keep up when Newey starts connecting the dots. The punchline? In those moments, Alonso says Newey’s only using “five percent.”

Where does the driver instinct meet the design intent? What trade-offs will help the guy in the cockpit extract more on a Sunday? What’s the effect on technique if the car goes this way, not that? That feedback loop matters. The 2026 regulations promise sweeping changes to both chassis and power unit philosophies, and the teams that marry concept with usability will surface first. Newey, Alonso hints, is probing those intersections, seeing how his directions might change braking points, rotation, traction — the real on-track stuff. And when the questions come, they’re deceptively simple. The answers, even simpler — at least to him.

“He’s always in his room, at his drawing board,” Alonso said, painting the classic Newey picture. Focused, direct, deliberate. The message: the details will come when the car’s more mature. For now, it’s about the compass, not the map. All of this lands as Aston Martin stands at a fork. The team has built the infrastructure — the wind tunnel, the talent pipeline, the upgraded campus — but step-changes in F1 don’t arrive by courier. They’re built across seasons. Newey’s presence accelerates the learning curve. Honda’s works deal completes the ecosystem. Put simply, Aston Martin won’t just be fitting someone else’s engine; they’ll be building a grand prix car with the power unit as a central design pillar. That’s a different game.

“He’s always in his room, at his drawing board”;

https://fastestlap.com/news/alonso-and-newey-plot-aston-martins-2026-coup/


Alonso’s ‘brain capacity’ challenged in Adrian Newey F1 2026 progress update
28 Sep 2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Opportunity knocks in a major way for F1 2026, with sweeping changes coming to the chassis and engine regulations. Aston Martin has Newey on its side, an icon of F1 design, having contributed to 26 world championship wins. The Silverstone squad also has a works engine deal with Honda from next year, as the Japanese brand migrates over from Red Bull.

With Aston Martin, Alonso is chasing a long-awaited third World Championship. F1 2026 will mark two decades since his second and latest title triumph. “Yeah, he’s an incredible person, the best designer in the history of our sport, and everyone in the team is learning a lot from him,” said Alonso.

“Everything Adrian does, you try to understand why he is doing that, why he chose that direction, or why he’s answering in that way, because there is always something to learn from him. Even from a simple answer that he can give to you in response to a question, that simple answer can be so clear to him, but why is it not for others?”

‘Aston Martin has Newey on its side’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/fernando-alonso-adrian-newey-f1-2026-progress-update


Alonso’s Bold Bet: Aston Martin Title “Guaranteed”
September 27, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Fernando Alonso doubles down: Aston Martin title fight is “more or less guaranteed”—it’s just a matter of when… Fernando Alonso doesn’t do half-measures. Not on track, not in interviews. And in Baku, he cut through the noise with a blunt assessment of Aston Martin’s trajectory: a title fight is coming. The only unknown, he says, is timing. “I’m pretty convinced,” Alonso told Aston Martin’s official website. “The only thing is when. That’s probably my only question mark from this project.”

On paper, it’s a bold call. Aston Martin sits seventh in the 2025 Constructors’ standings, a long way from the sharp end Alonso craves. But the team has bet big on the reset arriving in 2026: a new regulations package, a Honda works power unit deal, a brand-new wind tunnel and expanded factory, and, crucially, the Adrian Newey-led design effort aimed squarely at the first year of the new rules. Alonso, contracted through 2026, sees the pieces arranged. Now they need to click.

“Aston Martin Aramco fighting for and winning the World Championship is more or less guaranteed in the future,” he said. “We have everything that is needed to fight for a World Championship. Then, to execute the job and to win it, you need some external factors as well: you need a little help from the competitors; you need a little bit of luck; you need to execute every weekend well.” It’s classic Alonso: conviction laced with pragmatism. He’s never been shy about setting the bar, and he’s smart enough to add the caveats that keep you honest in a sport where the margins are a science and the unknowns pile up quickly under new regulations.

‘Alonso’s Bold Bet: Aston Martin Title “Guaranteed”’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/alonsos-bold-bet-aston-martin-title-guaranteed/


Alonso's first F1 title, 20 years later: 'He was just another level'
Sep 25, 2025
Nate Saunders
ESPN.co.uk

WIDE-EYED, CRAZED, TRIUMPHANT. Fernando Alonso climbed onto the front of his blue and yellow Renault. Pumping his fists into the sky, a high-pitched shriek tore out of his mouth, followed by, "Come on! Come on!" It created an iconic image at what was a landmark moment in Formula 1: Twenty years ago, on Sept. 25, 2005, Alonso was king of the world. With two whole races to spare, a 24-year-old from Oviedo, Spain had shattered the sport's status quo.

In his duel with McLaren's Kimi Räikkönen, one familiar name had been missing: Michael Schumacher, whose run of five straight drivers' titles -- and Ferrari's six straight constructors' -- had come to an abrupt end without so much as a whimper. Third place at Interlagos had been enough for Alonso to clinch it. Two decades later, he insists it's that scream -- not the trophy, not the parties that night in São Paulo or back in Europe -- that he remembers.

"That was an incredible moment and emotion," Alonso told ESPN. "From the inside, it was just like a relief. A weight out of the shoulders of so much pressure in the months before Brazil, because the championship was getting closer and closer, but you're never 100% sure until it happens. So when it did happen, it was maybe 20 years of my life concentrated in those 10 seconds of celebration."

"Come on! Come on!" That scream -- not the trophy, not the parties that night in São Paulo or back in Europe -- that he remembers;

https://www.espn.co.uk/racing/f1/story/_/id/46378188/fernando-alonso-first-f1-title-20-years-later-was-just-another-level


Yuki Tsunoda lifeline emerges as Andretti confirms major signing for 2026 season
27 Sep 2025
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

Rumours that Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda could secure a Formula 1 lifeline with the Aston Martin team are set to intensify ahead of the F1 2026 season. Reports have indicated that Drugovich is set to cut ties with Aston Martin at the end of the F1 2025 season, likely creating a vacancy in the team’s driver ranks.

Tsunoda is widely expected to be replaced by Isack Hadjar at Red Bull Racing for F1 2026 having struggled since becoming Max Verstappen’s teammate after two races of this season. Tsunoda has been persistently linked with a future role with Aston Martin since the team confirmed more than two years ago that it would enter a technical partnership with Honda, Tsunoda’s long-term backer, at the start of the F1 2026 season.

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com at last year’s Monaco Grand Prix, Tsunoda admitted that Aston Martin could “maybe” emerge as his long-term destination due to the team’s burgeoning relationship with Honda.

‘Honda, Tsunoda’s long-term backer’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/yuki-tsunoda-red-bull-aston-martin-andretti-lifeline

[Fortitude]

Max Strikes Back: Red Bull’s Late-Season Revolt.
Tsunoda throws weight behind Verstappen as Red Bull smells a late-season swing.
Sept 28, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Max Verstappen has turned the 2025 title fight from a cruise into a chase over the past two weekends, and the mood inside Red Bull has changed with it. Two commanding wins in Monza and Baku, aided by a sharply effective new floor, have chopped 35 points out of Oscar Piastri’s lead. The Dutchman still sits 69 points back, but after a flat mid-season, this is the first time the pendulum looks like it might budge.

Yuki Tsunoda, fresh off his best result since stepping up to the senior team with P6 in Azerbaijan, says Red Bull aren’t filing this year under “move on to 2026” just yet — and he’s ready to play wingman if the chance presents itself. “I think definitely, we are more confident in the coming races to perform better,” Tsunoda said. “I’m sure we’re not giving up with this season, especially securing the Drivers’ Championship for Max. I’ll try to extract performance as much as possible from the car that I have and, if I can support him, that would be good.”

The floor package introduced at Monza looks like a genuine step. Verstappen’s speed through the medium- to high-speed stuff was the story in Italy, while Baku underlined the car’s improved range as Red Bull handled the traction and braking-heavy street circuit with poise. It’s a combo that’s been missing at various points this year, and the effect has been immediate: Verstappen looks like Verstappen again.

‘Verstappen looks like Verstappen again’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/max-strikes-back-red-bulls-late-season-revolt/


Tsunoda: Red Bull and Verstappen ‘not giving up’ on F1 2025 title battle
28 Sep 2025
Henry Valantine
PlanetF1.com

Yuki Tsunoda has said he is sure Red Bull is “not giving up with this season”, especially looking to mount a title challenge with Max Verstappen. “I think teams are pushing a lot in terms of this, upgrades and everything, and trying to secure some milliseconds on every corner, which is very important,” Tsunoda said.

“I think definitely, we are more confident in the coming races to perform better, so I’m sure we’re not giving up with this season, especially securing the Drivers’ Championship for Max, so I’ll try to extract performance as much as possible from the car that I have, and also at the same time for some races, if I can support him, that would be [good].”

‘Not giving up’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/yuki-tsunoda-red-bull-f1-2025-title-fight


Verstappen ready for shake-up, eyes Singapore glory
28 Sep 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Max Verstappen has weighed in on the upcoming Singapore Grand Prix. The Red Bull Racing driver also highlighted several factors that may need to align to deliver a strong outing at the Marina Bay circuit. Verstappen highlighted the unique characteristics of the Marina Bay circuit, while also touching on the uncertainty surrounding tyre degradation. “It’s completely different. High downforce. A lot of degradation on the tyres, so we’ll see what happens. I really don’t know at the moment.”

Discussing what would be required to achieve his maiden win at the circuit, Verstappen also detailed how the car needs to feel right throughout the race weekend. “Depends on a lot of things. If the car is shocking to drive, yes, it’s really hard to keep it in a straight line. But if the car is nice to drive, then it’s more about just the physicality of it. At the same time, if everything’s going well, you can relax a bit more, and then naturally it’s less physical as well.”

Verstappen on preparation for Singapore: “Let’s wait and see. I mean, it’s always hot, and you’re sweating a lot, so you have to prepare for that. But I guess we’ve all done that — heat training and stuff — preparing for these kinds of races. Basically, it’s about getting comfortable with the uncomfortable. I don’t mind it. It’s a cool track. Of course, I’ve never won there, but it’s a cool feeling to drive, and I hope this year we’ll be a bit more competitive.”

‘Eyes Singapore glory’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/verstappen-ready-for-shake-up-eyes-singapore-glory


Why Red Bull has ‘more equations’ to solve despite back-to-back Verstappen wins
29 Sep 2025
Henry Valantine
PlanetF1.com

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has explained the different characteristics of the Marina Bay Circuit in Singapore means the team’s “equations” will “move a bit” to find the optimum setup. Having visited two low-downforce circuits in Monza and Baku, however, Mekies explained how Singapore represents a completely different challenge in almost every way. “You go to Singapore, you move a bit your equations. You keep the slow speed corners, but you go to maximum downforce, [where] we have been struggling quite a lot, [in] Budapest, and before Budapest, and also a much hotter track, probably compared to that.”

“We know how sensitive not only us, but the whole field, is to the aspect, so we take it step by step. We take the challenge of Singapore. It’s a track that’s been challenging for the team for many, many years, and in the context of what we are trying to see, it’s very important to see what suddenly doesn’t work there anymore, or whatever.”

“After trying to take it to the next step, you will be back to tracks with medium speed corners, where we were killed by McLaren two races ago in Zandvoort. You know, the gap was very significant. Also in Spa, we left Spa thinking that they were half a second faster than us, even though Max won the sprint. So that’s the next sort of set of answer we will be chasing.”

“You go to Singapore, you move a bit your equations”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/red-bull-equation-solving-singapore-gp


Why Red Bull is under pressure to deliver ‘fantastic story’ for Max Verstappen
29 Sep 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Red Bull is under pressure to deliver a “fantastic story” to ensure Max Verstappen completes his Formula 1 career with the team, according to his agent. Verstappen’s manager Raymond Vermeulen will be keeping a lookout on what is best for his man once the dust settles and it becomes apparent which team has interpreted the rules best.

“Everything could change next year with the new regulations,” he told De Telegraaf. “So it’s better to wait and see how things develop and who is where. Based on that, you can then look further ahead. This is nothing new, you know. In 2016, we moved from Toro Rosso to Red Bull, and later from Renault to Honda in terms of engines.”

“Those are all moments when you think: ‘What’s going to happen now?’ Those are developments that the three of us – Max, Jos [Verstappen] and I – are constantly monitoring. And Max ultimately has the final say. It would be a fantastic story if he drove his entire Formula 1 career for Red Bull. But that will only happen if he has the equipment to win.”

'Red Bull is under pressure';

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/09/29/why-red-bull-is-under-pressure-to-deliver-fantastic-story-for-max-verstappen/


Max Verstappen admits to having Red Bull doubts amid F1 slump
Max Verstappen admits to having doubts that Red Bull could turn around their fortunes in 2025.
28 Sept 2025
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Max Verstappen has admitted he wondered whether Red Bull would be able to turnaround their 2025 F1 season. “In the end you always go through certain difficult moment,” the Dutchman said. “And of course, sometimes you do think, ‘Is this going to be okay, can we still turn things around?’”

“But on the other hand, there’s no point to keep thinking like that. You always have to look for solutions, talk to people inside the team, and exchange ideas in a positive way. At the end of the day, that what it’s all about and that's what we have done.”

‘Having Red Bull doubts’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1082492/1/max-verstappen-admits-having-red-bull-doubts-amid-f1-slump


What Made Max Verstappen Commit to Red Bull for 2026? Manager Reveals Truth
Sept 28, 2025
Saajan Jogia Newsweek
The Wichita Eagle, Kansas City

In an interview with De Telegraaf, Raymond Vermeulen (Max Verstappen’s Manager) revealed the logic behind the four-time world champion’s decision to stay. He said: “Everything could change next year with the new regulations. So it’s better to wait and see how things develop and who is where. Based on that, you can then look further ahead.”

“This is nothing new, you know. In 2016, we moved from Toro Rosso to Red Bull, and later from Renault to Honda in terms of engines. Those are all moments when you think: ‘What’s going to happen now?’ Those are developments that the three of us – Max, Jos [Verstappen] and I – are constantly monitoring. And Max ultimately has the final say. It would be a fantastic story if he drove his entire Formula 1 career for Red Bull. But that will only happen if he has the equipment to win.”

When asked about the possibility of Verstappen being unable to be successful next year, he said: “Yes, that’s possible. But that could also apply to others. It would have been a huge gamble if he had signed a contract somewhere else for next year. There are no guarantees whatsoever. Everyone is making predictions, but they are all assumptions. Next year, it’s not just about the engine, but also about the chassis. And which people will be recruited here, what impact will that have? It’s a kind of puzzle you’re putting together. Hence the conclusion that it’s better to stay for at least another year.”

‘What’s going to happen now?’;

https://www.kansas.com/sports/article312300502.html#storylink=mainstage_card

[Fortitude]

Hints of McLaren ‘anxiety’ after Verstappen Azerbaijan GP win.
McLaren mistakes highlight Verstappen pressure. Cracks are already starting to appear for McLaren after Norris clipped the wall in qualifying and Piastri crashed into the barrier in Sunday’s race, believes F1 journalist Brandon Sutton.
26 Sep 2025
Joe Krishnan
Total Motorsport

F1 journalist Ewan Gale thinks it would be very unlikely that Verstappen wipes out the deficit in the remaining seven races, but his return to prominence is giving McLaren a headache.

“For me, I think it’s a stretch to say he [Verstappen] is in the title race. But what he will be doing is he’ll be causing anxiety to the McLaren drivers. They’ll be starting to look over their shoulder a little bit more rather than focusing on themselves,” he said.

“A lot has to happen for Verstappen to be in the title race. It needs McLaren to have another probably two off races. He probably needs Norris and Piastri to get into each other and take each other out of one of the races. But, as it stands, Piastri pretty much needs to finish third in every race and every sprint at the moment and he’ll still be ahead of Verstappen.”

‘Giving McLaren a headache’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-expert-mclaren-anxiety-verstappen-azerbaijan-gp/


Montoya: “Piastri’s Baku Errors Show He’s Feeling the Heat in F1 Title Fight”
30 Sep 2025
James Rees
F1 Chronicle

Oscar Piastri’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix performance was “terrible,” according to former McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya, who fears the Australian is beginning to crack under championship pressure. “Piastri lost his temper,” Montoya said. “I’ve been telling you, ‘Wait and see,’ and it was noticeable. For a while, when he was under direct pressure from Lando regarding the points, he was still performing well. But in Baku, the race was terrible.”

Montoya suggested the Australian misjudged his rivals in the opening laps. “Apart from jumping the start, the start itself was terrible. Then he thought he would pass people quickly. He calculated his braking based on those around him, but they braked late, so he braked later—and bang. Welcome to a street circuit. The mental problem for me is more complicated now, because you’re going to another street circuit, which is 100% a Lando track,” Montoya explained.

“You’re not in a position to attack Lando, because if you make another mistake, you’re going to create a world of unnecessary headaches. He has a big advantage, but as we’ve seen, that can change in a week. What he has to do is finish second or third, avoid mistakes, and create stability. Because another crash at this moment…”

“Piastri lost his temper”;

https://f1chronicle.com/montoya-piastris-baku-errors-show-hes-feeling-the-heat-in-f1-title-fight/


Villeneuve counters Norris' comments: 'That's not true'
29 Sep 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Jacques Villeneuve has responded to Lando Norris’s comments about his indifference to criticism. "That’s not true. There's not one driver, not one sportsman that says that. It's a way of trying to keep the pressure away. Everyone knows what's being written. Everyone gets affected even when you don't want it to. It’s somewhere at the back of your mind because it makes you think. Lando says that to try and minimise it. You have to because you don't want it to affect you too much. Just saying that means it's affecting him.”

In post-race comments following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Norris admitted Red Bull’s dominance at Baku. The Brit suggested that the Austrian outfit operated on “another level” through much of the weekend. Norris also acknowledged a troubling reality for McLaren, revealing that the team had been off the pace compared with Verstappen and Red Bull all weekend. With his seventh-place finish in Azerbaijan, Norris managed to gain six points on his teammate in the championship battle, but lost another 19 to Max Verstappen...

‘Norris acknowledged a troubling reality for McLaren’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/villeneuve-counters-norris-comments-thats-not-true


Golf analogy made as Oscar Piastri’s F1 title ‘jitters’ scrutinised
Oscar Piastri's mistake-ridden weekend in Baku has been examined.
30 Sep 2025
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Oscar Piastri suffered from “jitters” amid the pressure of the F1 title fight hotting up, according to former driver Jolyon Palmer. “I think we saw, just purely, a chink in the armour,” Palmer told the F1 Nation podcast. “We just saw a driver making a really basic human mistake. I can’t see anything other than he just got jittery. He must have got jittery.”

“I was trying to relate this across sports. I was thinking something like The Masters, you play four rounds of golf. Rory McIlroy has played golf for years and years and years, he knows how to put from three yards. But suddenly you are on the back nine on the final day and basic shots become really tricky and you tense up. You start swinging in a weird way, and I think that’s what happened to Oscar.”

“He starts ninth. So he’s a bit tense. You are starting from the mid-pack in Baku. It’s really narrow, especially at Turn 2, Turn 3, Turn 4. The amount of time someone has been bundled into the wall there at the start is pretty high. And he’s got his championship rival ahead of him. I think he’s simply got a bit twitchy. That’s just pressure, it’s jitters and the rest of it was compounded by the first mistake.”

“A chink in the armour”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1082954/1/golf-analogy-made-oscar-piastris-f1-title-jitters-scrutinised


The key McLaren weakness that recent F1 races have exposed
29 Sep 2025
Lena Ferle
Motorsport Week

McLaren boss Andrea Stella: “From a performance point of view, if you had asked me, ‘What is the most difficult weekend?’, I would have said it would be Baku or Las Vegas,” Stella told media including Motorsport Week.

“We know very well that the characteristics of our car mean that it is very competitive in long and medium speed corners, of which there are none in Baku, likewise in Las Vegas. The car is not particularly effective in straight line braking, of which there is a lot [in Baku and Vegas], or when you have to go through prescribed trajectories. The car really wants to roll in the corners, like Turn 1 at Zandvoort is a McLaren corner, of which you have none in Baku or Vegas.”

“But having said that, the car was fast enough to compete for pole position [in Baku], which is a credit to the engineers who have designed a pretty versatile car, even when not operating within the strengths of the car itself. So, Baku and probably Las Vegas, it will definitely not be a surprise that there are cars as competitive as McLaren.”

‘Key McLaren weakness’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/09/29/the-key-mclaren-weakness-that-recent-f1-races-have-exposed/


McLaren in a hurry to fix Norris' recent bane in title fight
26 Sep 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has admitted that recent pit stop issues remain a concern as the championship closes in. The spotlight fell on Norris once again after a slow 4.1-second stop in Baku, following a similar problem in Monza where a front-left wheel issue cost him nearly six seconds.

Andrea Stella has stated, “The pit stop itself didn’t make any difference because we would have ended up pretty much in the area of Leclerc... For me, the most important takeaway was that the car wasn’t fast enough. With a fast enough car, I think we would have been able to overtake and then have some free air and in free air actually use the full potential.”

Stella added McLaren are committed to improving. “We have seen that the racing, if anything, is getting tighter and tighter, so the impact of a pit stop now gets more and more important,” he said. “It’s an area in which we have already concentrated our efforts, but we need to keep working. Every tenth counts for the championship.”

‘Pit stop issues remain a concern’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/mclaren-in-a-hurry-to-fix-achilles-heel-its-getting-tighter


McLaren told to take immediate action to avoid looking ‘dumb’
McLaren have been offered some advice heading into the closing stretch of the 2025 F1 title fight.
26 Sep 2025
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Guenther Steiner has urged McLaren to back Oscar Piastri over Lando Norris in the F1 2025 title race. “In the end, you want to win the drivers’ championship as well, not only the constructors’,” Steiner told The Red Flags podcast. “The team is more important than the driver, and the drivers are, as I always say and not diminishing, just part of a team.”

“And both cannot win, so instead of having two fighting and lose it all, you get somebody to win. As much as Lando is the face and the favoured son, I think McLaren needs to be above that, and will be above that. It is crazy, but you have to do it. In my opinion, you have to do it to win.” Steiner added: “I think they will take the decision, because otherwise, if they lose it because of that decision, how dumb do they look?”

With Verstappen lurking, Steiner is adamant that the time has now come for McLaren to throw all their weight behind Piastri. Asked when he would make the call to back one driver over the other, Steiner replied: “I would make it now. “I would do, because I just want to make sure I win the championship. I said I think Max cannot get near, but if I already get the feeling there is a risk, why would I take it?”

'Avoid looking dumb';

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1082495/1/mclaren-told-take-immediate-action-avoid-looking-dumb-f1-title-race

[Fortitude]

Giedo van der Garde adamant that Max Verstappen will win 2025 F1 title because of one McLaren weakness.
“I don’t think Piastri or Norris will become world champion, but I think Max will,” van der Garde declared. “His car has become much more competitive. If you think about it, there are actually only two Grands Prix that are going really well for McLaren.”
25 September 2025
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

Former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde believes his compatriot will surely replicate Michael Schumacher’s feat of five consecutive drivers’ titles this season, referencing the mistakes of McLaren as the main catalyst. “I don’t think Piastri or Norris will become world champion, but I think Max will,” van der Garde declared. “His car has become much more competitive. If you think about it, there are actually only two Grands Prix that are going really well for McLaren.”

“They are Singapore, where Lando Norris is really good, and Qatar. But what about the others? I bet Max will win Abu Dhabi, Mexico, Brazil, and the United States. He’s 69 points behind Piastri, which is a lot, but we mustn’t forget that Lando and Oscar have never been world champions. So they too will have nervous moments. They too will make mistakes. They too will end up off the track. And Max? He has nothing to lose; he’ll give it his all. Believe me: he’ll become world champion.”

The biggest weapon in the Dutchman’s arsenal is the fact that he doesn’t have anything to lose. At Monza, Verstappen couldn’t care less about the McLarens behind him as they squabbled for position through the use of team orders. Now pinned as the underdog in the 2025 title fight and equipped with a more manageable car than before, Verstappen can unleash some of the best drives of his F1 career to try and claw his way back into the battle.

‘Max doesn’t have anything to lose’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/giedo-van-der-garde-adamant-that-max-verstappen-will-win-2025-f1-title-because-of-one-mclaren-weakness/


Why McLaren sees Max Verstappen as a ‘disruptor’ to F1 ambitions
30 Sep 2025
Anirban Aly Mandal
Motorsport Week

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has admitted that Max Verstappen still poses a threat to Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s 2025 Formula 1 title ambitions. “I think you have got to pay attention to Max,” he told Bloomberg while calling the 27-year-old a “disruptor”. “We have got to keep doing what we’re doing. The constructors’ is looking very good. We had a chance to wrap it up in Baku, but let’s not talk back at Baku. Hopefully we can get the job done in Singapore.”

“What we want to do is we want our two drivers and Max – but we’d like to kind of get him out of there – to fight for the championship and just give them equal opportunity, equal equipment, which is what we’re doing,” he added. “May the best man win. That’s what we want to do. We’d like to not play a role, if at all possible,” contemplated Brown.

“Lando had a mechanical [failure, at Zandvoort] and things can happen, safety cars and things of that nature. Our goal is to just set Lando and Oscar up to be competing for the championship down to Abu Dhabi, and may the best driver win.”

‘Max Verstappen as a ‘disruptor’’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/09/30/why-mclaren-sees-max-verstappen-as-a-disruptor-to-f1-ambitions/


Verstappen pushes McLaren into impossible sacrifice, sees Steiner
26 Sep 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Guenther Steiner believes Max Verstappen can still play a role in shaping the 2025 championship battle, and that McLaren may be forced into a tough call between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Speaking on the Red Flags podcast, the former Haas team boss argued that even if Verstappen has the best car at this stage, he won’t win every race. What matters, he said, is the pressure Verstappen’s presence puts on McLaren.

“I think even if Max has got the best car, he still can just make, you know, he will not win them all anyway, in my opinion. And so, but it could open up, that it gets competitive and that McLaren has to change the papaya rules and support one driver actually supported to win,” Steiner said.

‘The pressure Verstappen’s presence puts on McLaren’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/verstappen-prompts-mclaren-to-pull-the-trigger-on-favoured-son


Oscar Piastri ‘isn’t invincible’ as Australian racing icon drops Norris claim
25 Sep 2025
Elizabeth Blackstock
PlanetF1.com

David Brabham, son of the legendary Australian Formula 1 champion Jack Brabham, has pointed out that Oscar Piastri no longer looks invincible following his errors at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Australia’s first Formula 1 World Champion, Jack Brabham, secured titles in the highest form of motorsport in 1959, 1960, and 1966. Since then, only one Australian driver, Alan Jones, has managed to bring WDC honors back home to the country — but in 2025, Oscar Piastri appears to be on track to achieve the same feat.

So out of character was Piastri’s poor weekend that David Brabham, son of Jack Brabham, told RacingNews356 that “it was a surprise to see Oscar make such mistakes. “I think this could give Lando hope; it shows that pressure is starting to build and that Oscar can be cracked after all.”

“Oscar has made mistakes now,” Brabham argues. “Maybe that was even necessary. Now he can regroup, focus, and come back stronger for the rest of the season. It’s going to be interesting, because we’ve seen that Oscar isn’t invincible,” Brabham summed up. “If Lando seizes his moments, everything can change.”

‘Oscar Piastri no longer looks invincible’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/oscar-piastri-not-invincible-as-australian-racing-icon-drops-norris-claim


Oscar Piastri handed 'weakened' defence as McLaren prediction delivered
Guenther Steiner does not envisage Oscar Piastri's poor Azerbaijan Grand Prix will be detrimental to his confidence as the F1 drivers' championship enters its closing stages.
1 October 2025
Samuel Coop
RacingNews365

Oscar Piastri will not have "weakened his confidence" through his calamitous weekend at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, according to former Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner. "Oscar, up to now, has made very few mistakes in his career.

"Baku was one where he did, but I think he’s one of those guys who can say: 'I made mistakes, I get over it, I get back to being my normal self.' I don’t think it weakened his confidence. Now, going back to what I would call more normal circuits, I think McLaren will be stronger again."

"The races Max won were on high-speed circuits, with the Max factor involved — like Baku, where that guy can just pull it off sometimes," Steiner said. "But he cannot do it consistently, because his car is not as good as the McLaren." He added: "You can never write Max completely off... if everything goes as it should, he cannot win it anymore. He’s just too far back, and the McLarens at the moment are the better car."

"You can never write Max completely off...”;

https://racingnews365.com/oscar-piastri-handed-weakened-defence-as-mclaren-prediction-delivered


[B]Oscar Piastri feeling positive ahead of Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix
30 Sep 2025
Michael Doyle
ABC Online

Formula 1 drivers' championship leader Oscar Piastri has said he is "very keen" to go racing again after his worst weekend of the season. Piastri crashed out on the first lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, after crashing out of qualifying a day earlier.

"I'm very keen to get back in the cockpit," Piastri said in the lead-up to the weekend. "On paper, and with the temperatures involved in Singapore, our car has been proven to be comfortable in the past, and with that in mind, I'm looking forward to a really positive weekend."

"Very keen";

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-01/oscar-piastri-formula-1-singapore-grand-prix/105831828


Toto Wolff reaches verdict over stunning Max Verstappen F1 title upset
Toto Wolff has reached his judgement on whether Max Verstappen can launch a stunning F1 title upset.
1 October 2025
Jake Nichol & Aaron Deckers
RacingNews365

Toto Wolff believes it is a "long shot" for Max Verstappen to pull off a stunning F1 title upset and defeat McLaren. "I think you always need to keep your feet on the ground and stay humble," Wolff told media, including RacingNews365.

"He is on a good run, the car is good, and with Max Verstappen, you always need to be wary of what he can achieve, especially if he sees that the [title] is back on the cards. But 69 points is a long shot, things need to work in his favour, but a DNF for the championship leader, and Max scoring 25 points, things can swing quickly."

"Long shot";

https://racingnews365.com/toto-wolff-reaches-verdict-over-stunning-max-verstappen-f1-title-upset

[Fortitude]

F1 paddock rallies with sympathy for Lewis Hamilton after death of Roscoe.
“After four days on life support, fighting with every bit of strength he had, I had to make the hardest decision of my life and say goodbye to Roscoe,” Hamilton wrote.
01 Oct 2025
James Phillips
Motorsport Week

Hamilton’s Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc sent a heart, while erstwhile Mercedes stablemate George Russell replied: “I’m so sorry for your loss mate.” Pierre Gasly, who owns Simba, a Toy Poodle responded: “So sorry for your loss.” Esteban Ocon wrote a similar message of support for Hamilton: “We are all thinking of you Lewis. We will miss you Roscoe, RIP.” Mercedes said: “Our thoughts are with you, Lewis. Roscoe brought so much joy to those who met him and he’ll always be a part of our family.”

Hamilton’s new home Ferrari shared: “So sorry for your loss, Lewis. Roscoe was an amazing dog, and he will never be forgotten.” McLaren, his first team in F1 back in 2007, added its own poignant message: “Our thoughts are with you, Lewis. Roscoe was a star of the paddock and will be missed.” Red Bull commented: “Really sorry for your loss, Lewis,” Sauber adding: “He’ll be so missed in the paddock! Sorry for your loss, Lewis.”

Williams posted: “All of our thoughts are with you Lewis. So sorry for your loss,” as boss James Vowles added: “My deepest condolences Lewis. Thinking of you both.” Alpine also shared its own message of sympathy. “So sorry for your loss, Lewis. We’ll miss seeing Roscoe around the paddock.” F1 concluded: “Rest in Peace Roscoe Hamilton, a true star in his own right…. The FIA also posted a message: “The FIA family is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Roscoe. Our thoughts are with you Lewis.”

‘F1 paddock rallies with sympathy’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/10/01/f1-paddock-rallies-with-sympathy-for-lewis-hamilton-after-death-of-roscoe/


Tributes Pour in From F1 Paddock After Lewis Hamilton's Dog Roscoe Dies
September 30, 2025
Nelson Espinal Newsweek
Bellingham Herald

F1’s official account: “Rest in Peace Roscoe Hamilton, a true star in his own right.
“Lewis Hamilton's beloved Roscoe brought smiles to the paddock and warmed the hearts of fans all over the world. Our thoughts are with Lewis during this difficult time.
“Rest easy Roscoe, from paddock pup to Dogue icon, thank you for the pawprints you left on all of our hearts.”

The seven-time World Champion adopted Roscoe in 2013, and the pair have been inseparable ever since. In fact, both the driver and Rosce were on a vegan diet. The new diet allowed for Roscoe’s health problems to be minimized until recently, when the dog battled through issues that he had always battled throughout his life.

Roscoe became a social media icon, with 1.4 million followers on Instagram in an account dedicated to the dog. There were several shots of him living his best life alongside Hamilton. Roscoe was a true star in the F1 paddock and around the world. His presence will be missed.

‘Tributes Pour in’;

https://www.bellinghamherald.com/sports/article312320069.html#storylink=mainstage_card


Lewis Hamilton pays touching tribute to “amazing friend” who cared for Roscoe
“While I was travelling, she would take care of him and loved him as if he was hers. She was there every day, all day.”
01 Oct 2025
Connor McDonagh
Crash.Net

Lewis Hamilton has paid a heartfelt tribute to his friend Kirstin, who cared for his late dog Roscoe while he was away racing in F1. On Monday, Hamilton confirmed that Roscoe had passed away following a battle with pneumonia.

In a post on his Instagram story, Hamilton thanked his “amazing friend,” Kirstin, lauding her as a key reason why Roscoe had such a long life, exceeding the typical lifespan for a Bulldog. Hamilton wrote: “I want you to take time to uplift my amazing friend Kirstin. She trained both Roscoe and Coco and treated them like family. She helped look after their health and it is really through her that Roscoe lived so long.”

“While I was travelling, she would take care of him and loved him as if he was hers. She was there every day, all day. Even with a family and other dogs to look after, she never missed a day. We stood together when letting Roscoe go. I am so grateful to have had her in my life and Roscoe’s life. There is nobody like you Kirstin. Thank you.”

“It is really through her (Kirstin ) that Roscoe lived so long”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1082964/1/lewis-hamilton-pays-touching-tribute-amazing-friend-who-cared-roscoe


Lewis Hamilton's dog Roscoe dies in F1 star's arms as he shares devastating news
The driver's beloved pooch passed away last night.
29 Sep 2025
Daniel Moxon and Rachel Cronin
Daily Record

Lewis Hamilton has confirmed the tragic news of his beloved bulldog Roscoe's death today. The seven-time Formula 1 champion had remained at his faithful companion's side since last Wednesday, when he rushed the bulldog to a vet clinic following a "scary few hours" where his pup's condition rapidly declined.

However, matters took a turn for the worse on Friday, September 26, when Hamilton revealed his dog had slipped into a coma, reports the Mirror. He told followers on social media: "Please keep Roscoe in your thoughts. I want to keep you all updated. Roscoe caught pneumonia again and was struggling to breathe.

‘Lewis Hamilton's dog Roscoe dies in F1 star's arms’;

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/lewis-hamiltons-dog-roscoe-dies-35985733


‘Hardest decision of my life’: Hamilton’s heartbreak after death of beloved dog
September 30th, 2025
AFP from Afp
Fox Sports (Australia)

Lewis Hamilton has revealed he made the “hardest decision” of his life to put his 12-year-old bulldog Roscoe to sleep. The British former world champion missed a Formula One tyre test in Italy on Friday to be with his sick pet, who had been hospitalised with pneumonia.

The 40-year-old Ferrari driver said Roscoe had died in his arms on Sunday. “After four days on life support, fighting with every bit of strength he had, I had to make the hardest decision of my life and say goodbye to Roscoe. He never stopped fighting, right until the very end,” Hamilton wrote on Instagram.

“I feel so grateful and honoured to have shared my life with such a beautiful soul, an angel and true friend. Bringing Roscoe into my life was the best decision I ever made, and I will forever cherish the memories we created together. It is one of the most painful experiences and I feel a deep connection to everyone who has gone through the loss of a beloved pet.”

‘Hardest decision of my life’;

https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport/formula-one/formula-1-2025-lewis-hamilton-puts-dog-roscoe-down-after-pneumonia-battle-instagram-post-tribute/news-story/6ef1e2c21e4fea50abb460ddbc45bf36


Jeremy Clarkson offers sympathy to Hamilton following Roscoe’s passing
30 Sep 2025
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson also reacted to the passing of Roscoe. Former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson also reacted under one of Ferrari driver's posts. The Briton wrote: "Really sorry to hear that. It's hell."

‘Jeremy Clarkson offers sympathy’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/jeremy-clarkson-offers-sympathy-to-hamilton-following-roscoes-passing

[Fortitude]

How McLaren can win the F1 constructors’ in Singapore.
With seven rounds remaining, including Singapore, McLaren need just 13 points from the Marina Bay race to secure their second consecutive constructors’ crown and 10th overall.
2 Oct 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

A single podium finish from either Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri would be enough to confirm the title. The team’s dominance this season has been striking. With 12 wins and seven one-two finishes, McLaren has rarely been challenged at the front, bar the occasional one-man effort from Max Verstappen at Red Bull.

Even if Mercedes were to claim a 1-2 in Singapore with a McLaren on the podium, the points gap would remain too large for the title fight to continue, given the 303 points still available after this weekend. Ferrari would need to outscore McLaren by 35 points to keep the championship alive beyond Singapore — an outcome that is highly improbable.

‘A single podium finish’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-how-mclaren-can-win-constructors-championship-singapore-grand-prix-marina-bay-points-permutations/


How McLaren can seal F1 2025 constructors' championship this weekend
Oct 2, 2025
The Race

As it stands: F1 2025 constructors' championship (17/24 rounds)
1 McLaren 623
2 Mercedes 290
3 Ferrari 286
4 Red Bull 272

Mercedes is 333 points behind McLaren and must end the weekend 302 points behind or closer (owing to McLaren's superior tally of wins in the event of a countback) to take the constructors' championship fight to the US GP later this month. That means Mercedes must outscore McLaren by 31 points or more. Even a 1-2 finish in Singapore would not guarantee the title fight was prolonged; in that scenario, Mercedes would need McLaren's drivers to score a combined 12 points or fewer.

Ferrari is 337 points behind McLaren and like Mercedes must end the weekend 302 points behind or nearer to keep its hopes alive. That means it must make up 35 points or more on McLaren. It can only do so by winning the race and having its second car finish fifth or higher. If Ferrari does not win the Singapore GP then there is no scenario in which it can catch McLaren, regardless of what Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri manage.

Red Bull is only 14 points behind Ferrari but is already out of the running for this particular title. Despite Max Verstappen (third in the drivers' championship and an increasingly ominous threat) winning the past two grands prix, Red Bull is 351 points behind McLaren - so is already five short of the maximum score available for the remainder of 2025.

‘As it stands;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/how-mclaren-can-seal-f1-2025-constructors-championship/


McLaren hopes to double down on dominant 2024 Singapore GP win
1 Oct 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

McLaren will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing result in Baku with a strong weekend in Singapore, a venue where the team proved unbeatable last year.

Speaking on the eve of the Singapore weekend, Lando Norris said: “I’m looking forward to racing under the lights again in Singapore. It was good to be back in Woking after Baku, resetting with the team and spending time in the sim. I’ve got good memories here - a podium and a win last year - so I’m ready to go for it again.”

Piastri, meanwhile, is aiming to make amends after his disastrous DNF in Baku: “I’m very keen to get back in the cockpit. On paper, and with the temperatures involved in Singapore, our car has been proven to be comfortable in the past, and with that in mind, I’m looking forward to a really positive weekend.”

‘Bounce back’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/mclaren-hopes-to-double-down-on-dominant-2024-singapore-gp-win


The race that will reveal Verstappen's true F1 title hopes - What to watch for at the Singapore GP
October 1st 2025
Pablo Elizalde
Motor Sport Magazine

Max Verstappen arrives looking to extend his winning streak and maintain momentum to find out if he can really become a contender despite a huge gap to Oscar Piastri.

Max Verstappen‘s dominant back-to-back victories at Monza and Baku have reignited his season, but Singapore presents a litmus test of whether he can truly convert this momentum into a genuine title challenge.

‘Verstappen's true F1 title hopes’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/the-race-that-will-reveal-verstappens-true-title-hopes-what-to-watch-for-at-the-2025-singapore-gp/?nowprocket=1


Bold Verstappen claims 'unfinished business' ahead of Singapore GP
1 Oct 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda look ahead to the Singapore Grand Prix, a crucial race and potential turning point in Red Bull Racing's season.

Verstappen arrives at Singapore fresh off the back of two back-to-back wins in Italy and Azerbaijan which have helped him close the gap to Oscar Piastri down from 104 to 69 points. "The last two races have been great for the Team," Verstappen said. "We have made really strong progress, found a positive set up with the car and are heading in the right direction."

Of course, Red Bull's revival comes with a caveat. "Both were low downforce tracks that we performed well at," and "the Singapore circuit is quite different, so will be more of a test," Verstappen acknowledges. "It is quite a physically demanding track for all drivers and in this race it is about really getting comfortable with the uncomfortable."

'Unfinished business';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/bold-verstappen-claims-unfinished-business-ahead-of-singapore-gp


Max Verstappen has already told Red Bull what they must ‘improve’ to win the Singapore Grand Prix
1 October 2025
Shay Rogers
F1 Oversteer

To achieve the improbable, the 28-year-old needs to find a way to win in Singapore. Speaking after finishing second in last year’s race, Verstappen has already told his team where they must ‘improve’ if they want to do better. That point remains key in 2025.

It’s unrealistic to expect Verstappen to win the next seven races in a row, which means that McLaren are going to need to make mistakes or retire at some point for him to have a realistic chance. It’s a big reason why Jacques Villeneuve’s only Verstappen worry is Singapore, because if the gap is extended once more, his chances of the title may be over just as they start again.

‘To achieve the improbable’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/max-verstappen-has-already-told-red-bull-what-they-must-improve-to-win-the-singapore-grand-prix/


Charles Leclerc identifies Ferrari trait that could see an F1 Singapore GP resurgence
1 Oct 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Charles Leclerc has identified a key attribute in his Ferrari package that could see the team compete for victory in this weekend’s Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix. “We are stronger in hot conditions. I hope Singapore will give us that.”

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/10/01/charles-leclerc-identifies-ferrari-trait-that-could-see-an-f1-singapore-gp-resurgence/


Lewis Hamilton names Singapore desire key to ending long Ferrari drought
1 Oct 2025
Jake Nichol & Aaron Deckers
RacingNews365

Lewis Hamilton's desire could aid Ferrari's bid to snatch back second place in the F1 constructors' championship. "I mean, there are going to be races where if we qualify much better, we're going to be in a much better position to race."

‘Singapore desire’;

https://racingnews365.com/lewis-hamilton-names-singapore-desire-key-to-ending-long-ferrari-drought

[Fortitude]

F1 2025: Singapore Grand Prix preview, Max Verstappen eyes victory at bogey track, world title race with Oscar Piastri…
Verstappen has never passed F1’s toughest test. Succeed and he blows title race WIDE open.
01 Oct 2025
Michael Lamonato
Fox Sports (Australia)

Max Verstappen has won 67 grands prix across 26 different circuits. Singapore is not one of them. F1’s first night race has long been an outlier on the Formula 1 calendar, but for Verstappen it’s the ultimate aberration: it’s the only current track at which he’s never recorded a victory.

To put that into historical context, Singapore is one of only six circuits in all of Verstappen’s career at which he hasn’t tasted success. Four of them are pandemic specials that appeared only during 2020 and 2021. The fifth is Sochi in Russia, where the sport no long races.

Verstappen’s record is so bizarrely bad that he’s only ever led three laps in Singapore. Antonio Giovinazzi, veteran of three campaigns for the current Sauber team, has led more laps (four) in Singapore than Verstappen has. “You could say there is unfinished business,” Verstappen acknowledged ahead of the weekend.

“Unfinished business”;

https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport/formula-one/f1-2025-singapore-grand-prix-preview-max-verstappen-eyes-victory-at-bogey-track-world-title-race-with-oscar-piastri-lando-norris-analysis/news-story/83a11a9acf558a4ab3331a6bc187724e


Verstappen assesses chances of overturning ‘big gap’ to McLaren drivers in 2025 title race
Max Verstappen will be looking to make up further ground on the McLaren drivers in the championship standings at the Singapore Grand Prix.
02 Oct 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Asked for his thoughts arriving in Singapore, and how significant the event could be for the title race, with the Dutchman never winning at Marina Bay before, Verstappen replied: “It’s like any other, I just try to do my best. “Of course, I know in the past this has not been particularly our strongest track, plus sometimes a bit unfortunate to [not] get a better result around here.”

“I’m relaxed, just having fun, here and outside of F1. In that sense, [it’s been] a good season.” Pushed on whether he feels winning the title is a possibility, he added: “I’m not really thinking about that, to be honest. It’s a big gap, but for me I just see it race by race.”

“I try to do the best I can, and I know that if the car is capable of winning, we will win the race – it’s as simple as that. At the same time, if we’re not able to win the race then that’s it as well. I’m not too worried or stressed about anything.”

“I just see it race by race”;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-assesses-chances-of-overturning-big-gap-to-mclaren-drivers-in.6REtVZtoG83IGEOBlfP9JE


Norris says Verstappen still title contender ahead of Singapore GP
October 02, 2025
By PA
TSN

Lando Norris believes Max Verstappen is now a "genuine" contender for the world championship but insisted McLaren will not have to make teammate Oscar Piastri their No. 1. "He is genuinely a challenger," said Norris of the four-time world champion. "If you go back to the beginning of the season they were challenging us for the first six or seven races for wins, then we brought some upgrades and improved a little bit.”

"But then they brought a couple of upgrades and that has put them on the same level. We are still expecting to dominate and we come to these races with the goal and ambition of winning and wanting to dominate and continue the form we have shown all season. But in Baku we had the car to win and we didn't. We had the chance to fight Max. At the round before in Monza they were too quick for us.”

“And if there are some races coming up where he is too fast, which is very possible, because I expect them to be quick for many of the races this season. We will go to Las Vegas and other low-downforce tracks where we don't expect to be as great as we have been - so that is an opportunity for Red Bull -but we are just focusing on ourselves and maximising our performances."

‘Max Verstappen is now a "genuine" contender for the world championship’;

https://www.tsn.ca/motorsports/formula-1/article/norris-says-verstappen-still-title-contender-ahead-of-singapore-gp-n1-46462761/


Yuki Tsunoda reveals double motivation to build on Red Bull breakthrough
Yuki Tsunoda heads into the Singapore Grand Prix weekend after his best result for Red Bull in Azerbaijan.
2 October 2025
Samuel Coop
RacingNews365

Reflecting on his achievement in Baku and the "fun" ahead in Singapore, Tsunoda said: "Last time out was super positive for the team and me. It feels like I’m moving in a positive direction with the car, and the hard work we have all been putting in is paying off across the race weekend.”

"Baku is obviously quite a unique circuit, and Singapore will be very different for us and could pose some challenges. There’s so many things that come into play there, the humidity, the night race, the street circuit - it’s one of the biggest tests we have as drivers. But that’s what makes it fun, and I enjoy preparing for it and racing there."

“Moving in a positive direction”;

https://racingnews365.com/yuki-tsunoda-reveals-double-motivation-to-build-on-red-bull-breakthrough


Piastri: ‘Can’t afford’ Baku repeat ahead of Singapore GP
October 02, 2025
Nate Saunders
TSN

After losing 35 points to Verstappen at the past two races, Piastri said the Baku weekend served as a reminder of how quickly his championship lead can disappear. "I think even disregarding who won the race, we don't want to have weekends like Baku and we know we can't afford to have weekends like Baku," Piastri said.

"Certainly, from my side of things there were some tough lessons to take, but I think as a team we recognized a few opportunities from the weekend to try and improve. That's always an important thing.”

"I think Baku was quite a good reminder of firstly how quickly everything can change, but also on some of the things that have made the season so successful for myself and the team. I think just trying to stay focused on that will naturally take care of the championship picture."

“Good reminder of firstly how quickly everything can change”;

https://www.tsn.ca/motorsports/article/piastri-cant-afford-baku-repeat-ahead-of-singapore-gp-n1-46464607/


George Russell picks surprise Singapore GP contenders
The Brit backs Ferrari to bring the fight to McLaren on Sunday, October 5.
3 October 2025
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

George Russell picks Ferrari to be surprise contenders to McLaren at the F1 2025 Singapore GP, tipping Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc to likely be ahead of Mercedes and Max Verstappen.

“I think the last two years, we’ve been reasonably good,” Russell said to media of Mercedes’ prospects, including Total-Motorsport.com. “Ferrari are often very strong here. They were on pole two years ago, and last year they were looking really strong until Q3, which sort of ruined their weekend.”

“And of course, we know McLaren at the hot races, high tyre degradation circuits, are exceptionally strong. So I expect McLaren and Ferrari to be the two teams out in front.”

“Ferrari are often very strong here”;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-2025-george-russell-picks-surprise-singapore-gp-contenders/


Hamilton shuts down talk of Leclerc fallout after team order drama
3 Oct 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Lewis Hamilton again touched on the team order drama involving Charles Leclerc ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix. The British driver appeared to ignore a request to let his teammate through last time out at the Azerbaijan GP.

Hamilton detailed that he spoke to Leclerc following the incident and how the Scuderia Ferrari team are working on communication to avoid a future scenario. Sharing his thoughts during the Singapore GP media day, he said: “I spoke to Charles. Everything’s fine. Charles has been great, and we’re working on communication to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. It won’t happen again.”

Lewis Hamilton also weighed in on his expectations for the Singapore Grand Prix. The seven-time world champion explains how he expects to carry the positive momentum from Azerbaijan to the outing at the Marina Bay circuit. “Every weekend it’s difficult to say because, I mean, this is the first time driving a Ferrari around Singapore. The car felt really great starting the last Grand Prix, and we just didn’t carry that through the weekend.”

“Everything’s fine”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/hamilton-shuts-down-talk-of-leclerc-fallout-after-team-order-drama

[Fortitude]

Fernando Alonso tops Singapore Grand Prix FP1 timings as Max Verstappen outperforms McLaren.
Fernando Alonso surprised many by placing his Aston Martin at the top of Singapore Grand Prix FP1 timing sheets, as McLaren struggled for pace.
3 October 2025
Rebecca Braybrook
F1 Oversteer

The session is known for not being an accurate representation of pace for the race, due to the changing conditions later in the day, but Alonso’s performance will be an encouraging result for Aston Martin. Ferrari also had a strong start to the weekend, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in P2 and P4 respectively, being split by the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.

Red Bull have brought upgrades to the RB21, with a new front wing design, to help with the higher downforce circuit. The Red Bull have notoriously struggled around the Marina Bay Street Circuit, with the track being the only one on the 2025 calendar that Verstappen has never won at.

‘Fernando Alonso surprised many’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/races/fernando-alonso-tops-singapore-grand-prix-fp1/


2025 F1 Singapore GP – Free Practice 1 Results
Alonso edges Leclerc and Verstappen in FP1 at Marina Bay
3 October 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Singapore GP 2025 FP1 results
Check out the full Singapore GP 2025 Free Practice 1 results from the first session in Marina Bay below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:31.116
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.150
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.276
4 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.364
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.365
6 Lando Norris McLaren +0.582
7 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +0.639
8 Carlos Sainz Williams +0.696
9 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +0.744
10 Esteban Ocon Haas +1.012

‘Free Practice 1 Results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-2025-singapore-gp-free-practice-1-results/


Singapore GP: Alonso surprises, tops FP1 from Leclerc
03/10/2025
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Singapore Grand Prix Free Practice 1 - Results. Multiple lock-ups occurred in the opening stages, underlining just how tricky Marina Bay can be in the first run of a weekend.

Aston Martin opted for a different opening strategy to the majority of the field, sending Alonso out on medium tyres while the rest of the grid started on hards. The Spaniard initially set a 1m32.592s to lead after the opening 15 minutes, showcasing the car’s early pace.

The session was not without drama. Alex Albon suffered a brake fire in the opening 10 minutes, forcing urgent attention from his Williams crew to quell the smoke and prevent further damage. Fortunately, the issue was contained, allowing the rookie to continue running later in the session.

‘Alonso surprises’;

https://f1i.com/news/549725-singapore-gp-alonso-surprises-tops-fp1-from-leclerc.html


Alex Albon suffers dramatic pitlane fire in F1 Singapore GP FP1
03/10/2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Williams is confident that Alex Albon will be free to take part in FP2 for the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix after a dramatic pitlane fire in FP1.

“Alex has experienced a rear brake hardware problem which we are investigating,” a statement read. “He will not join the remainder of FP1 but we are confident we can resolve the issue for FP2.”

‘Dramatic pitlane fire’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/10/03/alex-albon-suffers-dramatic-pitlane-fire-in-f1-singapore-gp-fp1/


Alonso surprises with fastest time in Singapore GP FP1
Fernando Alonso began his Singapore Grand Prix weekend in style, surprising the field by setting the fastest time in first practice at Marina Bay.
3 Oct 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

Encouragingly for Aston Martin, Alonso’s speed was evident across all tyre compounds, with competitive runs on both the hards and mediums. His performance was also underlined by the gap to teammate Lance Stroll, who finished 18th and nearly two seconds adrift. Ferrari looked competitive as well, with Charles Leclerc ending second, just 0.150s behind Alonso, and Lewis Hamilton fourth, 0.364s back. The pair were split by Max Verstappen in third, 0.276s off Alonso’s time.

McLaren finished best of the rest after a challenging start. Oscar Piastri, who complained of understeer early in the session and brushed the wall at the final corner, recovered to set the fifth-fastest time — just one thousandth of a second behind Hamilton. He finished two tenths clear of teammate Lando Norris in sixth, giving the Woking outfit encouragement despite their struggles for outright pace.

‘Began his Singapore Grand Prix weekend in style’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-fernando-alonso-tops-singapore-grand-prix-practice-marina-bay-fastest/


Alonso quickest from Leclerc, Verstappen - 2025 Singapore GP FP1 results
October 3, 2025
Pablo Elizalde
Motor Sport Magazine

Fernando Alonso was the surprise pace-setter in the first practice session of Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix. The Aston Martin star shot to the top of times late in the session as drivers started doing soft-tyre runs, Alonso posting a 1:31.116sec to outpace Ferrari‘s Charles Leclerc by 0.150sec.

FP1 takes place during the day, so laptimes are not hugely significant, as qualifying and the race will take place at night and so in very different conditions. Max Verstappen, the winner of the last two races, was the fastest of the championship contenders in third, nearly three tenths off Alonso’s benchmark.

Red Bull is the only team bringing some updates for its car this weekend, having introduced a revised front wing and engine cover, the latter aimed at improving cooling.

‘Fernando Alonso was the surprise pace-setter’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/alonso-quickest-from-leclerc-verstappen-2025-singapore-gp-fp1-results/?nowprocket=1

[Fortitude]

Singapore GP: Piastri tops crash-strewn FP2 as Norris, Leclerc crash in the pits and Russell at T16.
Oscar Piastri set the pace in the second practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix, beating Isack Hadjar by 0.132 seconds under the lights at the Marina Bay circuit.
03 Oct 2025
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

The session ended with Piastri quickest of 1:30.714, putting him +0.132 ahead of Isack Hadjar with Verstappen a further 0.011 down.

There were two red flags as George Russell crashed at Turn 16, breaking the nose of his Mercedes W16, before Liam Lawson hit the wall. Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc had a crash in the pit lane, but that one didn’t bring out the reds. There was chaos in the pits as Leclerc hit the McLaren of Norris. Leclerc left his garage at speed, the Ferrari released into the path of the McLaren and hitting him.

Norris’ MCL39 suffered front wing damage as he also hit the pit wall. McLaren changed Norris’ front wing and nose cone and sent him back out. Race Control announced that Leclerc would be investigated for an unsafe release.

‘Piastri tops crash-strewn FP2’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/singapore-grand-prix-2025-fp2-report


2025 F1 Singapore GP – Free Practice 2 Results
Piastri leads surprise star Hadjar and Verstappen under the lights at Marina Bay in FP2
3 October 2025
Adriano Boin
Total Motorsport

F1 Singapore GP 2025 FP2 results
Check out the full Singapore GP 2025 Free Practice 2 results from the first session in Marina Bay below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:30.714
2 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +0.132
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.143
4 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.163
5 Lando Norris McLaren +0.483
6 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +0.508
7 Esteban Ocon Haas +0.584
8 Carlos Sainz Williams +0.585
9 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.752
10 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.777

‘FP2 results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-singapore-gp-free-practice-2-results/


Oscar Piastri tops Singapore Grand Prix FP2 as Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc collide
3 October 2025
Rebecca Braybrook
F1 Oversteer

Oscar Piastri found himself back on top during the Singapore Grand Prix FP2 session, after a difficult weekend last time out in Baku. Piastri needs a recovery weekend after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where he found himself in the Turn 3 barrier on the opening lap.

Despite earlier struggles in FP1, the Aussie found himself back at the top of the time sheets, leading from Isack Hadjar and Max Verstappen. Lando Norris appeared dejected towards the end of the session, falling back from Piastri by almost half a second. The Brit has struggled for pace all day, with his race engineer Will Joseph offering ways that he could speed up in the remaining few minutes.

Norris appeared to refuse McLaren’s running plan, saying: “But my car’s not half a second off, is it? My driving’s half a second off”. It’s a vital weekend for Norris’ championship push on his teammate Oscar Piastri, who leads the drivers’ title by 25 points.

‘Piastri needs a recovery weekend’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/races/oscar-piastri-tops-singapore-grand-prix-fp2-as-lando-norris-and-charles-leclerc-collide/


Leclerc–Norris F1 Singapore GP Pitlane Crash Triggers Steward Inquiry
October 3, 2025
Alex Harrington Newsweek
The News Tribune, Washington

Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris will face the race stewards at 10.30pm EST time after a pitlane collision that saw Leclerc's Ferrari released into the path of the papaya McLaren. The incident, which happened as the session was restarted after George Russell’s bodywork was cleared from the track, has since started an investigation. The stewards confirmed the that this would be reviewed after the session, with both drivers called to give their sides of the story. A financial penalty for Ferrari appears the most likely outcome.

Sky Sports F1's Ted Kravitz was annoyed by the clash: "That was ill-judged and badly executed by everybody,” he shouted during the broadcast. “In this scramble to get out ahead of everyone else, let’s try and get out without crashing into anyone. That was entirely unnecessary. They have checked Lando Norris’ front suspension but Lando had to feel the car at 10mph going down the pit lane to see if it was OK."

Former F1 driver and analyst Anthony Davidson added: "Lando even tried to speed up to get out of the way. We need to see Charles’ onboard. It’s a tell tale sign that the Ferrari mechanics pushed the McLarens back."

“That was entirely unnecessary”;

https://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/article312368864.html#storylink=mainstage_card


Red Bull’s best Friday of the season? 2025 Singapore Grand Prix practice data
3rd October 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

McLaren headed the times at the end of practice on Friday in Singapore, as they have often done this year. But Red Bull and Aston Martin had the most to be pleased about at the end of the first day of running at the Marina Bay circuit.

But Red Bull also had an encouraging day. The key question facing the team as they arrived in Singapore was whether the gains they have made in recent races on low-downforce tracks would transfer to this high-downforce layout.Previously this season Red Bull have tended to lag far off the pace in Friday practice, then close the gap drastically on Saturday. However in Singapore they have begun the weekend much closer to their rivals than usual. Verstappen was third, 0.143s off the pace, compared to his previous best of 0.199s off at Monza, where he was sixth.

‘Red Bull also had an encouraging day’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/10/03/red-bulls-best-friday-of-the-season-2025-singapore-grand-prix-practice-data/


Max Verstappen finds mirror-image hope after strong Singapore GP start
Max Verstappen got off to a strong start in Singapore as he seeks to add the track to his F1 win list.
3 October 2025
Fergal Walsh
RacingNews365

The Dutchman ended the second practice session in Singapore third on the timesheet, just over one-tenth down on pace-setter Piastri. “FP1 started quite nicely, just getting up to speed with things,” Verstappen reflected. “But the car was not too bad.”

“It was a bit like the last two weekends, where there were no major problems. In FP2, there were a few things that we tried, some good [things], so we just need to try and optimise that a bit more. Overall, quite satisfying. Definitely need a bit more pace to fight up at the front tomorrow.”

‘Max Verstappen finds mirror-image hope’;

https://racingnews365.com/max-verstappen-finds-mirror-image-hope-after-strong-singapore-gp-start

[Fortitude]

Singapore GP – FP3: Verstappen tops incredibly tight final practice.
Max Verstappen topped a fiercely competitive final practice session at the Singapore Grand Prix, setting the pace in a red-flag-interrupted hour that ended with the top five drivers separated by just 0.089s!
04/10/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

The Dutchman’s 1m30.148s lap for Red Bull narrowly beat McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by 0.017s, underscoring the razor-thin margins gripping the grid this weekend. With qualifying looming under the floodlights this evening, the session's daytime glare offered a sneak peek at the one-lap showdowns to come.

McLaren’s Lando Norris was the early benchmark in the session, setting a 1m31.021s on medium tyres in the first quarter of the session. His lap stood for much of the opening phase as teams dialled in one-lap pace on the evolving circuit, with Verstappen and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton coming closest to dislodging him on the yellow-walled compounds – the pair clocking 1m31.358s and 1m31.448s respectively.

George Russell recovered from his “weird” FP2 crash to post the third-fastest time, just 0.049s off Verstappen, though the Mercedes driver admitted he was still lacking confidence in Turn 16. Behind him, Antonelli and Norris remarkably shared identical lap times of 1m30.237s to fill fourth and fifth.

‘Incredibly tight final practice’;

https://f1i.com/news/549881-singapore-gp-fp3-verstappen-tops-incredibly-tight-final-practice.html


2025 F1 Singapore GP – Free Practice 3 Results
Max Verstappen leads the way for Red Bull at Marina Bay as the fight for pole intensifies under the Singapore lights
4 October 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Singapore GP 2025 FP3 results
Check out the full Singapore GP 2025 Free Practice 3 results from the final practice session in Marina Bay below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:30.148
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.017
3 George Russell Mercedes +0.049
4 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.089
5 Lando Norris McLaren +0.089
6 Carlos Sainz Williams +0.244
7 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +0.341
8 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.411
9 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +0.489
10 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.503

‘Free Practice 3 Results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-singapore-gp-free-practice-3-results/


Max Verstappen sets benchmark in FP3 for F1 Singapore GP
4 October 2025
James Phillips
Motorsport Week

Max Verstappen set a blistering pace in final practice for the F1 Singapore GP, with the top three drivers split by just one tenth of a second. Track evolution and driver confidence were key in FP3 ahead of qualifying for the F1 Singapore GP, as drivers felt confidence around the Marina Bay Circuit, while grip proved elusive until the closing stages.

The final 15 minutes saw all drivers drain the fuel tanks and head out on qualifying runs, with Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and and Max Verstappen all had stints at the top of the standings. Verstappen’s time of 1:30.148 was unbeatable, Oscar Piastri putting in a last gasp effort to place second at the chequered flag after a quiet session.

‘Max Verstappen sets benchmark’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/10/04/max-verstappen-sets-benchmark-in-fp3-for-f1-singapore-gp/


What happened in ultra-close final F1 Singapore GP practice
Oct 4, 2025
Josh Suttill
The Race

Max Verstappen topped an ultra-close final practice session before qualifying at Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix. While FP3 does take place in the daytime compared to the nighttime conditions of qualifying, based on the evidence of the 60-minute session, the margins in qualifying are going to be very tight.

Red Bull’s hopes of continuing its back-to-back race-winning form were boosted by Verstappen setting the fastest time of FP3, a 1m30.148s. Oscar Piastri who went quickest on their final soft tyre runs, coming just 0.017s shy of Verstappen’s time, which was set earlier in the session.

Oscar Piastri’s lap was just 0.032s quicker than George Russell, who claimed third for Mercedes, having lost Friday running to his “annoying” FP2 shunt. Team-mate Kimi Antonelli backed up a strong start to Saturday for Mercedes in fourth place, just 0.089s slower than Verstappen.

‘Ultra-close final practice session’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/singapore-gp-third-practice-fp3-report/


‘Surprise’: Gary Anderson stunned by what he’s seen on Max Verstappen’s Red Bull at F1…
4 October 2025
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Red Bull are not resting on their laurels in a bid to keep Max Verstappen in the 2025 F1 drivers’ title fight, having brought upgrades to the Singapore Grand Prix this weekend. Verstappen is third in the F1 drivers’ championship ahead of the Singapore GP. But his back-to-back wins in Monza and Baku have cut the 28-year-old’s 104-point deficit to McLaren’s Oscar Piastri from 104 points before the Italian Grand Prix to 69 points prior to round 18/24.

Verstappen made the most of the front wing upgrade that Red Bull have brought to Marina Bay to rank third in the first and second practice sessions for the Singapore GP. But the four-time reigning champion’s decision to run without a Gurney flap “surprised” Gary Anderson. Red Bull claim that their new front wing features locally increased cambers to extract more load, with Anderson noticing changes to the location of the slot gap separators. The tweaks are minor, but might have let Red Bull give Verstappen a car that does not have understeer.

He told The Race: “It’s difficult to pick up those subtle profile changes. But what is very clear is that Red Bull have moved the two slot gap separators further outboard. The rear flap trailing edge trim line is from the same family as it was at Zandvoort, Monza and Baku. However, interestingly, there is no Gurney flap added to the trailing edge of the rear flap, as there was for the Zandvoort wing. It’s a surprise, given Max is a driver who hates understeer, that he’s not using the Gurney flap.

‘Gary Anderson stunned’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/gary-anderson-surprised-by-what-hes-seen-on-max-verstappens-red-bull-at-the-singapore-grand-prix/


Gary Anderson's verdict on crucial Verstappen-only Red Bull upgrade
Oct 4, 2025
Gary Anderson
The Race

Max Verstappen will be gunning for race wins, with the evidence suggesting Red Bull has turned the corner on its mid-season slump and the new front wing introduced in Singapore building on that. There will be many changes hidden under the bodywork and floor that we can’t see, but the front wing has been the subject of a fair amount of attention.

Red Bull started to turn the corner at Zandvoort at the end of the summer break. Below is the front wing specification used for that event and even though he didn’t win and lacked the pace of the McLarens, Verstappen was fairly complimentary about the performance and had good feelings about the car. At Monza and Baku, Red Bull ran a front wing assembly derived from the same rear flap trim line. This meant the flow to the underfloor stayed reasonably consistent.

That, together with a low downforce rear wing assembly allowed the car to have a balance that Max was happy with. The result was two wins from pole position, and even though Azerbaijan wasn’t McLaren’s best weekend, I’m sure Verstappen was on track to win whatever McLaren did. The key question after those races was would Red Bull be able to carry that level of performance into the higher downforce tracks, making Singapore the big test.

‘Evidence suggesting Red Bull has turned the corner’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/gary-anderson-what-red-bulls-latest-upgrade-for-verstappen-reveals/

[Fortitude]

Martin Brundle surprised by Toto Wolff’s instant reaction to George Russell’s Singapore Grand Prix pole.
David Croft suggested that Russell could increase his salary demands in light of that performance.
4 October 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

George Russell delivered a fabulous pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday. Martin Brundle found the reaction of team principal Toto Wolff intriguing. Russell wasn’t seen as a contender coming into the weekend, but he delivered two laps good enough for pole position in Q3. In one of the most impressive qualifying performances of the year, he finished almost two-tenths clear of Max Verstappen.

It was only Mercedes’ second Grand Prix pole of the year, following on from Russell’s effort at the Canadian GP in June. It’s also just their eighth pole of the ground-effect era. The result comes amid negotiations over a new contract for 2026. With only seven races remaining, one of the grid’s highest-rated drivers still doesn’t have a confirmed seat.

After Russell sealed pole, the world-feed cameras cut to Wolff looking rather unmoved in the Mercedes garage. Teammate Kimi Antonelli qualified on the second row, making it one of their best qualifying sessions collectively. “You’d have thought Toto Wolff would be smiling a bit more!” he (David Croft) said. “”He wasn’t as excited as I thought he would look,” co-commentator Brundle replied. Croft added: “He hasn’t signed up for next season yet and maybe he’s thinking, ‘Damn, that might make the contract negotiations a little bit more tricky!’”

“You’d have thought Toto Wolff would be smiling a bit more!”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/martin-brundle-surprised-by-toto-wolffs-instant-reaction-to-george-russells-singapore-grand-prix-pole/


2025 F1 Singapore GP – Qualifying Results
George Russell storms to pole position for Mercedes at Marina Bay as Verstappen and Piastri complete the top three in a tense Singapore qualifying
4 October 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Singapore GP 2025 Qualifying results
Check out the full Singapore GP 2025 Qualifying results from Marina Bay below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 George Russell Mercedes 1:29.158
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.182
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.366
4 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.379
5 Lando Norris McLaren +0.428
6 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.530
7 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.626
8 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +0.688
9 Oliver Bearman Haas +0.710

‘Qualifying results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-singapore-gp-qualifying-results/


Russell beats Verstappen for surprise Singapore pole position
4th October 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

Russell was the first of the front-runners to set a time in Q3, but if missing the opportunity to benefit from track evolution hurt him, it didn’t show. Through turns 16 and 17, where he crashed yesterday, he was fabulously committed, skimming the barriers on the way in and out.

The result was a 1’29.165, more than a third of a second faster than his team mate could manage when he crossed the line shortly afterwards. The McLaren pair fell short too, though Piastri split the Mercedes pair. That left Verstappen, who beat Russell’s time in the final two sectors, yet still fell short by 0.175 seconds at the line.

Russell again made sure he was among the first to run at the end of the session while Verstappen went out last after the McLaren drivers. While Russell couldn’t improve on his time through the first sector, he gained in the second. He reached the line just seven thousandths of a second quicker than he did on his first lap however.

‘Surprise Singapore pole position’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/10/04/russell-beats-verstappen-for-surprise-singapore-pole-position/


Mekies reacts after Norris ruins Verstappen’s shot at Singapore GP pole
4 Oct 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Laurent Mekies has reacted to Max Verstappen’s botched final qualifying lap during the Singapore Grand Prix. The Red Bull Racing team principal also praised the work of the team back in Milton Keynes. The 48-year-old, who spoke to Sky Sports F1 following the conclusion of qualifying, admitted that Verstappen would have been much closer to pole-sitter George Russell if not for the incident with Lando Norris.

Mekies also opted against stating that the Dutch driver would have beaten the Mercedes star to the top starting spot, had it not been for the slow McLaren. He said: "It was a strong qualifying from Max and the team again. It's good to see some long faces when you're on the front row, and we would have been quite a lot closer to George without that traffic. But that's life.”

“I won't say we would have been in front, but for sure, Max would have been there or thereabouts. We are not on pole, but we can fight. On these types of tracks, we were not within range of pole, so it's a testament to all the hard work." Verstappen, who spoke to the media following his second-place finish during qualifying, hinted the incident involving Lando Norris would not be forgotten. Red Bull Racing's chief advisor Helmut Marko did however hold Norris accountable for what he dubs an 'incomprehensible' move that 'blocked' Verstappen's last fast lap attempt.

‘Max Verstappen; The incident involving Lando Norris would not be forgotten’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/mekies-reacts-after-norris-ruins-verstappens-shot-at-singapore-pole


‘I don't know what we've done to find this performance’ – Russell admits shock after taking Singapore pole
George Russell was left surprised to have taken pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix.
4 Oct 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Mercedes' George Russell admits "I don't know what we've done to find this performance" having taken a sublime pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix.”

"If I were to put my money on the circuits we had a chance of being on pole I reckon this would have been in the bottom three to be honest," he said.

"I don't know what we've done to find this performance. I think we've all been a little bit surprised by McLaren's lack of performance as we were expecting them to fly here but I'll take it."

‘Russell admits shock’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/i-dont-know-what-weve-done-to-find-this-performance-russell-admits-shock.lOnffKMofyw06qUv2ahmR


Oscar Piastri baffled by McLaren’s pace struggles in Singapore
Oscar Piastri confused by McLaren's lack of pace in Singapore Grand Prix qualifying.
4 Oct 2025
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Oscar Piastri has been left perplexed at McLaren’s lack of competitiveness in qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix. Championship leader Piastri took third place behind Mercedes’ George Russell and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen as he missed out on pole position by 0.366 seconds.

“I think there was a little bit left but not enough to get pole,” Piastri said. “We seemed to be good through practice, we seemed pretty good in Q1 and then we found a little bit of time and others found a lot of time.”

“A little bit kind of surprising that we couldn’t find more, but ultimately I don’t think the car had enough in it for pole. I’m pretty happy with the job I’ve done. Was it perfect? No, but I feel like it’s been a good weekend and been close to the limit of what the car’s been able to do.”

‘Oscar Piastri confused’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1083446/1/oscar-piastri-baffled-mclarens-pace-struggles-singapore


Singapore GP disaster for Williams as Albon and Sainz disqualified from qualifying
Post-qualifying scrutineering revealed both Williams cars broke DRS regulations, forcing them to start Sunday’s race from the back
4 October 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz have been disqualified from qualifying for the 2025 Singapore Grand Prix after their Williams cars were found to be in breach of the FIA’s technical regulations. According to a statement from the FIA, the issue concerned the uppermost rear wing element on both cars, with the adjustable positions exceeding the permitted limits.

“The uppermost rear wing element adjustable positions were checked on car numbers 23 (Albon) and 55 (Sainz),” the FIA report stated. “Both cars exceeded the maximum limit of 85mm on both sides of the rear wing outer area.” read statement continued. “During post-Qualifying scrutineering, the rear wing of the car was found to be non-compliant with the Technical Regulations,”

“At the hearing, the competitor admitted that, although their own measurement prior to the Qualifying had shown the component to be within tolerance, the measurement subsequently conducted by the appointed FIA officials revealed a larger gap than permitted and therefore the rear wing did not conform with the required dimension.”

‘Disaster for Williams’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-2025-williams-alex-albon-carlos-sainz-disqualified-singapore-gp-qualifying/

[Fortitude]

McLaren duo collide on opening lap before George Russell wins Singapore GP.
MERCEDES’ GEORGE Russell won the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday ahead of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, as McLaren clinched the Formula One constructors’ championship.
5 Oct 2025
The42

Russell’s Mercedes was on pole and got away cleanly from Verstappen’s Red Bull at the start, but the drama all happened behind. Norris, from fifth on the grid, darted past Antonelli and dived up the inside of Piastri, who started third, at turn one.
Norris was flying and clipped the back of Verstappen on the way to barging his way into third place in a wheel-to-wheel clash with teammate Piastri. The championship leader was not impressed. “So are we cool with Lando just barging me out of the way there? What’s the go there?” Piastri complained on team radio.

His anger was not appeased by the team saying they would discuss the incident after the race and not order Norris to swap places. “That’s not fair. I’m sorry, that’s not fair,” Piastri said. After pitting for hard tyres, the leading four emerged in the same order, though Verstappen was reporting downshift problems with his gearbox that felt “like a handbrake”.

“That’s not fair”;

https://www.the42.ie/mclaren-duo-collide-on-opening-lap-before-george-russell-wins-singapore-gp-6835741-Oct2025/


2025 F1 Singapore Grand Prix – Race Results
George Russell delivered a masterclass in control to win the 2025 Singapore Grand Prix, holding off Max Verstappen and Lando Norris under the lights of Marina Bay.
5 October 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Singapore GP 2025 race results
Check out the full Singapore GP 2025 race results from Marina Bay below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 George Russell Mercedes Leader
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull +5.430
3 Lando Norris McLaren +6.066
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren +8.146
5 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +33.681
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +45.996
7 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +80.251
8 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +80.667
9 Oliver Bearman Haas +93.527
10 Carlos Sainz Williams +1 Lap

‘Race Results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-singapore-grand-prix-race-results/


Russell dominates as McLaren drivers clash - Singapore GP results
Russell dominates the Singapore Grand Prix as McLaren clinches constructors' title amid controversy
October 5, 2025
Pablo Elizalde
Motor Sport Magazine

George Russell took a commanding win in the Singapore Grand Prix as championship contenders Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris made contact at the start. Russell dominated the race from pole position and, although Max Verstappen looked like a threat in some stages, the Mercedes driver was never really challenged in a race that was rather processional until the final laps.

It was Russell’s and Mercedes’ second win of the season after their victory in Canada. Verstappen, the only driver in the top eight to start on soft tyres, managed to retain second place despite late pressure from Lando Norris, who completed the podium.

‘Russell dominates’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/russell-dominates-as-mclaren-drivers-clash-singapore-gp-results/?nowprocket=1


Piastri fumes after crashing into Norris in the Singapore Grand Prix
5 Oct 2025
Ben Hunt
GPblog.com

Oscar Piastri has been left frustrated after colliding with McLaren teammate Lando Norris in the Singapore Grand Prix. The two tangled over the opening corners as Norris forced his way through and overtook Piastri, who was forced to bail out and lose position.

Piastri, who was forced to give up his position in the Italian Grand Prix when Norris had a slow pitstop, was upset with his team not swapping the drivers around. He said over the team's radio: “So are we cool with Lando just barging me out of the way or? What’s the go there?” Piastri was told by his Race Engineer Tom Stallard, “We’re looking at it. Let me get back to you.”

The Aussie, who currently leads the championship, was then told there would be no further action from the stewards. He snapped: “That's not fair. I'm sorry, that's not fair. If he has to avoid another car by crashing into his team-mate, then that's a pretty **** job of avoiding."

‘Piastri fumes’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/breaking-news/piastri-fumes-after-crashing-into-norris-in-the-singapore-grand-prix


Singapore GP: George Russell dominates race as McLaren win Constructors' Championship but Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris make contact
George Russell won the Singapore Grand Prix and McLaren sealed the defence of their Constructors' Championship but there was drama between the team's drivers; Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri made contact on the opening lap to the frustration of the championship leader
5 Oct 2025
Nigel Chiu
Sky Sports

George Russell dominated the Singapore Grand Prix as Lando Norris trimmed Oscar Piastri’s championship lead after the McLaren pair made contact early on.

Norris had a storming start but lightly collided with team-mate Piastri on the opening lap to take third where he would finish the race, behind Max Verstappen following a hard-fought battle for second.

Piastri had to settle for fourth and sees his advantage over Norris cut to 22 points in the title race but McLaren sealed the defence of their Constructors' Championship with six rounds to go - a joint-record for the earliest that title has been won.

‘Drama between the team's drivers; Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’;

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/13444943/singapore-gp-george-russell-dominates-race-as-mclaren-win-constructors-championship-but-oscar-piastri-lando-norris-make-contact


Russell dominates Singapore GP ahead of Verstappen and scrapping McLarens
5th October 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

George Russell claimed his second victory of the season with a commanding drive from pole position in the Singapore Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver kept his lead as the race began, despite Max Verstappen alongside him opting to start on soft tyres while most others chose mediums.
As the threat from Verstappen failed to materialise over the opening laps, Russell drew steadily clear of his pursuers, building a lead of over eight seconds.

Lando Norris took up pursuit of Verstappen after barging his way past his team mate at the start. The championship leader was clearly unhappy with Norris’s driving, and prompted McLaren for their views on the situation, but the team left the running order unchanged. As Verstappen’s soft tyres began to fade, he opted to make an early pit stop. McLaren gave Norris the option to pit after Piastri, but he chose to come in first. That potentially proved beneficial, as Piastri suffered a slow pit stop which cost him precious seconds.

As Verstappen’s soft tyres began to fade, he opted to make an early pit stop. McLaren gave Norris the option to pit after Piastri, but he chose to come in first. That potentially proved beneficial, as Piastri suffered a slow pit stop which cost him precious seconds. Over the second half of the race, Verstappen increasingly struggled with his car’s handling, which allowed Norris to draw within range. The McLaren driver got close enough to have a look at his rival on the outside of turn seven once, but was unable to make a move stick, while Piastri behind drew within range.

‘Scrapping McLarens’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/10/05/russell-dominates-singapore-gp-ahead-of-verstappen-and-scrapping-mclarens/


McLaren win 2025 F1 constructors' title at Singapore GP and equal Red Bull record
McLaren have confirmed back-to-back Formula 1 constructors' titles after securing the 2025 crown at the Singapore Grand Prix, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finishing third and fourth respectively
5th October 2025
WILL SCHOFIELD, DANIEL MOXON
Daily Star

Team boss Andrea Stella, who called that 2024 victory "a great surprise and joy", revealed his emotions about this season's commanding performance have been quite different. The Italian grinned: "This year, we realised relatively soon that the car was very competitive and that we were in condition to win races, so it was more about keeping concentration and focus, and maximising the potential available."

McLaren find themselves positioned to challenge the all-time points tally, established by Red Bull in 2023 when Max Verstappen propelled them to both championships. The Milton Keynes outfit accumulated 860 points that campaign.

"A great surprise and joy";

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/f1/breaking-mclaren-win-constructors-championship-36017040

[Fortitude]

McLaren meltdown grabs international media attention after Singapore GP.
Piastri skips McLaren’s Constructors’ title celebrations.
6 Oct 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

La Gazzetta dello Sport highlights McLaren’s Constructors’ Championship triumph but also points out the team’s third consecutive race without a win — not an ideal trend in terms of the Drivers’ Championship battle. “McLaren was clearly faster than Red Bull,” wrote La Gazzetta dello Sport. “The papaya duo took some risks at the start, with Norris — who finished third — attacking teammate Piastri, damaging his front wing and leaving the Australian, who ended up fourth, furious. Woking can celebrate the Constructors’ title, but a third race without a win is still a warning sign.”

Marca. the Spanish newspaper: “Norris did exactly what was asked of him — aggressive, committed, and focused. He saw the gap Piastri left at the first corner, went for it, and made slight contact with his teammate’s car. He managed to get ahead, leaving the Australian with front-wing damage after Turn 3 — and a fair amount of anger. Piastri was clearly frustrated. ‘This happens because there are no clear rules,’ he complained to his engineer. Still, McLaren insisted there was no fault on Lando’s part, as he had avoided a potential collision with Verstappen. More fuel to the fire for a season finale on the edge between the two teammates. McLaren will have to decide through its internal regulations — but the controversy is very much alive.”

BILD, on the other hand, points out that yesterday should have been a day of celebration for McLaren, but the contact between the two drivers instead created tension within the team, leaving little room for a festive mood. “It should have been a reason to celebrate, but there was little festive mood among the ‘Papayas,’ as the team is nicknamed for its orange car livery — least of all for Oscar Piastri!” While the team led by Andrea Stella and Zak Brown gathered on the podium — with the entire crew, including Lando Norris — to celebrate their second Constructors’ title, the Australian chose instead to focus on his media duties, sending a clear message after already switching off the radio while Zak Brown was speaking to him post-race.

‘McLaren meltdown’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/mclaren-meltdown-grabs-international-media-attention-after-singapore-gp


Singapore GP: 'I tried to puncture your tyre!' | Lando Norris jokes at Max Verstappen battle
5 October 2025
Sky Sports

Lando Norris poked fun at Max Verstappen, joking he'd tried to 'puncture' the Red Bull driver's tyre in their battle for second.

'I tried to puncture your tyre!';

https://www.skysports.com/f1/video/33726/13445238/singapore-gp-i-tried-to-puncture-your-tyre-lando-norris-jokes-at-max-verstappen-battle


Norris defends first lap move on Piastri: ‘If you fault me, you shouldn’t be in F1’
5th October 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

Lando Norris firmly rejected any suggestion he dealt unfairly with his team mate Oscar Piastri on the first lap of the Singapore Grand Prix. “The start was good,” he said after the race. “The right-hand side of the grid was good, I think it was a good launch as well, so I got across and put myself in a good position to not get checked up out of turn one and into turn two.”

“I just had a big [move] up on the inside of Oscar. It was very close [and] so slippery because it was still damp in places and drying out. I think I just clipped the back of Max’s car, and that just gave me a little correction, but then that was it.” Norris pointed out he is at a disadvantage compared to his team mate in the championship, as he remains 22 points behind after this weekend’s race. But anyone on the grid would have done exactly the same thing as I did. So I think if you fault me for just going on the inside and putting my car on the inside of a big gap then I think you shouldn’t be in Formula 1.”

“I’m the one that can’t afford anything compared to him,” he said. “I would [have] put myself at risk just as much if that kind of thing happens. So I’ll see what I can do with it next time. But the FIA obviously thought it was fine, and the team did too, so that’s it.”

‘Lando Norris: “If you fault me, you shouldn’t be in F1”!’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/10/05/norris-defends-first-lap-move-on-piastri-if-you-fault-me-you-shouldnt-be-in-f1/


Papaya Civil War: Norris-Piastri Spark at Singapore’s First Corner
October 5, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Norris shrugs off Turn 1 brush with Piastri as McLaren keeps the big prize in sight. Lando Norris didn’t flinch. He rarely does. Third place in Singapore was tidy business for McLaren on a night where overtaking was rationed, but the story lived in the first 200 meters: Norris muscling up the inside, glancing off Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, and then ricocheting into Oscar Piastri’s papaya. Cue a sharp intake of breath on the pit wall and a spiky radio message from the other side of the garage.

Piastri’s complaint was quick and clear — “not fair,” “not very team-like” — after he had to catch a slide and flirt with the wall, surrendering the podium place he’d earned on Saturday. But Norris, speaking later, insisted there was nothing dirty in it. The move, he argued, was opportunistic on a damp, low-grip inside line and only looked spicy because his front wing brushed Verstappen first.

“I hit Max, so it wasn’t aggressive on my teammate,” was the gist from Norris, who also leaned on the drivers’ code that’s older than parc fermé: if there’s a gap at lights out, you go for it.

‘Papaya Civil War’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/papaya-civil-war-norris-piastri-spark-at-singapores-first-corner/


Lando Norris brushes off incident with Oscar Piastri: “It was good racing”
Lando Norris gives his view on his Lap 1 overtake on Oscar Piastri at the Singapore Grand Prix.
05 Oct 2025
Connor McDonagh
Crash.Net

Lando Norris has downplayed his incident with Oscar Piastri on the opening lap of the Singapore Grand Prix, labelling it as “good racing”. “Yeah, I mean, it was slippery [and] still wet in a lot of places, but it’s racing,” Norris said. “I put it on the inside, I had a small correction, but nothing more than that. It was good racing.”

“And like I said, I wish I could have given a little bit more. I wish there were a few more overtaking opportunities today, but I feel like I did everything I could today, and I’m happy with that. I’m happy with today, I got forward two positions. We won as a team, the constructors’, once again. So I’m most happy about that,” he added.

“I mean, it was a tough race. Max didn’t make any mistakes. Whether I was feeling good or not, I gave it my all today, and got close, a few chances where we were side by side, and some good little bits of battling. But just too difficult to overtake, which is a shame, because the pace was very strong today, and I would have loved to try to catch George and given him a little bit more pressure.”

‘Lando Norris brushes off incident’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1083634/1/lando-norris-brushes-incident-oscar-piastri-singapore-gp-it-was-good-racing


F1 LIVE | Piastri skips podium celebrations, Hamilton's love declaration to Ferrari
6 Oct 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Piastri absent from McLaren's podium celebrations. As Norris dived into Turn 3, he made contact with Verstappen, damaging his front wing's left endplate, before clashing with his teammate in an incident that left Piastri frustrated and calling for team intervention.

Piastri’s radio messages reflected clear irritation after his request for a position swap was denied. Despite the early collision, both McLaren drivers recovered to secure the points required, sealing back-to-back Constructors’ titles for the team. While Norris celebrated on the podium, Piastri was noticeably absent from McLaren’s post-race celebrations, a telling moment after the on-track battle that clouded what should've been a cohesive championship triumph celebration.

‘Piastri skips podium celebrations’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/live/f1-live-piastri-skips-podium-celebrations-hamiltons-love-declaration-to-ferrari


McLaren boss takes action after Oscar Piastri dudded by own team in Singapore Grand Prix
Piastri was clearly frustrated by the incident with his teammate in Singapore.
6 October 2025
Andrew Reid
Yahoo! Australia

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella downplayed suggestions it could lead to further tensions between the teammates. The McLaren team boss said there would be "good conversations" between the drivers and the wider team, but backed their handling of the incident and indicated no subsequent punishment would be forthcoming.

Those comments are unlikely to appease Piastri or quell suggestions from critics that Norris enjoys favouritism from McLaren. The Aussie had further cause for dismay when a slow pit stop effectively ruined his chance to make a late charge for the podium. The 5.2sec stop may have made all the difference as Piastri ended up just two seconds adrift of Norris.

‘McLaren boss takes action’;

https://au.news.yahoo.com/mclaren-boss-takes-action-after-oscar-piastri-dudded-by-own-team-in-singapore-grand-prix-001513384.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9jLm5ld3Nub3cuY28udWsv&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADYoMBoK7Ip1CZnZSHp2S-fqM6lCphplCeFUmR3EfdzEpqgSuB-OgK2tF19r0YrI_4YUxpwjJNVT8KOoA5YKEG2CPiMq5ux3PnQn5 bM3_Ya0hKydhaQi2WX00dSQsfq1ieY0kjVGrhkQqoiRlVfWI2p Qf5gH77gf1sxAtdoL1KyU

[Fortitude]

Oscar Piastri 'Sets Sights' on Leaving McLaren For F1 Rival After Singapore Drama.
According to Swiss outlet Blick, the championship leader has begun 'setting his sights' on potentially moving away from McLaren.
6 Oct 2025
Ryan Smart
SPORTbible

Oscar Piastri is considering whether to leave McLaren for a Formula 1 rival, according to a new report. It was reported by Italian outlet RMCMotori last week that the manager of current Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc had held preliminary talks with other teams ahead of 2027. And Lewis Hamilton is under contract with the Scuderia for 2026, with an option for the seven-time champion to extend his stay with the team into 2027.

Hamilton will be 42 when that season gets underway, however, and it remains to be seen whether he will trigger that option. That could therefore open the door for Piastri - who does already have some loose connections with the Ferrari team.

'Sets Sights';

https://www.sportbible.com/f1/oscar-piastri-mclaren-singapore-gp-future-971673-20251006


Oscar Piastri has ‘already set his sights’ on leaving McLaren for £3.8bn-valued F1 team in 2027
6 October 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Oscar Piastri has ‘already set his sights’ on swapping McLaren for Ferrari in 2027. A report from the Swiss outlet Blick has shared more details about the Formula 1 driver market. The report suggests that both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton are considering their futures at Ferrari beyond next year.

Leclerc has recently been linked with Red Bull among other teams, while Hamilton could retire after 2026 unless he activates an extension in his contract. This potentially opens up two seats at Ferrari, although the Singapore Grand Prix highlighted the current problems Fred Vasseur’s team are facing. What Lewis Hamilton has said about Oscar Piastri’s 2025 season at McLaren.

“I think the job he’s doing is fantastic. It’s mega for me to see McLaren doing so well, because that’s where I started, and also to see them so close, him and Lando, two great drivers, the pressure on both of them will be unimaginable, I would say, for most people who are not experiencing it, and who have not experienced it. We’ve seen both, and obviously, particularly Oscar, doing a great, great job weekend in, weekend out, delivering, qualifying, and everything you need to do to win a world championship.”

‘Already set his sights’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/oscar-piastri-has-already-set-his-sights-on-leaving-mclaren-for-3-8bn-valued-f1-team-in-2027/


Piastri was right to be angry - 2025 Singapore GP takeaways
October 6, 2025
Pablo Elizalde
Motor Sport Magazine

A tense Singapore Grand Prix mixed team rivalries, redemption drives and F1's ongoing battle to make races less predictable. The Singapore Grand Prix didn’t offer the most exciting of races, but it exposed tension at McLaren and resurgent form from Mercedes.

McLaren’s night was defined by intra-team friction, as Oscar Piastri was right to feel aggrieved after being muscled aside by Lando Norris. McLaren may be counting its blessings that the season isn’t any longer, with Max Verstappen‘s Red Bull now looking like a genuine threat again.

‘Exposed tension at McLaren’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/piastri-was-right-to-be-angry-2025-singapore-gp-takeaways/?nowprocket=1


McLaren slammed after papaya clash: 'It was a complete and utter mess'
6 Oct 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

F1 analyst Peter Windsor has broken down the incident between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at the start of the Singapore Grand Prix. Analysing the incident between the two McLarens on his YouTube channel, Windsor agreed with Piastri that Norris’s overtake was not “fair,” as the Australian repeatedly said over the radio.

“I totally get it. I think he was quite right to say that because when you give a teammate room and the teammate then basically runs wide and touches wheels with you because he's misjudged the speed of the car in front, and has to avoid Max Verstappen in this case. That is not on. It's not on when it's a teammate. If it's another driver from another team, but two teammates? It's not on.”

He then added: “If they were not teammates, you could say 'this is normal motor racing first lap'. But this was teammate stuff between the McLarens. And there was a moment when Oscar gave room to Lando Norris, much as Lando Norris gave room to Oscar Piastri at the start of the Hungarian GP last year, but that's another story.”

‘McLaren slammed’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/mclaren-slammed-after-papaya-clash-it-was-a-complete-and-utter-mess


Why Oscar Piastri’s behaviour after the Singapore Grand Prix suggests he’s ‘on his own’ in F1 title fight
6 October 2025
Tyler Rowlinson
F1 Oversteer

Lando Norris is now less than a race win’s worth of points behind his teammate, which has prompted rumours of favouritism within the team. People in the paddock believe McLaren are favouring Norris in the title fight. It can be argued that the Woking outfit’s team orders in Monza and Singapore prove that theory, as Norris was clearly prioritised. Piastri’s behaviour after the race at Marina Bay highlights that there is more division than ever at McLaren.

James Hinchcliffe noted that Piastri was absent from the team’s constructors’ title celebrations on the podium in Singapore. He questioned whether the Aussie’s mentality was that he is now ‘on his own’ in the title fight. “He was very salty after the contact. And we can actually see live pictures there. That was Oscar Piastri in the media pen, fulfilling media duties,” he said via F1 TV’s Post-Race Live Show.

“He’s not on the podium, cheering with the rest of the race team. Is that an indication, Ruth, that his mindset is: ‘The constructors’ is done. The drivers’ championship is on. I feel wronged in turn three and the team did nothing about it. I’m on my own now.” Of course, drivers are contractually obligated to fulfil media duties at race weekends, which Piastri was doing in Singapore. But given his frustration over McLaren’s decision in his clash with Norris, it adds fuel to the fire that the 24-year-old is fighting alone in this title battle.

‘On his own’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/why-oscar-piastris-behaviour-after-the-singapore-grand-prix-suggests-hes-on-his-own-in-f1-title-fight/


‘Good race. Tough race. Thank you. Uh...’: Piastri’s icy act for McLaren boss after Norris clash
October 6th, 2025
Tyson Otto and James McKern from News.com.au
Fox Sports (Australia)

Oscar Piastri has shown how ugly things are getting inside his team’s garage after a cold act towards McLaren boss Zak Brown following the drama-charged Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday night.

The 24-year-old disconnected his radio hook-up while Brown was in the middle of a sentence. “Oscar, back-to-back champions,” Brown was heard saying with a congratulatory tone. But his final words will never be known because Piastri cut him off. “Good race. Tough race. Thankyou. Uh...” Brown said before the radio went dead.

Separate versions of the clip have gone viral on social media. One F1 content producer shared a video viewed more than one million times with a caption: “Yeah, he’s f***ing done”. The incident left Norris with damage to his front wing and left Piastri seeing red.

"Uh...";

https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport/formula-one/good-race-tough-race-thank-you-uh-piastris-icy-act-for-mclaren-boss-after-norris-clash/news-story/7baa7c941e1f4329df8f137555fd0234


‘Beyond a joke’: Tony Jones fires up after McLaren controversy at Singapore F1 Grand Prix
6 Oct 2025
3AW

Tony Jones has angrily reacted to the controversy overnight at the Singapore F1 Grand Prix involving McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Norris hit Piastri during the opening lap, pushing his car into the wall, and Jones thinks the Australian driver is being treated like an “absolute fool” at the moment. “It’s beyond a joke now … his patience is really being tested now by this bias towards his McLaren teammate,” Jones said on 3AW Mornings.

‘Beyond a joke: treated like an absolute fool’;

https://www.3aw.com.au/beyond-a-joke-tony-jones-fires-up-after-mclaren-controversy-at-singapore-f1-grand-prix/

[Fortitude]

How George Russell reversed Mercedes’ Friday misery with F1 Singapore GP pole.
“…it doesn’t matter what happens on Friday, it’s Q3 when it counts.” George Russell.
4 Oct 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Speaking to media including Motorsport Week after qualifying, Russell hinted he wasn’t considering pole as a prospect until late in Q2. “Yeah, it’s been a challenging weekend, to be fair,” he said. “I’ve not been comfortable with the car, not been comfortable with myself, and yeah, it just sort of all came towards me in Q3, to be honest, even the end of Q2.”

“That was my first good lap of the weekend, and probably the first lap where I felt semi-reasonable, but I knew I had a bit of margin to go further, and then my lap one in Q3 was really strong, and then obviously matched it on the second lap, so pretty pleased with that.” When asked why it had taken so long to dial the W16 in on the tricky Marina Bay track, Russell was left searching for a definitive answer.

“I don’t know, to be honest,” he admitted. “I mean, sometimes, some weekends you just hit the ground running a bit sooner, other times you don’t. I’ve found this weekend quite strange. The grip has been really high from the tarmac, but the cars have been sliding quite a lot, and it feels a bit reminiscent of Miami, where it’s really high grip, but the car is sliding, and I just didn’t have much confidence in myself.”

“It’s been a challenging weekend, to be fair”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/10/04/how-george-russell-reversed-mercedes-friday-misery-with-f1-singapore-gp-pole/


Russell shocked by Singapore win: 'Don't know where it came from'
05/10/2025
James Fiorucci
F1i.com

Speaking after the 62-lap event, Russell admitted that his latest win felt especially good after his heart-breaking crash in the final few laps on the brink of victory at the same circuit two years ago. He said: "It feels amazing, especially after what happened a couple of years ago. That was a bit of a missed opportunity, but we more than made up for it today.”

"Just so grateful for the team. They did an amazing job this weekend. We don’t really know where this performance came from, but really, really happy," stated Russell. He continued: "If I was to make a list of all the races I thought we could win at this year, this would probably be right at the bottom.”

"We need to sit down on Monday and Tuesday to sort of understand why the performance was so good. I hope we can carry this through to the rest of the season," added the Mercedes driver. He concluded: "But I think realistically, Lando looked incredibly fast. He was within a second of Max the whole race and around this circuit, that's not easy. We’ll take the performance for today and celebrate it. I won't think too much about Austin yet."

'Don't know where it came from';

https://f1i.com/news/550113-russell-shocked-by-victory-dont-know-where-this-came-from.html


How Mercedes staff privately reacted to George Russell’s Singapore Grand Prix win
6 October 2025
Tyler Rowlinson
F1 Oversteer

Mercedes staff were taken by ‘surprise’ by George Russell’s win at the Singapore Grand Prix. Wolff said after the race, as per AMuS: “Singapore has never been a good track for us. If someone had told me that we would dominate here, I wouldn’t have believed them.” Russell echoed those statements, saying Singapore was ‘bottom of the list’ of tracks he felt he could win in 2025.

Yet, the Brit dominated the race, only temporarily losing the lead during the pit stops. He maintained a strong pace to secure victory, much to the ‘surprise’ of Mercedes’ technicians. Singapore has not been a good track for the Brackley outfit in the past, having not won there before 2025 since 2018 with Lewis Hamilton. But Mercedes’ engineers had a ‘hunch’ that this year might go better, and they would be proved right.

“I wouldn’t have believed them”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/how-mercedes-staff-privately-reacted-to-george-russells-singapore-grand-prix-win/


Why Mercedes remains baffled by F1 Singapore GP dominance
6 Oct 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

When asked about how the team optimised its package, which has not shown much consistency during the middle-to-latter part of the season, Wolff was at a loss for words. “You tell me,” the Austrian told media including Motorsport Week. “That [Singapore] was never a nice place for us in terms of car performance. And if you would have told me that we were dominating in the way we did today, I would not have believed it.”

However, Wolff was also happy to acknowledge that even the quickest teams this year, including Constructors’ Champions McLaren, have found difficulties in some races. “These cars are just a surprise box,” he voiced. “If you ask McLaren why the last three races haven’t gone at all, they would probably struggle for answers.”

“And the same way, Max coming back and then lacking performance again today, and the same with the Ferraris oscillating between success and failure.” Wolff recognised the fine margins in optimising the most from any package this year, but indicated that once the right balance was struck in Singapore, the W16 was looking like it could achieve what it eventually did.

“These cars are just a surprise box”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/10/06/why-mercedes-remains-baffled-by-f1-singapore-gp-dominance/


Track surface changes key to surprise Singapore GP win – Russell
5th October 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

After taking pole position in qualifying yesterday, Russell said he expected Singapore would not suit their car. He went on to score a commanding victory in the race, pulling out a clear lead in the early stages. The Marina Bay track was resurfaced in eight places ahead of this year’s race. Russell thinks that was the change which made it suit their car better.

“There’s been less tyre overheating this year compared to years gone by,” he said. “I think it’s a track that in the past had major overheating, but with some of the corners having new Tarmac, it’s a bit smoother. The tyres seem a little bit more robust this year. It was all just in a bit of a nicer window, but nevertheless, it was still quite a surprise.”

“But the opening laps were really strong and I know Max was probably managing those softs more than I was managing my mediums.” Russell admitted the last-lap crash which cost him a place on the podium in 2023 played on his mind during the race. “Pulling a 10-second gap in 20-something laps was really great,” he said. “From that moment on, I just knew it was [about] bringing it home and watching out for the wall at turn 10.”

‘Track surface changes key’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/10/05/track-surface-changes-key-to-surprise-singapore-gp-win-russell/


“The pace he and the car had was surprising,” claims Wolff after Russell’s dominant victory
8 Oct 2025
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

Commenting on Mercedes' second victory of the season, team boss Toto Wolff noted: "That was an amazing drive from George this evening. He controlled the race from lights out to the chequered flag to take a brilliant win.

“The pace he and the car had was surprising but strong and that was the winning formula today. It was also great to have PETRONAS represent our team on the podium with Tengku Muhammad Taufik receiving the trophy. They are a brilliant title partner, and it is sweet to win at what is the closest race on the calendar to Malaysia.”

Signing off with a word for McLaren’s constructors’ title, Wolff said: “On that note, congratulations to McLaren as they secured the Constructors’ crown this evening. They have been the best team this year, so it is well deserved. Congratulations also go to our team-mates at Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains who secured a 10th Mercedes-powered Constructor’s title in the past 12 years."

"That was an amazing drive from George”;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/27877


'He's been formidable this year' – Wolff praises Russell after 'in control' Singapore GP victory
George Russell's performance on Sunday in Singapore won him praise from team boss Toto Wolff.
6 Oct 2025
Formula One - Official Site

"I think we've seen George in the past with these moments, but not recently, and that's the step-up that he has made also this year, that these things don't happen again," said Wolff. "He was in control of the race today, eking out an advantage, managing it when Max was a bit closer, and there was not at any moment a doubt that there was any risk in his driving.”

"He's been formidable this year. I haven't seen mistakes. There were weekends that he himself said I could have done more, that it wasn't a good race. But this happens with any driver. You can see when it merges, the car being in a perfect space, and the driver being on top of things, that becomes the dominant formula, and that is what we've seen here."

'He's been formidable this year';

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/hes-been-formidable-this-year-wolff-praises-russell-after-in-control.68Ie3mMBy420FRYaKKAKVA

[Fortitude]

Analyst sees Verstappen with stronger title shot after Singapore.
Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer believes Max Verstappen has a better chance to win the drivers’ title after the Singapore GP.
8 Oct 2025
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

The Dutchman finished second to George Russell at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, but ahead of two McLaren drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. F1 TV analyst Palmer thinks Singapore proved Verstappen can still battle for this year's title. He said: "I have to say yes, there is [a chance]. More than I thought before Singapore. I think the fact that Red Bull were competitive on a very different circuit to Baku and Monza does speak now that they have found something on the car."

Jolyon Palmer: "So if they're fighting for a victory here, I think they can now fight for wins everywhere else, and it should be a chance for Max to get himself towards the championship fight." On the other hand, he noted that in order to overtake both Piastri and Norris in the standings, the two Mercedes and Ferrari drivers will need to take points away from them. Palmer also concluded that, had Verstappen been on pole position, he would have won last Sunday. "The pace on race day was actually very even," he argued.

‘Stronger title shot’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/analyst-sees-verstappen-with-stronger-title-shot-after-singapore


Verstappen’s Poker Face: Mekies’ Red Bull Eyes Late Heist
8 Oct 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Red Bull is a different beast these days, and Max Verstappen isn’t fighting it. The quadruple World Champion says he’s clicking with new team boss Laurent Mekies, praising a straight-shooting style that “fits” how he likes to work. There’s a different strategy in play with Mekies steering the ship now, Verstappen admits, but no one’s erasing the past. The Dutchman still talks about the Christian Horner era with clear fondness — memories of that first title in 2021 still doing laps in the back of his mind.

The mood music at Milton Keynes has changed since summer and, on track, so has the momentum. Verstappen has been steadily clawing back ground on McLaren over the last run of races, yet he’s keeping the lid firmly on any title talk. In Singapore, he felt Lando Norris had the outright pace advantage; the layout did him a few favours in keeping the papaya car parked behind. Pragmatic as ever, Verstappen’s read is simple: the speed is there in patches, but it has to be there everywhere if he’s going to make this a late-season heist. No bold predictions, just the familiar focus on execution.

‘Poker Face/ Late Heist’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/verstappens-poker-face-mekies-red-bull-eyes-late-heist/


Brundle's warning: Verstappen 'smells an outside chance of the title'
6 Oct 2025
Luke-John Buckle
GPblog.com

Martin Brundle is adamant that Max Verstappen is on the McLaren driver's radar with an outside chance of winning the world championship. The former Formula 1 driver said: "We know how good Max is. The team seems calm. They seem relaxed. He’s driving beautifully. They certainly have improved the car.”

“And you know why, he just smells an outside chance of a championship. A lot of things have got to work in his favour between now and then. But he’s now, I believe, he’s now living in the heads of the McLaren players.”

'Smells an outside chance of the title';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/brundles-warning-verstappen-smells-an-outside-chance-of-the-title


How Max Verstappen Can Still Win F1 Title Without Any McLaren DNFs
The Red Bull star is still in the world title fight after Singapore GP
7 Oct 2025
James Taylor
SPORTbible

Max Verstappen can still win the Formula 1 world title without any McLaren DNFs. With six race weekends remaining, including three sprint races, drivers still have plenty of opportunity to rack up points. And now Formula 1 fans are beginning to speculate whether Verstappen can complete a remarkable turnaround to retain his world title.

On X, F1GuyDan wrote: "Who needs hopium: Max Verstappen didn't win in Singapore but he can still become drivers' champion without any McLaren DNFs if the final 6 GPs play out like this. Do you believe?" He accompanied the post with a graphic showing the results Verstappen would need to lift the world title. According to the scenario, Verstappen would need to win every remaining race, while Norris and Piastri alternate between finishing second and third.

Under this outcome, Verstappen would finish the season on 447 points, ahead of Piastri with 445 and Norris on 428. Although it is highly unlikely that no other driver will finish in the top three for the remainder of the season, the scenario shows that Verstappen's title fight is still alive.

‘Without Any McLaren DNFs’;

https://www.sportbible.com/f1/max-verstappen-oscar-piastri-lando-norris-formula-1-554033-20251007


Brundle: Verstappen living ‘rent free’ in rivals’ heads, à la Senna
07/10/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Speaking on the grid ahead of last weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, Brundle painted a vivid picture of Verstappen’s psychological edge over his competitors. “I think Max, because he’s so aggressive, especially when he finds some grip that others don’t believe is there in the first few corners of the opening lap, I think he sort of lives in their heads rent-free.”

“A little bit, because they don’t know what he’s going to do next. And that is entirely intentional. It’s exactly what Ayrton Senna used to do, and people like that. Michael Schumacher was another one. Whether it was Formula 3 or Formula 1, Ayrton would steam up the inside of you and leave you to decide whether you wanted to crash on that day in history or not.”

Brundle’s comparison underlines the mental warfare Verstappen brings to the grid: it’s not just about speed or strategy – it’s also about planting doubt and hesitation in the minds of his opponents.

‘Mental warfare’;

https://f1i.com/news/550336-brundle-verstappen-living-rent-free-in-rivals-heads-a-la-senna.html


Red Bull have “improved a lot over the last few races,” claims Verstappen
6 Oct 2025
Balazs Szabo
F1technical.net

Max Verstappen: “I think over the last few races we’ve definitely improved a lot. A few things that we have done throughout the weekend, that’s what we have to probably look at again for the coming races.”

“But it’s nothing shocking or that we are lost about why maybe some pace has disappeared compared to what we would have liked. It’s just some stuff that we need to analyse, and hopefully next weekend we can do a little bit better,” said Verstappen. Verstappen opted to start the 62-lap Singapore race on Pirelli’s soft tyres in the hope that he could overtake George Russell at the start. “The track only just got dry , and starting on the dirty side of the grid... Yeah, well, we just opted to try something different because normally, if you just cross or pass Turn 1, you just stay there without anything crazy.”

“So we tried. It didn't really work out. So, then the first stint was always about just surviving on the tyres, trying to make it long enough to then pit for the Hard tyre. I think that worked out, but unfortunately, I think the whole race was quite difficult — more difficult than I hoped — for a lot of different reasons, let’s say it like that. So a few things we need to understand, why these things went wrong today. But even then, around here, even if you have more pace, you can't pass without anything crazy happening. So I think, for us, second was the maximum result,” Verstappen said.

“Definitely improved a lot”;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/27870


[B]Red Bull's 'good news' for Verstappen firmly rekindle title hopes
6 Oct 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Laurent Mekies expressed his satisfaction with the progress made by the RB21, pleased that the team was able to fight for victory in Singapore GP. “For sure, for us being able to fight for the win here means a lot,” the Frenchman said after the race. “After Monza, Baku was very different — you never know until you come to a high-downforce track. We’ve been able to be in the right rhythm from Friday. We were in the right rhythm in qualifying — it was very, very close to pole — and we were in the right rhythm in the race.

“We finished just a few seconds behind Russell. This is good news; it means that what we have unlocked is not only low-downforce specific.” However, Red Bull will continue to take things one race at a time and draw conclusions only at the end of the season: “We will not change our approach. We will continue to take it race by race. We’ll continue to take the learnings. There are probably quite a few lessons we can take from this race, on some small pockets of performance that we may be able to unlock for the future.”

Finally, shifting the focus to the upcoming races, Mekies added: “Austin will be a very different equation. Again, it’s back to the famous mid-speed corners where McLaren was also very strong here. They have been very, very strong all weekend against us, and you have a lot of them in Austin and in Mexico. So we take it race by race, and then we’ll see.”

‘Satisfaction with the progress made by the RB21’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/verstappen-handed-brilliant-news-from-red-bull-after-singapore-gp

[Fortitude]

Sainz’s Sunday Save Can’t Mask Williams’ Saturday Chaos.
The frustration, though, isn’t just about a scrutineering slip. Sainz has been blunt for weeks: Williams’ single-lap form isn’t where it needs to be.
October 8, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Carlos Sainz left Singapore with a point, a shrug, and a message: no hard feelings, but Williams has to stop tripping over its own feet on Saturdays. Both Sainz and Alex Albon were thrown out of qualifying at Marina Bay after the FW47’s DRS flap was found beyond the legal limit — the FIA measured the gap at over 85mm in the deployed state on both cars’ outer sections. Williams accepted the finding, noting that its own pre-qualifying checks showed the wing within tolerance, but the stewards’ gauges did not. Disqualified from the session but cleared to race, Sainz started 18th. Albon, after Williams broke parc fermé to make changes, went from the pit lane. Alpine did the same with Pierre Gasly.

A long, patient first stint — Sainz ran roughly 50 laps on the mediums — set up the salvage: P10 at the flag, one point prised from a weekend that had threatened to unravel. For a driver in his first year at Grove, it was the tidy recovery you’d expect from a four-time Grand Prix winner. “It’s definitely not hard feelings between any of us,” Sainz said afterwards. “The team acknowledges we’re still making mistakes in these kind of things which can happen. We are in a building year of trying to become a better team and definitely yesterday we all did mistakes.”

“I did mistakes in my quali lap that cost us a Q3. The team did a mistake with the legality of the rear wing on both cars. A mistake with Alex in FP1 with the brakes. As long as we don’t repeat mistakes and we keep learning, that’s the key for us.” The frustration, though, isn’t just about a scrutineering slip. Sainz has been blunt for weeks: Williams’ single-lap form isn’t where it needs to be. Even with a more stable rear in race trim and gentle tyre use that lets the FW47 stretch a stint, the car doesn’t switch on in qualifying the way it should.

‘Williams’ single-lap form isn’t where it needs to be’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/sainzs-sunday-save-cant-mask-williams-saturday-chaos/


Vowles claims Williams will be "urgently investigating how this happened" after double disqualification
4 Oct 2025
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

Following the confirmation of the disqualification, Williams Team Principal James Vowles issued a statement saying: "During FIA scrutineering after Qualifying, the rear wings on both our cars failed DRS slot gap checks. As a result, Alex and Carlos have been disqualified from Qualifying for tomorrow’s Singapore Grand Prix.”

"This is bitterly disappointing for the team and we are urgently investigating how this happened. At no point were we seeking a performance advantage and the rear wings had passed our own checks earlier in the day, but there is only one measurement that matters and we fully accept the FIA ruling.”

"We have a car capable of scoring points here this weekend and will do everything we can to fight from the back of the grid tomorrow, and will immediately review our processes to make sure this doesn’t happen again."

"Urgently investigating how this happened";

https://www.f1technical.net/news/27858


Singapore GP disaster for Williams as Albon and Sainz disqualified from qualifying
Post-qualifying scrutineering revealed both Williams cars broke DRS regulations, forcing them to start Sunday’s race from the back
4 October 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

According to a statement from the FIA, the issue concerned the uppermost rear wing element on both cars, with the adjustable positions exceeding the permitted limits. “The uppermost rear wing element adjustable positions were checked on car numbers 23 (Albon) and 55 (Sainz),” the FIA report stated. “Both cars exceeded the maximum limit of 85mm on both sides of the rear wing outer area.”

The FIA confirmed that this constituted a breach of Article 3.10.10 (g) of the Formula 1 Technical Regulations, which relates to the operation of the Drag Reduction System (DRS). The rule specifies that “at all points along the span, when the DRS is in the state of deployment, the two sections of the rear wing profiles must have a minimum gap of between 9.4mm and 85mm.”

“During post-Qualifying scrutineering, the rear wing of the car was found to be non-compliant with the Technical Regulations,” read statement continued. “At the hearing, the competitor admitted that, although their own measurement prior to the Qualifying had shown the component to be within tolerance, the measurement subsequently conducted by the appointed FIA officials revealed a larger gap than permitted and therefore the rear wing did not conform with the required dimension.”

‘Both Williams cars broke DRS regulations’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-2025-williams-alex-albon-carlos-sainz-disqualified-singapore-gp-qualifying/


Disqualified, Then Cleared: Williams Plots Singapore Shock Comeback
October 5, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Williams clears Singapore start for Sainz and Albon after DRS disqualifications. Carlos Sainz will race in Singapore after all. So will Alex Albon. Hours after both Williams drivers were thrown out of qualifying for a rear-wing infringement, the FIA has granted permission for the pair to start today’s Grand Prix from the back. Saturday night ended awkwardly for Williams. Sainz and Albon had parked their FW47s in 12th and 13th, only for post-session checks to find their DRS slot gaps exceeded the 85mm limit when opened. That’s a straight technical breach and an automatic exclusion from the results.

Because their qualifying times were nullified, the duo also fell foul—technically—of the 107% rule, forcing the team to ask the stewards for permission to race. The stewards said yes. Citing Article 39.4 b) of the FIA Sporting Regulations, they ruled that both drivers had set “satisfactory” lap times in practice and could therefore start the race. In line with Article 42.1, they’ll be placed at the back of the grid. It’s a messy start to a weekend that had quietly promised more for Williams. Sainz, who joined from Ferrari for 2025, looked sharp through practice around Marina Bay’s bumpy, heat-soaked streets. Albon’s long-run pace wasn’t shabby either. Both will now have to convert that into progress from Row 10.

Team principal James Vowles didn’t sugarcoat it. Bitterly disappointing, he called it, insisting there was no intent to gain performance and that both rear wings had passed internal checks earlier in the day. Williams has launched an internal review to understand how the parts later failed the FIA gauge. The DRS infraction itself is simple: open the flap too wide and you hand the rear wing a little less drag than the rules allow. It’s why the tolerance is policed so tightly. Williams maintains the overage was unintended. Intent doesn’t matter in scrutineering; measurement does.

‘Team principal James Vowles didn’t sugarcoat it’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/disqualified-then-cleared-williams-plots-singapore-shock-comeback/


Carlos Sainz reveals the ‘key’ to Williams improvement after F1 Singapore GP comeback
7 Oct 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Speaking to media including Motorsport Week post-race, Sainz noted the impressive pace of his car to help him move through the field. “From 13th I was hopeful of points, from 18th probably less,” he remarked. “To be honest, all of our simulations said we needed Safety Cars at the right times to get points but the pace was so good today that we managed to extract a point out of a difficult Singapore.@

“Boring one because it was a one-stop that nothing really happened, but we had such a strong pace and such a good overtaking at the end that I think we were one of the only midfield cars to be able to make it through the field. I think an ideal weekend would have been a P7 or P8. Realistically speaking in the race we had a lot of pace,” he addressed.

“Again maybe a bit like in Baku we could have been mixing it up with [Andrea Kimi] Antonelli, maybe possibly if we would have started next to him. But the reality is that we have a weakness in qualifying that we are trying to address. We keep criticising the tyre preparation.”

“I think an ideal weekend would have been a P7 or P8”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/10/07/carlos-sainz-reveals-the-key-to-williams-improvement-after-f1-singapore-gp-comeback/


Williams launches ‘urgent investigation’ over Sainz, Albon DSQ as FIA issues update
05 Oct 2025
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

The FIA has granted permission for Williams drivers Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon to start today’s Singapore Grand Prix. It comes after the pair were disqualified from Saturday’s qualifying session due to a technical breach, with Williams holding an “urgent investigation” over the matter.

A stewards’ report on Sainz read: “The Stewards have received a request from Atlassian Williams Racing to allow car 55 to start the Race despite being disqualified from Qualifying. “In accordance with Article 39.4 b) of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations, the Stewards grant permission for car 55, Carlos Sainz, to start the Race, as the driver has set satisfactory times in practice at this Competition.

“The car will be placed on the grid in accordance with Article 42.1 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.” An identical statement was issued for Albon, who was previously disqualified from qualifying at last year’s Dutch Grand Prix.

‘Urgent investigation’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/fia-williams-update-carlos-sainz-alex-albon-singapore-grand-prix-dsq

[Fortitude]

Has Ferrari really gone ‘downhill’ since Sainz left? Villenueve thinks so.
In explaining what Sainz brings to a team, Villeneuve added that the trend of teams going “downhill” after his departure has carried on with Ferrari.
30 Sep 2025
Henry Valantine
PlanetF1.com

Villeneuve said of Sainz to a betting platform: “He’s always been a very mature, strong driver. He’s often been criticised for lack of pace which is not the case. If you look at his career, when he’s joined a new team, it has taken him a while, half a season maybe, to get up to speed. He works at it. But in that period, he makes the whole team go better.”

“That’s what happened in every team he’s joined. And at some point, he’s often had a teammate that maybe was just a few hundredths quicker. But that teammate was quicker also thanks to the work that Sainz was doing.”

“But then Sainz became quicker than his teammate. Even when you look at Leclerc, Leclerc wasn’t ahead of Sainz at Ferrari like a lot of people want to think. And every time he left a team, that team went downhill. Every time. And it’s the same with Ferrari now.”

‘The trend of teams going “downhill” after his departure has carried on with Ferrari’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/jacques-villeneuve-carlos-sainz-ferrari-downhill


Carlos Sainz reveals how former Ferrari colleagues reacted after he scored his first podium for Williams
26 Sep 2025
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

Carlos Sainz’s former colleagues at Ferrari were ‘very proud’ of him for his heroics in Baku. Sainz was forced to find greener pastures following Ferrari’s acquisition of Lewis Hamilton for 2025, which was announced before the beginning of last season. The 31-year-old left the team on good terms, revealing the Scuderia’s sentiment towards him during his exit, as well as their joy for him in Baku.

“I must say Ferrari was really happy for me, we had a really good goodbye, and a really good end to the year last year,” Sainz told listeners. “Honestly, I just felt like I left a lot of good friends and a lot of good people. I think it was just the circumstances of Lewis being a seven-time world champion, wanting to finish his career in Ferrari, and I had to leave, and in that case, this is where I found Williams.”

“Now that I’ve scored my first podium at Williams, all of the people from Ferrari, and everyone was congratulating me, everyone seemed to be very, very proud and happy.” Over the Ferrari team radio at the chequered flag, former teammate Charles Leclerc congratulated Sainz for his impressive result after expressing his frustration with how his own race went with the Scuderia on the streets of Baku.

‘Carlos Sainz’s former colleagues at Ferrari were ‘very proud’ of him’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/carlos-sainz-reveals-how-former-ferrari-colleagues-reacted-after-he-scored-his-first-podium-for-williams/


Sainz Sprays, Hamilton Waits: Steiner Says Ferrari Regrets
29 Sep 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

‘Some in Ferrari already regret it’: Steiner pounces as Sainz hits Baku podium while Hamilton waits. Guenther Steiner has never been shy with a verdict, and he’s not starting now. In the wake of Carlos Sainz’s Baku podium — delivered in Williams blue — the former Haas boss says there are people inside Ferrari who already regret swapping Sainz for Lewis Hamilton. Steiner’s take, on The Red Flags podcast, was as blunt as you’d expect: some at Maranello “feel regret,” he said, even if management won’t admit it.

His reasoning? Sainz was a known quantity who delivered without fuss. Hamilton, still finding his feet at Ferrari, has brought noise, scrutiny, and questions the team’s had to spend precious energy answering. “They wouldn’t have all the interference from outside of Lewis not performing,” Steiner argued, suggesting Ferrari could’ve kept heads down and chased performance rather than fielding constant why-doesn’t-he-like-the-car queries. He also pointed to the obvious: Hamilton isn’t cheap. “Is it a worthwhile investment? Maybe not,” he added, implying the return so far doesn’t match the outlay. It’s a stinging comparison because the backdrop is so stark. Sainz left Ferrari expecting to stay — he’d said he was “99% sure”...

‘Steiner Says Ferrari Regrets’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/sainz-sprays-hamilton-waits-steiner-says-ferrari-regrets/


Guenther Steiner makes stunning Ferrari ‘regret’ claim about Carlos Sainz
28 Sep 2025
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Guenther Steiner believes some people within Ferrari will regret the team’s decision to part ways with Carlos Sainz. “I think obviously management cannot feel regret because you would be admitting that you did something wrong, and you cannot do that, because I’m sure that some of the guys there, the feeling I get, because Ferrari finished eighth and ninth in Baku. Carlos Sainz, now with Williams, finished third, so it’s like, I guess the guy feeling best about it is Carlos Sainz.”

In a later ‘Gas or Brake’ segment of the podcast, Steiner was asked whether Sainz’s podium proves that Ferrari made the wrong choice in signing Hamilton, who has endured a disappointing debut campaign with the Scuderia. “I mean, Carlos was doing a good job. They wouldn’t have all the interference from outside of Lewis not performing, so the team could focus on going racing, making things better, instead of always trying to find out why Lewis doesn’t like the car.”

‘Regret’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1082502/1/guenther-steiner-makes-stunning-ferrari-regret-claim-about-carlos-sainz


What Fred Vasseur has now said ‘off the record’ about Carlos Sainz returning to Ferrari one day
25 Sep 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Fred Vasseur said ‘off the record’ that the ‘door wasn’t closed’ for Carlos Sainz to return to Ferrari. A report from the Spanish outlet MARCA has shared more information about Vasseur’s feelings towards the four-time race winner. Vasseur admitted that ‘the door wasn’t closed’ on Sainz ever returning to Ferrari. At an ‘off the record’ breakfast for the Spanish media ahead of the British Grand Prix, Vasseur made this claim for the first time. Although a return is ‘not on the table’ right now, anything could happen in the future. Hamilton controls a clause in his Ferrari contract that would see him extend his stay at Maranello into 2027.

Whether he wants to activate that clause if he and the team aren’t winning is another matter, which could pave the way for a return for Sainz if Ferrari aren’t interested in promoting Oliver Bearman. The talk surrounding Mercedes’ 2026 power unit might make it a more difficult decision for Sainz to leave Williams to return to Ferrari. But Vasseur doesn’t want to rule out any potential options in the driver market, as he will know that Ferrari are going to need a replacement for Hamilton at some point in the future.

‘The door wasn’t closed’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/what-fred-vasseur-has-now-said-off-the-record-about-carlos-sainz-returning-to-ferrari-one-day/


Ex-Ferrari F1 chairman hints he would have kept Carlos Sainz alongside Charles Leclerc
26 Sep 2025
Connor McDonagh
Crash.Net

Former Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo has hinted he would have retained Carlos Sainz alongside Charles Leclerc, praising the pairing as a “very good couple” for the team. Montezemolo was keen to point out that Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were a very strong driver pairing. Ferrari narrowly missed out on the constructors’ championship last year, finishing 14 points behind McLaren.

Ferrari decided to replace Sainz with Lewis Hamilton for this season. “Sainz and Leclerc was a very good couple. But no question, Verstappen is by far the best in my view. By far,” he added. Montezemolo didn’t mention Hamilton or current Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur.

“If tomorrow morning I will be obliged to go to work in Ferrari, in one week I have clear in my mind who to put in different positions,” Montezemolo explained. Montezemolo also praised ex-Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto. “I am happy now for Binotto… he is investing in the future with a good Brazilian young driver looking ahead,” he concluded.

‘Ex-Ferrari F1 chairman hints he would have kept Carlos Sainz’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1082531/1/ex-ferrari-f1-chairman-hints-he-would-have-kept-carlos-sainz-alongside-charles


Sainz Strikes First: Did Ferrari Bet On The Wrong Star?
Alex Albuquerque
Sep 30, 2025
FastestLap.com

The head-to-head scoreline, then? Not decided. Not close. Not even the right way to think about it in May. If Sainz and Williams nick another big result, the drumbeat will get louder. If Hamilton strings together clean Saturdays and Ferrari unlocks a little more balance, the podium will come and the noise will turn. Neither narrative is permanent in a 24-race championship.

What will decide the story is the stuff we don’t see on TV: how fast Hamilton and Ferrari converge on a common language; how Williams sustain development without wobbling; which team executes better when the margins are only tenths wide and one slow stop costs you everything. It’s prosaic. It’s also how this sport works.

So, by all means enjoy the intrigue. Sainz wearing blue and standing on a rostrum before Hamilton does it in scarlet is not nothing. It’s just not everything. The bar for Ferrari and Hamilton isn’t P3 anyway. It’s wins. It’s a title challenge. If Sainz and Williams get to either of those first, then we’ve got a different conversation on our hands. Until then, one snapshot doesn’t make a portrait. It just makes a great headline.

‘Not decided’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/sainz-strikes-first-did-ferrari-bet-on-the-wrong-star/

[Fortitude]

Ferrari’s 2026 Deadline: Deliver, or Lose Leclerc.
Nicolas Todt has put Ferrari on notice! Todt turns the heat on Ferrari: deliver in 2026 or risk losing Leclerc.
October 12, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Speaking to the Straits Times in Singapore, Charles Leclerc’s long-time manager made it clear the Monegasque won’t wait forever for a title-worthy car. “He’s not a kid anymore,” Todt said, a line that landed with the thud of a ticking clock in Maranello. Translation: if Ferrari don’t show up for the 2026 rules reset with a genuine championship contender, Leclerc’s future becomes an open question.

This isn’t idle chatter. Leclerc’s been with Ferrari since 2019, a period that’s delivered eight wins and a near-miss in 2022 when he finished runner-up in the World Drivers’ Championship. It’s also been a seven-season reel of bright Saturdays and too many bruising Sundays. After another tough Singapore Grand Prix, Leclerc’s post-race debrief was unvarnished. McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes have all found steps, he said, while Ferrari have been left playing catch-up. “And then there’s us,” was the sting. Taken alone, it’s frustration. Taken with the tone of his recent radio messages and Todt’s public temperature check, it starts to sound like groundwork.

The driver who once arrived as Ferrari’s future now wants Ferrari to meet him in the present. Todt didn’t sugar-coat it. Ferrari’s car is “good,” he said, but not good enough to win a World Championship. The ask is simple and enormous: build a 2026 machine that can go toe-to-toe with the class of the field from round one. The stakes are obvious. Leclerc signed a multi-year extension in early 2024, widely understood to include options that give both sides wiggle room. In other words, there are escape hatches if performance doesn’t align with ambition.

‘Deliver, or Lose Leclerc’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/ferraris-2026-deadline-deliver-or-lose-leclerc/


Charles Leclerc angers Ferrari engineers with blunt Singapore comments – report
10 Oct 2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Charles Leclerc gave an alarming assessment of Ferrari and where they stand versus rivals after a challenging Singapore Grand Prix. Leclerc’s outlook for Ferrari was not a positive one, with a report since emerging from Italy that Leclerc’s comments did not go down well with a section of the Ferrari crew. Leclerc had given little hope for an improvement in Ferrari’s fortunes following Singapore.

According to respected Italian publication Corriere dello Sport, some of the Ferrari engineers have been left far from impressed with Leclerc’s comments. Unfortunately, we don’t have the race car to fight with the guys in front,” said Leclerc after the race in Singapore. “McLaren always had the same gap on us compared to the beginning of the year. Red Bull did a step from Monza and are the same level of McLaren. Mercedes now is at the same level of McLaren and Red Bull. And then there’s us.”

“It’s not easy, obviously, because you want to fight for better positions. But at the moment, it just feels like we are passengers to the car and we cannot extract much more.” He added: “The picture we’ve seen this weekend is going to be what the rest of the season looks like for us.” La Gazzetta dello Sport state that Leclerc’s comment ‘paint a discouraging picture of the entire Maranello environment’, and that ‘relations between the various departments of the team are strained.’

“And then there’s us”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/ferrari-engineers-angry-charles-leclerc-singapore-criticism-report


'Not a baby anymore': Leclerc's camp 'hopes' Ferrari deliver in 2026
10 OCT 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Charles Leclerc's manager Nicolas Todt has ramped up the pressure at Ferrari deeming the Scuderia's efforts "not enough to win the title." He said to the Strait Times: “A lot of drivers are waiting to see how well each team will have worked, and how good their car will be to say ‘I want to stay in my team’ or ‘I want to go to another team because they are doing a better job’.”

He added: “Charles is one of the best talent of his generation, with Max and a few of the drivers. He’s not a baby any more because he has done a lot of seasons with Ferrari and of course, I think that we still need to have a winning car. Today, we have a good car, but not enough to win the title... We hope it will happen and we hope next year Ferrari will have a very good car with the new regulations,” he concluded.

Reports in Italian media speak of a growing discomfort in Ferrari's ranks, with team principal Frédéric Vasseur apparently going into a heated argument with a Ferrari trackside personnel following the Singapore GP qualifying. Reports also indicate that the team's mechanics and engineers would be looking rather unkindly at Leclerc's consistent criticism of the SF-25 given the pressure that is already on the team to achieve better results. Furthermore, recent rumours have put Vasseur under pressure again, despite his recent contract extension, linking Horner as a potential replacement to the Frenchman.

‘Ramped up the pressure at Ferrari’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/not-a-baby-anymore-leclercs-camp-hopes-ferrari-deliver-in-2026


Ferrari face ‘never-ending crisis’ within several departments amid Charles Leclerc exit rumours
9 October 2025
Tyler Rowlinson
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari are in turmoil on and off the track as they risk a poor end to the 2025 season and losing their star driver Charles Leclerc. The Maranello outfit are still without a win in 2025 as they struggle to find the right balance with the SF-25. The Singapore Grand Prix was another disappointing weekend as Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton could only bring home 12 points.

Leclerc lamented Hamilton’s ‘very difficult situation’ as Ferrari again struggled to maximise their weekend. The team are falling further behind their rivals as they battle for second in the constructors’ championship. Leclerc says Ferrari are the fourth-best team at the moment; a bleak admission that comes amid reports that he is considering his future in Maranello. The whole atmosphere around the team appears to be in crisis.

With no wins and just five podiums in 2025 – all courtesy of Leclerc – Ferrari have planned ‘serious’ meetings behind the scenes with key personnel. Little has worked for the team this season, from operational decisions to upgrades and development. Ferrari ‘ignored’ Leclerc and Hamilton’s wishes for aerodynamic upgrades, instead focusing on the rear suspension to solve their problems with ride height. However, this has now caused the car to not respond to setup changes. Leclerc is losing patience at Ferrari, referring to the team as ‘passengers’ in Singapore…

‘Never-ending crisis’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-face-never-ending-crisis-within-several-departments-amid-charles-leclerc-exit-rumours/


'Tension at Ferrari': Rumour of intrateam conflict emerges
9 Oct 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Italian journal Corriere dello Sport reports turmoil in Ferrari after their lowly outing in Singapore, with a conversation involving Fréderic Vasseur escalating into a tense discussion, and resentment from a portion of the engineering staff toward Charles Leclerc.

According to the Italian publication it seems that after what was another poor outing in Singapore where the Scuderia failed to deliver on their car's potential, a conversation between someone who is described as "a very capable head of track engineering," and team principal Frédéric Vasseur, escalated into a tense discussion.

The Italian journal also states that there is growing discontent from the engineers' side toward Charles Leclerc, for "his uncompromising criticism" of the Ferrari SF-25 car. After the race, Leclerc said that Mercedes was right up there McLaren, who'd also been joined by Red Bull at the top. Regarding Ferrari, Leclerc ended with a crushing: "And then there's us."

‘Turmoil in Ferrari’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/tension-at-ferrari-rumour-of-intrateam-conflict-emerges


Charles Leclerc delivers bleak Ferrari prediction after Singapore struggle
Charles Leclerc finished sixth in a difficult Singapore Grand Prix for Ferrari.
9 October 2025
Jake Nichol & Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

Charles Leclerc has delivered a bleak prediction that Ferrari will not be able to turn around its F1 form in the remainder of the season. In Singapore, the SF-25's performance was affected by a request to lift and coast from early in the race, which meant Leclerc could not make forward progress to challenge for a podium.

Leclerc believes the Scuderia's fortunes will not change between now and the end of the season, as it chases a first grand prix win of the year. "I don't think there will be anything special. I think the picture we've seen this weekend is going to be what the rest of the season looks like for us," Leclerc told media, including RacingNews365.

"I think every time you don't fight for wins, it is difficult, but obviously, coming from a year like last year, where you are fighting for the world constructors' championship, you come with high expectations. You then lower your expectations from the beginning, and you don't even see progression throughout the year; that is not easy.”

‘A request to lift and coast from early in the race’;

https://racingnews365.com/charles-leclerc-delivers-bleak-ferrari-prediction-after-singapore-struggle

[Fortitude]

Horner and Max to Aston? The Coup F1 Fears.
Riccardo Patrese has thrown a log on the autumn rumour fire, and it crackled loudly: Christian Horner and Max Verstappen, reunited at Aston Martin to build a “new Red Bull” in Silverstone.
Alex Albuquerque
13 Oct 2025
FastestLap.com

It’s a provocative thought from a six-time grand prix winner who calls himself a friend of Horner’s. And it arrives just weeks after Horner’s split from Red Bull was finally inked, with multiple reports suggesting a hefty settlement in the region of $100 million and no long-term non-compete to keep him on the sofa. In other words: if Horner wants back in, the door’s open sooner rather than later.

Patrese’s logic leans on F1 history. He sees shades of the great migration that powered Ferrari’s renaissance in the late ’90s: Michael Schumacher leaves Benetton, Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne follow, the Scuderia becomes a juggernaut. In his scenario, Aston Martin plays the part of Ferrari; Horner arrives with know-how and gravitational pull; Verstappen, the sport’s dominant force of the last few years, is the crown jewel. “I can see something similar,” Patrese suggested, noting that top operators tend to plant their flag and bring the right people with them. Translation: assemble the band, write a new dynasty.

There are, of course, realities to navigate. Verstappen’s four titles have all come under Horner’s stewardship, but 2025 hasn’t followed the familiar script. With the 2026 rules reset looming — new chassis, new power units, and a grid-wide retooling — the Verstappen question naturally bubbles up again. If Red Bull’s own engine project doesn’t light up straight away, he’ll have options. And Aston Martin, laden with resources and ambition at its Silverstone campus, would be mad not to ask the question if the stars align.

‘The Coup F1 Fears’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/horner-and-max-to-aston-the-coup-f1-fears/


Max Verstappen and Christian Horner reunite in ‘new Red Bull’ exit theory
13/10/2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

The sport enters a new era from 2026, as the chassis and engine regulations undergo major change. Verstappen’s Red Bull future could therefore become a talking point once more, if Red Bull does not make a successful start with their own engine, developed in partnership with Ford. “The Aston Martin speculation with Christian Horner reminds me of when Michael Schumacher left Benetton and went to Ferrari,” Riccardo Patrese, the six-time grand prix winner and “friend” of Christian Horner told a gambling platform.

“He took all the best pieces from Benetton to go to Ferrari to build a winning team and then become a world champion. Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne, all these guys that were Benetton with him and he took to Ferrari and then they built a team where he was five times world champion. I can see a similar situation happening with Verstappen. They talk for sure. If this is what he thinks it could happen, probably yes, Horner could certainly go there and make a new Red Bull team at Aston Martin!”

However, Patrese – likening Horner and Jos to a divorced couple – does not believe relations between the duo would be a barrier to this Aston Martin scenario. “If you divorce a wife, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to have constant aggravation,” said Patrese. “Maybe after two, three, four years, Christian Horner and Jos Verstappen become friends again. And of course, if there is this possibility to build a team that can go for the championship and Max could be the guy that wins again, I think Jos would stay to one side a little bit.”

‘New Red Bull exit theory’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/max-verstappen-christian-horner-reunite-aston-martin-new-red-bull-riccardo-patrese


Aston Martin’s Cardile sets the tone: ‘Failure is not an option’
10/10/2025
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

When Enrico Cardile walked away from Ferrari earlier this year, it sent shockwaves through the Formula 1 paddock. A seasoned engineer steeped in Maranello’s traditions, his move to Aston Martin was more than a career change – it was a statement of intent. For Cardile, it’s both a technical challenge and a philosophical one – an opportunity to shape Aston Martin’s destiny. And as he tells it, failure simply “isn’t an option”.

Asked in an interview published this week on Aston Martin’s website whether leaving Ferrari after an entire career there represented a culture shock, Cardile doesn’t hesitate to draw the distinction. “I think there is a difference in culture,” he said. “The targets are the same: everyone is focused on winning, but the F1 team at Ferrari has a very long and stable history, with established processes and tools.”

“Here, we're still building up these things. We have the new CoreWeave Wind Tunnel, the new simulator, and we need to work to exploit the potential of these things. We also need to develop the processes within the company for the way we work, building a lean organisation that avoids waste. It's one of the first messages I gave to my team when I started: we need to find our identity and use our vision to shape the organisation so that it works the way we want it to work. It's fine to take inspiration from other places, but copying the way it has been done elsewhere is not the thing to do.”

‘Failure not an option’;

https://f1i.com/news/550448-aston-martins-cardile-sets-the-tone-failure-is-not-an-option.html


Cowell hails ‘exciting’ Aston Martin-Honda shift as works era nears
12/10/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Team boss Andy Cowell: “Yeah, Honda’s going great. They’re an engineering-led organisation, just like Aston Martin,” he said. “They’re innovative, their sense of passion and commitment and courage is huge. I’m flying to Sakura on Monday, spending a couple of days with them after the race on Sunday.”

“It’s an exciting time for the team to take that transition from a customer team, where you have very little say in what goes on at the rear of the car, to having all the debates about what the front of the power unit should look like, how do we do the cooling, how do we integrate with the transmission, how do we pull it all together,” he explained. “I guess that’s where Adrian being on board since March is really helpful,” Cowell noted.

“Going great”;

https://f1i.com/news/550535-cowell-hails-exciting-aston-martin-honda-shift-as-works-era-nears.html


Why Adrian Newey is crucial in Aston Martin’s 2026 transition to Honda F1 power
11 Oct 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Adrian Newey has himself described the challenge of interpreting next year’s radical new regulations as “scary,” with F1 priming itself up for a myriad of changes that will alter racing experiences for both the drivers, teams and the fans alike. Andy Cowell, “I guess that’s where Adrian being on board since March is really helpful. He’s got experience working with Honda, so there’s a natural understanding there already as to what can be pushed and what can’t. So yeah, exciting times. Yeah, it’s a big challenge for all the teams,” he addressed. “Lots of new technology – power unit, advanced sustainable fuels, aerodynamics, materials development, chassis design, transmissions – it’s the whole car.”

“And it’s exciting. It’s an exciting challenge. None of us can move that first test date or the first race date. We’re all pushing as hard as we can to innovate and create performance. But we all know that you don’t get any points unless you finish, and we’ve got that eternal balance to make. I think it’s going to be exciting racing, exciting testing compared with the last few years where you do a few days. It’ll be interesting to see how it all unfolds, but we’re certainly looking forward to it.”

‘Adrian Newey is crucial’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/10/11/why-adrian-newey-is-crucial-in-aston-martins-2026-transition-to-honda-f1-power/


Round-up: Aston Martin “going to get it right next year”, insists Cardile
10 Oct 2025
Will Wood
RaceFans

''We're going to get it right next year. I just don't know if we're going to get it right for the first race, the second, the seventh, or whatever. What we have is commitment, focus, and the confidence that it will be right. We have all we need to do a great job. Failure is not an option.''

https://www.astonmartinf1.com/en-GB/news/feature/undercut-enrico-cardile

https://www.racefans.net/2025/10/10/round-up-10th-october-2025/


Stroll opens up on criticism in rare interview
13 Oct 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

In a rare and candid interview on Aston Martin’s website, the Canadian spoke about the mental challenges of competing in F1, learning to keep perspective amid constant scrutiny. “I like to see it as just noise,” Lance Stroll said. “If I buy into it, it bothers me, for sure, but that’s where I am fortunate. I have good people around me that I love, that I trust, and I put my attention and value their opinions. I try and live in my world, not the world in that sense.”

Stroll said he’s learned not to let it affect him. “There’s always going to be criticism. People are very short-minded,” he added. “You have a couple of good races, you’re great. You have a couple of bad ones, you suck. That’s never going to change. That’s why being surrounded by important people and valuing the opinion of people that you care about, that you value, that you really know their opinion, is what matters. Don’t take criticism from someone you wouldn’t take advice from.”

‘Stroll opens up’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-lance-stroll-online-criticism-defence-career-interview-aston-martin/

[Fortitude]

Martin Brundle reveals sole condition Christian Horner is seeking for F1 return.
Former F1 driver Martin Brundle has stated Christian Horner has informed him of the conditions he is seeking to return to the F1 grid.
14 Oct 2025
Fergal Walsh
RacingNews365

Christian Horner will only return to the grid if he is a shareholder with a team, according to Martin Brundle, akin to Toto Wolff's set-up at Mercedes. “He made it absolutely clear to me when I spoke to him that he will only come back if he’s got a skin in the game, if he’s got a share of the team and is building something, rather than being a manager as he was with Red Bull,” Brundle said.

“He couldn’t get any shareholding in that. Toto Wolff is a good example of how to do that as a one-third shareholder in Mercedes. I’m not surprised Christian is knocking on doors, seeing what is available out there. There are not many available doors to knock on, in that respect."

‘Sole condition’;

https://racingnews365.com/martin-brundle-reveals-sole-condition-christian-horner-is-seeking-for-f1-return


Bombshell Horner rumour as axed Red Bull boss linked to return with F1 supergiant
14 October 2025
Dane Heverin from Fox Sports
Fox Sports (Australia)
Former Red Bull boss Christian Horner is reportedly in talks with Ferrari about a shock F1 return. The Daily Mail reports that Horner has been touted to potentially take over as Ferrari’s team principal following a turbulent season for the famous Italian team, and his sacking by Red Bull earlier this year.

The 51-year-old Englishman was at the helm of Red Bull for 20 years, overseeing four world titles each for Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen as well as eight constructors’ championships. But his time in charge ended off the back of discontent within the organisation as McLaren raced past Red Bull on the track, and accusations of being involved in “coercive behaviour” towards a female employee, which Horner denied and was twice clear of by internal hearings.

‘Return with F1 supergiant’;

https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport/axed-red-bull-boss-linked-to-shock-return-to-paddock-with-f1-giant/news-story/b82ce69448ac46bae0d3c408123b5317


'Horner prepares F1 comeback' as talks with Ferrari 'revealed'
13 Oct 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Christian Horner is said to be in talks with Ferrari regarding a role in the Scuderia. Throughout his career Horner has often been linked to Ferrari. But up until now those rumours were shut down by the former Red Bull boss given his commitment to the Austrian team. However, those ties have now been severed and the future lays itself wide open for the 51-year-old.

After Horner and Red Bull reached an agreement on the terms of his termination, the Briton was issued an approximately £52 million payment for the services rendered and put on a gardening leave which extends into the spring of 2026. After that period, Max Verstappen's former boss may return to F1 in any capacity he so desires. According to the Daily Mail, though, Horner is in talks with Ferrari at the moment, since, as reported in Italian media, the Scuderia's President John Elkann would've supposedly lost faith in Frédéric Vasseur's leadership of the Italian marque's F1 project.

The British tabloid further claims that Ferrari are 'wooing' Horner, who, on the other hand, is keeping communication lines open with other Formula 1 teams who would like to add Horner's sterling résumé and capabilities to their ranks. The other teams, however, remain unnamed in the report.

'Wooing Horner’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/rumors/christian-horners-f1-comeback-is-on-hes-in-talks-with-ferrari


'Ringing up every team principal': Sources claim Christian Horner is on path to re-joining F1 great
October 14, 2025
Sophie Wisely
Channel 9's Wide World of Sports

Previous Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has been linked with a shock re-entrance into the Formula 1 paddock, just six races after he was sacked by his longtime team. Members of the paddock are claiming that Horner has been on the fringe looking for a team to bring him back and that he may have found his partner in the sport's mainstay icon, Ferrari.

Speaking at the Singapore Grand Prix, Aston Martin team principal Andy Cowell joked that he was one of many being reached out to. "It looks as though Christian is ringing up every team owner at the moment," said Cowell. Ferrari is struggling under the leadership of Fred Vasseur, the team desperately looking for an inkling of pace as they sit third in the standings.

According to the Daily Mail, several sources say that Horner is being "wooed" by the Scuderia. In the 2025 season, Ferrari has only scored five podiums with driver Charles Leclerc and a sprint victory in China with Lewis Hamilton. They last won a drivers' championship with Kimi Raikkonen in 2007. In a season marred by technical difficulties and lack of performance, Ferrari could look to Horner to turn things around.

‘On path to re-joining F1 great’;

https://www.nine.com.au/sport/motorsport/f1-news-2025-christian-horner-ferrari-talks-aston-martin-paddock-reaction-20251014-p5n2fc.html


One F1 team must u-turn on their Christian Horner stance as ‘falling down’ factory issues emerge
13 October 2025
Tyler Rowlinson
F1 Oversteer

Horner could set up his own F1 team, with the sport allowing for 12 teams to be on the grid. It would be a costly project to try to find sponsors and even get approval, but Horner’s marketing expertise at Red Bull may make it an attractive option. Haas are not interested in a sale, having previously been linked with Horner. However, the latest information coming out of the team may make them want to rethink their stance on the 51-year-old.

According to journalist Nate Saunders, their factory is ‘falling down’, emphasising the work that needs to be done. He said via Unlapped: “The one I think is fascinating is Haas. I’m stunned that Gene Haas just kind of dismissed Horner out of hand. That’s a team that really hasn’t done a huge amount in Formula 1. When you really look at it, they’ve been the smallest team in the sport for a long time. They’ve got a factory that’s falling down. They just built a new motorhome that’s two stories. Apparently, now they’re going to build another story on top of that just because they’ve realised it’s not big enough.”

‘Falling down factory’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/one-f1-team-must-u-turn-on-their-christian-horner-stance-as-falling-down-factory-issues-emerge/

[Fortitude]

How Mark Webber feels behind the scenes about McLaren’s treatment of Oscar Piastri.
Piastri’s manager, Mark Webber is ‘definitely advocating’ for Oscar Piastri behind the scenes at McLaren.
14 Oct 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Commentator James Allen has shared how the Australian will be feeling about this season’s intra-team battle. “I wouldn’t say Mark is irate, but I would say that he’s definitely on the case. He’s definitely across this, and he’s definitely advocating, as you say, because that’s his job to do that, right? And he does it, as you also mentioned, from the background of having been on the wrong side of this when he was at Red Bull with Sebastian Vettel.”

“And perhaps he didn’t have anybody, maybe arguing his case, and maybe he wasn’t as strong as he wishes in retrospect that he had been against Vettel. So he’s kind of making sure that… I mean, Oscar’s pretty strong in the head anyway, but I think he’s just making sure that the stuff that Oscar doesn’t know about, which is how you can manage these team games, these relationships, he’s making sure that Oscar’s on the A-game and his case is being put as much as possible.”

“But there’s a limited amount that he can do. I mean, he can only affect things so much at the end of the day. It’s down to Zak and Andrea, the management of McLaren, to decide if they’re going in any way to intervene.”

‘Definitely on the case’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/how-mark-webber-feels-behind-the-scenes-about-mclarens-treatment-of-oscar-piastri/


Why F1’s latest Piastri obsession is total madness as truth behind McLaren conspiracy exposed
15/10/2025
Michael Lamonato from Fox Sports
Fox Sports (Australia)

It was the third weekend in a row and the fourth from the last five that Piastri has lost points to Norris in the title fight. More pertinently, it was the third time in the last five rounds that Piastri and his team have fallen on the wrong side of a contentious McLaren call. There was the alternative strategy granted to Norris in Hungary after his poor qualifying and poorer start that saw him pinch victory from Piastri, who wasn’t given the choice to use that same strategy.

There was the team order in Italy that cost Piastri second place after Norris had a slow stop. Now there is Singapore, where Norris broke the golden rule — don’t hit your teammate — and wasn’t so much as warned over team radio about it. For some it was simply too much. Led by Ralf Schumacher — who’s never short of an opinion — there’s a small but supposedly growing group of people who believe Piastri should now leave McLaren. It wasn’t just the incident itself in Singapore, which immediately agitated already polarised fans spoiling for a fight.

There was Piastri’s supposed snub of CEO Zak Brown, apparently cutting his radio feed just as the boss was congratulating him on his role in winning the team the constructors championship. And then there were scenes of McLaren team members, including Brown and principal Andrea Stella, partying on the podium in celebration of the title victory while Piastri languished despondently downstairs. It’s quite the rap sheet.

‘Simply too much’;

https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport/formula-one/theres-a-lot-at-stake-how-mclarens-latest-friction-could-alter-piastris-future/news-story/cdb51a1ccbd4c090bd98002a66833b3e


Zak Brown Issues Statement on Oscar Piastri amid McLaren Exit Rumours
14/10/2025
James Taylor
SPORTbible

McLaren team principal Zak Brown has issued a statement on Oscar Piastri amid growing rumours that the world championship leader could be set for a shock exit. The team's so-called 'papaya rules' came under scrutiny last time out in Singapore when Norris banged wheels with Piastri. Tensions escalated further last week, when IndyCar champion Alex Palou claimed that Brown never wanted to sign Piastri in the first place. McLaren are currently locked in a legal dispute with their former driver Palou.

Alex Palou, hen asked to explain why he was not fulfilling his McLaren deal said: "I went for dinner with Zak at Beaverbook near MTC. Zak told me it was not his decision to hire Oscar. He said it was the decision of the team manager Andreas Seidl. “Zak told me Piastri’s performance would be evaluated against mine for 2024. Zak said that, from his point of view my chance of getting the F1 seat was not affected by Oscar."

Speaking to Reuters ahead of this weekend's US Grand Prix, Brown hit back at those claims, McLaren CEO Zak Brown said: "I’m not sure which allegation amused me more. The notion that I would not be the one making a key decision about our driver line-up, or the suggestion that I wasn’t on board with signing the hugely talented Oscar Piastri. Both allegations are clearly ludicrous, and anyone who follows our sport will see straight through them.”

“Which allegation amused me more!”;

https://www.sportbible.com/f1/formula-1-oscar-piastri-mclaren-norris-united-states-642044-20251014


Jolyon Palmer makes ‘paranoid’ Oscar Piastri claim as he questions McLaren’s fairness this season
14/10/2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Jolyon Palmer was addressing Piastri’s position within McLaren on the F1 Nation Podcast in the build-up to the United States Grand Prix. He said: “The other thing, though, is if you imagine it from Oscar’s point of view, I still don’t think in any of these moments, engagement issues, he’s ever come out favourably. I’m just thinking again, top of my head stuff, but you’ve got the Silverstone one, he got a penalty, felt it was harsh, asked for the team to swap back if they thought it was harsh, they would have done had it been, you know, Max, they would have thought it was an outrageous penalty.”

“But, because it was between the two McLarens, they kept the order. Lando wins. You’ve then got the Budapest strategy where Oscar was the lead driver, kind of got a bit done by his own team on strategy there, with Lando winning the race. You’ve got Monza, where he’s actually had to give up a position. And then you’ve got Singapore, where Lando’s wheel banged his way through and not had the swap around.”

“I know in all of this, you’ve got Lando’s lost points with a DNF in Zandvoort. Lando’s had sort of slower pit stops on average, even if Oscar got one in Singapore. But it must be a little bit grating for Oscar to think, flipping hell, can I just have one rub of the green here in terms of the teammate dynamics?”

“I still don’t think in any of these moments, engagement issues, he’s ever come out favourably”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/jolyon-palmer-makes-paranoid-oscar-piastri-claim-as-he-questions-mclarens-fairness-this-season/


Steiner sounds Piastri alarm as sudden departure theory addressed
13/10/2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Guenther Steiner issues advice for world championship leader Oscar Piastri as theories of a sudden McLaren exit emerge. According to Steiner the Aussie driver should not leave the Woking-based team since by his year's season finale in Abu Dhabi his F1 goal will have been fulfilled. “First of all, he’s going to win the world championship this year," Steiner said in the Red Flags podcast. "So that’s why he should stay there."

Furthermore, the uncertainty that 2026 brings provides yet another reason to remain in place. “Next year, wherever you go — first of all, there is no seats in the next year. And wherever you go, you wouldn’t know where you’re going, and I think McLaren at the moment is doing a pretty good job.”

According to the Italian-American former F1 boss, McLaren's competitiveness prospects plus his ability to beat Norris, make a compelling case for choosing to continue to defend the papaya colours in the future. “Obviously he can beat Lando. If he can beat him this year, I think his hope should be to beat him in the future as well."

‘Guenther Steiner issues advice’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/steiner-sounds-piastri-alarm-as-sudden-departure-theory-addressed


McLaren fears over Max Verstappen obvious after worried 'very competitive' comments
Max Verstappen has closed the gap to Oscar Piastri in the Drivers' Championship to just 63 points, with McLaren team principal Andrea Stella showing concerns about the Red Bull star's resurgence
14/10/2025
Harry Smith, Cameron Winstanley
Daily Star

Prior to the Singapore Grand Prix, Helmut Marko suggested that Red Bull's performance at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, would indicate whether they are genuinely in contention with McLaren in the upcoming six races. Verstappen's RB21 passed the test with flying colours.

"They were competitive in Monza, very competitive," McLaren's team principal Andrea Stella commented ahead of the Austin race. "And then they were competitive in Baku. We thought, 'Let's see whether this [competitiveness] depends on using a low level of drag, small rear wings, and [if] it can be repeated at high level drag and big rear wings'. Here in Singapore, they might have struggled a bit in the past, and the evidence is that they might have resolved both of these high-drag and Singapore factors.”

“But this is not a surprise. It's Red Bull. They are extremely capable. Max is a driver who is just Max Verstappen. I don't think we need to make any further comments, so it's no surprise that they are in the game. It's tight, and it's interesting; obviously, we would like to make Formula One boring. We have done it sometimes, at some of the events, but normally, Formula One is competitive and tight. You have to accept the fight, and that's what we are doing."

“But this is not a surprise. It's Red Bull. They are extremely capable”;

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/max-verstappen-mclaren-world-championship-36066337

[Fortitude]

63 Points, Six Weekends: Verstappen Smells Blood.
Red Bull and Max Verstappen are back in this title fight. Andrea Stella isn’t one for hyperbole, but even he couldn’t downplay what’s become obvious over the last month.
October 12, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Verstappen’s deficit to championship leader Oscar Piastri has shrunk from almost triple digits to 63 points thanks to a four-race run that reads like a statement: wins at Monza and Baku, second at Zandvoort, and another second on Sunday night in Singapore. And that last one mattered. Marina Bay has been a Red Bull bogey for years; this time, Verstappen chased George Russell to the flag and beat both McLarens on outright pace.

“They were competitive in Monza, very competitive. And then they were competitive in Baku,” McLaren team principal Stella said in Singapore. “We thought, let’s see if that depends on low drag and small rear wings, and if it can be repeated with big wings at high downforce. Here in Singapore, where they’ve struggled in the past, the evidence is they might have resolved both of these factors.

The timing is not subtle. Red Bull has fed a steady stream of upgrades onto the RB21 across these last races, ironing out the balance quirks that left Verstappen fighting the car through the first half of the season. Early spikes of form — think Suzuka and Imola — have become a consistent platform. Meanwhile, McLaren’s MCL39 has been relatively static as Woking’s gaze shifts increasingly to 2026. That’s not a criticism; it’s a championship reality. But it has given Verstappen a foothold with only six race weekends to go.

‘Verstappen Smells Blood’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/63-points-six-weekends-verstappen-smells-blood/


MAX PREVIEWS AUSTIN GP: 'WANT TO KEEP UP THE MOMENTUM'
15 October 2025
Niels Hendrix
Verstappen.nl

Max Verstappen is looking forward to the Grand Prix of Austin in Texas in the United States of America, the upcoming weekend. The Dutch Oracle Red Bull Racing driver says: “We made a positive step in Singapore. We have had a strong run of races recently and want to keep up the momentum and hopefully this weekend we can do a bit better. I have been back at the factory this week preparing on the sim and the team has been pushing really hard and we have been analysing where we can improve.”

Max adds: “This circuit is about finding the right compromise in setup between straight-line speed and downforce for the fast-sweeping corners and the bumps can always make things tricky too. Austin is a cool city and has great food so always a fun place to race at. It’s another sprint weekend, so we’ll have to get on top of things quickly as there is less time to fine tune things, but this will be a challenge for everyone.”

“Back at the factory this week preparing on the sim”;

https://news.verstappen.com/en/article/5975/


Villeneuve backs title outsider Verstappen for 'best championship yet'
14 Oct 2025
Ben Winship
GPblog.com

Jacques Villeneuve has backed Max Verstappen to win the 2025 Drivers Championship after closing the gap to the McLaren drivers in recent weeks. Speaking at a 75th anniversary event for F1 held in Italy, the 1997 world champion claimed Verstappen will overcome a 63 point gap to Oscar Piastri in the remaining six race weekends.

When asked who would win the 2025 Drivers Championship Villeneuve was quick to shout ‘Verstappen!’. He said: “And so it will be his best World Championship yet. Because the two McLarens are suffering too much under the pressure. They need to wake up.” With back-to-back wins in Italy and Azerbaijan, four-time world champion Verstappen has cut the gap to championship leader Oscar Piastri down from 97 points to 63 in the space of just four rounds.

‘Villeneuve was quick to shout “Verstappen!”’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/villeneuve-backs-title-outsider-verstappen-for-best-championship-yet


Juan Pablo Montoya thinks Max Verstappen is playing a ‘terrifying’ game in 2025 title fight
13 October 2025
Tyler Rowlinson
F1 Oversteer

Red Bull were disappointed Verstappen did not win in Singapore as he came home second behind George Russell, who dominated the race. The 27-year-old was gunning for pole position, but he abandoned his final lap by the pit entry. Verstappen claimed that Norris impeded him with dirty air while entering the final two corners. For Juan Pablo Montoya, this is a ‘terrifying’ game that the Dutchman is playing to unnerve the McLaren drivers and create ‘tension’ amongst them.

“It’s terrifying that Max is playing that game and the only reason Max is playing that game is because he wants to pit the two McLaren drivers against each other and he’s very strategic,” he said via AS Columbia. “He’s not stupid. So he’s perfect and saying it in front of Oscar, right? Well, you weren’t a McLaren driver, the other one was the one who made me uncomfortable, do you understand me? To create that tension.”

“It wasn’t even visible, and it wasn’t even there. I’m telling you, if Lando was driving fast, opening up a gap very quickly, all the gap he’s opening up, because he’s going full speed, one says, ‘No, but he wasn’t even close enough for it to affect anything’. Well, where it would have affected Lando, he wouldn’t have been able to get as close as he got to Max in the race. Until Lando had problems when he got to a second or 1.3, something like that, but until then Lando had no problems and was much faster than Max. So, if you look at that and say, let’s say it’s not 1.3, but 2 and a half, 3 seconds, 3 seconds. Lando was ahead by 3 seconds, if you know what I mean.”

“It’s terrifying”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/juan-pablo-montoya-thinks-max-verstappen-is-playing-a-terrifying-game-in-2025-title-fight/


Schumacher predicts bleak future for McLaren, tips Verstappen for win
13 Oct 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Ralf Schumacher has shared a grim prediction regarding the situation unfolding at McLaren, while also tipping Max Verstappen to take victory at the United States Grand Prix. The 50-year-old, who spoke on the Backstage Boxengasse podcast, was asked whether Zak Brown would soon have to decide who the team’s lead driver should be amid their title fight. Schumacher, however, stressed that while the McLaren CEO is unlikely to favour anyone, there might soon be a need for a decision as Verstappen closes in on both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

“I don’t think Zak has the kind of character that would make him prefer one driver over the other. I’ll put it this way – if Max really comes up again, really close, then you’d have to get involved. Otherwise, they’ll just let them race. I just hope it doesn’t come to a final bang. Somehow, I have the feeling that soon, the two of them might not make it out of the first corner.”

Ralf Schumacher continued stating that Verstappen could clinch another win at the Grand Prix in Austin, adding that McLaren’s dominance appears to be slipping away. “Then it becomes a problem, and Max Verstappen just wins there [in Austin]. The next race in Texas will be very good for Red Bull again, and it could be difficult once more for McLaren, who also seem to be slowly getting tense. Anyone who knows Andreas Stella knows that. I’d say the dominance is really gone now, and that’s something they don’t understand at all and can’t afford at this stage of the season.”

‘Grim prediction regarding the situation unfolding at McLaren’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/schumacher-predicts-bleak-future-for-mclaren-tips-verstappen-for-win


Verstappen sets sights on Austin: 'We’re pushing hard to improve'
16 Oct 2025
Olly Darcy
GPblog.com

Red Bull's Max Verstappen hopes that his recent "strong run of races" will guide him towards the front at the United States Grand Prix. Coming into the sprint weekend in Austin, Verstappen sits on 273 points and P3 in the world championship, 63 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri on 336 points.

After his P2 at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, Verstappen tempered expectations after bringing himself back into the title discussion, warned his team that they "need to dominate" for the rest of the season if there was any chance of winning the title.

However, there is still a belief from some that the Dutchman will win his fifth world title in as many years, with 1997 champion Jacques Villeneuve backing the 27-year-old to finish top of the standings.

‘Verstappen sets sights on Austin’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/verstappen-sets-sights-on-austin-were-pushing-hard-to-improve

[Fortitude]

Stella opens up on McLaren 'repercussions' after Singapore fallout.
McLaren deemed Norris responsible for the incident, as he went slightly deep into Turn 3 and made contact with Verstappen’s rear, triggering a chain reaction that ultimately caught his teammate as well.
17 Oct 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella revealed how the team handled the incident between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris once the Singapore weekend was over. "We reviewed the case, we identified that Lando was responsible for the contact because he was a little long in corner 3, touched Verstappen and then he oversteered onto Oscar.”

"Obviously there was no malice in this move but both drivers accepted the review and we now head into the rest of the season like after Canada, even more united and stronger as a team. This is something that both drivers were keen to have in the racing framework. For me, it was part of leading the review — to discuss this without the drivers. They’ve been accepted, and we are now ready to focus on maximising the performance of the car and finding our winning ways again.”

‘McLaren deemed Norris responsible’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/stella-reveals-behind-the-scenes-details-after-norris-piastri-clash


Oscar Piastri’s engineer reveals the ‘dangerous’ mood on his side of the McLaren garage
16 October 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

It may only be Piastri’s third season in F1 – no driver has won a title so early since Lewis Hamilton in 2008 – but he has worked for around ’10 years’ to be in this position. Back in August, Juan Pablo Montoya said Piastri was starting to realise this could be his only chance. And Stallard says that reflects the mood inside his McLaren camp right now.

The Woking outfit will race with the highly-rated Mercedes engine next year and appear to have all the personnel required to sustain their dominance. But nothing is certain in F1, particularly in the context of major regulation changes. Stallard told ESPN: “Hopefully, we’ll be in the same position next year, but we definitely have that Olympic-every-four-years kind of feeling, that feeling that this is our chance. And that’s always a slightly dangerous thing to feel, because very much handling pressure is about doing what you’re good at, rather than delivering some magic.”

“And normally, when it looks like magic to the rest of the world, it’s actually just because you went out and did your thing. So we’ll be trying to do that. I think we’re both quite well placed to handle that pressure. You’re right in that the pressure is going to ramp up, but people say pressure is a privilege. That pressure is something that he’s worked for, for let’s say 10 years, arguably more, in order to be in a position where he can have that pressure. And it’s very rare that you get to be world champion without being able to ride that pressure. So, I think it comes with the territory, and we’re in the territory we want to be in.”

“Doing what you’re good at, rather than delivering some magic”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/oscar-piastris-engineer-reveals-the-dangerous-mood-on-his-side-of-the-mclaren-garage/


Max Verstappen unfazed by new F1 position as world title fight heats up
For the first time as world champion, Max Verstappen is the hunter rather than the hunted in F1.
17 October 2025
Jake Nichol
RacingNews365

Max Verstappen is unfazed by acquiring a new position in the F1 title race, being the driver hunting rivals down as opposed to the hunted. Analysing the new situation, the Dutchman explained that he would simply do his best and try to achieve the best possible results for his Red Bull team.

Asked for his chances of winning the title, Verstappen told media, including RacingNews365, "50-50, you either win it or you don’t. This car is a bit different to the previous one, so it’s not a guarantee that it works everywhere. I prefer to just look at it race by race. We’ll try to do our best here and then move on and see what we get."

‘Max Verstappen unfazed’;

https://racingnews365.com/max-verstappen-unfazed-by-new-f1-position-as-world-title-fight-heats-up


Can Verstappen catch McLaren duo? He rates his chances
17/10/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

With the 2025 Formula 1 season hurtling toward its climax, Max Verstappen is clawing his way back into the Drivers’ Championship fray, rating his shot at dethroning McLaren contenders Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris as a straight "50/50" gamble.

Just four races ago, the Red Bull ace trailed Piastri by a daunting 104 points, but a blistering resurgence –capped by successive wins in Monza and Baku, plus a strong P2 in Singapore – has slashed the deficit to 63 points behind Piastri and a more manageable 41 from Norris. With 174 points still dangling over six nail-biting rounds, including three Sprint weekends, the Dutch maestro heads to Austin's Circuit of The Americas brimming with calculated optimism, while taking his task one race at a time.

“We’ll try, for sure,” he said, when asked about his prospects of overhauling his papaya rivals. “The last three weekends have been very nice – some a bit better than others. I still think that in Singapore we didn’t maximise the potential of the car, but you analyse everything and try to do better. That’s what we’ll try to do again here. It’s a great track to drive, a Sprint weekend is always a bit hectic… I’m just curious to see what we can do.”

“We’ll try, for sure”;

https://f1i.com/news/550803-can-verstappen-catch-mclaren-duo-he-rates-his-chances.html


Charles Leclerc fires back at Ferrari F1 exit rumours with blunt response
Charles Leclerc rebuffs speculation linking him with a Ferrari exit after 2026, calling the rumours “annoying” and insisting his focus is on winning
17 October 2025
John Smith

Charles Leclerc has shut down mounting speculation that he could leave Ferrari when his contract expires in 2026, describing reports about his potential exit as unfounded and “annoying.” “What I can say is what I’ve always said, and that’s very clear,” Leclerc told the media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “I’ve always loved Ferrari so much and my only obsession at the moment is to win in red, whether it’s now or in the future. And I want to bring back Ferrari to the top.”

“There are lots of speculations around me, but just in general around the team for whatever reason,” Leclerc added. “I feel like there are too many people speaking things not coming from actual facts, and it’s just a little bit annoying. It’s always been like that. And I think as a driver, but also as a team, we’ve just got to focus on our things, which is what we are doing. It’s not super nice to see all these things around the team all the time.”

“It’s definitely not a situation we want to be in, in a way that the performance is not at the level where we want to be,” Leclerc said. “But we are all focused on trying to turn that situation around. Whenever the results aren’t there, there are always those rumours that come back — but what I say today is what I’ve said in the past six or seven years with the team.”

‘Blunt response’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/charles-leclerc-ferrari-f1-exit-rumours-response/


Russell on lucrative Mercedes deal : ‘Toto could have been tighter’
17/10/2025
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

“I'm really happy to be continuing,” George Russell said in Austin on Thursday. “The truth is if every single seat was available for next year and I could choose any single team to race for, I believe Mercedes is my best chance of winning the championship next year. And for me, it's more about winning than it is about money or sponsor days or anything. I want to win and this is what I'm fighting for, so that is the long and short of it.”

“I think it always just comes down to performance, I think, for any driver,” he said. “At least for myself, what allows me to sleep well at night is knowing that my performances are strong and that is what will keep you in the sport as any driver. Our intention and my goal is to continue with Mercedes indefinitely, and we're here to focus on winning in 2026.”

“But I think he really recognises that you need to reward those who are delivering, who are putting in the effort and delivering those results on track. That's why I'm sort of here with a smile on my face because I'm very happy with the offer. That's the bonus, but the main goal for me is a fast race car.”

Toto could have been tighter’;

https://f1i.com/news/550799-russell-on-lucrative-mercedes-deal-toto-could-have-been-tighter.html

[Fortitude]

Lando Norris tops United States Grand Prix FP1 as Nico Hulkenberg splits McLaren duo.
McLaren appear to have the upper hand once again, although speed trap data has shown that Verstappen is stronger in the medium speed corners. This could make for an interesting United States Grand Prix weekend, as this is normally where the Woking-based team have an advantage over Red Bull.
17 October 2025
Rebecca Braybrook
F1 Oversteer

The drivers took to the Circuit of the Americas for the only practice session of the United States Grand Prix weekend, ahead of Sprint qualifying later tonight. Lando Norris topped the FP1 time sheets during the later qualifying practice runs, with Nico Hulkenberg causing surprise as he split the McLarens with his Sauber. The German driver wasn’t the only surprise of the session, with Fernando Alonso sitting in fourth between Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen in third and fifth, respectively.

‘McLaren appear to have the upper hand once again’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/lando-norris-leads-united-states-grand-prix-practice/


2025 F1 United States GP – Free Practice 1 Results
Lando Norris tops FP1 for McLaren at the 2025 United States GP as the title battle intensifies at the Circuit of the Americas
17 October 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 United States GP 2025 FP1 results
Check out the full United States GP 2025 Free Practice 1 results from the first and only practice session at COTA below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:33.294
2 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +0.255
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.279
4 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.345
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.354
6 Alexander Albon Williams +0.626
7 George Russell Mercedes +0.637
8 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.671
9 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +0.861
10 Oliver Bearman Haas +1.039

‘FP1 results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-2025-united-states-gp-free-practice-1-results/


Norris on top in sizzling Austin GP practice
17/10/2025
France 24

Austin (AFP) – Title-chasing Lando Norris topped the times ahead of Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and his McLaren team-mate and series leader Oscar Piastri in Friday's opening practice at the United States Grand Prix. The 25-year-old Briton, bristling after being disciplined internally by McLaren, clocked a best lap in one minute and 33.294 seconds to outpace Hulkenberg by 0.255sec and Piastri by 0.279sec as he bids to close a 22-point gap in the drivers' title race with six events remaining.

Two-time champion Fernando Alonso was fourth for Aston Martin ahead of four-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull, Alex Albon of Williams and Mercedes' George Russell. Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton was eighth for Ferrari. All of the leading drivers clocked their best laps on soft slick tyres in the closing minutes except for Alonso, on hards, and Russell, Hamilton and rookie Isack Hadjar, who all used mediums.

The action began with Verstappen leading the way on a hot and sunny day at the sweeping Circuit of the Americas with an air temperature of 33C, enough for the 'heat hazard' rule to be executed, enabling drivers to wear cooling vests in their cars. Not everyone chose to take a vest, the Dutchman going without because he found it to be uncomfortable and flawed.

‘Bristling after being disciplined internally’;

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20251017-norris-on-top-in-sizzling-austin-gp-practice


US Grand Prix: Lando Norris strikes back as Nico Hulkenberg springs a shock in FP1
17 Oct 2025
Thomas Maher
PlanetF1.com

McLaren has set the pace in the first and only practice session at the Circuit of the Americas, courtesy of Lando Norris, while there was surprise in second place… Lando Norris and McLaren have started the US Grand Prix weekend in strong fashion, with the British driver enjoying a quarter-second advantage in first practice, as he was joined at the front by Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg.

With track temperature at 43 degrees celsius as the drivers lined up to peel out on track for the one and only practice session of the weekend, it was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who led the cars out onto the Circuit of the Americas for the first laps of the weekend.

Hard tyres were the order of the day for the first 30 minutes of the day as the teams sought to get a good understanding of the C1 compound, and it was Red Bull who found its feet in the early stages as Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda went first and second ahead of Norris.

‘Lando Norris strikes back’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/united-states-grand-prix-2025-fp1-report


Everything that happened in only F1 US GP practice session
Oct 17, 2025
Josh Suttill
The Race

Lando Norris led Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber in the sole Formula 1 practice session before sprint qualifying at the United States Grand Prix. Norris emerged quickest in a late flurry of soft tyre sprint qualifying simulations in Austin, setting a 1m33.294s, 0.255s faster than surprise runner-up in the session, Hulkenberg.

Hulkenberg hasn’t scored a point since his Silverstone podium but did earn his best grand prix qualifying result of the season (11th) last time out in Singapore. Piastri was third, 0.279s slower than Norris, who is facing as-yet-undetermined ‘consequences’ for causing their Singapore GP opening lap clash.

Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest for Aston Martin ahead of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and Alex Albon’s Williams. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were seventh and eighth and set their fastest times on the medium tyres - the mandated tyre for SQ1 and SQ2.

‘Lando Norris led Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/everything-that-happened-in-only-f1-us-gp-practice-session/


Full Results | Norris tops FP1 for McLaren at COTA ahead of Hulkenberg
17 Oct 2024
Luke-John Buckle
GPblog.com

The one and only practice session ahead of the United States Grand Prix has just been completed at Circuit of the Americas. Lando Norris tops the timesheets in first practice at Circuit of the Americas for McLaren, as Nico Hulkenberg set the second fastest time. At COTA, the British driver set a 1:33.294 as Hulkenberg went two tenths slower as the track continued to get faster towards the end. Oscar Piastri is leading the world championhip standings and set the third best time in FP1, just under three tenths behind his teammate.

Aston Martin can be very good on Fridays, and Fernando Alonso did enough to go fourth quickest ahead of reigning world champion Max Verstappen. Alex Albon went sixth quickest for Williams on a mixed day for the team, as his teammate Carlos Sainz slumped to P19 after a gearbox problem.

George Russell set the seventh best time for Mercedes, ahead of his compatriot Lewis Hamilton who led for much of the hour. Isack Hadjar and Oliver Bearman are both racing at Circuit of the Americas for the first time and went ninth and 10th quickest. Charles Leclerc didn't have the opportunity to run the soft tyres at the end as his Ferrari developed an issue, costing him valuable track time.

‘Lando Norris tops the timesheets’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/full-results-norris-tops-fp1-for-mclaren-at-cota-ahead-of-hulkenberg

[Fortitude]

'Not impossible': Max Verstappen takes US GP sprint pole but Helmut Marko admits 2025 title will require 'help' from McLaren.
Red Bull's four-time world champion Verstappen took sprint pole position, with McLaren's Lando Norris and Piastri completing a familiar top three.
18 October 2025
Emily Patterson
Channel 9's Wide World of Sports

Red Bull Racing advisor Helmut Marko has conceded that securing a fifth-straight drivers' championship is "not impossible", but admitted that driver Max Verstappen will need "some help from McLaren". "Since Zandvoort, we were always fighting for P1, P2. So the direction is okay. Unfortunately, this turnaround came a little bit late," he said.

"All this [discussion about] medium speed, the temperature and all these stories, they don't count anymore. We are there. And if in one corner we may be [off the pace], it's going within thousands of a second. It's not like it was before, half a second or so in some sectors.”

"It shows that our car made a big step forward, and Max, of course, is using it to the maximum. If we had made this turnaround earlier, the championship would look different. I think we can't do it on our own. We need some help from McLaren. It's not impossible."

“We are there”;

https://www.nine.com.au/sport/motorsport/news-2025-lando-norris-fastest-in-us-grand-prix-practice-max-verstappen-takes-sprint-pole-helmut-marko-reaction-drivers-championship-battle-20251018-p5n3g0.html


2025 F1 United States GP – Sprint Qualifying Results
18 October 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 United States GP 2025 Sprint Qualifying results
Behind the top three, Nico Hulkenberg delivered a standout performance in fourth, ahead of George Russell, Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton, who secured seventh after a scrappy session for Ferrari.
While Alex Albon impressed once more in ninth and Charles Leclerc rounded out the top ten after narrowly surviving elimination in SQ2, as his one-lap struggles in Texas continued.
Earlier, both Ferraris flirted with an early exit before Leclerc salvaged progression to SQ3, while rookies Isack Hadjar and Kimi Antonelli missed the cut.
Check out the full United States GP 2025 Sprint Qualifying results from COTA below.
Pos. Driver Team Gap
1. Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:32.143
2. Lando Norris McLaren +0.071
3. Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.380
4. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +0.502
5. George Russell Mercedes +0.745
6. Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.767
7. Carlos Sainz Williams +0.768
8. Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.892
9. Alex Albon Williams +0.956
10. Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.961

‘Sprint Qualifying results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-2025-united-states-gp-sprint-qualifying-results/


Mark Hughes: McLaren 'consequences' may have cost Norris pole
Oct 18, 2025
Mark Hughes
The Race

If the infamous internal ‘consequences’ McLaren has imposed upon Lando Norris for his Singapore contact with his team-mate is the timing of his final qualifying runs relative to Oscar Piastri, it just might have cost McLaren the sprint pole to Max Verstappen’s Red Bull here.

Red Bull – just as in Singapore – waited until the very last moment to send Verstappen out on track in an attempt at maximising the track grip. He was the last car out. The penultimate car out was Piastri. Norris took to the track a full 40s+ earlier than Verstappen and 20s earlier than Piastri.

With the track cooling and the line rubbering up, there was potentially significant laptime difference between Norris’ slot and Verstappen’s. Norris lost pole by 0.071s. Might the track grip difference have feasibly been as much as that? Absolutely, it may have been. Not a certainty, but definitely a possibility.

‘Infamous internal consequences’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/mclaren-consequences-may-have-cost-lando-norris-pole/


Verstappen cautious of ‘tough’ McLaren challenge in United States GP Sprint
Red Bull's Max Verstappen snatched Sprint pole from Lando Norris with an impressive last-gasp effort at the Circuit of The Americas.
Oct 18, 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Max Verstappen has warned of the “tough” threat he faces in Saturday’s Sprint from McLaren after securing Sprint pole at the United States Grand Prix. “It’s been a nice qualifying,” said the Red Bull driver after hopping out of the cockpit.

“Throughout all of the segments, we were quite close. It was just about putting it all together at the end, when it matters most, which is not easy because you go to the soft compound with no reference.”

“It worked out well. I still expect it to be a tough battle tomorrow with the Sprint, but that is exactly what we want to see, right? So yeah, I’m excited for tomorrow and happy with today.”

‘Verstappen cautious’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-cautious-of-tough-mclaren-challenge-in-united-states-gp-sprint.14pm5qyy9nNSuItSatnEaA


Marko is certain: Verstappen can now win anywhere amid Sprint pole
18 Oct 2025
Updated: 02:53, 18 Oct
Tim Kraaij
GPblog.com

Pole position for the Sprint in Austin confirms that Red Bull Racing can once again contend for the victory everywhere according to Helmut Marko, especially with Max Verstappen behind the wheel. Immediately after sprint qualifying in the United States, Marko spoke to GPblog. Asked about Verstappen's pole lap, the Austrian said: "Super. In Sector 3, he took the pole. Turn 1, he went sideways, but was even so quicker. Even so, he was sliding a bit too much, I guess. But unbelievable lap in Sector 3."

Verstappen won in Monza and Baku, after which he finished second in Singapore in front of the two McLarens. When asked if the pole for the sprint race in Austin shows that the RB21 can now contend for pole everywereh, Marko smiled: "Definitely." He continued: "All this medium speed, the temperature, and all this stories, they don't count anymore. We are there. If in one corner, it's going within thousands of a second. It's not like it was before, half a second or so in some sector.
"It shows that our car made a big step forward, and Max, of course, is using it to the maximum," the Red Bull advisor concluded.

"Definitely";

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/marko-is-certain-verstappen-can-now-win-anywhere


Verstappen excited to fight Norris in United States GP Sprint Race as title chance beckons
18 October 2025
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

“It’s been a nice qualifying,” Max Verstappen told F1 TV. “Throughout all the segments we were quite close, just about trying to put it all together when it matters at the end, which is not easy because you go to the soft compound with no reference really.”

“It worked out well, but I still expect it to be a tough battle tomorrow in the Sprint, but that’s I think exactly what we want to see. I’m excited for tomorrow and happy with today.”

“The wind was coming up and down, very gusty,” Verstappen continued. “The track is very bumpy as well, so the cars can easily step out on you in the high speed. In a qualifying like that, you have to leave a few margins here and there, but for us this has been a very good day”

“It’s been a nice qualifying”;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/verstappen-excited-to-fight-norris-in-united-states-gp-sprint-race-as-title-chance-beckons/

[Fortitude]

Fuming McLaren boss responds to Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri crash – “That was terrible”.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were both taken out of the United States Grand Prix Sprint race on the first lap after a collision with Nico Hulkenberg
18 Oct 2025
Daniel Moxon
The Mirror

McLaren boss Zak Brown has cleared both his drivers of any fault for the crash that saw them both bow out of the United States Grand Prix Sprint race on the first lap. Nico Hulkenberg collided with Oscar Piastri at the first corner, causing the Aussie to spin into his team-mate Lando Norris.
Norris was instantly out of the race due to severe damage. Piastri initially managed to carry on but soon reported suspension damage and was instructed to stop the car. "That was terrible," he said. "Neither of our drivers were to blame there.”

“That was some amateur hour driving from some of the drivers up there at the front and wiped our two guys. I want to see the replay again but, clearly, Nico drove into Oscar and he had no business being where he was and went into his left-rear tyre."

“That was terrible”;

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/fuming-mclaren-boss-responds-lando-36091431


2025 US Grand Prix – Sprint F1 results (Circuit of The Americas)
18 Oct 2025
Mat Coch
PlanetF1.com

F1 results: US Grand Prix Sprint race
• 1. Max Verstappen | Red Bull
• 2. George Russell | Mercedes | +0.395s
• 3. Carlos Sainz | Williams | +0.791s
• 4. Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | +1.224s
• 5. Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +1.825s
• 6. Alex Albon | Williams | +2.576s
• 7. Yuki Tsunoda | Red Bull | +2.976s
• 8. Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | +4.147s
• 9. Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | +4.804
• 10. Pierre Gasly | Alpine | +5.126s

‘Sprint F1 results’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/f1-results-2025-united-states-grand-prix-circuit-of-the-americas-sprint


Max Verstappen raises McLaren warning after US GP sprint triumph
“If we want to win tomorrow we definitely need to be stronger.”
18 Oct 2025
Connor McDonagh
Crash.Net

Oscar Piastri’s switchback attempt resulted in carnage at the first corner, putting both McLarens out of the race. It means Verstappen is now 55 points behind Piastri with six races (and two sprints) to go. Despite an important victory, Verstappen believes Red Bull still need to improve the handling of his RB21 ahead of qualifying.

“The start was good,” Verstappen said to Jenson Button in parc fermé. “Then, of course, there was a safety car because of that Turn 1 incident. It took a few laps after the safety car to have decent pace. So we need to figure out what was going on there. But nevertheless, we won the sprint, which is, of course, the most important.”

“But of course, already looking at for tomorrow, I do think we need to be a bit better in race trim to be able to fight the McLarens, because we haven’t seen anything of them. Of course, we have some ideas what we can do. And then hopefully we’ll just, yeah, stick a bit better tomorrow.”

“If we want to win tomorrow we definitely need to be stronger”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1084558/1/max-verstappen-raises-mclaren-warning-after-us-gp-f1-sprint-triumph


Max Verstappen escapes McLaren chaos to win United States GP Sprint and close title gap
Max Verstappen extended his Formula 1 title hopes with victory in the 2025 United States GP Sprint Race
18 October 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

Max Verstappen extended his late-season Formula 1 title resurgence with victory in the 2025 United States Grand Prix Sprint Race, taking full advantage of a chaotic opening lap that wiped out both McLaren challengers. The Red Bull driver crossed the line ahead of George Russell and Carlos Sainz, cutting further into his championship deficit after surviving early drama at the Circuit of the Americas.

“I knew you don’t get many opportunities with Max so I sent it,” said Russell. “P2 was better than we could have expected.” Despite the effort, the Mercedes driver soon dropped back as his tyres began to fade, while Verstappen complained of instability with his rear suspension over COTA’s notorious bumps.

Verstappen took the chequered flag ahead of Russell and Sainz, followed by Hamilton, Leclerc, and Alex Albon, who capped off a strong showing for Williams. Tsunoda secured seventh, while Andrea Kimi Antonelli inherited the final point after Oliver Bearman was penalised 10 seconds for exceeding track limits in an earlier battle.

‘Max Verstappen escapes McLaren chaos’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-2025-max-verstappen-escapes-mclaren-chaos-win-united-states-gp-sprint/


Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri react to United States Sprint Race crash: Who is to blame?
The McLaren pair collided on Lap 1 at the Circuit of the Americas.
18 October 2025
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

A poor start for Norris saw him send a big move up the inside of Piastri into the corner in a bid to remain ahead of his teammate, but he championship leader was wise to it and attempted a switch back. Norris arguably caused the entire incident with the lunge on Piastri in a bid to make up for his own poor start, forcing his teammate to have to hesitate on the turn to the first corner of the lap.

However, the 25-year-old was not in a mood to accept any responsibility in Austin as he laid the blame at the feet of those behind who arrived into Turn 1 in a hurry, describing himself as unlucky.

“I just got hit, right? I did nothing wrong,” Norris said, reflecting on the incident. “Further back things happened and I just got unlucky and got hit because of it. I need to look a bit more carefully. It’s more people further back just being a bit careless and we are the consequence of that.”

‘Norris arguably caused the entire incident with the lunge on Piastri in a bid to make up for his own poor start’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-lando-norris-oscar-piastri-react-2025-united-states-sprint-race-crash/

[Fortitude]

Verstappen Masters Austin: Norris Stunned, Ferrari Smell Blood.
Max Verstappen turned Austin’s bumps into stepping stones and walked away with his seventh pole of the season, a clinical 1:32.510 that left Lando Norris and the rest of the field reaching for answers under a hot Texas sky.
October 18, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Red Bull’s lead man was untouchable when it mattered in Q3, ripping almost four tenths out of Norris’s early benchmark before the final runs fizzled without a proper response. Charles Leclerc salvaged third for Ferrari despite a lurid spin at the final corner on his first flyer, while George Russell led Mercedes’ charge in fourth. Lewis Hamilton, now in red, lines up fifth alongside a subdued Oscar Piastri, who never quite found the rhythm and will start sixth.

McLaren made the story interesting before a lap had been set. Both papaya cars underwent precautionary gearbox changes after Sprint-race bruises and missed the early pit-lane scrum, but once they were on track the pace looked good—albeit more so on Norris’s side. Piastri, who came into the weekend with the points advantage, fought rear-end grip and timing all session and couldn’t get close to Verstappen’s orbit.

‘Subdued Oscar Piastri’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/verstappen-masters-austin-norris-stunned-ferrari-smell-blood/


2025 F1 United States GP – Qualifying Results
Max Verstappen storms to pole at Circuit of the Americas as McLaren and Ferrari battle closely behind in an ultra-tight qualifying session
18 October 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 United States GP 2025 Qualifying results
Check out the full United States GP 2025 Qualifying results from COTA below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:32.510
2 Lando Norris McLaren +0.291
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.297
4 George Russell Mercedes +0.316
5 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.402
6 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.574
7 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.604
8 Oliver Bearman Haas +0.629
9 Carlos Sainz Williams +0.640
10 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.650

‘Qualifying results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-united-states-gp-qualifying-results/


HIGHLIGHTS: Watch the best action from Qualifying as Verstappen takes pole for the US GP
Max Verstappen will start the United States Grand Prix from pole position after dominating the session.
19 Oct 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Max Verstappen secured pole position for the United States Grand Prix, backing up his lights-to-flag victory in the Sprint, despite a timing error from Red Bull denying him a second timed effort in Q3.

The four-time World Champion set a 1m 32.510s with his first effort in Q3 to position himself at the front of the field for the second time this weekend, seeing off Lando Norris by 0.291s. Championship leader Oscar Piastri will start from sixth, after struggling throughout the session.

Q1 provided a frantic start to the action, with Isack Hadjar crashing at Turn 6 and causing the red flags to fly. Bookending the drama in the opening phase, both Lance Stroll and Alex Albon saw their times deleted for exceeding track limits, relegating them to the rear of the grid.

‘HIGHLIGHTS’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/highlights-watch-the-best-action-from-qualifying-as-verstappen-takes-pole.53AZJ291cSR0vXY2zL7duQ


Verstappen on pole for USGP, Piastri only sixth
Max Verstappen has picked up from where he left off earlier in the day in the Sprint by claiming pole position for the United States Grand Prix, as Oscar Piastri struggled down in sixth.
19 Oct 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

Verstappen claimed his seventh pole of the season and the 47th of his career with a time of 1m32.510s, 0.291s ahead of Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris. Piastri, who was kept in the garage right up until the opening minutes of Q1 as McLaren seemingly finished repairs on his car after his earlier crash in the Sprint, never looked on the pace throughout the entire session, finishing more than half a second behind Verstappen’s pole time. It is the Australian’s second-lowest start of the season and gives him extra work to do in the race tomorrow as he aims to stop the run from both Norris and Verstappen in gaining on his championship lead.

Verstappen, meanwhile, was delighted with his pole lap, which came on his opening run in Q3 after his final push lap didn’t take place, with the Red Bull driver not making it across the line in time to complete a final run. “It was good,” Verstappen said of his qualifying. “I think every segment the car was very strong.”

The Dutchman also commented on the tricky conditions, as well as his near miss at the end for his final push lap. “It’s very hot and very strong winds as well,” he added. “In that first sector the tail wind is challenging. I couldn’t do my final run as it was a bit messy with the out lap, but luckily I didn’t need it.”

“I think every segment the car was very strong”;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-max-verstappen-oscar-piastri-qualifying-united-states-circuit-of-the-americas-pole-position-reaction-result/


Marko knows why Verstappen took such dominant pole in Austin
19 Oct 2025
Tim Kraaij
GPblog.com

Helmut Marko believes Max Verstappen could have secured pole position by an even wider margin, as he revealed in a post-qualifying conversation with GPblog. Following the conclusion of the qualifying session, GPblog spoke exclusively with Marko, who watched his star driver claim the pole again.

''We have adjusted the car and what we have done has improved the car,'' the Austrian said after the session in Austin. After the sprint race, Verstappen had expressed his concerns about the car. According to the Dutch driver, adjustments had to be made to the car, which Red Bull subsequently did.

''Yes, it was better. In the second run, there were drivers who were so slow that we missed it (to be able to drive another round). Fortunately, it was enough. With a second set, I think we would have been even faster.''

''We have adjusted the car and what we have done has improved the car'';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/exclusive-news/marko-knows-why-verstappen-could-take-such-a-dominant-pole-in-austin


Verstappen's charge continues with commanding US GP pole
Oct 18, 2025
Matt Beer
The Race

Max Verstappen's charge towards the McLarens in the 2025 Formula 1 championship fight continued as he took a commanding pole position for the United States Grand Prix. While Verstappen's Red Bull was fastest in all three qualifying segments and ultimately took pole by nearly three tenths of a second, championship leader Oscar Piastri could only manage sixth fastest.

The McLarens seemed out of sorts throughout the session, labouring over setting quick laptimes and having scares such as Lando Norris running very wide on his first Q1 run and spending quite a while in the drop zone. But Norris did pull things together when it really mattered to claim second behind Verstappen, four places and nearly three tenths of a second ahead of Piastri.

Ferrari showed much more encouraging form than it had in Friday's sprint qualifying as Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton took third and fifth, sandwiching Mercedes' Singapore winner George Russell. The Ferrari drivers secured those grid spots with just one proper flying lap each as they'd both lost time in the final segment with errors on their first runs - in Leclerc's case a complete 360-degree spin.

‘Verstappen's charge’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/max-verstappen-f1-2025-charge-continues-commanding-us-gp-pole/


F1 - Verstappen takes imperious US GP pole ahead of Norris and Leclerc
19.10.25
FIA (Press Release)

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen took his seventh pole position of the season at the Circuit of the American, beating McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to the front of the grid for the US Grand Prix by over three tenths of a second. Championship leader Oscar Piastri is set to start the race from sixth place.

Norris took an early provisional pole at the start of Q3 with a lap of 1:32.904 that put him ahead of Rusell and Antonelli, but Verstappen then powered past all three, posting a lap of 1:32.510 to take top spot almost four tenths of a second clear of Norris.

‘Imperious US GP pole’;

https://www.fia.com/news/f1-verstappen-takes-imperious-us-gp-pole-ahead-norris-and-leclerc


Max Verstappen reflects on ‘very tricky’ United States GP qualifying in Austin after securing pole position
Red Bull's Max Verstappen praised his car after grabbing pole position in the USA.
19 October 2025
Euan Burns
Total Motorsport

Shedding some light on the singular run in Q3, Verstappen said: “The first run in Q3 was good. Just managed to improve a little bit from Q2. Unfortunately I couldn’t do my final run. It was a bit messy with the out-laps, but luckily, we didn’t need it.”

The main concern for Verstappen when Sunday’s race begins will be the first corner, as the car that starts in P2 often ends up leading into Turns 2 and 3 at the Circuit of the Americas due to the favourable line.

‘Red Bull's Max Verstappen praised his car’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/max-verstappen-reflects-very-tricky-qualifying-austin-pole-position/

[Fortitude]

US Grand Prix: Verstappen blows title wide open with dominant victory.
The Red Bull driver led every lap from pole while Norris finished second after a thrilling scrap with Charles Leclerc as Oscar Piastri could do no better than fifth.
19 Oct 2025
Mat Coch
PlanetF1.com

An utterly dominant display from Max Verstappen has moved him to just 40 points of the world championship lead following the United States Grand Prix. It was a clean start, unlike Saturday’s Sprint, the opening lap ending with Verstappen 1.4s clear of Leclerc from Norris, Lewis Hamilton, Piastri, Russell, Kimi Antonelli, Oliver Bearman, Carlos Sainz, and Yuki Tsunoda in the top 10.

The Dutchman duly took the flag to win for the seventh time in the United States. Norris was second, having pulled comfortably clear of Leclerc, with a fading Hamilton, nursing a suspected puncture, fourth ahead of Piastri, Russell, Tsunoda, Hulkenberg, Bearman, and Fernando Alonso to round out the top 10.

‘Verstappen blows title wide open’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/united-states-grand-prix-2025-race-report


2025 F1 United States Grand Prix – Race Results
19 Oct 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 United States Grand Prix 2025 race results
Check out the full F1 2025 United States Grand Prix results from COTA below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Leader
2 Lando Norris McLaren +7.959
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +15.373
4 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +28.536
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren +29.678
6 George Russell Mercedes +33.456
7 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +52.714
8 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +57.249
9 Oliver Bearman Haas +64.722
10 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +70.001

‘Race results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-2025-united-states-grand-prix-race-results/


Our verdict on Verstappen's Austin dominance
Oct 19, 2025
The Race

Does a dominant United States Grand Prix victory make Max Verstappen the new 2025 Formula 1 title favourite? He's now 40 points adrift of leader Oscar Piastri, with Lando Norris now 14 points behind Piastri after clinching second late on at Austin.

Scott Mitchell-Malm: Not the favourite but I'd back him. The point at which a driver becomes a proper title threat is subjective and I always felt last year Norris never crossed that threshold, despite what others wanted to force us to think. Verstappen's done it though. He had been working his way into the picture slowly but still had a lot to do. This weekend leaves me with no doubt at all.
Jon Noble: McLaren needs a proper reset. Favourite, no? Firmly in the hunt? Absolutely.

Gary Anderson: Piastri has another problem now. I don't think Verstappen could have done more at Austin - two poles and two wins, so maximum points from this event - but I still wouldn't say he is the favourite.
Gary Anderson: Piastri has another problem now. I don't think Verstappen could have done more at Austin - two poles and two wins, so maximum points from this event - but I still wouldn't say he is the favourite.

‘Verdict on Verstappen's Austin dominance’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/is-verstappen-f1-new-title-favourite-our-verdict/


Verstappen’s warning as title fight ignites - 'We must be perfect'
20 Oct 2025
Olly Darcy
GPblog.com

Max Verstappen tempered expectations by saying he and Red Bull need to be "perfect until the end" if they are to take the drivers' championship. "I think we need to be perfect until the end to have a chance," Verstappen stated after a fourth career win in Austin.

"We have caught up a lot, but at the same time, the gaps are very small. I think every weekend, you need to try and be perfect, and that's what we'll try to do till the end. It's been a perfect weekend for us. Today, I think what was crucial was the first stint where I could build a bit of a gap, because I think after that, it basically stabilised pretty much after the pit stop until the end."

'We must be perfect';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/verstappens-warning-as-title-fight-ignites-we-must-be-perfect


Verstappen Turns the Screw in Texas; Norris Breaks Through
October 19, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Max Verstappen didn’t so much win the United States Grand Prix as manage it with a quiet sort of menace. From the moment the lights went out at the Circuit of the Americas, the Red Bull driver covered the inside into Turn 1, slammed the door on Lando Norris, and settled into that brisk, unsentimental rhythm he’s made a habit of. It was the sort of afternoon where the stopwatch did all the talking: a 10 second cushion built while those behind argued about the order of the chase.

Ferrari rolled the dice at the start, Charles Leclerc lining up on the softs and using the extra bite to pinch second from Norris up the hill. Norris could sit in DRS but not step past, and as he flirted with the track limits—three warnings, one misstep from a penalty—his best chance at an early strike evaporated. Verstappen, out front and unbothered, simply cleared off. Only when Leclerc’s softs inevitably cried enough on Lap 22 did the picture change. Norris finally broke free into second, but his afternoon became a damage limitation exercise against the four-time champion up the road, who had already done the heavy lifting.

The texture of the race belonged to the middle phase—Norris holding station, Leclerc nursing grip, Verstappen slipping away by tenths per lap—but the crucial moment was McLaren’s late call and Norris’ clean, no nonsense move to get it done. It salvaged the maximum from a day that threatened to trap him behind red paint. It also underlined where the title fight is right now: McLaren can bloody noses, Ferrari can disrupt the script, but Verstappen still controls the pace of the story. If you’re keeping score, that’s momentum. In this phase of a championship, momentum is currency.

‘Quiet sort of menace’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/verstappen-turns-the-screw-in-texas-norris-breaks-through/


Truth behind Oscar flop and what now; ‘extraordinary’ title race shift explained — F1 Talking Pts
October 20th, 2025
Michael Lamonato from Fox Sports
Fox Sports (Australia)

We’re witnessing something quite extraordinary. That’s Red Bull Racing boss Laurent Mekies’s opinion after Max Verstappen’s total domination of the United States Grand Prix weekend slashed his title deficit to just 40 points with five rounds remaining. After five rounds of being dared to believe that the championship fight is on, Red Bull Racing no longer needs convincing.

Verstappen’s title defence, his shot at a fifth world championship, is very much alive. The electricity of this moment is undeniable. “Near domination today,” Red Bull Racing boss Laurent Mekies told Sky Sports. “Max has been driving at an incredible level. We have to admit we’re witnessing something quite extraordinary, and it has produced this turnaround.” Five races remain, and among them are some Verstappen classics.

Perfection is still required, but with momentum totally with the Dutchman and his formerly down-and-out team, you’d be brave to discount a late title twist. “The focus and the intensity is still on this weekend, on learning whatever we can still learn on this weekend and on bringing the best possible car to Mexico,” Mekies said. “We’re going to keep that approach. We’re not looking at the big numbers. We’re looking at what we can learn every session, how we can get the best possible car on the ground in Mexico in a week’s time.”

“Witnessing something quite extraordinary”;

https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport/formula-one/quite-extraordinary-verstappen-cuts-deficit-again-explanation-for-piastris-woe-talking-pts/news-story/8b7e914a9841353da732a245862ee62b


David Croft shares what Mark Webber is privately saying about Oscar Piastri’s F1 championship hopes
20 October 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Commentator David Croft has now shared what Webber told him about Piastri’s mindset behind the scenes, and what he needs to do to win the title this year. Croft was following Piastri while on commentary for Sky Sports F1 (19/10 9:10 pm) as he struggled to keep up with Lewis Hamilton and had to worry about George Russell behind him.

He said: “I was talking to Mark Webber, Oscar Piastri’s manager, earlier today. He said there was nothing wrong with Oscar, his head’s up, his chin’s up. Yeah, he’s lost a few points in his lead, but he’s got a very healthy lead out in front. As another race goes by, you’ve got to reverse the trend at some stage. There’s still an awful long way to go in this season, and I think it’s going to give us an absolutely blockbuster finish this year.”

“Yes, I think Oscar Piastri has absolutely got the mental capacity to cope with this fight. If you remember back to F3, his championship-winning F3 season, his lead got whittled down there, and he coped very well there, with the pressure.” Martin Brundle replied and said: “Yeah, and Oscar needs a solid weekend again, doesn’t he? He has to go next week.”

“His head’s up, his chin’s up”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/david-croft-shares-what-mark-webber-is-privately-saying-about-oscar-piastris-f1-championship-hopes/

[Fortitude]

McLaren won’t bring more upgrades to counter growing Max Verstappen F1 championship threat.
McLaren not tempted to replicate Red Bull upgrade push. “When it comes to new upgrades, new parts, then this will not happen for the rest of the season,” McLaren boss Andrea Stella concluded.
20 Oct 2025
Taylor Powling
Motorsport Week

While Verstappen remained untroubled in the race, McLaren boss Andrea Stella is convinced that Norris retained the pace to challenge had he not lost out to Charles Leclerc at the start. “Well, first of all, I think in terms of the trend, today is a relatively reassuring race because I think without having to fight with Charles, which was certainly an entertaining fight itself, I think Lando had the pace to win the race today,” Stella told media including Motorsport Week.

“Obviously, he needed to gain the position on track, which is never easy with Max, and with a one-stop strategy, not necessarily we would have had many opportunities from a strategic point of view, but performance-wise, I think we are reassured that the pace was sufficient to fight for the victory. Like I have explained to some of your colleagues as well, I think not having done the Sprint Race left us a little bit on the back foot from a set-up point of view. And in hindsight, we can see already that there was more performance that we could have extracted from the car.”

‘McLaren won’t bring more upgrades’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/10/20/mclaren-wont-bring-more-upgrades-to-counter-growing-max-verstappen-f1-championship-threat/


Unleashed Verstappen causes historical implosion at McLaren
20 Oct 2025
Co-author:Kada Sárközi
Tim Kraaij
GPblog.com

The seemingly invincible McLaren team appears to be imploding from within. How is the best team on the grid slowly losing control? "Is there a very real danger now that neither of your drivers could win this title?" That question was asked of McLaren team principal Andrea Stella after the United States Grand Prix. A question that perfectly covers the increasing cynicism inside the paddock.

The catalyst behind it all has been McLaren’s team orders. The so-called 'papaya rules' provide amusement for many in the paddock. Max Verstappen has already suggested that McLaren is simply making things too hard for itself, because you can't script a championship. It's a widely shared opinion inside the paddock. The cynicism isn't solely within the media but also among competitors and fans. Competitors smirk at McLaren's mishandling of their drivers. Especially the fact that the drivers must fully comply with the team, thereby becoming obedient team players, is viewed by some as 'character assassination' of the two.

It can also be heard among fans. Yes, Max Verstappen was booed here and there, but that was after he won everything for an entire year. That the dominant factor in a sport is less loved by the public than the underdog is a common phenomenon. However, McLaren has not had a long period during which they won everything. On the contrary, the public now seems to be siding with Verstappen because they see that the McLaren drivers aren't getting everything out of their car. The fact that McLaren has repeatedly tried to script races with team orders also does not benefit their image.

‘Historical implosion at McLaren’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/analysis/unleashed-verstappen-causes-historical-implosion-at-mclaren


British media have a strong reaction to Max Verstappen winning the US GP over Lando Norris
20 Oct 2025
Alex Worth
Give Me Sport

The British media were seriously impressed by Max Verstappen's bold claim after his dominant win at the United States Grand Prix this past weekend. The 'chance is there' quote stood out to British journalists who were in attendance at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin over the weekend.

The BBC reflected on his recent resurgence, writing: “Even when Verstappen started winning races in September, the points gap to the McLaren drivers was so big that the four-time champion refused to entertain the idea in public, even if he might have been thinking about it in private. He was taking it race by race, he said, and not thinking about the championship.

"For sure, the chance is there," Verstappen said of the title battle. "We just need to try and deliver these weekends until the end. We will try and do whatever we can. It's exciting." The Guardian wrote: “The disillusioned and dissatisfied driver who felt his title defence was long over has, against all the odds and indeed his own expectations, restaked his claim as a genuine contender in a deliciously tight Formula One world championship battle.

"For sure, the chance is there";

https://www.givemesport.com/british-media-strong-reaction-max-verstappen-winning-us-gp-over-lando-norris-f1/


Nervous McLaren can no longer win the easy way
Max Verstappen's charge back into title contention is forcing McLaren to confront a growing internal dilemma - whether to let Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri continue fighting freely, or impose team orders as the stakes rise.
OCTOBER 19, 2025
GrandPrix.com

The tension has been building for some time, now culminating in McLaren's chaotic sprint race double-DNF in Austin - which left Red Bull and Verstappen sensing weakness. “They're under pressure, of course,” Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko told Viaplay. "They can't win the easy way anymore. We'll keep pushing. We're making them nervous, and that seems to be working.”

Sky Deutschland's Timo Glock agreed that McLaren's management now faces its biggest challenge of the season. “These are all issues they have to deal with now,” he said. “And Max Verstappen is only concerned with annoying them.” Inside McLaren, both the pressure and the parallels are clear. Team CEO Zak Brown acknowledged that the current scenario bears resemblance to the infamous 2007 campaign, when McLaren's own title duel between Fernando Alonso and rookie Lewis Hamilton allowed Kimi Raikkonen to snatch the championship at the eleventh hour.

“Repeat 2007? It's a risk, yes,” Brown said. "If you have two drivers like in 2007, when they were tied on points and Kimi was just ahead at the end of the season - but that's just how McLaren wants to race. We want two drivers capable of winning the championship. On the other hand, if you split the drivers into number 1 and number 2, it jeopardises your participation in the Constructors' Championship. It's a difficult sport. We're racing. We want to race. Our desire is to give both drivers a chance to win the title, and that comes with a certain risk, like in 2007.”

‘Nervous McLaren’;

https://www.grandprix.com/news/nervous-mclaren-can-no-longer-win-the-easy-way.html


Why McLaren’s ‘papaya rules’ don’t mean equality for Norris and Piastri
19 Oct 2025
Mat Coch
PlanetF1.com

There really is only one rule: don’t hit the other orange car. In Singapore, Norris broke that rule. But because it happened between teammates, it broke the underlying rule of ‘no contact’. It wasn’t an egregious or deliberate act, as Brown has pointed out: it was marginal. However, it still happened and therefore had to be addressed. While the team isn’t saying as much, it’s believed Piastri will be treated as the primary car through qualifying for the remainder of the season.

Allowing its drivers to race freely without consequence incentivises behaviour contrary to the team’s broader goals. And while the Constructors’ Championship is wrapped up for another year, both Norris and Piastri have to share a garage next year. Allowing the seeds of animosity to be planted now would only lead to far bigger problems down the line.

The whole saga is unusual, even unprecedented; hence it is both foreign and confusing at times as we look in from the outside. The key is that McLaren’s efforts at fairness do not overstep in the eyes of its drivers. The perception externally is irrelevant.

‘Whole saga is unusual’;

https://www.planetf1.com/features/mclarens-lando-norris-oscar-piastri-papaya-rules-repercussions-singapore


Norris sounds the alarms: Unexpected McLaren weakness claims
19 Oct 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Lando Norris has revealed that the situation at McLaren is so dire that he was fighting the car all along, and as such an early Q1 eliminationn wasn't necessarily off the table. Norris still doesn't have an answer for the issues stemming from the once dominant MCL39, but he admits new ones arose every lap, an alarming claim.

He continued: "I don't know why. It's quite a bit more tricky than it was yesterday. I see some conditions change, the wind changed a little bit, things like that. But yeah, it was tough. And I don't have a delta on my dash, so I felt my first two sectors were a bit meh on the final lap. I mean, you try and do the same as the lap before because it was good, but you have just different problems every single lap, which is part of our issue.”

"I didn't know if I was up, down, what. So I knew I had to just hit and hope for the last couple corners and try put it together and I made, I think, some good improvements to my previous. I'm happy to be p2 because it quite easily could have been a lot worse today. It felt worse so I'll definitely take it for that reason," Norris concluded.

‘Norris sounds the alarms’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/norris-sounds-the-alarms-unexpected-mclaren-weakness-claims

[Fortitude]

‘Insecure’ Piastri and ‘nervous’ McLaren called out as Verstappen closes in.
Dropping points to Max Verstappen in four successive race weekends, Oscar Piastri is “insecure” and McLaren as a team is feeling “the nervousness”.
20 Oct 2025
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Oscar Piastri’s lead has been slashed by Verstappen 104 points to just 40 with five race weekends remaining. It had been as much as 104 after the Dutch Grand Prix, the last time Piastri stood on the top step of the podium. Max Verstappen has since gone on a charge, winning in Monza and Baku before bringing his RB21 home in second place at the Singapore Grand Prix.

He then dominated in Austin, winning the Sprint and the grand prix from pole to flag. That’s 101 of the maximum 108 points that were in play from Monza to Austin. Former F1 driver Glock believes he’s feeling the pressure that comes with a first World title title. “He’s insecure,” the German said. “In his third year in Formula 1, he is in a situation where the pressure is growing. The free driving from the beginning of the year is no longer so easy.”

“The nervousness is there for the whole team,” he said. “The problem is that there are race tracks where Mercedes is suddenly there, Ferrari was strong here. That’s the problem for Oscar and Lando, that there can be other teams that take points away from them. For me, Max Verstappen is too dominant for anyone to put him under pressure.”

‘Verstappen closes in’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/oscar-piastri-nervous-mclaren-called-out-max-verstappen-closes-in


Piastri Makes Startling Comment after US GP That Will Delight Verstappen
Max Verstappen continued to cut the gap in the world title fight
20 Oct 2025
James Taylor
SPORTbible

Oscar Piastri made a surprise comment following the United States Grand Prix that will give further encouragement to Max Verstappen in the title race. Piastri still leads the standings with a 14 point advantage over Norris, while Verstappen is now just 40 points behind the Australian. With five races remaining, the Dutchman has publicly stated that he believes a record-equalling fifth consecutive F1 drivers' championship is still possible.

After the race, the McLaren driver was asked how he plans to turn around his dip in form. Oscar Piastri said: "I don't have any great ideas at the moment. Qualifying was clean from my side; it was just that the pace wasn't there, and it was honestly a pretty similar story in the race. This layout is quite interesting; there are a lot of very high-speed corners with a lot of ride content, there are a lot of very low-speed corners, so you need to be good at both ends of the spectrum. Actually, there's not a whole lot [of corners] in that medium-speed range; there are a few, but more outside of it, so for me, it's not been a particularly happy hunting ground my whole F1 career.”

“So in some ways, I can't say I'm shocked that this has been a tough weekend, but obviously I was hoping for better." Piastri added: "Max has had a good run in the last few races, but ultimately, if we can find our way again, find our pace, and certainly for me, find the pace again, then I don't have any major concerns. There is still a long way to go in the championship. And for Max, he's chased it down pretty quickly, but it is not exactly a small gap with four, five rounds to go. So if we can find our pace again, things will take care of themselves."

‘Further encouragement to Max Verstappen’;

https://www.sportbible.com/f1/oscar-piastri-max-verstappen-formula-1-us-gp-561775-20251020


Stella: Norris and Piastri admit shortfalls but team remains hopeful
20 Oct 2025
Ben Winship
GPblog.com

McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella revealed Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have admitted they have not maximised their performances in previous races. He added that the team has not exploited all of the MCL39’s potential as Max Verstappen closes the deficit to championship leader Piastri to just 40 points. Speaking after Verstappen’s imperious United States GP victory, Stella appeared hopeful despite acknowledging the team’s shortfalls in recent times.

He said: "The fact that there are five races and two sprints [remaining] means that we can also increase the gap to Max. That's how I see things. I think we have good tracks coming for our car and I think we have more that we could have exploited out of our car and to some extent the drivers themselves, I think they recognise themselves that they could have done a better job at some of the previous races.
“So I think we look at the next five races as opportunities to increase the gap to Max.”

‘Verstappen’s imperious United States GP victory’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/stella-norris-and-piastri-admit-shortfalls-but-team-remains-hopeful


As Verstappen closes on McLaren in title fight, is Piastri feeling the pressure?
20 Oct 2025
Owen Bradley
GPblog.com

Max Verstappen took a dominant victory at the U.S Grand Prix. Closing to Piastri and Norris in the championship standings. Verstappen came into the U.S GP with a 63-point deficit to championship leader Oscar Piastri, however the Dutchman has closed that gap down to a 40-point deficit after dominating the Sprint weekend, which also saw McLaren score a double DNF in Saturday's 100km race.

Is Oscar Piastri beginning to feel the pressure? This is the Australian's third season in Formula One, and he has been leading the championship since April. However, despite leading the championship for most of the season, Norris is as close as ever with Verstappen bringing himself back into the title fight decisively.

As the season's drawing to a close the stakes are as high as ever, and it is up to Piastri to step up and rack up the results his car can provide and seal the title. It's a defining moment for the championship leader and perhaps he knows it too.

‘The stakes are as high as ever’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/features/as-verstappen-closes-on-mclaren-in-title-fight-is-piastri-feeling-the-pressure


The final stretch: Comparing Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s 2024 final five races
Toby Coxon
Sporting News

The 2025 Formula 1 Drivers' Championship battle between McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri is heading into its tense final phase, perfectly mirroring the highly competitive conclusion of the 2024 season. With the title race now on a knife-edge, the key to predicting who will emerge victorious lies in analysing how both drivers handled the pressure in the final five races of last season, when the competitive margins were at their narrowest.

While Norris finished 2024 as the clear momentum leader, it is Piastri’s newfound consistency in 2025 that has given him the critical advantage, a reversal that provides a fascinating psychological layer to this year's fight. The irony of the current situation is that the momentum has completely reversed for the 2025 title fight. While Norris was the strong finisher in 2024, it is Piastri who has demonstrated the consistency needed to lead the 2025 championship, holding a 22-point advantage over his teammate.

Piastri has been more clinical in converting pole positions and has made fewer visible errors than Norris. The Australian is now capitalising on the performance advantage of the McLaren car by minimising his mistakes and maximising his points haul, while Norris has been plagued by minor errors and poor luck. As the 2025 season heads into its final six races, the psychological edge belongs to Piastri, who has turned his rival's momentum into his own advantage, proving that in a title fight, consistency ultimately trumps late-season form.

‘The final stretch’;

https://www.sportingnews.com/uk/formula-1/news/final-stretch-comparing-lando-norris-and-oscar-piastris-2024-final-five-races/54b53287950b04fb7edb837f


Oscar Piastri still not thinking clearly as Norris and Verstappen close in
21 Oct 2025
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

Oscar Piastri held a 34-point lead over McLaren driver Lando Norris and a 104-point lead over Max Verstappen following his most recent victory of the F1 2025 season at the Dutch Grand Prix. Of greater concern to Piastri, perhaps, is the pace deficit between himself and Norris at the Circuit of the Americas, consistently hovering at around 0.3s – sometimes smaller, sometimes larger – across both qualifying sessions on Friday and Saturday.

Maybe this was just one of those weekends Norris is capable of from time to time, blowing his teammate away at a circuit where he has performed well (and Piastri has struggled) in the past and revelling in the extra feel offered by the upgraded front suspension he first ran in Canada. And it did not help Piastri – so adept at applying the lessons from the data across the three practice sessions on a standard race weekend – that this happened to be a sprint event, denying him the opportunity to gradually chip away at the gap on Friday and Saturday.

Yet Norris’s comfortable advantage over him in the United States will only add to the doubts threatening to derail Piastri’s season. The only silver lining? If Verstappen – the winner of three of the last four races – keeps this up, soon enough McLaren will be forced to abandon its policy of total fairness and throw its full support behind one driver. If (when?) that time comes, Piastri must make sure the high ground still belongs to him.

‘Pace deficit hovering at around 0.3s’;

https://www.planetf1.com/features/oscar-piastri-mclaren-united-states-grand-prix-2025-sprint-mistake

[Fortitude]

McLaren's 'repercussions' for Lando Norris have been leaked. The result is a crucial leg-up for Oscar Piastri.
"But I asked Red Bull, and they said, 'We think the repercussions are they're going to give Oscar Piastri the priority in all the qualifying sessions coming to the end of the season'” Ted Kravitz.
22 Oct 2025
Sophie Wisely
Channel 9's Wide World of Sports

Sky Sports presenter Ted Kravitz has lifted the lid on what he believes are the repercussions facing Lando Norris for the first-lap incident at the Singapore Grand Prix between the two McLaren teammates. Although McLaren carefully kept all mouths shut on what the specifics of the repercussions were, Kravitz revealed that rival team Red Bull believed it had the inside word on the resulting penalty. According to Kravitz, Oscar Piastri will be prioritised in qualifying for the remaining races of the year. "Oscar will be effectively treated in the qualifying sessions as the number one driver", Ted Kravitz.

French F1 broadcaster Canal+ firmed that reporting up further, claiming that Piastri will have the option to choose whether he goes out before or after Norris in every qualifying session for the remainder of the year. Qualifying has been the crux of any driver's success in 2025, Max Verstappen's dominance in qualifying led him to a perfect United States weekend where he brought home 33 points.

‘Piastri the priority’;

https://www.nine.com.au/sport/motorsport/f1-news-2025-lando-norris-repercussions-oscar-piastri-qualifying-advantage-ted-kravitz-comments-20251022-p5n4eu.html


Norris sounds the alarms: Unexpected McLaren weakness claims
19 Oct 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Lando Norris has revealed that the situation at McLaren is so dire that he was fighting the car all along, and as such an early Q1 eliminationn wasn't necessarily off the table. Norris still doesn't have an answer for the issues stemming from the once dominant MCL39, but he admits new ones arose every lap, an alarming claim.

He continued: "I don't know why. It's quite a bit more tricky than it was yesterday. I see some conditions change, the wind changed a little bit, things like that. But yeah, it was tough. And I don't have a delta on my dash, so I felt my first two sectors were a bit meh on the final lap."

"I mean, you try and do the same as the lap before because it was good, but you have just different problems every single lap, which is part of our issue. I didn't know if I was up, down, what. So I knew I had to just hit and hope for the last couple corners and try put it together and I made, I think, some good improvements to my previous. I'm happy to be p2 because it quite easily could have been a lot worse today. It felt worse so I'll definitely take it for that reason," Norris concluded.

‘Unexpected McLaren weakness claims’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/norris-sounds-the-alarms-unexpected-mclaren-weakness-claims


Max Verstappen says McLaren ‘absolutely’ favouring Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri
Verstappen insists it won’t affect his Red Bull championship fight
17 Oct 2025
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

The Singapore drama has sparked claims that McLaren are favouring Norris and Verstappen says this is ‘absolutely’ the case. “Absolutely! Someone… I don’t know, I heard something…,” Verstappen said sarcastically to media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “Does it help me? I don’t know. I mean, I honestly don’t know.”

“I don’t care also, because it has nothing to do with me—what they decide, of course, within the team—how they operate as a team. “I mean, they do whatever they think is right, and they’re doing a very good job at it being this quick and what they’ve done over the last few years. For me, what’s important is that when we get to the racetrack, we just maximise our potential."

‘McLaren ‘absolutely’ favouring Lando Norris’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/max-verstappen-mclaren-absolutely-favouring-lando-norris-over-oscar-piastri/


The two factors that ruined Norris's US GP win chance
20 Oct 2025
Mark Hughes
The Race

Ferrari and Leclerc were figuring that actually the softs may have got them the lead from the second row and with the clean air this would have facilitated their pace would be so much better. He came close to doing it, but not quite, and like that Verstappen was released. Turns out that Ferrari starting tyre choice was absolutely the right one. The change in wind direction meant a tailwind in those slow corners requiring a lot of mechanical grip…

So not only was Norris stuck behind Leclerc as Verstappen ran away, taking life out of his tyres as he diced with the Ferrari and ran in its dirty air, but he was stuck there for a long time as he couldn’t afford to try to undercut too early.

It took until lap 21 until Norris found his way by, by which time Verstappen was almost 11s in the lead. Norris would lose further time in the second stint as he had to find his way past Leclerc all over again, as the Ferrari had got ahead by virtue of its much earlier stop. Although Norris had stopped 10 laps later than Leclerc, the soft tyres he’d had fitted had already done six laps of qualifying. Therefore compared to Leclerc’s new mediums, there was only a four-lap offset.

‘Two factors’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/the-two-factors-that-ruined-norris-us-gp-win-chance-mark-hughes/


Norris reacts to McLaren's U.S GP strategy in revelatory remark
21 Oct 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Lando Norris’ McLaren could have fought for victory in Austin. “I mean, I regret not putting in a perfect lap and going purple, purple, purple yesterday in qualifying. So, you know, you can’t ask these questions.”

“You could do many different things. You never know what’s going to work out. I don’t think our strategy was wrong. I think we did a good job.” Although there might have been a chance to get ahead of Leclerc earlier, that approach would have carried significant risk, something Norris and McLaren chose to avoid, a decision the Briton says he stands by.

“Potentially, we should have. We’ll look back and see if we should have just boxed as soon as we got ahead of Charles or tried an undercut and seen if that worked out. But it was a long way to go on the softs, and then you put yourself under Safety Car risk. So, you know, there are many different things that can go your way. Otherwise, I think we did a good job. I think we took the correct amount of risk for the position we’re in, and I’m happy and satisfied with the result, as much as I would have loved to be further up,”

‘Revelatory remark’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/norris-reacts-to-mclarens-us-gp-strategy-in-revelatory-remark


Jolyon Palmer spotted one ‘big’ mistake Lando Norris kept making during the United States Grand Prix
19 Oct 2025
Shay Rogers
F1 Oversteer

Lando Norris’ ‘big’ mistake was repeating the same moves in Charles Leclerc battle at the US GP. Martin Brundle believes McLaren are doomed to fail because they have two competitive and hungry drivers. They’re contracted for the next few seasons, meaning that it could pose a few difficulties for them down the line. Norris has more experience, and it might pay dividends over the next few weekends, particularly at the flyaway races that Piastri will have been to a handful of times. In his battle with Leclerc in Austin, he repeated one ‘big’ error that Jolyon Palmer spotted straight away.

“I think you’ve got to brake later on the initial brake at [turn] 12 to threaten to maybe go around the outside, or to force Charles to go deep as well, and then you can get a chance to get more of a look on the outside,” Palmer said on F1TV. “It is difficult with the sequence of corners that you’ve got. If you’ve got a left-hander into a left-hander, the switchback works so easily, because then you have the inside and then ‘See you later mate, you’re out and I’m through.’”

“But when you go left-hander, so you get the switchback and now you’re on the outside for the next right-hander, then you’re like ‘He’s gone in deep, I’ll get the switchback again.’ but then it’s another left-hander, you just get shuffled out,” he continued. “So, you’ve got to start mixing it up.

‘Big mistake’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/jolyon-palmer-spotted-one-big-mistake-lando-norris-kept-making-during-the-united-states-grand-prix/


Wolff: Verstappen holds key advantage over McLaren drivers
22 Oct 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff believes Max Verstappen has the psychological advantage over both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris as the Formula 1 drivers’ championship battle heats up. The Mercedes team boss, who spoke to GPblog, recounted how he had experienced a similar scenario with former Red Bull Racing driver Sebastian Vettel before adding that the psychological edge is tilted towards Verstappen due to the odds being against him.

“I’ve been in a similar situation with two drivers fighting for a championship, and the threat of another one catching up. Back in the day, it was Max, I believe, and then it was Sebastian [Vettel] in that hunt. The underdog always has a little bit of an easier psychological advantage because of the probability. The odds are definitely against Max. If you look at the probability, that’s very low, one DNF can change everything, and I think that affects the driving as well.”

“How aggressive can you actually go for an overtake? You can see Lando [Norris] today; he managed it at the end, but at times it was tricky to decide whether to keep your nose in or not.”

‘Key advantage’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/wolff-verstappen-holds-key-advantage-over-mclaren-drivers

[Fortitude]

Verstappen wants perfection ahead of Mexico Grand Prix.
“We need to keep having perfect weekends to fight for the Championship, so it is important to hit the ground running in Mexico." - Max Verstappen.
23 Oct 2025
Drew Murphy
GPblog.com

Both Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda are raring to begin racing in Mexico City. Verstappen has shortened the gap between himself and Championship leader Oscar Piastri to just 40 points. The Dutchman knows he needs more perfect weekends like in Austin to claim his fifth World Drivers Championship.

He said: "We have gained a lot of positive momentum over the past few races, and we want to keep pushing and extracting as much performance out of the car as we can, and the Team have been working hard to do this. We need to keep having perfect weekends to fight for the Championship, so it is important to hit the ground running in Mexico."

After achieving a seventh-place finish at the United States Grand Prix, Tsunoda is hoping to showcase his talent ahead of Red Bull’s driver line-up decision for next year. Tsunoda said: “I’m coming to Mexico ready to fight for the points again. I had a good few days between Austin and Mexico, visiting Los Angeles, a place I had never been before. The aim is to have a consistent weekend overall and if I can do that I put myself in the position to score better points for the Team and be racing nearer the top of the grid, where we should be."

‘Raring to begin racing in Mexico City’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/verstappen-wants-perfection-ahead-of-mexico-grand-prix


Another Verstappen stronghold? The recent history of the Mexico City GP
10212025
Ben McCarthy
Sporting News

A Verstappen stronghold: Max Verstappen has won this race five times, regardless of whether the event was labelled the 'Mexico' or 'Mexico City' Grand Prix. Yet only one of those wins has come from pole position. In 2017 and '18, he passed the polesitters of those races, Sebastian Vettel in the former and Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in the latter, by the first braking zone and never looked back.

In 2021, he did the same thing, but with an outrageous late-braking overtake on the two Silver Arrows, including his then-championship rival Lewis Hamilton. And 2023 was no different; he started from third but passed the two Ferraris in a heartbeat. In fact, Verstappen has led this race after the first lap every time since 2021, and has led the first tour in six in the last seven races at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Although he seized the lead on the first tour of last year's race, the worrying pace of the RB21, coupled with two 10-second penalties, set him back to sixth place.

‘Verstappen has led this race after the first lap every time since 2021’;

https://www.sportingnews.com/uk/formula-1/news/another-verstappen-stronghold-recent-history-mexico-city-gp/7454c2556a1fab9f75e8e47f


Max previews Mexico Grand Prix: 'Tends to suit our car'
23 October 2025
Niels Hendrix
Verstappen.nl

Max Verstappen has travelled from Austin, where he won the race, to Mexico City for the upcoming Grand Prix. The Dutchman says: “We have gained a lot of positive momentum over the past few races and we want to keep pushing and extracting as much performance out of the car as we can and the team have been working hard to do this.”

Max adds: “We need to keep having perfect weekends to fight for the championship, so it is important to hit the ground running in Mexico. The circuit tends to suit our car and it will be all about managing our tyres and the grip. Of course, the high altitude always brings unique challenges, decreasing the air density, which will be affecting everyone. Mexico is always a fun party atmosphere, so it will be exciting to round up the double header there.”

'Tends to suit our car';

https://news.verstappen.com/en/article/5986/


Verstappen tight-lipped looking ahead: 'That's the beauty of it!'
22 Oct 2025
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

While Max Verstappen did not go into details, Lando Norris shared more about his expectations for the Mexico City Grand Prix. The Dutchman remained tight-lipped about the upcoming event. He said: "Well, the beauty of it is we'll find out next week. I don't really think about it. We'll find out next week. We could speculate, but I don't like that."

Norris expects a close battle between McLaren and Red Bull, though he believes other teams could also be in the mix. The Briton added: "Probably the same as here. I don’t think it’ll change that much. It’s close between us and Red Bull — one weekend they're a little bit quicker, the next we’re a little bit faster. You know, Mercedes was quickest in Singapore. So, yes, you can have many different things here, but we’re going to see."

'That's the beauty of it!';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/verstappen-tight-lipped-looking-ahead-thats-the-beauty-of-it


Start time for the 2025 F1 Mexican Grand Prix - Mexico City
The F1 season continues this weekend with the 2025 F1 Mexican Grand Prix. Don't miss any of the action and check out all the session start times for the weekend here.
23 October 2025
RacingNews365 Staff
RacingNews365

The schedule for the 2025 F1 Mexico City GP is automatically adjusted to your time zone.
F1 schedule Mexican GP
Session
Date Time
Free practice 1 Friday 24 October 20:30 - 21:30
Free practice 2 Saturday 25 October 00:00 - 01:00
Free practice 3 Saturday 25 October 19:30 - 20:30
Qualification Saturday 25 October 23:00 - 23:59
Race Sunday 26 October 21:00 - 23:00

‘Start times’;

https://racingnews365.com/start-time-for-the-2025-f1-mexican-grand-prix-mexico-city


Will the rain impact the title fight? Full Mexico GP weather breakdown
22 Oct 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Formula 1 heads to Mexico City for the next stop on the 2025 calendar. The title race is finely poised, but could the weather conditions influence the outcome? Here is the weather forecast for the race weekend.

Friday, October 24 – FP1 & FP2
Friday will witness the first round of on-track action and is expected to be dry, albeit with a 40% chance of rain. The temperature for the first practice session is forecast at 23°C, while the second practice session is expected to reach 25°C.

Saturday, October 25 – FP3 & Qualifying
The second day of on-track action will feature a temperature of 24°C for the third practice session and 25°C during qualifying, with a 20% chance of rain.
Sunday, October 26 – Grand Prix
Sunday’s race is expected to be drier, with a 20% chance of rain. The race temperature is forecast at 25°C.

‘Weather forecast for the race weekend’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/will-the-rain-impact-the-title-fight-full-mexico-gp-weather-breakdown

[Fortitude]

McLaren holds thorough Oscar Piastri car checks ahead of Mexican Grand Prix.
…checking that Oscar Piastri’s car was not hamstrung by an unidentified problem over the United States Grand Prix weekend.
23 Oct 2025
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

Andrea Stella, the McLaren team principal admitted that identifying the cause of Piastri’s poor pace was a priority after the United States Grand Prix weekend, with McLaren holding a thorough check of his MCL39 to rule out a potential car issue.

He told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets: “This is certainly one of the most important points that we need to review, which is the fact that Oscar, in qualifying and in the race, seemed to have a couple of tenths that he was not able to fully realise and that possibly was available in the car.

“We are actually now checking that we are completely happy with the setup of the car, the setup of the floor, that everything is as intended from a car point of view.”

‘Thorough Oscar Piastri car checks’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/mclaren-oscar-piastri-mcl39-max-verstappen-alarm-bells


Mekies expects wide-open battle for Mexican GP victory
23 Oct 2025
Ben Winship
GPblog.com

Red Bull Racing Team Principal Laurent Mekies believes four teams will potentially be in with a chance of winning the Mexican GP this weekend. Mekies expects Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari all to be in and around the podium positions as F1 heads to Mexico City’s Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

Red Bull have enjoyed a significant turnaround in form in recent times and Max Verstappen dominated the United States GP weekend last time out with a maximum haul of 33 points across both the sprint and Sunday’s Grand Prix. In spite of Red Bull’s form, Mekies has underplayed the chances of another Verstappen whitewash when speaking after the United States GP.

“You know, we certainly feel three or four teams can win the race.” He continued: “And today, they [Ferrari] were battling with us. They were battling with McLaren. They took some points out of McLaren. They could have taken some points out of us. So yes, we see them in the game, absolutely.”

‘Wide-open battle’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/mekies-expects-wide-open-battle-for-mexican-gp-victory


‘Don’t crash into each other’—Piastri reveals plan ahead of crucial Mexico City Grand Prix
23 Oct 2025
Peter Maniaty
Sporting News

Asked if his ‘clean slate’ comment meant the repercussions given to Norris after their lap one incident in Singapore had been lifted, the Australian nodded. “Yes, the consequences on Lando’s side have been removed, there were a lot of factors involved, but ultimately that’s what’s been decided,” Piastri said, explaining McLaren’s much talked about ‘papaya rules’ are still in play.

“For us it’s pretty clear what those rules are—don’t crash into each other,” he added. “Regardless of what scenario you’re in, that’s how you’re expected to race as teammates.” As for the increasing title challenge of four-time reigning world champion Verstappen, Piastri acknowledged the Dutchman’s improved consistency was driving his rapid climb up the rankings.

“Clearly over the last few race weekends, Red Bull and Max have certainly found consistency more than anything,” he said. “There were flashes of that kind of performance earlier in the season, but I think the last few weekends it’s been very consistent. I’m sure that they’re going to be a threat again this weekend and we’ll try our best to get the most out of our car and see where we end up.”

‘Don’t crash into each other’;

https://www.sportingnews.com/au/formula-1/news/piastri-crucial-mexico-grand-prix-norris-mclaren-verstappen/a775bbca461eb74a62db7ae6


Max ahead of Mexico GP: 'Keep the momentum'
24 October 2025
Stefan Meens
Verstappen.nl

“It’s obvious we’ve been doing well recently”, said Max. “I definitely enjoy it more this way and we’ll try to maintain the momentum. I want to try and keep winning races until the end of the season. But we also know we have to be perfect if want to have a chance at the end.” At Thursday’s press conference, the Dutchman was asked about the level of risk he is willing to take into turn one. “I don’t think about until I get there on Sunday. Every situation is different, it’s never the same, so there’s no point planning in advance.”

The remainder of the season plays out across racetracks all featuring different characterises. As such, Max is not sure if he can predict where his RB20 will be best suited. “I don’t think you can always go on past results. Some circuits will suit us better than others and I’ve won here a lot. But then again, last year was a disaster, so we’ll look at it race by race.”

“It’s a tricky circuit, with low grip. We have won here, but every year is different so we’ll see what happens. I’m expecting a fun weekend. The fans are always great and full of passion… …I always give everything I’ve got, on both the good and bad days. I’ve always been like that. I don’t think I’m all of a sudden quicker; I just have a more complete car to fight at the front.”

“I always give everything I’ve got”;

https://news.verstappen.com/en/article/5987/


Everything we learned already at F1's Mexican Grand Prix
Oct 24, 2025
The Race

At last weekend’s United States GP Red Bull got a €50k fine, half of which was suspended, after a team member ignored pit marshals’ instructions to go back through the opening in the pitwall at the start of the formation lap. Andrea Stella and Laurent Mekies, the two team bosses, have discussed the matter this week. Stella and Mekies are both understood to be keen that a line is drawn under it before it escalates or becomes a distraction.

The two McLaren drivers have a “clean slate” for the rest of the season after Oscar Piastri took “some responsibility” for their crash in the United States Grand Prix sprint race. That means the mini-saga and mystery over Lando Norris and his “consequences” for hitting Piastri in the Singapore Grand Prix has ended after just one weekend. McLaren’s post-event review concluded that Piastri could have been more careful in how he cut back across the track at the start of the sprint, which led to a multi-car crash that wiped out Piastri and Norris.

Max Verstappen is not only benefitting from a faster Red Bull in this title chase - he is also able to set it up more as he likes it now. “Naturally It gives me more confidence and it allows us to set up the car a little more aggressive, a little more on the nose without losing the rear for example. And that's exactly what you want.”

‘Everything we learned already’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/everything-we-learned-already-f1-mexican-grand-prix/


Mexican Grand Prix revs up for 10th anniversary celebration
Oct 24, 2025
The Straits Times

MEXICO CITY - After a decade of roaring engines and sold-out grandstands, the Mexican Grand Prix will celebrate its 10th anniversary this weekend as a major economic driver and international showcase for the country. Federico Gonzalez, director of the Formula One Mexican Grand Prix, outlined plans this weekend to mark the milestone while reflecting on the event's journey since returning to the F1 calendar in 2015.

"Every year we make an effort to improve the experience for attendees. We get into the smallest details and the biggest coordination efforts with the city," Gonzalez told Reuters on Wednesday. "This project is a platform for promoting tourism in the city and country to the world," he said, noting how the event fills Mexico City's hotels and restaurants while showcasing the nation as vibrant and industrious.”

The race operates through a trust fund established with private contributors rather than public money. "We all recognise that it is an economic windfall for the city, which is important because of the image it projects to the world. This weekend, the hotels and restaurants are full you can feel the vibe. It's not easy to move this city," he said. "The opportunity to be part of an event of this travelling nature is very good because year after year we are in the eye of the world with a presence and an image of the amazing things that happen in Mexico, of how hard-working Mexicans are," he said.

‘10th anniversary celebration’;

https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/formula-one/Mexican-Grand-Prix-revs-up-for-10th-anniversary-celebration

[Fortitude]

Charles Leclerc tops Mexican Grand Prix FP1 as Arvid Lindblad beats Yuki Tsunoda.
Yuki Tsunoda was beaten by Red Bull Junior Lindblad by one hundredth of a second, during an FP1 session that could prove vital in the team’s driver decision next year. Team principal Laurent Mekies revealed post-session that the two cars were running slightly different plans, which could have aided the young Brit.
24 October 2025
Rebecca Braybrook
F1 Oversteer

The dusty circuit caught out a couple of drivers, including Paul Aron in the early part of the session and then Hadjar with 20 minutes remaining. The Racing Bulls driver bailed out at Turn 12, heading down the escape road, before reversing back onto the track. The dusty circuit caught out a couple of drivers, including Paul Aron in the early part of the session and then Hadjar with 20 minutes remaining. The Racing Bulls driver bailed out at Turn 12, heading down the escape road, before reversing back onto the track.

Championship contenders Max Verstappen and Lando Norris were forced to miss the first running around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez as the teams participated in one of their four mandatory rookie runs. Oscar Piastri, who is leading the drivers’ championship by 14 points, was the first driver to start soft tyre runs at the midway point of the session, setting a time nearly a whole second faster than Isack Hadjar on the mediums.

‘Charles Leclerc tops Mexican Grand Prix FP1’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/charles-leclerc-tops-mexican-grand-prix-fp1-as-arvid-lindblad-beats-yuki-tsunoda/


Mexico City GP: Free Practice 1 Results
Full results from Free Practice 1 for the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix.
25 Oct 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

Charles Leclerc topped first practice for the Mexico City Grand Prix with a 1m18.380s, the Ferrari driver leading Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli by 0.107s and Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg by 0.380s.

Pos. No. Driver Team Time / Gap Laps
1 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:18.380 29
2 12 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.107s 35
3 27 Nico Hulkenberg Kick Sauber +0.380s 27
4 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.404s 31
5 5 Gabriel Bortoleto Kick Sauber +0.536s 28
6 36 Arvid Lindblad Red Bull Racing +0.617s 26
7 31 Esteban Ocon Haas F1 Team +0.658s 29
8 22 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull Racing +0.710s 29
9 43 Franco Colapinto Alpine +0.951s 28
10 23 Alexander Albon Williams +1.004s 33

‘Free Practice 1 Results’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-mexico-city-grand-prix-autodromo-hermanos-rodriguez-free-practice-1-fp1-results/


FP1: Leclerc heads Antonelli and Hulkenberg in opening practice for Mexico City Grand Prix
Charles Leclerc set the pace in FP1 in Mexico as nine rookie drivers took part in the session.
25 Oct 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Charles Leclerc finished fastest in Free Practice 1 for the Mexico City Grand Prix, the Ferrari driver heading Kimi Antonelli and Nico Hulkenberg. Leclerc finished just one-tenth faster than Antonelli, with Hulkenberg a further three-tenths back from Drivers' Championship leader Oscar Piastri in fourth.

The McLaren driver gained some crucial running on his title rivals Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, who could only watch on from the pit wall. This was because no fewer than nine rookie drivers were in action during the one-hour session on Friday, with Kick Sauber the only team not to field a junior driver at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

While all the stand-ins were keen to impress, the likes of Arvid Lindblad (Red Bull) and Paul Aron (Alpine) took to the track with greater emphasis as the possibility of graduating to the championship next season remains within their grasps. Esteban Ocon's 1m 20.934s initially left him top of the times as dust was cleared from the circuit in the early stages, with lap times continuing to drop as Isack Hadjar and Antonelli traded top spot between themselves.

‘Charles Leclerc set the pace in FP1’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/fp1-leclerc-heads-antonelli-and-hulkenberg-in-opening-practice-for-mexico.5WvPoit8tNzwBt2Tw6QRhs


Red Bull 'magical work' to help Max Verstappen cast spell over McLaren
Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan has explained how "magical work in Milton Keynes" is aiding Max Verstappen's F1 drivers' championship charge at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
24 October 2025
Samuel Coop & Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

Speaking to media, including RacingNews365, Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan reflected on the challenge, saying: "It's probably the most difficult one [grand prix] for cooling, because the engine is less affected if you can tune it appropriately.

"There's just nowhere to cool the thing, is there? So you've got a turbocharged engine that doesn't know it's at high altitude, and you've got radiators that haven't got any air, and brakes haven't got any air. So this is one of the bigger challenges in that respect.”

"Singapore was pretty tough temperature-wise, Hungary is normally brutal, but it's nearer sea level, but Hungary's got no air speed. Here we get plenty of air speed, just no air. So it's one of the difficult ones in that respect."

'Magical work';

https://racingnews365.com/red-bull-magical-work-to-help-max-verstappen-cast-spell-over-mclaren


Red Bull explains latest update to bolster Max Verstappen’s title challenge at F1 Mexico GP
24 October 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

When asked why the topbody exits, or ‘louvres’, were different to that of its rivals, Red Bull’s Chief Engineer Paul Monaghan explained to media including Motorsport Week: “Well, we are allowed to be different, so we choose to be. With the top body exit…if you go and look at a certain orange car, you’ll see some exits down by the wishbones.”

“Us, we choose to bring out a combination by the louvres and by the central exit. And what you choose to distribute, you choose to distribute. A different way to look at it is how much air do you need to push through your side pods to get the cooling.”

“Once you’ve done that, then you’ve got an indication of your exit area.Most cars are exit limited, not inlet limited. So you open up the exit first and how they choose to do it is down to their top body shape and how they spell it on the rear wing.”

‘Latest update to bolster Max Verstappen’s title challenge’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/10/24/red-bull-explains-latest-update-to-bolster-max-verstappens-title-charge-at-f1-mexico-gp/

[Fortitude]

Mexican GP: Verstappen fastest as title charge continues in FP2 as Piastri struggles.
Championship leader Piastri was half a second slower, only 12th fastest after being unable to improve on his early single lap run.
25 Oct 2025
Mat Coch
PlanetF1.com

Max Verstappen made up for lost time after sitting out Free Practice 1 to top the day’s second practice hour. The Dutchman headed the second practice session for the Mexico City Grand Prix from Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli, while title leader Oscar Piastri languished down the order.

The session ended with Verstappen fastest over Leclerc, Antonelli, Norris, and Hamilton in the top five, all covered by just three-tenths. There is hope, strong long run pace from McLaren, though Verstappen again looks a strong contender ahead of Sunday’s race.

‘Piastri was half a second slower, only 12th fastest’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/mexican-grand-prix-2025-fp2-report


Mexico City GP: Free Practice 2 Results
Full results from Free Practice 2 for the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix.
25 Oct 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

Cars return to the track for FP3 at 11:30am local time on Saturday (4:30am AEDT Sunday).
Pos. No. Driver Team Time / Gap Laps
1 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:17.392 33
2 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.153s 32
3 12 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.174s 26
4 4 Lando Norris McLaren +0.251s 30
5 44 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.300s 29
6 63 George Russell Mercedes +0.437s 32
7 22 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull Racing +0.491s 31
8 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.546s 28
9 55 Carlos Sainz Williams +0.547s 33
10 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +0.562s 29

‘Free Practice 2 Results’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-mexico-city-grand-prix-autodromo-hermanos-rodriguez-free-practice-2-fp2-results/


Piastri explains ‘pretty average’ lap after P12 in Mexico FP2 as he aims for ‘more consistent’ Saturday
Oscar Piastri did not trouble the top of the timesheets during Free Practice 2 at the Mexico City Grand Prix, with the McLaren driver ending the session in P12.
25 Oct 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Oscar Piastri labelled his soft tyre run during second practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix as “pretty average” after ending the session down in P12, leaving the Australian to target a “more consistent” day on Saturday. While McLaren team mate Lando Norris handed his car over to Pato O’Ward for one of the squad’s rookie outings in Free Practice 1, Piastri was in action for the opening hour of running and claimed P4 on the timesheets.

However, after returning for the second session later on Friday, the championship leader did not quite put his soft-shod lap together and found himself down in 12th – his effort eight-tenths off the pace-setting time of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen – while Norris took fourth place. Asked for his thoughts on the day after jumping out of the car, Piastri responded: “It was okay. I think, yeah, the lap on softs and low fuel was pretty average, so I’m not surprised with the lap time.”

“I think we tried a lot of things, we’ll go through and have a look at what worked, what didn’t, but overall I felt reasonable. We’ll see what we can tune up for tomorrow and try and make things just a bit more consistent is the biggest thing.”

‘P12’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/piastri-explains-pretty-average-lap-after-p12-in-mexico-fp2-as-he-aims-for.CWqSOA6bSbRd08IAdIzJ8


Villeneuve brands Mexican GP practice ‘continuation’ of ‘messy’ Oscar Piastri
25 Oct 2025
Mat Coch
PlanetF1.com

A scrappy qualifying simulation run left Oscar Piastri down the order at the end of Friday at the Mexican Grand Prix, with Jacques Villeneuve unwilling to cut him any slack. The recent trend has left Piastri third fastest of the three title contenders, with both Norris and Verstappen edging closer in the points race.

“We didn’t hear a lot of confidence there,” he said on Sky Sports following Piastri’s interview. “It’s messy. His driving has been messy since Baku, and you can see it. Normally, that means a tenth, two-tenths, a little mistake here and there, not setting the car right. It gets into your head. And seeing Max again in front, that’s going to eat him all evening.”

Villeneuve has suggested that, having led the championship for 15 races, Red Bull’s rise coupled with Piastri’s diminishing points advantage is playing on his mind. “To think about it in an easy way, is run,” Villeneuve explained. “If you’re looking backward as you’re running, things will go wrong, and then that’s what’s happening.”

“That’s going to eat him all evening”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/villeneuve-brands-mexican-gp-practice-continuation-of-messy-oscar-piastri


Lando Norris admits McLaren balance ‘all over the place’ after F1 Mexico GP practice
25 Oct 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Lando Norris has concluded that McLaren is “all over the place” in terms of its balance over one lap after first and second practice for Formula 1‘s Mexico City Grand Prix. Speaking after FP2, Norris was positive about the car being somewhat close to full potential, but was concerned that he “found the limit quite quickly”.

“I think we’re in a reasonable place, for sure. I feel like I got up to speed very quickly, actually, I was quite surprised,” he said. “My first lap was pretty good, and the second lap was a good step. So, yes, I felt like I found the limit quickly, but that is just holding us back a bit. Not that it was a bad day, but normally we’re very good on a Friday, and then everyone catches up on Saturday.”

“We’re already a little bit behind, so we definitely have some work to do tonight. The balance of the car is just a bit all over the place, the same as the last few weeks, just single lap stuff. We’re struggling at the moment, so yes, we’re working hard. We’re trying everything we can, so we’ll see what we can do and see what we can find.”

‘All over the place’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/10/25/lando-norris-admits-mclaren-balance-all-over-the-place-after-f1-mexico-gp-practice/


Max Verstappen boosted by latest Red Bull upgrade as Oscar Piastri struggles continue
With a new upgrade on that RB21, Max Verstappen has laid down a solid platform for the rest of the weekend.
25 October 2025
Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

Verstappen's quickest lap of 1:17.392s was achieved in an RB21 sporting its latest upgrade, including a tweak to the floor as part of an overall cooling package required for this circuit due to Mexico City standing at 2,238 m (7,343 ft) above sea level, leading to 20 per cent thinner air, ensuring temperatures are higher in any car.

The Dutchman finished 0.153s clear of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who had topped FP1, with Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli third on the timesheet, 0.174s off the pace, followed by McLaren's Lando Norris a quarter of a second down. As for Piastri, the session appeared a struggle for the Australian, who was down in 12th, 0.840s adrift.

Norris 'misfires': On the medium tyre, Leclerc set the pace early on with a 1:18.669s. Despite complaining of a "lot of misfires" with his MCL39, Norris posted a lap 0.012s shy of Leclerc, with Piastri a quarter of a second adrift at that stage.

‘Oscar Piastri struggles down in 12th, 0.840s adrift’;

https://racingnews365.com/max-verstappen-boosted-by-latest-red-bull-upgrade-as-oscar-piastri-struggles-continue


Max Verstappen F1 title challenge boosted with four-part Red Bull upgrades in Mexico
24 Oct 2025
Elizabeth Blackstock
PlanetF1.com

Red Bull Racing has introduced a four-part upgrade package for the 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix, including updates to the floor body, edge wing, front corner, and engine cover. Typically, any focus on 2025 will therefore cost the team come 2026; but Paul Monaghan, chief engineer at Red Bull Racing, denied that the current upgrades have required any significant transfers of manpower thanks to the utilisation of a previous spec floor.

“We have taken the choice, and it’s a make-from, so it’s a previous floor that we’ve managed to recycle,” Monaghan explained. “It was sufficiently modular to get it here. The redistribution of cooling exits was found when we went through the last iteration of top-body, and we thought, ‘Oh, we’ve missed that one; we can get it in here, though.’ Some magical work in Milton Keynes, and it’s here.”

‘Four-part upgrade package’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/max-verstappen-f1-title-challenge-boosted-with-four-part-red-bull-upgrades-in-mexico

[Fortitude]

Lando Norris fastest in Mexican Grand Prix FP3 ahead of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
Lando Norris topped the timing sheets for the final practice at the Mexican Grand Prix, with Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen dropping back.
25 October 2025
Rebecca Braybrook
F1 Oversteer

Verstappen made his way out onto the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez track early in free practice three with a rear wing covered in flow vis paint. Red Bull have potentially made changes to the car overnight and was using the start of the session to gather vital data, with both drivers running different rear wing set-ups.

Similar to the second practice yesterday, some drivers were struggling to get their medium tyre into its optimal levels. Lewis Hamilton was seen fighting his Ferrari multiple times in the first half of FP3, with George Russell and Lance Stroll complaining about the slippery conditions. Lando Norris topped the timing sheets at the halfway mark of the session, leading from Carlos Sainz in the Williams and Russell, with the Spaniard an anomaly at the top on soft tyres.

Oscar Piastri could not keep up with his McLaren teammate in the first half of FP2, finding himself once again in P12 with 30 minutes remaining. The practice times aren’t necessarily reflective of what could be seen in qualifying later today, as each team’s fuel loads remain unknown. The end of FP3 saw some soft tyre qualifying runs, which saw Isack Hadjar set the fastest time ahead of Lance Stroll as Piastri took part in his first flying lap.

‘Lando Norris topped the timing sheets for the final practice’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/lando-norris-fastest-in-mexican-grand-prix-fp3-ahead-of-lewis-hamilton-and-george-russell/


2025 F1 Mexico City GP – Free Practice 3 Results
Lando Norris topped the final practice session in Mexico City as McLaren laid down an early marker ahead of qualifying.
25 October 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Mexico City GP 2025 FP3 results
Check out the full Mexico City GP 2025 Free Practice 3 results from the third and final practice session at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:16.633
2 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.345
3 George Russell Mercedes +0.512
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.566
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.599
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.609
7 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.620
8 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +0.763
9 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +0.782
10 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber +0.893

‘FP3 results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-mexico-city-gp-free-practice-3-results/


Norris moves clear in final Mexican GP practice
Oct 25, 2025
Matt Beer
The Race

Lando Norris was a commanding 0.345 seconds clear of the field in final practice for Formula 1's Mexican Grand Prix. What had been an extraordinarily close session - with most of the field within the same second, the top six covered by hundredths and multiple teams taking turns in first place - suddenly became far more spread out when the final qualifying simulation runs happened in the closing minutes.

Norris's 1m16.633s put him at the head of a McLaren-Ferrari-Mercedes top three, with Lewis Hamilton second and George Russell third. Friday pacesetter Max Verstappen complained of lacking grip as he only managed sixth, 0.609s off Norris's time - albeit running in a lower power setting. The second McLaren of Oscar Piastri was fifth behind Charles Leclerc's Ferrari, and 0.599s slower than Norris.

‘Norris moves clear’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/norris-moves-clear-in-final-mexican-gp-practice/


Lando Norris leads British 1-2-3 in F1 Mexico GP FP3
Oct 25, 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Lando Norris topped FP3 ahead of qualifying for Formula 1‘s Mexico City Grand Prix, leading a British trio at the top of the timesheets at the Hermanos Rodriguez Circuit. The McLaren man’s 1:16.663s was enough to lead the way, with Lewis Hamilton second, three-and-a-half tenths adrift.

Hamilton showed good promise in the session, despite taking to the run-off area early on. Mercedes’ George Russell completed the Britannic trio, a further two tenths behind Norris’ time. Charles Leclerc was fourth, with Norris’ team-mate Oscar Piastri fifth.

‘British 1-2-3’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/10/25/lando-norris-leads-british-1-2-3-in-f1-mexico-gp-fp3/


Lando Norris ride-height change pays major dividends ahead of Mexican GP qualifying
That's a significant marker from Lando Norris going into qualifying.
25 October 2025
Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

Lando Norris delivered a consummate final practice performance to give the F1 championship challenger the edge going into qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix. The McLaren driver, 14 points behind team-mate Oscar Piastri going into Sunday's 71-lap race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, delivered a superb lap in the qualifying simulation runs late in the session of 1:16.633s.

That followed a noticeable ride-height change between his two soft-tyre runs, leaving Norris a staggering 0.345s clear of Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, with Mercedes' George Russell half a second adrift in third. As for Red Bull's Max Verstappen, quickest after Friday practice but unhappy with the race pace of his RB21, the four-time champion was only sixth on the timesheet, 0.609s off the pace. Piastri was marginally ahead of the Dutchman in fifth.

‘Noticeable ride-height change’;

https://racingnews365.com/lando-norris-ride-height-change-pays-major-dividends-ahead-of-mexican-gp-qualifying

[Fortitude]

Lewis Hamilton: Ferrari driver vows to be 'aggressive' at Mexico City GP start after 'climbing mountain' back to top three.
Lewis Hamilton sees positives in starting from third at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez; "I don't have anything to lose, but he [Norris] does," says Hamilton.
25/10/2025
Sky Sports

Lewis Hamilton has promised to be "quite aggressive" from third on the grid at the start of the Mexico City Grand Prix as he bids to capitalise on his best qualifying result at Ferrari to achieve an "amazing" first podium for the team. But having now returned to the top three of qualifying for the first time in 13 months, Hamilton believes there are finally signs of genuine progress.

"I'm so happy to be up there in the top three," said Hamilton after achieving his best start for a Grand Prix since Singapore 2024. "All year it has taken me to get here so it's been a serious mountain to climb. But finally gelling with everything around me and I think myself and my engineers we are really starting to extract the performance from the car, so I'm really, really happy.”

"Honestly, it's been a tough year, and I cant believe it's taken me this long to get here, but it's ok. What matters is the journey and I've grown a lot through it." Hamilton feels he may be the Ferrari driver holding the more preferable grid slot on row two. That is because third is located on the grid's left-hand side, the cleaner racing line, and the fact that, at 830m, the run to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez's first turn is one of the longest of the season and therefore allows slipstreaming opportunities for following cars.

"I don't have anything to lose, but he [Norris] does";

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/13457261/lewis-hamilton-ferrari-driver-vows-to-be-aggressive-at-mexico-city-gp-start-after-climbing-mountain-back-to-top-three


Mexico City Grand Prix - Qualifying results
25/10/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Full results from qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix at Mexico, round 20 of the 2025 Formula 1 season.
2025 Mexico City Grand Prix - Qualifying results
Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:16.899s 1:16.252s 1:15.586s
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:17.024s 1:16.658s 1:15.848s
3 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:16.736s 1:16.458s 1:15.938s
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:16.895s 1:16.537s 1:16.034s
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:17.076s 1:16.605s 1:16.070s
6 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:17.291s 1:16.773s 1:16.118s
7 Carlos Sainz Williams 1:17.171s 1:16.607s 1:16.172s
8 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:17.158s 1:16.737s 1:16.174s
9 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls 1:16.733s 1:16.804s 1:16.252s
10 Oliver Bearman Haas 1:17.040s 1:16.787s 1:16.460s

‘Qualifying results’;

https://f1i.com/news/551923-mexico-city-grand-prix-qualifying-results.html


Mexican GP: Norris delivers hammer blow as Piastri and Verstappen suffer setbacks
25 Oct 2025
Mat Coch
PlanetF1.com

Lando Norris has delivered arguably the most important pole position of his career, striking a hammer on Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen. Norris set a blistering final lap to secure pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix, joined on the front row by Charles Leclerc with Lewis Hamilton in third.

Norris had looked in control throughout the session until a late challenge from Leclerc threatened to steal pole position away. Seeing that off, the McLaren driver recorded an important result in the context of the championship, with Max Verstappen only fifth while Piastri will line up for Sunday’s race in seventh despite qualifying eighth.

‘Hammer blow’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/mexican-grand-prix-2025-qualifying-report


Oscar Piastri ‘odd comments’ alert Villeneuve after Mexican GP setback
26 Oct 2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Oscar Piastri did not feel like things were going too bad in his McLaren during Mexican Grand Prix qualifying, yet the final result was emphatic. Villeneuve, on Sky F1 punditry duties in Mexico, says a gap as stark as that between teammates, usually triggers the driver on the wrong side to really start pushing the boundaries, not find satisfaction in how the car was feeling.

He said: “What was odd, his comments about, I don’t know why there’s no pace, and when you say that you’re quite happy with the car, everything is feeling good, and somehow it’s not working on the clock.”

“When you’re slower than your teammate by that amount, normally, you will try to push a little bit harder. You’ll get in trouble. You’ll lock wheels, so you’ll start to figure out, okay, there’s issues here and there. I can improve there. But he seemed to be happy with how the car was feeling, and that’s what’s really strange.”

‘Villeneuve alerted’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/jacques-villeneuve-oscar-piastri-odd-comments-mexican-grand-prix-qualifying


Oscar Piastri admits huge F1 Mexico GP qualifying gap to Lando Norris ‘a bit of a mystery’
26 Oct 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

After qualifying, Piastri admitted that he had no answer to why exactly his MCL39 could not extract the level of performance that Norris was able to. “I mean, difficult to know, everything feels normal,” he told media including Motorsport Week. “But the gap was big in that session, it’s been big all weekend.”

“And there’s been some things where I felt like I can tidy it up and make some easy progress, but not all of it. And I think in qualifying, I feel like I did a reasonable job and the car felt reasonable as well. So, yeah, the lack of lap time is a bit of a mystery.”

‘A bit of a mystery’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/10/26/oscar-piastri-admits-huge-f1-mexico-gp-qualifying-gap-to-lando-norris-a-bit-of-a-mystery/


What are the tactical options for the Mexico City Grand Prix?
26 Oct 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Lando Norris has looked unstoppable this weekend, with a mesmeric final lap in Q3 giving him pole by a healthy margin. What will doubtless please him even more – though he’s far too diplomatic to say it – is that the three cars behind him are red and silver, rather than blue and orange.

Ferrari are second and third, with George Russell fourth, before Max Verstappen, struggling for grip, appears in fifth, one row ahead of Championship leader Oscar Piastri, who will start seventh.

But this isn’t a race that’s won on Saturday. Pirelli have bridged their tyre compounds to produce some intriguing strategy options, and Mexico City has a history of throwing its own brand of mayhem into the works. We’re in for quite a race.

‘Tactical options’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/strategy-guide-what-are-the-tactical-options-for-the-mexico-city-grand-prix.NsABv5XP1EqmfSxJZu8BV

[Fortitude]

Lewis Hamilton: Ferrari driver vows to be 'aggressive' at Mexico City GP start after 'climbing mountain' back to top three.
Lewis Hamilton sees positives in starting from third at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez; "I don't have anything to lose, but he [Norris] does," says Hamilton.
25/10/2025
Sky Sports

Lewis Hamilton has promised to be "quite aggressive" from third on the grid at the start of the Mexico City Grand Prix as he bids to capitalise on his best qualifying result at Ferrari to achieve an "amazing" first podium for the team. But having now returned to the top three of qualifying for the first time in 13 months, Hamilton believes there are finally signs of genuine progress.

"I'm so happy to be up there in the top three," said Hamilton after achieving his best start for a Grand Prix since Singapore 2024. "All year it has taken me to get here so it's been a serious mountain to climb. But finally gelling with everything around me and I think myself and my engineers we are really starting to extract the performance from the car, so I'm really, really happy.”

"Honestly, it's been a tough year, and I cant believe it's taken me this long to get here, but it's ok. What matters is the journey and I've grown a lot through it." Hamilton feels he may be the Ferrari driver holding the more preferable grid slot on row two. That is because third is located on the grid's left-hand side, the cleaner racing line, and the fact that, at 830m, the run to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez's first turn is one of the longest of the season and therefore allows slipstreaming opportunities for following cars.

"I don't have anything to lose, but he [Norris] does";

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/13457261/lewis-hamilton-ferrari-driver-vows-to-be-aggressive-at-mexico-city-gp-start-after-climbing-mountain-back-to-top-three


Mexico City Grand Prix - Qualifying results
25/10/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Full results from qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix at Mexico, round 20 of the 2025 Formula 1 season.
2025 Mexico City Grand Prix - Qualifying results
Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:16.899s 1:16.252s 1:15.586s
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:17.024s 1:16.658s 1:15.848s
3 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:16.736s 1:16.458s 1:15.938s
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:16.895s 1:16.537s 1:16.034s
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:17.076s 1:16.605s 1:16.070s
6 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:17.291s 1:16.773s 1:16.118s
7 Carlos Sainz Williams 1:17.171s 1:16.607s 1:16.172s
8 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:17.158s 1:16.737s 1:16.174s
9 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls 1:16.733s 1:16.804s 1:16.252s
10 Oliver Bearman Haas 1:17.040s 1:16.787s 1:16.460s

‘Qualifying results’;

https://f1i.com/news/551923-mexico-city-grand-prix-qualifying-results.html


Mexican GP: Norris delivers hammer blow as Piastri and Verstappen suffer setbacks
25 Oct 2025
Mat Coch
PlanetF1.com

Lando Norris has delivered arguably the most important pole position of his career, striking a hammer on Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen. Norris set a blistering final lap to secure pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix, joined on the front row by Charles Leclerc with Lewis Hamilton in third.

Norris had looked in control throughout the session until a late challenge from Leclerc threatened to steal pole position away. Seeing that off, the McLaren driver recorded an important result in the context of the championship, with Max Verstappen only fifth while Piastri will line up for Sunday’s race in seventh despite qualifying eighth.

‘Hammer blow’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/mexican-grand-prix-2025-qualifying-report


Oscar Piastri ‘odd comments’ alert Villeneuve after Mexican GP setback
26 Oct 2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Oscar Piastri did not feel like things were going too bad in his McLaren during Mexican Grand Prix qualifying, yet the final result was emphatic. Villeneuve, on Sky F1 punditry duties in Mexico, says a gap as stark as that between teammates, usually triggers the driver on the wrong side to really start pushing the boundaries, not find satisfaction in how the car was feeling.

He said: “What was odd, his comments about, I don’t know why there’s no pace, and when you say that you’re quite happy with the car, everything is feeling good, and somehow it’s not working on the clock.”

“When you’re slower than your teammate by that amount, normally, you will try to push a little bit harder. You’ll get in trouble. You’ll lock wheels, so you’ll start to figure out, okay, there’s issues here and there. I can improve there. But he seemed to be happy with how the car was feeling, and that’s what’s really strange.”

‘Villeneuve alerted’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/jacques-villeneuve-oscar-piastri-odd-comments-mexican-grand-prix-qualifying


Oscar Piastri admits huge F1 Mexico GP qualifying gap to Lando Norris ‘a bit of a mystery’
26 Oct 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

After qualifying, Piastri admitted that he had no answer to why exactly his MCL39 could not extract the level of performance that Norris was able to. “I mean, difficult to know, everything feels normal,” he told media including Motorsport Week. “But the gap was big in that session, it’s been big all weekend.”

“And there’s been some things where I felt like I can tidy it up and make some easy progress, but not all of it. And I think in qualifying, I feel like I did a reasonable job and the car felt reasonable as well. So, yeah, the lack of lap time is a bit of a mystery.”

‘A bit of a mystery’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/10/26/oscar-piastri-admits-huge-f1-mexico-gp-qualifying-gap-to-lando-norris-a-bit-of-a-mystery/


What are the tactical options for the Mexico City Grand Prix?
26 Oct 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Lando Norris has looked unstoppable this weekend, with a mesmeric final lap in Q3 giving him pole by a healthy margin. What will doubtless please him even more – though he’s far too diplomatic to say it – is that the three cars behind him are red and silver, rather than blue and orange.

Ferrari are second and third, with George Russell fourth, before Max Verstappen, struggling for grip, appears in fifth, one row ahead of Championship leader Oscar Piastri, who will start seventh.

But this isn’t a race that’s won on Saturday. Pirelli have bridged their tyre compounds to produce some intriguing strategy options, and Mexico City has a history of throwing its own brand of mayhem into the works. We’re in for quite a race.

‘Tactical options’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/strategy-guide-what-are-the-tactical-options-for-the-mexico-city-grand-prix.NsABv5XP1EqmfSxJZu8BV

[Fortitude]

Norris steals headlines worldwide after seizing championship lead in Mexico.
La Gazzetta dello Sport: “It’s a world-class Lando Norris on display in Mexico”, Marca: “Verstappen-style” weekend, ESTO: …he now looks ready to fight for the title…
27 Oct 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

La Gazzetta dello Sport: The Italian outlet highlighted the outstanding weekend of the British driver, who delivered a superb performance at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez — starting with an uncontested pole on Saturday and following it up with an equally commanding win on race day. “The Brit dominated the Mexican Grand Prix to seize the lead in the championship with four rounds to go. Flawless from the start and relentless in pace, the McLaren driver sent a clear warning to his title rivals. With just four races remaining, Norris has delivered a major blow in the title fight. The Bristol native controlled the weekend from start to finish — superb already on Saturday, when Leclerc came close to snatching pole, and impeccable on Sunday.”

Marca: “Lando Norris took Max Verstappen’s ‘perfect’ Austin weekend quite literally,” wrote the Spanish outlet. “After clinching pole, the Brit went on to lead every single lap of the Mexican Grand Prix — a dominant performance that put him on top of the championship standings, edging ahead of Oscar Piastri by just one point after the Australian finished fifth.”

ESTO: “Norris claimed victory and gave McLaren reason to celebrate again on Mexican soil,” wrote the outlet. “The last time the Woking-based team triumphed at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez was back in 1989 — before Lando was even born. The Brit capped off an extraordinary weekend after taking both pole position and the race win. In a Grand Prix filled with excitement, strategy, and speed, this victory brings him even closer to the championship lead and proves that McLaren are ready to fight for the drivers’ crown all the way to the end.”

‘Headlines worldwide’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/norris-steals-headlines-worldwide-after-seizing-f1-lead-in-mexico


Mexico City GP: Race Results
Full results from the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix where Lando Norris took his sixth victory of 2025.
27 Oct 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

Pos. No. Driver Team Laps Time / Retired Pts.
1 4 Lando Norris McLaren 71 1:37:58.574 25
2 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 71 +30.324s 18
3 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 71 +31.049s 15
4 87 Oliver Bearman Haas F1 Team 71 +40.955s 12
5 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren 71 +42.065s 10
6 12 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 71 +47.837s 8
7 63 George Russell Mercedes 71 +50.287s 6
8 44 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 71 +56.446s 4
9 31 Esteban Ocon Haas F1 Team 71 +75.464s 2
10 5 Gabriel Bortoleto Kick Sauber 71 +76.863s 1

‘Race Results’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-mexico-city-grand-prix-autodromo-hermanos-rodriguez-race-results/


Jacques Villeneuve blasts FIA over “embarrassing” Mexico City GP call that ruined thrilling finish
The 1997 world champion hit out at the FIA for an “embarrassing” late-race call in Mexico that killed the drama of a thrilling finish
27 October 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

“Embarrassing with the Virtual Safety Car there,” Villeneuve said on Sky Sports F1. “The car was completely off the track, off the line, at the slowest part of the circuit. There was no reason for it with two laps to go. There are millions of people watching that race — you have to take that into account as well.”

LOOK AT THIS BS…. Sainz parked it up in a safe position and the car was behind the barriers pic.twitter.com/rJH95U5lVd
— Cytrus �� (@cytrusf1) October 26, 2025

‘Jacques Villeneuve blasts FIA’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/jacques-villeneuve-fia-embarrassing-virtual-safety-car-mexico-gp/


Charles Leclerc taunted Max Verstappen in brilliant radio message after late VSC at Mexican Grand Prix
26 October 2025
Tyler Rowlinson
F1 Oversteer

Charles Leclerc taunted Max Verstappen in unheard radio after late VSC in Mexico. Carlos Sainz had parked his Williams off the track to retire, which brought out the VSC. It ended halfway through the final lap, which gave Verstappen no time or place to make a pass, allowing Leclerc to hold onto P2.

There was a question as to whether the VSC was necessary. But Leclerc would not have complained as Verstappen chased him down with a lap to go. As the double yellow flags were waved, Leclerc could only laugh as he knew Verstappen would not be allowed to pass. He simply said: “Max. Max, hahahahahah,” as he entered the final lap.

‘Charles Leclerc taunted Max Verstappen’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/charles-leclerc-taunted-max-verstappen-in-brilliant-radio-message-after-late-vsc-at-mexican-grand-prix/


Max third in thrilling Mexican GP: 'Good strategy'
26 October 2025
Kees-Jan Koster
Verstappen.nl

After the race, Max said over the team radio: “It was a good strategy. We were a bit unlucky with the Virtual Safety Car at the end, but I think we maximised the result. It was quite tough at the start. Well done on the strategy, that was really good!”

Speaking to the media afterwards, he explained: “It was very hectic, the beginning of the race for me. We had a very good start. It is such a long run to turn one and we were on the outside. It was three or four wide, so I had to be on that kerb. I kept bottoming out all the way and almost crashed over the grass. Even after that, there was a lot going on. Everyone around me was on the soft tyres, while I was on the mediums, that was a bit of a struggle.”

“It was all about surviving the first stint, trying to go as long as we could on the tyres. Once we switched to the softs, we were a little bit more competitive and a bit happier. It was a tough weekend for us, but to be fighting for P2 after everything that happened in the opening laps is a very strong result.” On the VSC, Max added: “You win some, you lose some. Sometimes a safety car works for you, and sometimes against you.”

“Well done on the strategy, that was really good!”;

https://news.verstappen.com/en/article/5997/


Lando Norris reacts to crowd boos after F1 Mexico GP win
Oct 27, 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
motorsportweek.com

Lando Norris was booed by the raucous crowd after taking a resounding win in the Mexico City Grand Prix, which saw him take the lead in the Formula 1 Drivers’ title. …wasn’t received with total positivity, as Norris, like he was after qualifying on Saturday, was loudly booed by many within the stadium complex of the circuit during the parc ferme interviews after that race.

‘I keep my head down, I ignore all of this’ – Norris unflapped by crowd boos. When put to him that he now has the momentum in the title hunt going into the next race in Brazil, the boos aimed at Norris reached a crescendo, triggering nothing but a rye smile from the McLaren driver.

“I mean, it’s one weekend at a time. It’s one weekend at a time. So, you know, I’m happy. I’m focused on myself.” And, in reference to the boos, Norris added: “I keep my head down. I ignore all of this. And, yeah, I keep to myself. And it’s working at the minute, so I’m happy. All right, keep doing what you’re doing.”

‘Rye smile from the McLaren driver’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/10/26/lando-norris-reacts-to-crowd-boos-after-f1-mexico-gp-win/


Why Norris was booed for Mexican GP victory + his response
Oct 27, 2025
Jon Noble
The Race

Lando Norris's post-race Mexican Grand Prix triumph was met with boos from the crowd - and it's believed that response has its roots in what happened in Monza. …a harsh reception from spectators in the stadium section afterwards – with his post-race television interviews being drowned out by boos and jeers.

The nature of the fan reaction caught many by surprise, with Norris insisting in the post-race press conference that he was not too bothered “I don't know why, to be honest,” he said. “And people can do what they want honestly. They have the right to do it if they want to do it.”

“I think that's sport sometimes. I don't know why – [but] I can't stop laughing when I get booed. I think it makes it more entertaining for me.” He added: “It was the same in Monza and a few other places. So, yeah, I don't know why. I just can't stop laughing. So if they want to continue, they can…”

“I can't stop laughing when I get booed”;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/lando-norris-booed-for-mexican-gp-victory-explained-plus-his-response/

[Fortitude]

Puzzled Piastri says ‘car worked well for first 18 rounds’ after slump in form.
Oscar Piastri was at a loss to explain his lack of pace after lagging behind his team mate for a second consecutive race in Mexico.
27th October 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

Oscar Piastri: “Definitely I think the last couple of races has been surprising in terms of the pace,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “I think there’s been some evidence of where the pace is and what to do. I’ve [had] to drive the car very differently these last couple of weekends. Which, when it’s been working well for you for the previous 18, is a little bit difficult to kind of wrap your head around. But I tried a few things today and I’ll have a look at if that was what we were looking for.”

‘Car worked well for first 18 rounds’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/10/27/puzzled-piastri-says-car-worked-well-for-first-18-rounds-after-slump-in-form/


McLaren shocked after seeing Oscar Piastri's car data! The reason for the poor performance in Mexico
Oct 28, 2025
Mazz F1

McLaren's post-race analysis of Oscar Piastri's car reveals unexpected data explaining a significant performance drop at the Mexican Grand Prix. The MCL-39 exhibited rear-axle instability in the unique high-altitude conditions, impacting cornering and DRS. This video details the technical issues and their impact on Piastri's championship bid.

The McLaren team was completely surprised when analyzing the data from Oscar Piastri's car after the 2025 Mexican Grand Prix, which explains the Australian driver's inexplicable poor performance over the weekend. At the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Piastri qualified only seventh and finished fifth, being surpassed by his teammate and direct rival, Lando Norris, who also displaced him in the world championship standings. Telemetry data revealed that Piastri's MCL-39 suffered a severe loss of grip in "low-grip" and high-altitude conditions, which are not conducive to his usual driving style, while Norris was finding rhythm in the same environment. Stella admitted that Piastri "is driving in a way that is not natural for him" to adapt to the car.

@PaulSchultz-s6m: It’s no coincidence that once they got there constructor title that they fudged their cars to help Norris it’s a disgrace
@gerhardstrauss723: McClaren is not "surprised", they know what's wrong, they caused it!
@annezerafa4692: I believe Norris's car was set up to mimic Oscar's. Switched data logs. So; Norris car has been set up to match Oscar's Technique & Style. Norris team has has then uploaded into Norris's car. While Oscar has been given a LEMON to drive...I believe Oscar will never be allowed to win or have a place for McLaren ever again...!!! Oscar's Technique/ Style has been Copied ...so All teams will down load his Stats for perfection in driving. It's going to need a ' 'New Style ' to be developed by Oscar ...to Win...!!!

‘Oscar Piastri's car reveals unexpected data’;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsmltZhflcY


Oscar Piastri Makes 'Strange' Comment After Losing F1 Title Lead to Lando Norris
Lando Norris dominated the Mexican Grand Prix to take the championship lead
27 Oct 2025
SPORTbible

After the race in Mexico City, he was asked whether he had lost confidence in his driving ability. Piastri told Sky Sports: "No, I think I've just had to drive very differently the last couple of weekends or I've not driven differently when I should have. And I think that's been a little bit strange to get my head around because I've been driving exactly the same as I have all year.”

"It's just that these last couple of weekends, the car or the tyres or something has required quite a different way of driving, and I've just not really gone to that. Tried a few things, trying to change things up a bit today and once we analyse if it's effective or not, hopefully helps see some progress."

‘Oscar Piastri Makes 'Strange' Comment’;

https://www.sportbible.com/f1/oscar-piastri-lando-norris-mclaren-formula-1-mexico-272639-20251027


Oscar Piastri Admits McLaren Setup “Very Different” After Losing Lead to Lando Norris
Oct 27, 2025
Behind Grand Prix

After the 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri opened up about how McLaren’s recent setup changes have forced him to completely adapt his driving style — right as teammate Lando Norris surged to victory and retook the Drivers’ Championship lead. In his post-race press interview, Piastri admitted the car now “feels very different,” sparking speculation among fans that McLaren’s latest upgrades might be tuned more toward Norris’s aggressive style. With only a few races left and tensions rising inside McLaren, F1 fans are now asking: Did the team’s setup shift cost Piastri his momentum in the title fight? ��

@AndJ-ye1xr: There is no way Oscars driving would have deteriorated to this extent over a short period of time like this without a little help from somewhere...... The physical car may well be the same as he said, but I wouldn't be so sure the software running all aspects of the car hasn't been changed for the worse. Don't tell me that this possibility couldn't be disguised and buried. Another point for those people who say that favouritism isn't at play here......well hasn't this happened many times before in F1 and elsewhere in sport so why couldn't it also be at play in this case?
@Sebastian24659: Everyone knows he’s been screwed by his own team.

‘Piastri admitted the car now “feels very different,” sparking speculation’;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gic_9H_iIOg


Piastri puzzled by struggles: 'That's been a little bit strange'
26 Oct 2025
Olly Darcy
GPblog.com

Oscar Piastri has admitted that he has had to drive his McLaren "very differently" amid a slump in his current form, finishing P5 at the Mexico City Grand Prix. After a fifth place finish at the United States Grand Prix that saw his championship lead whitted down significantly by Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, another P5 sees the 24-year-old continues with his struggles towards the end of the season.

"I think I've just had to drive very differently the last couple of weekends, or I've not driven differently when I should have," Piastri explained to Sky Sports after the Grand Prix. "I think that's been a little bit strange to get my head around, because I've been driving exactly the same as I have all year.”

"It's just that it lasts a couple of weekends, the car or the tyres or something has required quite a different way of driving, and I've just not really gone to that. I've tried a few things with trying to change things up a bit today. Once we analyse if it's effective or not, that'll hopefully help see some progress."

‘Puzzled’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/piastri-puzzled-by-struggles-thats-been-a-little-bit-strange


What Piastri JUST SAID to McLaren After New Evidence Emerged CHANGES EVERYTHING!
Oct 28, 2025
Formula Action

Something changed. And not in the way anyone expected. Just two races ago, Oscar Piastri looked like a calm, unstoppable force in orange. A rising star, quietly dismantling reputations and stacking up points. But now? Two races. Two brutal wake-up calls. And now—after Mexico—it’s all gone upside down.

Oscar Piastri's recent performance reveals unexpected challenges. Following the Mexican Grand Prix, a crucial statement hints at deeper issues impacting the McLaren car. The driver's adaptation, despite setbacks, suggests a potential comeback.

‘Something changed’;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xrqZPkcwXM


Oscar Piastri reveals 'major' change after 'strange' challenge
Oscar Piastri has been searching for answers across the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend, but has lost the lead of the F1 drivers' championship fight to McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.
27 October 2025
Samuel Coop
RacingNews365

Oscar Piastri has admitted that there are elements of his driving that have "needed to change pretty majorly" as he works to arrest his woeful run of form. Reflecting on his race, he told Sky Sports F1: "There was a lot of fight out there... the whole race I was right behind someone and struggling with the dirty air. That was pretty difficult.”

"For me, the biggest thing is trying to learn the things I wanted to learn today. Yesterday, it became obvious after the session that there was a few things I needed to change pretty majorly in how I was driving.”

"Today was about trying to limit the damage, but also trying to learn some things about that. If I’ve made some progress with that, I’ll be happy. Obviously, when your team-mate wins the race, finishing fifth is nothing that extravagant."

‘Searching for answers’;

https://racingnews365.com/oscar-piastri-reveals-major-change-after-strange-challenge

[Fortitude]

Verstappen explains his near crash on the opening lap.
He approached Turn 1 with Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc alongside him. The Dutchman got onto the dirty kerbs and had to cut across the grass. He ceded a place after returning to the track, dropping to fourth behind Hamilton.
29 Oct 2025
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

Asked to comment on the first couple laps, Verstappen added:"It was very hectic, the beginning of the race for me. We had a very good start. And then, of course, such a long run to Turn 1, and we were on the outside—yeah, three, four-wide. "So I had to be out of that kerb. It kept bottoming out all the way, so I almost crashed into the grass. And then even after that, there was a lot going on.”

"Everyone around me was on Soft tyres, I was on the medium, and it looked like that was a bit of a struggle. So surviving the first stint, trying to go as long as we could on the tyres. Yeah, once we bolted on the Softs, we were a little bit more competitive, a bit happier. I mean, it’s been a difficult weekend for us, but to be fighting for P2 with everything that happened in the first few laps, I think it’s still a very strong result," the Dutchman concluded.

‘Near crash on the opening lap’;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/27961


Mexico GP: Stewards were right to penalise Hamilton and not Verstappen
28 Oct 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

The decisions made by the FIA Stewards during the Mexico City Grand Prix may have prompted doubts for some. GPblog explains why the race officials' decisions to penalise Lewis Hamilton and not Max Verstappen were right.

Why Hamilton was rightfully penalised: On lap 6, Verstappen went for a move up the inside of Hamilton, crucially putting his car ahead at the apex. Despite the wheel-banging going on, the Dutch driver managed to keep his car on track, albeit marginally so, while Hamilton was forced wide. At Turn 2, with Hamilton on the inside this time, it was Verstappen who would be pushed out wide thus forced to cut Turn 3, with the Dutch driver's manoeuvre into Turn 1 being the point where he effectively made up the place on Hamilton.

The seven-time world champion then came back on Verstappen at Turn 4. However, Hamilton was carrying too much speed going into the corner, triggering a big smokey lock up and what would then be a determining understeer, setting him on an outward trajectory. Hamilton took the run off, rejoined the track ahead of Verstappen cutting Turns 4, 5 and 6 and failed to give back the place he had gained against the regulations. The British driver also failed to follow the Race Director's instructions to safely rejoin the track in that section of the circuit, an aspect the Stewards dismissed on account of the speed Hamilton carried at that moment.

‘Why Hamilton was rightfully penalised’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/analysis/mexico-gp-stewards-were-right-to-penalise-hamilton-and-not-verstappen


Max Verstappen left surprised after stunning Mexican GP recovery
Max Verstappen set 30 consecutive 1m 21s laps in his pursuit of Charles Leclerc in Mexico City.
28 October 2025
Nick Golding
RacingNews365

A remarkable 30 consecutive 1m 21s laps were set by the 28-year-old, who would have likely claimed second if not for a late Virtual Safety Car. It left Verstappen with no choice but to settle for third, but he still reduced his deficit in the standings to 36 points.

"Yeah. I mean, personally, I didn't expect to be on the podium," said Verstappen. "And I think even in the first stint, it was not really looking like it. At the time, I thought we were just slow and struggling on tyres. I do think then, of course, when we swapped to the soft and the others were on mediums, it all looked a bit more competitive.”

"I think, still not to the level of Lando if you take the average of the race, but the soft definitely was a better compound to race on, and it all felt a bit better. So, yeah, I think overall to be P3 has been really good on, yeah, for us a difficult weekend."

“I didn't expect to be on the podium";

https://racingnews365.com/max-verstappen-responds-to-call-that-spoiled-fun-mexican-gp-ending


Can Verstappen catch Piastri? Championship math broken down
26 Oct 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Max Verstappen has been steadily narrowing the gap to Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the 2025 F1 drivers’ championship, raising questions about the Red Bull driver’s chances of a fifth consecutive crown. In a recent deep dive by Formula1.com into the numbers that would see either driver crowned champion at the end of the season, the data revealed that looking purely at results, if Verstappen were to win every remaining Grand Prix and the two remaining Sprint races, while Piastri and Norris finished second and third respectively in each event, Piastri would still edge out the championship by the slimmest of margins, just three points, with Norris 31 behind.

Verstappen has proven himself at each of the upcoming tracks, boasting multiple victories in Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi, which suggests the Dutchman could realistically continue his strong run. The current F1 champion has also won one of the two Las Vegas Grand Prix editions, in 2023. In comparison, Piastri’s only Sprint wins came in Qatar, and his best Mexico finish is P8, while Norris has historically performed well in Abu Dhabi and Sao Paulo but has yet to secure victory at Mexico City, a feat he was very close to achieving last year.

Examining form since the summer break further highlights Verstappen’s momentum. Across the last five rounds, Zandvoort, Monza, Baku, Singapore, and Austin, Verstappen averaged a remarkable 23.8 points per weekend, compared with 12.4 for Piastri and 11.4 for Norris.
If this trend were maintained, Verstappen would finish the season with 426 points, comfortably claiming the championship by 20 points over Piastri, with Norris 39 points behind.

‘Steadily narrowing the gap’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/general/can-verstappen-catch-piastri-championship-math-broken-down


Max Verstappen responds to call that spoiled 'fun' Mexican GP ending
Max Verstappen was denied a chance to overtake Charles Leclerc at the end of the Mexico City Grand Prix.
29 October 2025
Fergal Walsh
RacingNews365

Max Verstappen was forced to settle for third place, his lowest result in the last six races. When asked if he was frustrated by the late virtual safety car, Verstappen told media including RacingNews365: “No, not really.”

“I mean, sometimes the safety car has been very nice to me as well in my career. So sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. It's how it goes in racing. It would have been fun, I think, to the end. Well, maybe a bit more fun for me than for Charles defending, but it would have been a fun ending, I think, for everyone to watch.”

“It's how it goes in racing”;

https://racingnews365.com/max-verstappen-responds-to-call-that-spoiled-fun-mexican-gp-ending


Max Verstappen admits where he wasn’t at ‘Lando’s level’ as Norris won the Mexican Grand Prix
28 October 2025
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Max Verstappen admits his Mexico City Grand Prix race pace was not on Lando Norris’ ‘level’. Verstappen and Red Bull went against the grain by starting the Mexico City GP on Pirelli’s C4 medium tyres, while his rivals preferred the soft C5 tyres. The C5s were the better race tyre, and Verstappen had to bide his time running with the C4s until he could pit on Lap 37 of 71.

Yet, even had Verstappen matched Norris’ strategy, the Dutchman admits that his race pace in the Mexico City was not on the same “level” as the Briton’s. Verstappen was metronomic on the soft C5 tyres with lap times in the low 1:21s, yet Norris had two-tenths over the field. Verstappen said, via quotes by RacingNews365: “We still weren’t at Lando’s level if you look at the race average. But the softs were clearly a better tyre to race on. It all felt a bit better. P3 is really good for us, considering it was a difficult weekend.”

Lando Norris’ race pace let him win the 2025 F1 Mexico City Grand Prix at his own speed. Norris was largely in cruise control in the lead of last Sunday’s Mexico City GP after surviving the first lap. The Briton was at a slight disadvantage for the long run to Turn 1 by starting on pole, yet he produced a clean launch to deny Ferrari’s Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton the inside. Had Norris fallen behind either Ferrari driver at the start, his race pace that stood out to Red Bull rival Verstappen would likely have been enough for the McLaren man to eventually take P1 back. But leading from the start let Norris manage his tyres and run to his own lap times.

“We still weren’t at Lando’s level”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/max-verstappen-admits-where-he-wasnt-at-landos-level-as-norris-won-the-mexican-grand-prix/

[Fortitude]

One Point. No Favours. Norris-Piastri War Begins.
McLaren’s explanation hasn’t budged. Conditions, not conspiracies. “Hot tarmac, sliding tyre,” as Stella put it. Norris found lap time in the slither. Piastri, a driver who really comes alive when the track is grippy and the car’s nailed to the floor, didn’t. Twice in a row.
Oct 27, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

After a Mexico City weekend that swung the title pendulum back toward Lando Norris, the McLaren team principal moved quickly to stamp out social media whispers that Oscar Piastri is being short-changed in the run-in. Four race weekends remain, starting under the neon in Las Vegas, and Stella’s message was blunt: the next tracks won’t hand either driver a built-in advantage. “No reason to think one may favour one driver or the other,” he told reporters in Mexico. And you get the sense he’s tired of saying it.

Norris leaves Mexico with the championship lead again, by a single point over his teammate. It was earned the hard way: a lights-to-flag masterclass while Piastri could do no better than fifth, a 15-point swing on a day when the Brit didn’t put a wheel wrong. The bigger talking point, though, was Saturday. In qualifying, Piastri was adrift—six tenths off Norris—after a similar gap in Austin the week before. That’s been the wedge for the keyboard detectives.

To their credit, McLaren didn’t just shrug. Overnight work after quali in Mexico left Piastri sharper in race trim, according to Stella, who praised the Australian’s quick adaptation to a car that wanted to dance around rather than sit still. The problem? Traffic. He spent too much of Sunday tucked up behind other people’s gearboxes to show it.

‘One Point. No Favours’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/one-point-no-favors-norris-piastri-war-begins/


Is Lando Norris in the box seat for the title? Brazil might hold the key
29 Oct 2025
Henry Valantine
PlanetF1.com

We asked you if the F1 2025 title is now in the hands of Lando Norris after his recent turnaround, and you replied in your droves.
Scatty Seagull: Yes because Lando now has to capitalise on Oscar’s poor form while keeping Max at bay.
Shafraz Mohammed Ashraf: If Oscar’s performance doesn’t return to normal at Interlagos – where his driving style should thrive – then yes.
Neil: The question is, will Norris now be the one to feel the pressure now he has the championship lead, or will be just keep moving away from the other two with confidence?

Brazil will be the first indication of how he deals with it.
bean: Piastri is much more confident than he has been recently and is one point away. We don’t know how Norris will react with the target on his back. So no.
Danny: Not yet. Piastri is one point away, and Max is still in there. A lot will depend on Brazil. If it’s a race like last year, the chances shift towards Max in a big way.

‘So no’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/pf1-postbox-lando-norris-mexico-city-gp


McLaren have devised a clever engine ‘strategy’ that will benefit Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri
29 Oct 2025
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

McLaren have revealed the clever engine ‘strategy’ that they have employed to save their title protagonists, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, from serving any unnecessary penalties as the 2025 F1 season approaches a crucial period. McLaren’s F1 engine ‘strategy’ revealed as the 2025 title fight approaches boiling point. Speaking in a review of the Mexico City Grand Prix on her YouTube channel, F1 journalist Julianne Cerasoli touched upon a fan’s question regarding McLaren’s use of all of their allotted engines for the current campaign, highlighting a clever strategy that the team has employed.

She said: “McLaren adopted a type of strategy where they put all their engines into play, as we say in Formula 1, in the engine pool very early. So, even before the August break, they were already using all the engines. And then when you see that FIA list saying which engine each driver is on, it doesn’t mean he is using that engine in that race, it means he has already used the four engines he has at his disposal, he has already taken a penalty, and now has five. But it doesn’t mean he is using number five in all races or number four in all races.”

“What McLaren is doing is good. Number one, the engine that debuted in Australia is already an engine only for Friday. And then two, three, four, they rotate depending on what they need for each race. So, the engine when there is a track where the engine doesn’t count much, they use the more used engine, the engine that counts. On a track where the engine counts more, they use the less-used engine. And I checked this with McLaren, they said they are calm, that the plan is as they had thought at the start of the season, and they do not need to change engines until the end of the season.”

“On a track where the engine counts more, they use the less-used engine”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/mclaren-have-devised-a-clever-engine-strategy-that-will-benefit-lando-norris-and-oscar-piastri/


Piastri: I’m having to “drive the car very differently” since COTA
Oct 28, 2025
Jaden Diaz-Ndisang
Last Word On Sports

There is a growing spotlight on Oscar Piastri. For the time being, the McLaren driver has no answers for his recent results. He said as much to the media post-race on Sunday: “I think the last couple of races has been surprising in terms of the pace… We have some evidence of where the pace is, and what to do. But I’ve got to drive the car very differently these last couple of weekends. Which, when it’s been working well for you for the previous 18 [races], is a little bit difficult to kind of wrap your head around. We tried a few things today, and we’ll have a look if that’s what we were looking for.”

On paper, Piastri is obviously still a contender for the Championship. He is only one point behind Norris, a difference that could easily be overturned at the Sprint Race in Brazil – let along the Grand Prix itself. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has suggested that limitations in the Australian’s driving style were exposed in America and Mexico. Stella’s implication was that the final rounds should not see this vulnerability exposed. Meanwhile, Piastri seems less clear on the explanation his sudden downturn in form – and it is unclear whether this will change at the Brazilian GP, or if a similar lack of pace will persist.

“A little bit difficult to kind of wrap your head around”;

https://lastwordonsports.com/motorsports/2025/10/28/piastri-im-having-to-drive-the-car-very-differently-since-cota/


Piastri calls for pace analysis amidst McLaren conspiracy theories
28 Oct 2025
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Oscar Piastri wants to “analyse” after McLaren put his struggles in Mexico, and also in Austin, down to his driving style in hot conditions when cars are sliding. But given he was in traffic for much of the race, even at the very end when a VSC prevented him from chasing down Oliver Bearman for fourth, he cannot say whether the changes he made to his driving style on Sunday actually worked. “It’s difficult to say ultimately,” Piastri told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets after the grand prix.

“I think we certainly tried a lot of different things, but at the back with cars as well, so it was difficult to kind of get a read on whether what I was changing with my driving was working that well or not. But ultimately, yeah, we’ll have to analyse it and see if it looks good and in terms of the numbers and stuff, because, from a feeling point of view, when you’re behind that many cars, it’s very difficult to tell.”

“It wasn’t so much the pace of the car, because the car was pretty quick this weekend. It was more just trying to unlock it, and I felt like I potentially made some steps in doing that. But yeah, ultimately, when you’re behind so many cars and trying to fight for so long, it’s difficult to measure that a little bit. So hopefully we’ll get a bit more indication from some of the data.”

‘Pace analysis’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/oscar-piastri-calls-for-pace-analysis-mclaren-conspiracy-theories


Lando Norris Uses ‘Clever Trick’ to Gain Advantage Over Oscar Piastri
29 Oct 2025
Marcus Chan
SPORTbible

Lando Norris has revealed the clever change he has made in a bid to gain an edge on his rivals. As a result of his win, Norris now has a one-point lead over Piastri at the top of the standings. After putting in a brilliant flying lap to secure pole position, Norris revealed that he made a slight adjustment. As per Planet F1, the Brit has revealed that he no longer has a delta time on his dash during qualifying.

However, Norris believes that removing the delta time allows him to focus solely on executing the lap itself rather than being distracted by how it compares to a previous one. He said during the Mexico Grand Prix weekend: "I’ve not had it since Monaco. I’ve never used the delta since in qualifying. So I don’t know. Who knows if it would have helped me or made me worse?”

"I think the thing when I don’t have it is I push no matter what – no matter how the start of the lap was, no matter how any corner was. I guess it’s because you have no reference of the overall lap time, you just always try and maximise every corner to the maximum." Norris added: "Otherwise, sometimes I just stare at it too much and that’s never the best thing. It’s just nice because normally when it goes well, it’s a pleasant surprise to see the lap time pop up when it’s as good as this one."

‘Clever Trick’;

https://www.sportbible.com/f1/lando-norris-oscar-piastri-mclaren-f1-news-908462-20251029

[Matthew]

Not many were expecting Lando to lead the drivers' championship with four race remaining in the season at the summer break but here we are. It is now very much a genuine three way race for the title between him, Oscar and Max.

[Fortitude]

Wedged Between Hamilton and Max, Leclerc ‘Just Prayed’ in Mexico.
Charles Leclerc didn’t dress it up. The opening seconds of the Mexican Grand Prix were not fun, not brave, not heroic. They were survival.
October 30, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Ferrari’s lead man found himself wedged between his new teammate Lewis Hamilton and old sparring partner Max Verstappen as the field screamed down that endless Mexico City main straight. Lando Norris, starting from pole, dragged them four-wide into Turn 1. Verstappen clattered the kerb, Hamilton and Leclerc banged wheels, and the Ferrari pair were spat into the run-off. It looked like the sort of squeeze that usually ends in carbon.

“I didn’t enjoy that at all,” Leclerc said afterwards, half-laughing, half-exhaling. “I normally quite like fighting, but in this case, being in the middle of Lewis and Max… you can’t do much. You just pray they give you enough space to make the corner.” He didn’t quite get that much. Verstappen, bottoming out over the inside kerb, straight-lined the chicane. Leclerc, finding no grip on the dirty outside and tagged by Hamilton’s sister Ferrari, had to cut the corner too. Somehow, all three cars came out intact. The roars in the Foro Sol were matched by a collective paddock blink of disbelief.

From there, the afternoon split in two. Norris checked out, stretching a lead that would balloon to half a minute by the flag. Leclerc settled into second, but never with much comfort. His mediums never switched on, leaving him glancing in the mirrors at a Red Bull that simply refused to fade.

‘Just Prayed’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/wedged-between-hamilton-and-max-leclerc-just-prayed-in-mexico/


Leclerc reveals why he was particularly delighted with Ferrari's performance in Texas and Mexico
29 Oct 2025
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

Asked how much satisfaction he can take from the weekend in Mexico City, Leclerc added: "Quite a bit. I mean, it's been a very positive weekend. I think we did not expect to be replicating what we've done in Austin. "We knew that in Austin we had done the perfect execution, but we also knew that on paper we maybe didn't have the pace that McLaren or Red Bull had. And to be on the podium at that race was a surprise, but we managed to do that again and one step higher on the podium as well.”

"So it's been a really strong weekend. I think, as we know already, in terms of pure performance from the car, it's been quite long that we've been switching our minds to 2026, and so that helped us a little bit more into this last part of the season. But by doing perfect executed weekends, we managed to get two podiums in a row, which is a really nice feeling.” Despite his chaotic start to the race, Verstappen managed to close in on Leclerc with two laps to go, and put the Monegasque under immense pressure. However, the virtual safety car was deployed for Carlos Sainz's stricken Williams, which effectively robbed Verstappen of making a move on Leclerc.
"I was very happy to see the Safety Car coming out in the last two laps. I think without it, there was more chance of Max getting past than me staying in front. Especially with those Medium tyres, the feeling was just not there from the beginning to the end. I was definitely tempted by the two stops, but I don't know. At the end, I just stuck to what I was on, which was the Medium tyre, and tried to make it work—and we did. It was close. We got a little bit lucky, but I'm proud we made it stick," added Leclerc.

“It's been a very positive weekend”;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/27951


Charles Leclerc taunted Max Verstappen in brilliant radio message after late VSC at Mexican Grand Prix
26 October 2025
Tyler Rowlinson
F1 Oversteer

As the double yellow flags were waved, Leclerc could only laugh as he knew Verstappen would not be allowed to pass. He simply said: “Max. Max, hahahahahah,” as he entered the final lap.

“Max. Max, hahahahahah”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/charles-leclerc-taunted-max-verstappen-in-brilliant-radio-message-after-late-vsc-at-mexican-grand-prix/


Leclerc thinks "it's going to be very, very tough" for Ferrari to clinch second place in the championship
27 Oct 2025
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

Although Ferrari found itself in second place through the middle stages of the championship, the Scuderia fell behind Mercedes after its tough races in Baku and Singapore. However, the Italian team regained P2 in the standings after its strong display in Austin and Mexico City. Asked whether Ferrari's SF25 is fast enough to hold on to the second place in the constructors' championship, Leclerc sounded a pessimistic note.

"It's going to be very, very tough. If I look back at the last two weekends, yes. If I look before these two weekends, not really. We just need to focus race by race and do the perfect execution just like we've done in the last two races. That pays off, obviously, as always, but it's very difficult to be performing at this level all the time. But that is the standard that we need to target, and hopefully that will be enough to give us second in the Constructors.”

“We just need to focus race by race”;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/27948


Ferrari's achilles heel exposed in veiled Norris dig
26 Oct 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Lando Norris has quipped Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton are "pros" at lifting and coasting, a technique Ferrari's understood to be relying upon to avoid excessive plank wear and potential disqualifications. “I mean, ask these guys, they’re pros at it. These guys, they do it every race.” - Lando Norris “Yeah, I think you always have to do it a little bit, but never as much as these guys.”

Leclerc, starting behind him, acknowledged that managing lift and coast would be essential under Mexico’s demanding conditions. “Let’s say I think we’re ready for this. It’s always a track where lift and coast is a big part of the race, especially for the people from second onwards,” he explained.

“That’s why I think the start is so important on a track like this, because when you have free air, everything comes a lot easier. So yeah, we’ll be quite aggressive into Turn 1 if I have the possibility and then manage from where we are. But it’s definitely going to be a big part of the race.” Hamilton, meanwhile, kept it brief: “Not much to say. Lift and coast is pretty much what Charles said.”

‘Ferrari's achilles heel’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/ferraris-achilles-heel-exposed-in-veiled-norris-dig


David Croft says Ferrari were ‘upset’ by the joke Lando Norris made at their expense in Mexico
30 October 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

During his race commentary for Sky Sports, Croft said: “Lando Norris picked up on that in the top-three press conference after qualifying when he was asked about lift and coast. He said, ‘Well ask these two, they do it way more than we do’, which upset Ferrari a bit because they said that, ‘Actually, we don’t.’ They’re having to today.”

Hamilton alone was told to lift and coast 18 times during the race. It’s one of the most frustrating instructions a driver can receive because it forces them to sacrifice lap time and goes against their attacking instincts. Indeed, Hamilton called one particular request ‘ridiculous’, and later complained that he couldn’t catch the cars ahead with such restrictions.

The optics are poor for Ferrari, who seem to have a fundamentally flawed car. Leclerc has complained about the 2025 car more than his teammate, but Hamilton’s exasperation was clear on Sunday. As of the chequered flag in Mexico, Ferrari have officially scored fewer than half of McLaren’s points (713 vs 356).

‘Hamilton alone was told to lift and coast 18 times during the race’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/david-croft-says-ferrari-were-upset-by-the-joke-lando-norris-made-at-their-expense-in-mexico/


Stats: Norris takes F1’s biggest win for two years as Ferrari go win-less for 12 months
31st October 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

Leclerc took the chequered flag over half a minute behind Norris – 30.324 seconds, to be exact. This was the biggest winning margin for a driver since Max Verstappen won the Hungarian Grand Prix by 33.731s over Norris two years ago.

Ferrari’s wait for their first grand prix win of 2025 therefore goes on. Excluding sprint races (Lewis Hamilton won for them in Shanghai) it’s now more than a full year since their last victory, when Sainz led the field home in Mexico last year. Their last 12-month win-less spell ended when Sainz won the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix and they haven’t had a win-less season since 2021.

‘Ferrari go win-less for 12 months’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/10/31/stats-norris-takes-f1s-biggest-win-for-two-years-as-ferrari-go-win-less-for-12-months/

[Fortitude]

‘Deliberate Concealment’: Massa’s lawyers unleash fury at F1.
Massa’s counsel, barrister Nick De Marco KC, didn’t hold back, framing the saga as a betrayal at the sport’s summit.
31/10/2025
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

'One of the most serious incidents of sport manipulation' “The first point is that it is no exaggeration to say the deliberate crash was one of the most serious incidents of sport manipulation in world sport,” De Marco argued. “Not only because it was a blatant attempt to intervene in the race, but the deliberate act threatened the life of spectators and the driver himself.”

He went further, claiming that F1’s top officials conspired to hide the truth. “What then happens is the deliberate concealment of the conspiracy to have a crash, the deliberate concealment by those with responsibility for protecting the integrity of the sport, deliberately conspiring together to cover up one of the most serious scandals in the history of sport.”

The spark for Massa’s legal action is rooted in an interview published in 2023 by German website F1-Insider of former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone. In the exchange, the Briton appeared to admit that he and former FIA president Max Mosley had been aware of the Renault team’s plot during the 2008 season – knowledge that, if acted upon at the time, could have led to the Singapore race being annulled. Ecclestone has since claimed he does not remember giving that interview, a defence reiterated in court by his lawyer David Quest KC.

‘Deliberate Concealment’;

https://f1i.com/news/552470-deliberate-concealment-massas-lawyers-unleash-fury-at-f1.html


FIA faces legal storm as Wolff, Massa and Villars take action
The FIA is waging three separate legal battles that question its integrity, ethics, and transparency, with lawsuits from Susie Wolff, Felipe Massa, and Laura Villars all converging to test the Federation’s governance and credibility.
31 OCT 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Susie Wolff: No 'transparency' or 'accountability': F1 Academy managing director Susie Wolff has filed a defamation claim in the French High Courts against the FIA. The case stems from the governing body’s December 2023 investigation into a possible conflict of interest, citing her close professional ties with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali and her marriage to Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff. The inquiry, which lasted only 48 hours, was later dropped, but Wolff condemned the FIA’s conduct, accusing it of lacking “transparency and accountability.” Speaking recently, she confirmed that the legal process is still ongoing.

Felipe Massa takes F1, FIA, and Ecclestone to court: Former Ferrari driver Felipe Massa has also taken the FIA, Formula 1, and former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone to court over the controversial 2008 “Crashgate” scandal seeking damages he estimates to be worth up to $85 million dollars. Massa’s case relies on a 2023 German interview where Ecclestone admitted that the FIA and FOM were aware of Renault’s manipulation of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, but chose not to act.

Laura Villars challenges FIA election process: Meanwhile, Laura Villars, a declared candidate for the FIA Presidency, has won an emergency hearing before the French High Courts, contesting the transparency and fairness of the ongoing electoral process. Villars argues that current election rules make opposition candidates effectively ineligible. The statutes require presidential hopefuls to present a list of 10 regional representatives, one from each FIA zone, yet the South American seat is occupied solely by Fabiana Ecclestone, who has pledged her support to incumbent Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

‘Legal storm’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/features/fia-under-fire-three-lawsuits-shake-motorsports-governing-body


Ecclestone and Mosley deliberately concealed their Crashgate 'conspiracy', claims Massa's lawyer
30 Oct 2025
James Elson
Motor Sport Magazine

Felipe Massa's lawyers have alleged that Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley tried to conceal their full knowledge of the 2008 Crashgate aftermath

Massa has argued at a pre-trial hearing at London’s Royal Courts of Justice that the results of the Singapore 2008 ‘Crashgate’ race, in which Nelson Piquet Jr drove into the wall deliberately to help his Renault team manipulate the grand prix, should have been annulled, therefore giving him the title instead of Lewis Hamilton.

‘Should have been annulled’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/ecclestone-and-mosley-deliberately-concealed-their-crashgate-conspiracy-claims-massas-lawyer/?nowprocket=1


Is Felipe Massa, Not Lewis Hamilton, the Rightful Winner of the 2008 F1 Championship?
Former Ferrari F1 driver Felipe Massa's lawsuit is being heard in a London court this week, and things are getting heated.
30 Oct 2025
Jerry Perez
The Drive

It’s been more than two years since former Formula 1 racer Felipe Massa filed a lawsuit against the sport’s controversial boss Bernie Ecclestone, alleging that Ecclestone knew of the fixed race result involving Renault’s Flavio Briatore, Fernando Alonso, and Nelson Piquet Jr, and did not act ethically and according to the series’ standards. The case is being heard at a London court this week, where the old F1 supremo’s lawyers are claiming it’s a “misguided attempt” to overturn an official result.

The lawsuit, which also involves various executives from F1’s corporate entity and the FIA, has been public since 2023. Still, we’re just now seeing the action play out in court, and there are several surprises. For starters, it’s not just Ecclestone’s legal defense that’s attempting to have the case thrown out, but also the FIA and Formula One Management.

‘Rightful Winner of the 2008 F1 Championship’;

https://www.thedrive.com/news/is-felipe-massa-not-lewis-hamilton-the-rightful-winner-of-the-2008-f1-championship


Felipe Massa reveals Jean Todt’s immediate suspicion of Nelson Piquet Jr’s 2008 Formula
30 Oct 2025
The Straits Times

LONDON – Felipe Massa said in a witness statement made public on Oct 29 that his former Ferrari boss Jean Todt suspected immediately after the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix that Renault’s Nelson Piquet Jr had crashed on purpose, but he had not believed him. The ex-driver was attending a High Court hearing in London for his action against Formula One Management, former supremo Bernie Ecclestone and the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA), resulting from one of the sport’s biggest scandals.

In the written statement, Massa said then Ferrari chief executive Todt called him to his office “very soon after the 2008 Singapore GP finished” along with team boss Stefano Domenicali, now F1’s CEO. “Todt said he was sure Nelsinho crashed on purpose. I did not believe him because I know Jean Todt does not like Flavio Briatore (then the team principal of Renault) – they had a personal rivalry,” Massa explained.

‘Jean Todt’s immediate suspicion’;

https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/formula-one/felipe-massa-reveals-jean-todts-immediate-suspicion-of-nelson-piquet-jrs-2008-formula-one-crash


Massa: 'Briatore lied to me – and Todt was sure crash was deliberate'
30 Oct 2025
James Elson
Motor Sport Magazine

Felipe Massa has claimed he confronted both Flavio Briatore and Nelson Piquet Jr about the 2008 ‘Crashgate’ scandal in the months after affair, but that both denied any wrongdoing at the time. He also says his former Ferrari boss Jean Todt was certain in the immediate aftermath that Piquet Jr’s crash was deliberate, but that neither he nor the team chose to do anything about it.

The 11-time grand prix winner is seeking to be recognised as the rightful 2008 champion, as well as claiming £64m in damages. His case rests on the fact that Ecclestone said in a 2023 interview that he and former FIA president Max Mosley knew about the deliberate crash, but decided to not investigate it.

‘Confronted Flavio & Nelson’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/massa-briatore-lied-to-me-and-todt-was-sure-crash-was-deliberate/?nowprocket=1


Historic F1 court case could see Hamilton stripped of first world title
Felipe Massa’s long-awaited $90-million F1 court case over 2008 ‘crashgate’ opens in London today, with massive ramifications for the sport …
30-10-25
Ray Leathern
The South African

The 44-year-old Brazilian’s historic legal action is against Bernie Ecclestone, the FIA, and Formula One Management (FOM). Coincidentally today’s start date falls on Ecclestone’s 95th birthday. In a never-before-seen F1 court case, Massa is seeking recognition as the rightful 2008 World Champion. And $90 million in damages for lost earnings. He’s arguing that the sport’s governing bodies failed to act properly following Nelson Piquet Jr’s deliberate crash at the 2008 Singapore GP.

Meanwhile, Ecclestone’s lawyer, David Quest KC, told the court that the case was a ‘misguided attempt to reopen the 2008 World Championship. He called it ‘a sports-club-debate exercise that would deprive Lewis Hamilton of the 2008 title.’ Likewise, Anneliese Day KC, representing FOM, added that Hamilton outperformed Massa throughout the Singapore GP and the entire 2008 season.

On the other side of the lawsuit, Massa’s lawyer Nick di Marco argued that the FIA and FOM have failed to show the F1 court case ‘lacks any real prospects of success.’ Di Marco just recently represented Alex Palou against McLaren. And he insists that Massa has a real chance of winning in all respects.

‘Massive ramifications for the sport …’;

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/motoring/motorsport/historic-f1-court-case-hamilton-stripped-first-world-title-2025/

[Fortitude]

Toto Wolff had an agreement to loan out Kimi Antonelli to struggling team if he signed Max Verstappen.
Toto Wolff agreed two-year Alpine loan for Kimi Antonelli if he signed Max Verstappen,
30 October 2025
Shay Rogers
F1 Oversteer

Pursuing Verstappen was destabilising for Russell, and team boss Toto Wolff could have done a better job of protecting him from being affected by suggestions that he could be replaced in the future. Even now, his position feels a little insecure after signing a one-year deal. On the positive side of things, the Brackley-based outfit have been tipped to burst out of the blocks with a strong engine next year. It makes them a promising shout for both titles, and may finally hand Russell a deserved chance to go head-to-head with the likes of Verstappen and Leclerc.

But it could have been a very different outcome for Antonelli, according to AS Web, who report that the Italian was set to be loaned to Alpine on a two-year deal if his team had found a way to sign Verstappen for 2026. Wolff called Antonelli’s Alpine rumours nonsense, but it seems like a move might have been close to happening. Moving from a front-running car to the midfield might have helped to take some of the pressure away from the young Italian’s shoulders.

‘Alpine loan’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/toto-wolff-had-an-agreement-to-loan-out-kimi-antonelli-to-struggling-team-if-he-signed-max-verstappen/


Toto Wolff makes Max Verstappen declaration over Mercedes F1 driver extensions
23 Oct 2025
James Phillips
Motorsport Week

Elaborating to media in Friday’s press conference, including Motorsport Week, Wolff defended his decision to explore the reigning F1 champion’s situation once more. “Being open and transparent is the best path forward,” he said.” Sometimes it bites you a bit.

“And when you look back, maybe certain events could have been better – coincidences that happened. But I’ve always done it in the most straightforward and fair way. I stand by the driver choices – by George and Kimi. Like I said, this is the full focus, and that was always the aim, throughout the more tricky part over the summer.”

‘Verstappen declaration’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/10/23/toto-wolff-makes-max-verstappen-declaration-over-mercedes-f1-driver-extensions/


George Russell touted as potential Ferrari F1 target – report
01 Nov 2025
Anirban Aly Mandal
Motorsport Week

Reports suggest Ferrari’s top brass would pursue George Russell for 2027 should either Charles Leclerc or Lewis Hamilton quit its Formula 1 team. The rumour mill is also confident that Mercedes boss Toto Wolff will renew his long-term interest in bringing Max Verstappen to the German marque once again.

With Hamilton’s own struggles for the team this season, failing to score a Grand Prix podium for the Italian marque yet, and Leclerc’s reported disillusionment with the lack of competitiveness the team has shown since 2020, a seat at Ferrari might open in 2027. As per Corriere della Sera, the upper echelons of Ferrari’s management highly regard the 27-year-old and want Russell on board if either Leclerc or Hamilton opt to leave.

‘Ferrari’s top brass would pursue George Russell’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/11/02/george-russell-touted-as-potential-ferrari-f1-target-report/


Ralf Schumacher ridicules George Russell after 'classic' outburst
George Russell became a frustrated figure in Mexico City, leaving Ralf Schumacher unimpressed.
30 October 2025
Pepijn van der Hulst & Nick Golding
RacingNews365

Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen both cut across the grass between the first and third corner on the opening lap at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, before rejoining in second and fourth, respectively. Russell, who was fifth at the time, watched it all unfold in front of him. The Mercedes driver quickly called for the pair to be penalised on the radio, something the stewards promptly opted against.

"Russell.... Well, the classic!", Schumacher said on the Backstage Boxengasse podcast. "Whoever complains the loudest gets some extra attention. "This time, fortunately, that didn't work. To be honest, I'm quite happy about that." Focusing on Verstappen, Schumacher was pleased to see the Red Bull driver not penalised. The four-time world champion was forced onto the kerb at the opening corner by the two Ferraris, unsettling his RB21.

Had Verstappen not taken to the grass, a crash was probable, while he ensured that he remained behind both Ferrari drivers when he rejoined. "I think it was right that Verstappen didn't get a penalty," added Schumacher. "He didn't wriggle between them and let the other two pass nicely again, so that was OK. It was typical Max again."

‘Unimpressed’;

https://racingnews365.com/ralf-schumacher-ridicules-george-russell-after-classic-outburst


Toto Wolff blasts ‘lunatic’ Michael Masi for ‘destroying’ Lewis Hamilton’s F1 record
31 Oct 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Toto Wolff has blasted former Formula 1 Race Director Michael Masi for “destroying” Lewis Hamilton’s chance of winning a record eighth World Championship, branding the Australian a “lunatic”. Verstappen took the win, and the title, leading to Wolff to furiously tell Masi over a team-to-race control radio that it was “so not right”. Masi coldly responded to Wolff that “it was a motor race,” but the Australian did not return in the role for next season, after the FIA admitted “human error” led to what infamous moment.

Speaking to The Telegraph, the Austrian appears to still hold a great deal of contempt for Masi, and recalled the harrowing experience of that final lap of the season. “I have not experienced the loss of control of a situation since I was a child,” he said. “There is one lunatic who can basically destroy the record of the greatest champion of all time.”

Wolff’s wife Susie, who is currently promoting her memoir ‘Driven’, joined him in the interview, and gave her account of the incident. “It was disbelief,” she said. “That one person’s decision to interpret the rules, in a way that they had never been interpreted before, could have caused such an outcome. It sat so heavily with me, for a long time afterwards.”

“I have not experienced the loss of control of a situation since I was a child”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/10/31/toto-wolff-blasts-lunatic-michael-masi-for-destroying-lewis-hamiltons-f1-record/

[Fortitude]

Stroll’s “Monumental” Newey Coup: 2026 Reset or Bust?
Lawrence Stroll doesn’t do understatement, and on this one he isn’t pretending to. The Aston Martin executive chairman calls Adrian Newey’s arrival “monumental” — a word that lands with some weight when you’re talking about the most decorated designer in Formula 1 history.
November 2, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Newey officially joined Aston Martin in March as managing technical partner, months after confirming his intent to leave Red Bull in September 2024. He’s now steering the AMR26 project — Aston’s first car shaped fully around the 2026 rulebook — while the team primes itself for life as a Honda works outfit. “This is a 112-year-old British icon with a lot of pride behind it,” Stroll told the team’s website. “I give our people the tools, the facilities, the finances — everything they need — and then I let them do their jobs. Getting Adrian to join was monumental.”

There’s a reason the man commands that kind of language. His fingerprints are on more than 200 grand prix wins and a combined 26 drivers’ and constructors’ titles. But the choice of role is telling: Newey hasn’t parked himself in a corner office. Managing technical partner reads like a mandate to set direction — concept, architecture, the hard calls — across the group, not just polish a front wing.

And there’s plenty to pull together. Aston Martin has been on a hiring tear, with Andy Cowell in as team principal and Enrico Cardile as chief technical officer, alongside a deepening roster in aero and vehicle performance. The Silverstone campus has grown up in a hurry too. After rescuing the operation from administration in 2018 and rebranding as Aston Martin in 2021, Stroll’s playbook has been consistent: build the place, then fill it with people who’ve already won.

‘2026 Reset or Bust?’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/strolls-monumental-newey-coup-2026-reset-or-bust/


Adrian Newey delivers unique insight into Aston Martin’s F1 2026 preparations
November 2, 2025
Anirban Aly Mandal
Motorsport Week

Speaking to James Allen on his F1 podcast, Newey broke down how he is fitting within the technical apparatus at Aston Martin. “If you take aerodynamics as an example, we have around 80 aerodynamicists. They are then divided into four group areas: future car project, front of car, middle of car, rear of car,” he revealed.

“So you’ve now got, for the sake of argument, 20 in each group. You then have a project leader for each of those groups – it’s actually a bit less than that, it’s probably more like 15 in each group, because you have got other activities – so the project leader for those 15, that’s probably just about on the limits of how many people you can have reporting directly to you.”

“So then hope that the communication within that group of 15 is good, and that’s part of the responsibilities of the project leader. Then you make sure that the group leaders are communicating well with each other. … if a meeting is only information sharing and nothing comes out of the meeting that causes you to do something different, in my view, it has been a waste of time. It has to be about creating ideas and new directions.”

‘Unique insight’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/11/03/adrian-newey-delivers-unique-insight-into-aston-martins-f1-2026-preparations/


"Winning is what we're here for," insists Lawrence Stroll
02/11/2025
Pitpass

Lawrence Stroll insists that Rome wasn't built in a day, and is adamant that the relentless spending that has attracted some of the finest personnel in the business and built one of the sport's most cutting-edge facilities will pay off.

"There's a loyalty behind this 112-year-old British iconic institution, this brand Aston Martin," says the Canadian in an interview with his team's website. "There's a tremendous amount of British pride in this factory. They want to bring their national team to the top step of Formula One.”

"I'm relentless," he admits. "I don't give up until the mission is completed. In this case, the mission is being world champions. I've been fortunate enough and successful in all the ventures I've done," he continues." This is the most passionate I've been, the most heartfelt, which drives me more, excites me more, frustrates me more. When it disappoints, it hurts more, and in this business, there's a lot of disappointment. There's a lot of lows before you get to a lot of highs.”

"I'm relentless";

https://www.pitpass.com/81464/Winning-is-what-were-here-for-insists-Lawrence-Stroll


Aston Martin shoot rivals 'relentless' F1 title warning
Aston Martin is enduring a difficult F1 campaign but believes it has the frameworks in place for a successful future.
3 November 2025
Fergal Walsh
RacingNews365

Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll asserted his commitment to boost the facilities is a clear indicator of his vision to bring the team to new heights. “When I took over this team, it's about six years ago now, I said it would be a 10-year journey to winning an F1 world championship,” Stroll said.

“We’re now witnessing the premises that we've built in order to provide the tools. There’s no other factory like this in any other F1 team. There's no other wind tunnel like it. There's no other driver simulator like it. The whole campus just has that feeling of winning, of performance, of people striving to find that extra tenth or hundredth of a second.”

“It would be a 10-year journey to winning an F1 world championship”;

https://racingnews365.com/aston-martin-shoot-rivals-relentless-f1-title-warning


Adrian Newey makes prediction over 2026 F1 pecking order
The F1 teams are gearing up for a significant rule change for the 2026 F1 campaign.
1 November 2025
Fergal Walsh
RacingNews365

Aston Martin technical director Adrian Newey has offered a prediction on how the F1 pecking order may shape up next year. Despite his vast F1 experience with major regulation changes, Newey admitted he has no knowledge as to how Aston Martin is shaping up for next year.

“You ask, how's it going? The honest truth is, I have got no idea. Because of this reset, you don't know whether you're doing good, bad or indifferent relative to the opposition, you have no knowledge of what they're doing.”

“Don't know whether you're doing good, bad or indifferent relative to the opposition”;

https://racingnews365.com/adrian-newey-makes-prediction-over-2026-f1-pecking-order


Adrian Newey signing ‘monumental’ as Lawrence Stroll issues Aston Martin progress update
2 Nov 2025
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

Lawrence Stroll, the executive chairman of the Aston Martin F1 team: “Most important was putting together the team of people. Obviously, getting Adrian Newey to join was monumental. He’s been with us since the beginning of March.”

“We have Andy Cowell [team principal], Enrico Cardile [chief technical officer], plus hundreds of other people. We have Honda being our power unit partner, being a works team for the first time in our life is a whole different experience.”

“The whole team’s forming into place and we’re looking forward next year to a huge rule and regulation change. The biggest challenge now is putting everything together, making it all happen. I’m quite confident it will, but you have to have the patience.”

“Biggest challenge now is putting everything together”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/adrian-newey-aston-martin-lawrence-stroll-update-progress

[Fortitude]

Max Verstappen Handed Major Brazil GP Advantage as McLaren 'Problem' Identified.
McLaren’s failure to favour one driver could be “helping Max” with his pursuit of a fifth F1 title, according to Guenther Steiner.
4 Nov 2025
SPORTbible

Speaking to SPORTbible on behalf of Casino.org, the 60-year-old Italian claimed that McLaren are “trying to be too fair” with their handling of the fact that both of their drivers are going for the title. McLaren CEO Zak Brown was previously accused of being opposed to the signing of Piastri three years ago, according to News 18. He has since rubbished accusations of favouritism towards Norris.

“You start a lot of these conversations because, for a team, the choice should be the guy who is in front in the Championship; they should have the advantage and should be supported to win the Championship, and they didn't do that,” Steiner explained. “Then the rumour came up that Zak doesn't want that because of favouritism of Lando. I don't think that’s the case. At one stage, I think they were too confident that one of the two will win regardless.”

The Italian then claimed that if two drivers from the same team are going for the championship that one of them will be “unhappy” anyway due to one of them finishing second. “You cannot be too fair in this situation; they tried to do something which maybe was not possible to do,” he continued. Steiner then finished by suggesting that McLaren’s failure to favour one driver could be “helping Max” with his pursuit of a fifth F1 title.

“Helping Max”;

https://www.sportbible.com/f1/max-verstappen-lando-norris-oscar-piastri-brazilian-gp-354609-20251104


Max Verstappen told of 'big opportunity' to overcome McLaren gap in F1 title hunt
Max Verstappen currently sits 36 points down on championship leader Lando Norris with four rounds remaining in the season.
4 November 2025
Fergal Walsh
RacingNews365

Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer believes the Las Vegas Grand Prix will be a “big opportunity” for Max Verstappen to eat into the drivers' championship deficit. Palmer asserted a victory for Verstappen in Brazil this weekend will be crucial for his chances of winning a fifth title.

“I think it's still just about in his hands,” Palmer told the F1 Nation podcast. “I was trying to figure this out. Mexico was a hit because Lando's points gap went up, even if the gap to Oscar went down.”

“If he wins in Brazil, I think it will be in the balance. If he can win there, the gap will be less than 30.” However, Palmer noted the biggest opportunity for Verstappen lies in Las Vegas, a grand prix which takes place two weeks after Brazil.

“Still just about in his hands”;

https://racingnews365.com/max-verstappen-told-of-big-opportunity-to-overcome-mclaren-gap-in-f1-title-hunt


McLaren criticised for ‘confusing’ their drivers with team orders in 2025 F1 title battle
4 Nov 2025
Connor McDonagh
Crash.Net

1996 F1 world champion Damon Hill believes McLaren’s team orders have made it confusing for their two drivers in the title race. Just one point separates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at the top of the F1 drivers’ championship heading into this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

McLaren’s interventions have resulted in widespread criticism. Hill feels that team orders generally make things more complicated for any set of drivers, particularly in a title battle. Speaking on Stay on Track, Hill said: “I think, again, it confuses people. I think it confuses the drivers. It confuses the team. It confuses people watching. They go: ‘What is going on?’

“I mean, there is a whole history of team orders being confusing to the fans. I mean, I can remember watching [the] Monaco Grand Prix with two McLarens and I can’t remember which one, it might have been Mika [Hakkinen] and David Coulthard. Anyway, they kind of… we thought they were racing, but it turned out afterwards they were just, they’d agreed not to overtake each other or race each other at the end. And I remember feeling a little bit cheated by that.”

‘Complicated’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1085754/1/mclaren-criticised-confusing-their-drivers-team-orders-2025-f1-title-battle


Bernie Ecclestone questions if McLaren are ‘holding Oscar Piastri back’
Bernie Ecclestone weighs in on this year's F1 title race - and Oscar Piastri's recent downturn in form
4 Nov 2025
Connor McDonagh
Crash.Net

Speaking to sport.de, Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone said: “When the season started, I thought our Australian driver would be world champion. I thought he would win easily but something’s holding him back. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know if it’s McLaren holding him back or what. There was a bit of a problem inside the team I understand where it looked very much they were favouring the British driver.”

Ecclestone feels that Norris has more “star quality” in terms of being centre stage on TV and in front of the camera. As a result, Ecclestone thinks it would be better for McLaren as a team if Norris came out on top at the end of the season. “I think he would fall into the star quality more,” Ecclestone added. “I think from that point of view. I think he would act better. I think he likes the TV, he likes the camera, he likes whatever. I suspect the journalists [like him]. I suppose that’s better for McLaren.”

“Something’s holding him back”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1085757/1/bernie-ecclestone-questions-if-mclaren-f1-are-holding-oscar-piastri-back


Ecclestone: Hamilton-Ferrari, just a 'marketing project'
4 Nov 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has had a few words to say about Lewis Hamilton and his partnership with Ferrari so far. Speaking in an interview with Sport.de, the English businessman, who recently turned 95, targeted the seven-time world champion, in what's been a disappointing season so far.

"Everything is slipping away from him there. He wanted to become world champion there and is now surprised that he can't do it," he said, to then add that Hamilton is "one of the best of the last ten years, but not the best".

Ecclestone then labeled the partnership between the Maranello team and the seven-time world champion as "a financial marketing project," suggesting that "he will do more with fashion in the future."

‘Hamilton-Ferrari, just a marketing project';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/hamilton-ferrari-partnership-slammed-as-a-marketing-project-only


“Horrible to Watch”: Hamilton’s Ferrari Nightmare Nears Breaking Point
November 4, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Lewis Hamilton’s first season in red is starting to feel like a rerun you can’t quite believe you’re still watching. That’s Johnny Herbert’s view, anyway. The former F1 driver and ex-FIA steward didn’t hold back when asked about Hamilton’s stop start 2025 with Ferrari, calling the seven-time champion’s hunt for a breakthrough “horrible to watch” and an “ongoing saga” as the calendar winds down.

Hamilton arrived at Maranello with all the fanfare you’d expect. The delivery has been tougher. He’s shown flashes—more lately than early on—but the clean, cathartic result still hasn’t landed. Mexico summed it up: Hamilton put the Ferrari on the second row with his best qualifying in red, went wheel-to-wheel with Max Verstappen in a proper elbows-out scrap, and then watched a 10-second penalty undo the lot after the stewards ruled he’d left the track and gained an advantage.

Herbert, speaking about that battle, admired the bite but lamented the outcome. “It was good to see Lewis race with Max. I thought that was a great piece of racing,” he said. “There was a little bit of wheel banging… It was a late dive up the inside. Lewis probably wasn’t expecting it… It was another frustrating weekend for him. It just didn’t click.”

‘A rerun you can’t quite believe you’re still watching’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/horrible-to-watch-hamiltons-ferrari-nightmare-nears-breaking-point/


'Chemistry' between Hamilton and Adami comes under serious scrutiny
3 Nov 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Dutch F1 pundit Robert Doornbos has highlighted the relationship between Lewis Hamilton and his race engineer, Riccardo Adami. Doornbos stressed that “there's just no chemistry between the engineer and the driver. The communication between Lewis and Ricky, his engineer, doesn't feel like they're switched on to each other.”

“It's Ricky saying, ‘Yeah, we've got a 10-second stop-and-go because of this and this situation.’ Lewis says, ‘Yeah, but it was very difficult to stay on.’ We know Lewis.'” Doornbos finally emphasized: “I don't think they're really on it. If you want to be fighting for wins, championships, and podiums, you have to take every opportunity you can to maximize it.”

Adami also in the spotlight by Chandhok for ‘poor communication’. Karun Chandhok, meanwhile, commenting on the Verstappen-Hamilton incident that later led to a penalty for Hamilton, also criticized Adami for “poor communication,” saying he had “unnecessarily riled up the driver without giving him all of the facts.” Hamilton’s race was heavily impacted by the penalty, losing a significant amount of time during the stop as he had to serve the ten seconds without touching the car, ultimately finishing the race in just eighth position.

‘Serious scrutiny’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/chemistry-between-hamilton-and-adami-comes-under-serious-scrutiny

[Fortitude]

Will race day rain give Verstappen help from above? Six Brazilian GP talking points.
Last year’s rain-hit race was the moment Max Verstappen put his fourth world championship victory beyond reasonable doubt.
4th November 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

Who has the momentum? Verstappen cut his points deficit again in Mexico. “You’ve been on such a run, so much momentum,” Formula 1 presenter James Hinchcliffe told Lando Norris after his Mexican Grand Prix victory.

That’s a debatable description of the driver who’d just scored his first win in seven races (including sprint races), particularly as he was standing a short distance from a rival who’s won four of the last six and hasn’t been off the podium since the summer break. Who really has the momentum in the title fight? It certainly isn’t Oscar Piastri, who has looked out of sorts in the McLaren since his dire weekend in Baku.

‘Race day rain’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/11/04/will-race-day-rain-give-verstappen-help-from-above-six-brazilian-gp-talking-points/


F1 drivers set for another year of weather chaos at the Brazilian GP
Last year's Brazilian Grand Prix saw wet weather chaos - will it be the same story 12 months on?
4 November 2025
Fergal Walsh
RacingNews365

According to the FIA's forecast, Friday morning is set to be dry before possible thundery showers in the afternoon to evening. Temperatures are set to linger between 25°C and 28°C, with the risk of rain at 40%. Saturday, however, is set to be a much wetter affair. The FIA has outlined there is a high chance of thundery showers in the morning, which may decrease slightly in the afternoon.

However, according to the forecast, the sprint race and qualifying look set to be held in wet conditions, with temperatures sitting between 24°C and 26°C. Gusts of 75 km/h are also possible, creating an added challenge for the drivers. The grand prix on Sunday is likely to be held in dry conditions, although it will be significantly cooler than the previous days, with a temperature of 18°C expected for the race.

The threat of rain is at 20% for the grand prix, with the FIA seeing only a slight chance for one light shower to sprinkle the track during the race.

‘Another year of weather chaos’;

https://racingnews365.com/f1-drivers-set-for-another-year-of-weather-chaos-at-the-brazilian-gp


McLaren placed on high alert in fresh Max Verstappen warning ahead of Brazil GP
4 Nov 2025
Thomas Maher
PlanetF1.com

Speaking to AdventureGamers, the British pundit, Johnny Herbert said, “Verstappen has shown brilliance, but he has needed an improved Red Bull to get back into the race for the Championship. There is a sheer brilliance that Max always shows. He’s always able to pull out those unbelievable qualifying laps and then have an absolutely storming race and dominate it.”

“But you still need the car underneath you to be able to do that. Is he always able to get that little something extra against his competitors? Then arguably, yes. That’s always been the case with the greats of the sport. They’ve always been able to do something that people think is unbelievable.”

“That’s where everybody goes, ‘Well, it’s Max who’s pulling more out of the car’. There’s a big element to that. If he were in a McLaren, would he be fighting for the championship? Absolutely.”

“Verstappen has shown brilliance”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/mclaren-warned-of-max-verstappen-title-challenge-by-johnny-herbert-2025-brazil-gp


F1 Drivers' title showdown: Verstappen's a bigger threat than ever
5 Nov 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Interlagos will host the Brazilian Grand Prix, the 21st round of the Formula One world championship, and as usual, it will be vital in determining who will emerge as the strongest world title candidate.

Max Verstappen has not finished outside of the podium scoring positions since the Dutch Grand Prix, with his lowest result coming last time out in Mexico where he finished P3, which marked a 3 point cut in the championship lead which exchanged hands, from one McLaren driver, Oscar Piastri, to the other, Lando Norris.

The Dutch driver’s podium kept his championship chase very much alive as 116 points are still up for grabs in the remaining four Grands Prix, which the Sprint weekend in Brazil alone accounts for almost 30% of. In Brazil, Verstappen is expected to continue his title comeback charge, which coupled with Red Bull's no holds barred approach, and the competitiveness the RB21 currently boasts, its chances of success are still very much alive going into the home stretch of the F1 2025 season.

‘Verstappen is expected to continue his title comeback charge’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/features/brazil-gp-norris-momentum-meets-verstappen-revival-as-piastri-wobbles


Schumacher backtracks on Norris but issues crucial Verstappen warning
3 Nov 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

F1 expert Ralf Schumacher thinks Lando Norris’ hypothesised mental struggles are no longer an issue, but warns title hopeful Max Verstappen poses a threat come the Brazil Grand Prix.

"Next weekend is very crucial,” Schumacher said in Sky Sports Germany’s podcast Backstage Boxengasse, claiming Verstappen needed an error from McLaren or its drivers to get closer in the Championship Standings. “He [Verstappen] needs to get closer now and maybe needs a little help. But who would have thought that Norris would get so close again?”

Schumacher observed that the criticism laid at Norris’ doorstep, suggesting he struggled mentally when faced with the protagonist role in the fight for the title, thus explaining his inconsistent form from the first half of the season, is all but gone now. “We had thought: mental issues, he wasn't always consistent, plus the gap - Piastri seemed to pull away. But with so many races, a lot can still happen.”

‘Max Verstappen poses a threat come the Brazil Grand Prix’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/schumacher-backtracks-on-norris-but-issues-crucial-verstappen-warning

[Fortitude]

Brazil GP showdown: Norris, Verstappen and Piastri clash for 2025 crown.
F1 Drivers' title showdown: Verstappen's a bigger threat than ever. Max Verstappen has not finished outside of the podium scoring positions since the Dutch Grand Prix…
4 Nov 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

In Brazil, Verstappen is expected to continue his title comeback charge, which coupled with Red Bull's no holds barred approach, and the competitiveness the RB21 currently boasts, its chances of success are still very much alive going into the home stretch of the F1 2025 season.

At Interlagos Red Bull's challenger, already free from the balance issues it was afflicted by earlier on in the season, poses a serious threat to McLaren's MCL39, given its recently uncovered ability to exploit slow cornering and traction demanding phases as evidenced by its pole position potential in Singapore.

As such, with the inclement weather forecasted throughout the upcoming race weekend in Brazil, which he capitalised on in the 2024 edition of the race to win all the way from his P17 starting position, Verstappen is one of, if not the absolute favorite to take the double win this year in both the Sprint as in the Grand Prix as well.

‘Favorite to take the double win’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/features/brazil-gp-norris-momentum-meets-verstappen-revival-as-piastri-wobbles


McLaren warned of Brazil GP element that should leave it 'nervous'
Max Verstappen enters the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend looking to close the gap further to Lando Norris at the top of the drivers' standings.
5 November 2025
Fergal Walsh
RacingNews365

Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer has stated McLaren should be “nervous” if the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend is impacted by rainfall. “Imagine if we get weather like last year, how nervous you'd be as a McLaren driver now,” he told the F1 Nation podcast. “That’s the one thing that could bring Max right into play.”

“It is so easy to crash in the wet of Brazil, of all the circuits on the calendar, Brazil in the wet is hideous to drive. You've got Max, who's got great form there, and you've got the McLarens with the best car, the best opportunity, but such an easy chance to ruin it all if it rains. It’s going to be a good one.”

However, Palmer has still backed Norris, who is on a strong run of form, to come out on top in the point-providing sessions this weekend. “Sprint winner is Norris, I think Norris also wins the race,” Palmer predicted. “I think this is the weekend he starts to become a real championship favourite. Then Verstappen comes second, and let's go Piastri in third, and we're all still close heading towards Vegas.”

'Nervous';

https://racingnews365.com/mclaren-warned-of-brazil-gp-element-that-should-leave-it-nervous


The negative stat Piastri can't ignore ahead of Brazilian GP weekend
5 Nov 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Oscar Piastri heads into the Interlagos weekend carrying a stat that isn’t really in his favour. The Australian driver, in the two Brazilian weekends he’s contested in 2023 and 2024, has never managed to qualify or finish a race higher than eighth.

In 2023, he could do no better than tenth in qualifying and went on to finish the race 14th, hampered by a first-lap incident—but still a lap behind the rest despite the red flag. In 2024, he qualified eighth, while his teammate claimed pole. The race didn’t go much better, as he finished in the same position he started, in a race heavily affected by rain.

‘The negative stat’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/the-negative-stat-piastri-cant-ignore-ahead-of-brazilian-gp-weekend


Brazilian Grand Prix 2025 at Interlagos: F1 sprint times, stats, weather forecast
Nov 5, 2025
ESPN

The 2025 Formula 1 season has reached round 21 -- Gabriel Bortoleto's home race -- the São Paulo Grand Prix. All eyes are on the championship race and the three drivers who could win it -- Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. As we approach the season's penultimate sprint race, there are a maximum of 116 points available to a driver with four grands prix remaining, so every point is crucial.

Weather forecast – thunderstorm The forecast is a mixed bag this weekend.
Friday is set to be cloudy and settled, with highs of 24°C (75°F), before the anticipated thunderstorm comes in on Saturday with a yellow alert. Expect rain, wind, thunder and unsettled weather. Cooler temperatures of 19°C (67°F) are expected on Sunday, with potential light rain.

‘Weather forecast’;

https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/46856172/brazilian-grand-prix-2025-f1-s-predictions-stats-facts


Brazilian GP Interlagos Corner Names: Stories behind iconic turns
Each of its 15 turns carries a distinctive name, reflecting Brazilian culture and the circuit’s unique characteristics.
6 November 2025
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

1. ‘S’ do Senna (Senna S) [Turns 1 and 2] Named in honour of the legendary Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, this complex comprises a left-right chicane that descends sharply, demanding precise braking and steering. It’s a prime overtaking spot, setting the tone for the lap as well as for setting up overtakes later in the lap at Turn 4 if you can force a rival off the ideal line.
2. Curva do Sol (Curve of the Sun) [Turn 3]
3. Descida do Lago (Lake’s Descent) [Turns 4 and 5]

4. Ferradura (Horseshoe) [Turns 6 and 7]
5. Laranjinha (Little Orange) [Turn 8]
6. Pinheirinho (Little Pine Tree) [Turn 9]
7. Bico de Pato (Duck’s Bill) [Turn 10]

8. Mergulho (Dive) [Turn 11]
9. Junção (Junction) [Turn 12]
10. Subida dos Boxes (Up to the Pits) [Turn 14]
11. Arquibancadas (Bleachers) [Turn 15]

‘Stories behind iconic turns’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/brazilian-gp-interlagos-corner-names-stories-behind-iconic-turns/


Start time for the 2025 F1 Brazilian Grand Prix - São Paulo - Time Schedule
The F1 season continues this weekend with the 2025 F1 Brazilian Grand Prix. Don't miss any of the action and check out all the session start times for the weekend here.
6 November 2025
RacingNews365 Staff
RacingNews365

The schedule for the 2025 F1 São Paulo GP is automatically adjusted to your time zone.
F1 schedule Brazilian GP
Session
Date Time
Free practice 1 Friday 7 November 15:30 - 16:30
Sprint qualifying Friday 7 November 19:30 - 20:14
Sprint race Saturday 8 November 15:00 - 16:00
Qualification Saturday 8 November 19:00 - 20:00
Race Sunday 9 November 18:00 - 20:00

‘Time Schedule’;

https://racingnews365.com/start-time-for-the-2025-f1-brazilian-grand-prix---s%C3%A3o-paulo---time-schedule

[Fortitude]

F1 – Norris beats Piastri by 0.023s to top practice in São Paulo, Hülkenberg third.
F1 Drivers’ championship leader Lando Norris put in a late flying lap of 1:09.975 to beat McLaren team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri to the top of the timesheet by just 0.023s
07/11/2025
FIA (Press Release)

At the start of FP1, home favourite Gabriel Bortoleto elicited loud cheers from the grandstands as he took to the track but it was Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso who topped the timesheet with a lap of 1:12.662. He was then displaced by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who posted a lap 1m12.169, who was then bounced out by championship leader Lando Norris who took P1 with a time of 1:11.796.

There was early trouble for Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, however. The Japanese driver took too much kerb in Turn 4, and after bottoming out he spun off and clunked both his front-left wheel and rear right on the edge of the barriers. He limped back to the pit lane for checks on his front and rear suspension and for a new front wing.

Piastri improved on his next run to 1:09.998 to extend his advantage to his team-mate to 0.473s. Norris also gained with his second run but not by enough and the Briton held P2 0.261s off his team-mate. Verstappen then emerged on Soft tyres but the Dutchman backed out of his flying lap halfway through and returned to the pit lane to bolt on a set of used Hard tyre with which to see out the last minutes of a session in which he ended up 17th.

‘Late flying lap of 1:09.975’;

https://www.fia.com/news/f1-norris-beats-piastri-0023s-top-practice-sao-paulo-hulkenberg-third


São Paulo Grand Prix - Free Practice 1 Results
07/11/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Full results from Free Practice 1 for the São Paulo Grand Prix at São Paulo, Brazil, round 21 of the 2025 Formula 1 season.
2025 São Paulo Grand Prix - Free Practice 1 results
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:09.975s 30
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.023s 32
3 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber +0.619s 31
4 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.631s 25
5 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber +0.641s 31
6 George Russell Mercedes +0.670s 34
7 Pierre Gasly Alpine +0.706s 32
8 Carlos Sainz Williams +0.711s 35
9 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +0.732s 30
10 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.769s 36

‘Free Practice 1’;

https://f1i.com/news/552817-sao-paulo-grand-prix-free-practice-1-results.html


Brazilian GP practice: McLaren 1-2, mixed up order in its wake
Nov 7, 2025
Jack Cozens
The Race

Formula 1 drivers' championship leader Lando Norris pipped McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri with his final lap of the session to end sole practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix fastest. Norris's best time, a 1m09.975s set on medium tyres, was 0.023 seconds faster than Piastri's as McLaren enjoyed a significant advantage over the opposition - at least in the headline times.

But that final Norris-Piastri order wasn't necessarily reflective of their peak single-lap pace. Off the back of two muted weekends in the United States and Mexico, Piastri appeared to be back on song in FP1 at Interlagos when the cars switched to performance running in the final quarter of an hour of the 60-minute session.

He had been 0.278s faster than Norris on their first runs, 0.261s faster on their second ones, and on his final attempt had been 0.190s up on his previous best in the first sector but ultimately failed to improve his time and was pipped by Norris right at the end. None of McLaren's usual 'big-four' opposition featured at the sharp end, with Mercedes' George Russell the highest-placed of them in sixth.

‘McLaren 1-2’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/everything-that-happened-in-brazilian-grand-prix-practice/


Brazilian GP: Late lap puts Norris ahead of Piastri as Aussie rediscovers lost form
7 Nov 2025
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Kimi Antonelli led the way out of the pit lane, followed by George Russell, but the biggest cheer was for local lad Bortoleto. As all 20 drivers laid down times, Oscar Piastri led the way with a 1:12.169, a quarter of a second up on Lewis Hamilton. Yuki Tsunoda had a moment at Turn 4, the Red Bull driver off the track and spinning off before hitting the tyre barrier with his front left tyre and breaking his wing’s end-plate. He was able to return to the pits as his teammate Max Verstappen went second quickest behind George Russell.

P1 continued to change hands between Russell, Piastri and Lando Norris, with Verstappen also in the mix. The four lead drivers in the championship running ahead of the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Hamilton. Midway through the session Russell was leading the way ahead of Verstappen and Carlos Sainz, all three having set their times on the hard Pirellis.

As more drivers set times on the mediums, Piastri went quickest with a 1:11.193 with Norris 0.278s down on his teammate. The teammates swapped around as Norris pipped Piastri with a 1:09.975, putting him 0.023s ahead of the Australian racer. Nico Hulkenberg was third, but six-tnehts down on the McLaren teammates.

‘Aussie rediscovers lost form’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/brazilian-grand-prix-2025-fp1-report


Max P17 in Brazilian GP practice
07 November 2025
Stefan Meens
Verstappen.nl

Max Verstappen finished the first and only practice session of the Brazilian Grand Prix in seventeenth place, after only clocking timed laps on the hard Pirelli tyres. Max is the last driver to venture out of the pits. On his first flying lap, he is seventh fastest. Oracle Red Bull Racing teammate Yuki Tsunoda is enduring a more challenging start to the session. The Japanese driver goes off at turn four, hitting the wall with his left front wheel and the trye barriers with the right rear tyre. Despite some damage, Tsunoda is able to drive back to the pits for repairs.

In the meantime, Max has improved his lap time and fifteen minutes in, the Dutchman sits in second behind George Russell (Mercedes). After a quick visit to the pits, Max heads back out for another, longer, run on the hard Pirellis. In the final quarter of the session, the track becomes less busy as the teams prepare for qualifying simulations. Meanwhile, Max continues to pound round on hard tyres in preparation for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

The reigning champion has dropped down to seventeenth on the timing sheets but appears to prepare for a final flying lap on the soft tyres. In the end, Max aborts the lap and heads back in for a few more laps on the hard compound, meaning he ends the session in seventeenth.

‘Max continues to pound round on hard tyres in preparation’;

https://news.verstappen.com/en/article/6002/

[Fortitude]

Brazil GP Sprint Quali: Norris storms to pole as Verstappen struggles.
Norris clocked a time of 1:09.243 to clinch the Sprint pole ahead of the chasing pack.
7 Nov 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Lando Norris stormed to pole ahead of Kimi Antonelli and Oscar Piastri for the Brazil GP Sprint qualifying. Here is the full result from the session. The McLaren driver, who claimed pole position at the Mexico City Grand Prix, continued his stellar form by securing pole again at the Sao Paulo race.

Four-time world champion Max Verstappen could only record a time quick enough for sixth place, posting a 1:09.580. Lance Stroll followed the Red Bull Racing driver in seventh, with Charles Leclerc, Isack Hadjar and Nico Hulkenberg wrapping up the top 10.

‘Norris storms to pole’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/untitled-article-79482


São Paulo Grand Prix - Sprint Qualifying results
07/11/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Full results from Sprint qualifying for the São Paulo Grand Prix at São Paulo, Brazil, round 21 of the 2025 Formula 1 season.
2025 São Paulo Grand Prix - Sprint qualifying results
Pos Driver Team SQ1 SQ2 SQ3
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:09.627s 1:09.373s 1:09.243s
2 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:10.381s 1:09.504s 1:09.340s
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:10.017s 1:09.416s 1:09.428s
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:10.048s 1:09.384s 1:09.495s
5 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:10.011s 1:09.330s 1:09.496s
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:09.975s 1:09.707s 1:09.580s
7 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:10.326s 1:09.647s 1:09.671s
8 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:10.324s 1:09.732s 1:09.725s
9 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls 1:10.095s 1:09.608s 1:09.775s
10 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber 1:10.333s 1:09.735s 1:09.935s

‘Full results’;

https://f1i.com/news/552849-sao-paulo-grand-prix-sprint-qualifying-results.html


2025 Brazilian Grand Prix – Sprint Qualifying F1 results (Interlagos)
7 Nov 2025
Thomas Maher
PlanetF1.com

With just one practice session, the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend kicked off with the first major session of the weekend: Sprint qualifying. With medium tyres mandatory for SQ1, it was a relatively slow start to the session as the two McLarens set the initial pace; Piastri ahead of Norris with a 1:10.285 for the Australian to go 0.025 clear of Norris.

‘SQ1’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/2025-brazilian-grand-prix-sprint-qualifying-f1-results-interlagos


Lando Norris takes dominant pole position for F1 Brazil GP Sprint
7 Nov 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Lando Norris took a dominant pole position for the Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix Sprint, underlining his resurgent form and pace of his McLaren package. The Brit secured top spot with a blistering final run in SQ3 to take top spot by almost a tenth of a second from Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

Leclerc spins to help take Hamilton out of SQ2. SQ2 began with Fernando Alonso going top, with Verstappen initially three tenths short of the Spaniard’s lap, but with both McLarens still yet to set a time with five minutes to go. Norris changed that but went second behind Alonso, with Piastri going third.

Leclerc hovered above the danger zone, with Hamilton still in it in 11th. And by irony, it would be Leclerc who condemned Hamilton to an early exit. The #16 Ferrari spun late on his final run, which brought out double yellow flags, costing Hamilton the time needed to cross the line before the chequered flag came out. Alonso ended it top, with Leclerc scaping through in ninth, with Hamilton 11th, and would be joined by Alex Albon, Gasly, Bortoleto and Bearman.

‘Lando Norris takes dominant pole position’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/11/07/lando-norris-takes-dominant-pole-position-for-f1-brazil-gp-sprint/


Lando Norris takes Brazilian Grand Prix Sprint pole ahead of Kimi Antonelli and Oscar Piastri
7 November 2025
Rebecca Braybrook
F1 Oversteer

Lando Norris has taken his first Sprint race pole ahead of the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, as both Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen struggle to match his pace. Lando Norris set the fastest time in the earlier practice session today, after pipping his teammate right at the end of the session. Norris will start the Sprint race two places ahead of Piastri, after taking the lead in the championship in Mexico last time out.

Max Verstappen was unhappy with the pace of his Red Bull, claiming that the car was ‘broken’. The Dutchman was one of four cars, including both Aston Martins and Isack Hadjar, to risk just a single flying lap at the end of Sprint qualifying. The risk did not pay off for Verstappen, who will start the Sprint Race from P6, behind Alonso’s Aston Martin and both McLarens and Mercedes cars.

‘Lando Norris has taken his first Sprint race pole’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/lando-norris-takes-brazilian-grand-prix-sprint-pole-ahead-of-kimi-antonelli-and-oscar-piastri/


Brazilian GP: Norris claims Sprint pole as Piastri third and Verstappen blasts ‘broken’ Red Bull
7 Nov 2025
Mat Coch
PlanetF1.com

Championship leader Lando Norris has started his Sao Paulo Grand Prix in fine style with pole for Saturday’s Sprint in Interlagos. He’ll line up on the front row alongside Kimi Antonelli, while title rival Oscar Piastri could do no better than third.

With 90 seconds remaining, Piastri started another flying lap, managing a personal best to the first split. Behind him, Norris was going even faster. Piastri rose to third best, while Norris improved by 0.028s to retain top spot, Antonelli between them.

Verstappen lost time on his final lap to secure sixth, with Russell fourth from Alonso in an impressive fifth. Rounding out the top 10 were Lance Stroll in seventh from Leclerc, Isack Hadjar, and Nico Hulkenberg.

‘Verstappen blasts ‘broken’ Red Bull’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/brazilian-gp-lando-norris-sprint-pole-interlagos-piastri-third-verstappen-broken-red-bull

[Fortitude]

Lando Norris wins Brazilian Grand Prix Sprint as Oscar Piastri and Franco Colapinto crash.
Norris got a strong start off the line, with Kimi Antonelli in second being squeezed by Oscar Piastri and George Russell, but managing to keep his position.
8 November 2025
Rebecca Braybrook
F1 Oversteer

Antonelli put pressure on Norris in the closing laps, moving within DRS of the McLaren, although he was unable to get past. The race ended under yellow flag conditions in sector one after Gabriel Bortoleto crashed into the barriers at Turn 1 after a close fight with Alex Albon on the final lap. It was a nasty shunt for the Sauber driver, who was airborne as he hit the wall.

Drivers struggled with the damp track in the early stages of the race, including Piastri who took slightly too much kerb, which saw him lose the rear of his McLaren. Piastri went spinning into the barriers at Turn 3 on Lap 6, with Franco Colapinto and Nico Hulkenberg also crashing out behind the Aussie, triggering a red flag.

Hulkenberg was able to bring his Sauber back to the pit lane, but both Piastri and Colapinto were out of the Sprint. This could be crucial for Piastri’s championship fight, having also crashed out of the last Sprint race in Austin.

‘Lando Norris wins’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/lando-norris-wins-brazilian-grand-prix-sprint-as-oscar-piastri-and-franco-colapinto-crash/


São Paulo Grand Prix - Sprint Race results
08/11/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Full results from the Sprint Race for the São Paulo Grand Prix at Interlagos, round 21 of the 2025 F1 World Championship.
2025 São Paulo Grand Prix - Sprint Race results
Pos Driver Team Gap Stops
1 Lando Norris McLaren + 53:25.928s
2 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes + 0.845s
3 George Russell Mercedes + 2.318s
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull + 4.423s
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari + 16.483s
6 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin + 18.306s
7 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari + 18.603s
8 Pierre Gasly Alpine + 19.366s
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin + 23.933s
10 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls + 29.548s

‘Full results’;

https://f1i.com/news/552989-sao-paulo-grand-prix-sprint-race-results.html


Brazil GP Sprint Full Results | Norris wins, rookie close to race ban
8 Nov 2025
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Lando Norris has won the Sprint race at the 2025 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, earning important points in the standings. The Sprint podium was completed by the two Mercedes drivers, Kimi Antonelli and George Russell. Max Verstappen finished in fourth place starting from P6 on the grid. After spinning out and hitting the wall in Turn 3, Oscar Piastri failed to collect any points today.

Following a hard-fought battle between Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc, the Monegasque driver crossed the finish line in P5. Lewis Hamilton came close to overtaking the Spaniard as well, but narrowly missed out on gaining another position after his superb start at Interlagos.

‘Earning important points in the standings’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/brazil-gp-sprint-full-results-norris-wins-piastri-in-the-wall


F1 Brazil GP Sprint red flagged as Oscar Piastri crashes out
08/11/2025
James Phillips
Motorsport Week

The battle for the 2025 Formula 1 title has taken a dramatic turn as the Sao Paulo Grand Prix Sprint Race has been red-flagged after Oscar Piastri crashed out. Starting back in third place, Piastri needed a strong start to make up ground on team-mate Lando Norris, now a point behind the Briton ahead of the Sprint Race.

Unable to pass Andrea Kimi Antonelli at the start, he mounted the kerb out of Turn 2 on Lap 7, and aquaplaned into the barriers, the water displaced by Norris seconds earlier. The Australian was not alone, as Franco Colapinto and Nico Hulkenberg suffered the same fate, Colapinto’s exit more dramatic, destroying his Alpine and showering the track with debris.

‘Dramatic turn’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/11/08/f1-brazil-gp-sprint-red-flagged-as-oscar-piastri-crashes-out/


How Lando Norris’ ‘Mario Kart’ move triggered Oscar Piastri crash in F1 Brazil GP Sprint
08/11/2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Russell jokes that Norris is the ‘smartest guy’ after causing Piastri crash. As it transpired, Norris took too much kerb than he usually would have on Lap 6 at Turn 3, which loosened the water onto the track.

This left Piastri vulnerable behind, and when touching the water, he was left a passenger as he clipped the barrier and into retirement, giving Norris a nine-point advantage in the championship. When asked about how he inadvertently caused Piastri’s crash, Norris said: “Yeah, I mean, it’s a kerb you always use in quali. We use it a lot.”

“Obviously, when it’s wet conditions like this, you kind of want to stay off all the kerbs. So I ran a little bit wide and I saw the water come onto the track. But yeah, that was it.” George Russell, who finished third, picked up his microphone and joked: “A little bit like Mario Kart where you throw the banana out behind you. The smartest guy on the grid, this guy.”

“But yeah, that was it”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/11/08/how-lando-norris-mario-kart-move-caused-oscar-piastri-crash-in-f1-brazil-gp-sprint/

[Fortitude]

São Paulo GP: Norris tops qualifying, Antonelli P2 - Verstappen P16.
Lando Norris delivered a stunning performance to take pole position for Sunday’s São Paulo Grand Prix, outpacing Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
08/11/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

After a first Q3 lap spoiled by a lock-up in Turn 1, Norris regrouped and produced a flawless 1m09.511s lap, nearly two-tenths clear of Antonelli. Leclerc took third, with Piastri, who was trying to bounce back after crashing out of Saturday morning’s Sprint, narrowly missing the podium spot.

The biggest shock of the session came in Q1. Verstappen, who had undergone major post-Sprint setup changes, struggled with handling and posted two poor laps, finding himself deep in the drop zone with five minutes remaining. His final effort gained nearly three-tenths, but that was not enough: he ended 16th, eight-tenths adrift of Norris and just a tenth from safety.

He was joined in early elimination by Esteban Ocon, Franco Colapinto, and Yuki Tsunoda, marking Red Bull’s first double Q1 exit since the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix. With Norris on pole, Piastri in close pursuit, and Verstappen facing a major uphill battle, the stage is set for a dramatic São Paulo Grand Prix, where championship fortunes could swing wildly in just 71 laps.

‘Lando Norris delivered a stunning performance’;

https://f1i.com/news/553021-sao-paulo-gp-norris-tops-qualifying-antonelli-p2-verstappen-p16.html


São Paulo Grand Prix - Qualifying results
08/11/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Full results from qualifying for the São Paulo Grand Prix at São Paulo, Brazil, round 21 of the 2025 F1 World Championship.
2025 São Paulo Grand Prix - Qualifying results
Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:09.656s 1:09.616s 1:09.511s
2 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:10.192s 1:09.774s 1:09.685s
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:09.934s 1:09.801s 1:09.805s
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:09.928s 1:09.835s 1:09.886s
5 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls 1:10.083s 1:09.970s 1:09.931s
6 George Russell Mercedes 1:09.935s 1:09.880s 1:09.942s
7 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 1:10.108s 1:09.950s 1:09.962s
8 Oliver Bearman Haas 1:09.891s 1:09.755s 1:09.977s
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:09.885s 1:09.857s 1:10.002s
10 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber 1:10.337s 1:09.985s 1:10.039s

‘Qualifying results’;

https://f1i.com/news/553019-sao-paulo-grand-prix-qualifying-results.html


Winners and losers from Brazilian GP qualifying
Nov 8, 2025
The Race

Beyond the obvious Lando Norris pole and Max Verstappen's Q1 exit, there was plenty happening in a mixed-up qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix. Here are our winners and losers from a day which feels pivotal in the championship fight and will almost certainly be remembered for a diverse range of triumphs and failures, even by Formula 1's standards.

Loser - Max Verstappen (16th). Max Verstappen’s first Q1 exit in four years couldn’t be worse timed for his unlikely 2025 title bid. Should he fail to significantly recover from 16th on the grid on Sunday and a McLaren wins, Verstappen’s title dream will be all but over, given there are only three races left. In fact, Verstappen’s already saying “you can forget about it” as far as his title hopes are concerned. Of course, he started down in 17th last year and won, but that was in a wet race and anyway Red Bull looks totally lost here this year.

“You can forget about it”;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/winners-and-losers-from-brazilian-gp-qualifying/


Marko reveals Red Bull meeting after Brazil GP quali blunder
8 Nov 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

According to Red Bull Racing chief advisor, Helmut Marko, the team will hold a pre-race meeting to try and turn the team's "situation" around. Speaking to Sky Germany after the qualifying session for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Marko said things had "gone badly wrong."

The 82-year-old Austrian also emphasised that the Milton Keynes-based outfit's car's performance loss was evident throughout the lap, saying: "We have slowed down everywhere, lost time in all sectors. The damage has been done. It doesn't look good."

Nevertheless Red Bull simply relied on their ability to "find the right direction. But that was not the case. We have to look at where we have taken a wrong turn." In the end, Marko revealed Red Bull would hold a meeting prior to the race to discuss measures. "We have to see what we do with this situation," he concluded.

"We have slowed down everywhere, lost time in all sectors”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/marko-reveals-red-bull-meeting-after-brazil-gp-quali-blunder


‘Annoyed’ Kimi Antonelli sends Lando Norris message straight after losing out on Brazilian GP pole
8 November 2025
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Kimi Antonelli is ‘annoyed’ to finish second to Lando Norris ‘again’ in qualifying for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Antonelli has thrived at Interlagos this weekend, but he also had to settle for second best as Norris scored pole for the Sao Paulo Sprint and won the 100km dash by 0.845s. Norris could not shake Antonelli after starting on the soft C4 tyres compared to the Italian’s medium C3s.

So, Antonelli joked that he was “a bit annoyed” about coming second again as Norris scored pole for the Sao Paulo GP by 0.174s. The Mercedes rookie expects Norris will be “very fast” in Sunday’s feature race in Brazil, too, when he will seek the second podium of his F1 career. Antonelli said in the post-qualifying interview: “To be fair, I’m a bit annoyed [that] I’m again behind him. We were so close this morning in the Sprint, as well. But it was a very tricky session with the wind, very tricky to put the lap together.”

‘Annoyed’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/annoyed-kimi-antonelli-sends-lando-norris-message-straight-after-losing-out-on-brazilian-gp-pole/


Max Verstappen makes alarming Red Bull claim after shock Brazil Q1 exit
08 Nov 2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Verstappen was able to recover to fourth from P6 on the grid in the Brazil Sprint. But, as qualifying for the Grand Prix arrived, disaster struck. Both Verstappen and Red Bull teammate Yuki Tsunoda – as they began their final Q1 lap – were left in need of a quicker time to make the Q2 cut. Neither driver could manage it.

“It was just bad,” Verstappen lamented as he spoke to Sky F1 after his elimination. “I mean, I couldn’t push, at all. The car was all over the place, sliding around a lot. I had to underdrive it a lot, just to not have a moment, and that, of course, doesn’t work in qualifying.”

And concerningly, Verstappen says he and Red Bull have no idea why they were so slow. “I mean, we first have to analyse what is going on,” said Verstappen when asked what is possible in the race. “I don’t really understand how it can be this bad. So that’s a bit more important to understand at the moment.”

‘Alarming Red Bull claim’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/max-verstappen-red-bull-do-not-understand-why-rb21-so-bad-brazil

[Fortitude]

Piastri targets race fightback after Sao Paulo qualifying frustration.
Oscar Piastri says he’ll focus on maximising “whatever opportunities arise” in Sunday’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix after admitting he “just didn’t go any faster” on his final qualifying lap to end up fourth.
9 Nov 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

The Australian had looked set to bounce back from his Sprint race crash earlier in the day when he briefly held provisional pole in Q3, but was ultimately unable to improve on his final lap as McLaren teammate Lando Norris claimed pole ahead of Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc. “I just didn’t go any faster. I think that was the biggest thing,” Piastri said.

“Yeah, just very different conditions to what we had yesterday I would say. And just everything felt much trickier today. So, yeah, obviously it’s a bit disappointing with the result. But the car’s looked quick this weekend, especially over a longer run, so hopefully I can take advantage of that tomorrow.”

Despite the setback, Piastri insisted he remains ready to fight back in the race. “Definitely,” he said when asked about the title battle. “I think ultimately I’ll try and take whatever opportunities arise. And, yeah, if I can make progress forwards and put some pressure on then I will. But got to get there first.”

‘Fightback’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-oscar-piastri-sao-paulo-qualifying-reaction-fourth-result-comments-mclaren-championship/


Crash, Chaos, Comeback: Piastri’s Interlagos Title Gambit
8 Nov 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

On a slippery, stubborn Saturday in São Paulo, the McLaren driver went from Sprint heartbreak to a qualifying session that refused to obey the usual logic, ending up fourth on the grid for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix. Lando Norris banked an assured pole. Kimi Antonelli shocked plenty by sticking it on the front row. Charles Leclerc will line up third, with Piastri alongside on the second row.

The Australian’s day pivoted on the Sprint, where he exited Turn 2 with a touch too much throttle and a fraction too much kerb, and the rear bit back. The MCL-whatever-it’s-called-this-week flicked round and slid into the barrier on the outside of Turn 3. Moments later Nico Hülkenberg and Franco Colapinto were caught by the same trap.

Piastri didn’t sugar-coat it afterward: yes, he’d used that kerb a lap earlier; no, he shouldn’t have gone near it again with the track in that state. He reckoned the cars ahead may have dragged extra water over the strip, turning a legal line into a loaded dice roll. “A little bit wide, nothing major,” he said, before conceding the consequences were anything but. Classic Interlagos—one of those places where the surface, the weather and the rhythm can gang up on you between corners.

‘Crash, Chaos, Comeback’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/crash-chaos-comeback-piastris-interlagos-title-gambit/


‘Like Mario Kart’: Norris’ telling reply over Piastri crash as reason for ‘strange’ chaos emerges
9 Nov 2025
AFP with Fox Sports from Afp
Fox Sports (Australia)

“Norris hit the kerb and a lot of water went on line,” Antonelli was heard saying on team radio. The assessments of both Colapinto and Hulkenberg suggest that the conditions at the corner had indeed changed before claiming the trio. “I just lost the car in Turn 3. There was some new water or something, so it’s strange, but I need to see the onboard,” Colapinto said. “Other cars spun there on the same lap, so it was a bit strange. I don’t really know at the moment, but it was quite strange. I know it was a bit damp, the track, but we had done a few laps already and it was feeling fine.”

Hulkenberg added: “It just snapped very suddenly, aggressively and there’s not much recovering from there. The team said that Oscar went off first there, might have put the wheel wide and put some water out of the kerb and onto the track. I just drove and didn’t do very different than the lap before, but just completely lost the rear and lost the car.”

“I ran a little bit wide and I saw the water come onto the track. But yeah ... that was it,” Lando Norris said before smiling. George Russell then responded: “It felt a little bit like Mario Kart when you throw the banana out behind. “Smartest guy on the grid, this guy (Norris).” A safety car was deployed immediately, quickly followed by a red flag on lap eight.

‘Mario Kart’;

https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport/formula-one/f1-2025-brazil-grand-prix-qualifying-and-sprint-race-results-oscar-piastri-crashes-out-lando-norris-wins-and-claims-pole-points-standings-video-highlights/news-story/e83183306ccadb00c44671056906d965


Verstappen’s Qualifying exit 'difficult to accept' as Mekies concedes risk went in the 'opposite direction'
9 Nov 2025
Formula One - Official Site

“Today has not been a positive day for the Team, but one we will try and learn from,” Red Bull Team Principal Laurent Mekies summarised afterwards. “The Sprint was tough and we did not have the pace to fight for the win.
“We were not happy with where we were after the Sprint, so we decided to make a number of changes. It is part of the risk taking we felt was necessary to see if we could get more out of the car.”

“It didn’t work and if anything, it went in the opposite direction and clearly, we lost a lot of competitiveness. It is painful and difficult to accept but it is what happens when you take risks sometimes and the best we can do is to learn from it and see where we can improve the car from here.”

'Difficult to accept';

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappens-qualifying-exit-difficult-to-accept-as-mekies-accepts-risk-went.3mJiypBdDMRxEh3kgPcKZ4


“I had to massively under-drive it”: How Verstappen’s disastrous Saturday unfolded
8 Nov 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

Max Verstappen’s disastrous elimination in the first round of qualifying at Interlagos clearly caught Red Bull by surprise. Even given the damp conditions in the sprint race, Verstappen’s RB21 looked a handful, particularly at turn one. He caught snaps of oversteer there on laps two, four and six. Moments later Oscar Piastri spun into the barrier at the exit of Curva do Sol. Verstappen almost lost control of his car at the same point in the corner, keeping it out of the barriers with an armful of opposite lock. The Safety Car was deployed moments later.

“The car is just bouncing everywhere,” Verstappen reported to race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. “It’s terrible, we can’t keep up.” Lambiase replied with “Okay, we’re just going to try and get you through some recommendations for turn one, Turn one looks really poor.” Verstappen answered with “No, it’s just wet, I have no grip, “it’s not the balance.” Lambiase appeared irked by this response and spoke over the driver as he replied: “Yes, so we are giving you recommendations so that you avoid oversteering into the corner every lap, Max. Whether you take them or not, is up to you,” he added testily.

Red Bull did not give the impression of a team desperately seeking a set-up solution as Q1 began. They were content to let all of their rivals hit the track before Verstappen, bar the Mercedes pair. Verstappen’s first run, a 1’10.681, gave no obvious cause for concern. “You’re currently P4,” Lambiase told him. “Looks like the track is a little bit slower than expected,” he added. However a flurry of quicker laps from other cars followed, and Verstappen tumbled down the order to 16th place. Red Bull sent him out for his final run early – so much so that he had the track to himself. “Oh my god, mate, the car right now is a tiny bit better, but now I’m sliding even more,” Verstappen reported. “For reference, Bearman P1, 9.8, you’re currently P16,” Lambiase replied. “Let us know if we can help you out with the tools.” But Verstappen was stumped: “No, I don’t know what to tell you.”

“I had to massively under-drive it”;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/11/08/i-had-to-massively-under-drive-it-how-verstappens-disastrous-saturday-unfolded/


Brazil Bombshell: Verstappen Could Start from the Pit Lane
8 Nov 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Red Bull turned up at Interlagos looking like they’d finally found a groove again. By the end of qualifying, they were back in a hole – and staring at an awkward call that could send Max Verstappen to a pit-lane start on Sunday. Verstappen was knocked out in Q1, the RB21 visibly short on grip and speed in all the wrong places, with teammate Yuki Tsunoda also failing to escape the first segment. The team reverted the cars out of parc fermé between the Sprint and qualifying, chased a bold direction – and got lost. Now the question is whether to double down on a misfiring setup or rip it up, break parc fermé again and start from the pits.

Helmut Marko didn’t sugarcoat it. Speaking to Austrian TV, he said Red Bull will sit down and decide whether “drastic changes” are needed to wake the car up – fully aware that doing so would mean a pit-lane launch for Verstappen rather than the P16 he currently holds. The blunt assessment from Marko: the track ramped up, Red Bull didn’t, and grip disappeared where it mattered. Sector 1 and 3 were the alarm bells; the stopwatch confirmed it.

It’s a gut punch just as Verstappen had built a run of six straight podiums to steady his title push in the wake of Lando Norris’ charge at the front. Mexico already hinted at the wobble: Red Bull brought bits, didn’t get the return, and Verstappen’s podium there owed more to craft than raw pace in a race Norris controlled. The team thought they’d understood the direction. Brazil says otherwise.

‘Brazil Bombshell’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/brazil-bombshell-verstappen-could-start-from-the-pit-lane/

[Fortitude]

São Paulo GP: Norris wins – Verstappen stuns with pitlane to P3!
Lando Norris further strengthened his grip on the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship with a commanding victory in Sunday’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, leading from start to finish at Interlagos to claim his seventh win of the season.
09/11/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

For Norris, it was another display of composure and control – a timely reminder of why he’s emerging as the man to beat this season. In contrast, teammate Oscar Piastri’s hopes of keeping his title challenge alive suffered another blow after a costly early clash and a penalty left him only fifth at the flag.

Verstappen’s Fightback Through the Field. Freed from parc fermé restrictions after starting from the pitlane, Verstappen’s reworked Red Bull setup paid dividends. The Dutchman, who had been eliminated in Q1, showed vastly improved pace on his medium tyres and sliced through the midfield with a string of bold overtakes.

His progress was so relentless that, following Norris’s first pit stop, Verstappen briefly inherited the race lead. However, Red Bull’s three-stop strategy — designed to maximize tyre life and data gathering — ultimately dropped him back behind both Mercedes cars.

‘Verstappen stuns with pitlane to P3!’;

https://f1i.com/news/553194-sao-paulo-gp-norris-wins-verstappen-stuns-with-pitlane-to-p3.html


São Paulo Grand Prix - Race results
09/11/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Full race results from the São Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil, round 21 of the 2025 Formula 1 world championship.
2025 São Paulo Grand Prix - Race results
Pos Driver Team Gap Stops
1 Lando Norris McLaren + 1:32:01.596s 2
2 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes + 10.388s 2
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull + 10.750s 3
4 George Russell Mercedes + 15.267s 2
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren + 15.749s 2
6 Oliver Bearman Haas + 29.630s 2
7 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls + 52.642s 1
8 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls + 52.873s 2
9 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber + 53.324s 1
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine + 53.914s 2

‘Full race results’;

https://f1i.com/news/553191-sao-paulo-grand-prix-race-results.html


Norris takes victory at Brazilian GP with Verstappen staging comeback
9 Nov 2025
Steven De Groote
F1 Technical

McLaren's Lando Norris has won the Brazilian Grand Prix to further extend his Championship lead. Kimi Antonelli finished second for Mercedes but all eyes were on Verstappen who battled from the back of the pack up to a podium scoring 3rd place at the checquered flag. After an clean getaway for everyone without any incidents lots of stuff happened in the lap that followed. Norris stayed out of trouble after an excellent start, followed by Antonelli and Leclerc, Piastri maintained fourth even though he had to fend off the two Racing Bulls.

At Turn 9 in the middle of the pack Stroll didn't see or didn't car about local hero Bortoleto, pushing the Sauber into the grass and into the wall. That was a yellow flag until race control decided to bring out the safety car. Meanwhile, just before that safety car, Hamilton ended up being surprised by Colapinto on the main straight, leaving him with a broken front wing. Hamilton had already had a very troublesome start after gettting bumped into by Albon at Turn 1.

‘Norris takes victory’;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/27996


Norris wins Brazilian GP as Piastri penalised, Verstappen third from pits
Nov 9, 2025
Jack Benyon
The Race

Lando Norris struck a major blow in the 2025 Formula 1 title race by winning the Brazilian Grand Prix, as Oscar Piastri was penalised for causing an accident while Max Verstappen charged to the podium from a pitlane start. A mix of strategies and tyre choices plus Verstappen’s heroics made this an absolute classic of an F1 race, also helped by Piastri getting a 10-second penalty for crashing into Kimi Antonelli, who still ended up finishing second!

The pivotal moment for Piastri was diving inside Antonelli's Mercedes at Turn 1 in a three-car battle with Charles Leclerc's Ferrari following a safety car restart (caused by Gabriel Bortoleto crashing out of his home race battling Lance Stroll's Aston Martin). Piastri locked up and hit Antonelli who slewed into Leclerc and, while Antonelli could continue, Leclerc lost his front-left tyre and had to retire.

Attention then switched to Verstappen. After his pitlane start, he’d taken just a couple of racing laps to get up to 13th, and then had to pit under the VSC caused by Leclerc’s stoppage with his own puncture, dropping him to the back of the pack. On fresh mediums Verstappen drove through the field and into the top five.

‘Verstappen third from pits’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/norris-wins-brazilian-gp-as-piastri-penalised-verstappen-third-from-pits/


Kimi Antonelli explains how he stopped Max Verstappen from overtaking him at the Brazilian GP
9 November 2025
Shay Rogers
F1 Oversteer

Kimi Antonelli scored the best result of his Formula 1 career so far after holding on to second place ahead of Max Verstappen at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Antonelli now has two podiums to show for his efforts this year, picking up his last one in Canada nearly six months ago. He’s almost guaranteed to finish seventh in the drivers’ championship, and that’s something he can build on in the future.

The 19-year-old’s racecraft has come under fire at times this season, such as when he hit Charles Leclerc in Zandvoort. He was also involved in a tangle with the Monegasque driver in Sao Paulo, but escaped unscathed, as the Ferrari driver retired again. Late in the race, he had to be clever with the positioning of his car, revealing after the race that he used the ‘dirty air’ to keep a fast-charging Max Verstappen behind him.

“The last few laps were very stressful with Max coming with a fresher tyre,” he said on Sky Sports F1 after the race. “Luckily, with the free air, we were able to maintain a decent pace and finish P2. I found my rhythm. Obviously, when he was closing in, I raised the pace. I tried to push a bit more. I found my rhythm, and obviously, with this car, with the dirty air, it’s a bit difficult to follow. I tried to use that into my advantage and it paid off.”

‘Used the ‘dirty air’ to keep a fast-charging Max Verstappen behind him’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/kimi-antonelli-explains-how-he-stopped-max-verstappen-from-overtaking-him-at-the-brazilian-gp/


Lambiase apologises to Verstappen after Brazil GP masterclass
9 Nov 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Gianpiero Lambiase apologized to Max Verstappen after a Brazil GP in which the Dutchman recovered from the pit lane all the way to the podium. Speaking to the Dutchman over the radio after the race, Lambiase said: "Can only apologize for yesterday mate, this was a race winning drive. Sorry."

The reference was, obviously, to Saturday’s disastrous qualifying, where Verstappen was shockingly eliminated in Q1 with the sixteenth fastest time, largely compromising his weekend despite a textbook recovery that followed. Responding to his race engineer, Verstappen instead wanted to thank the team for the tremendous work overnight in turning around a weekend that, until yesterday, had looked all but lost.

Max Verstappen: "Nah, don't be. That was a really, really good race for us. We at least try, you know. Thank you very much for today, that went really well"

“This was a race winning drive”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/lambiase-offers-heartfelt-apologies-to-verstappen-after-brazil-gp-podium

[Fortitude]

British media hails Norris’ Brazil win as ‘of a champion in waiting’.
"Norris’s victory was without doubt that of a champion in waiting as he managed a tense and high pressure victory from pole position to extend his world championship lead over his McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri, who finished fifth." The Guardian.
10 Nov 2025
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

The British media saw two main talking points after the Sao Paulo GP: Lando Norris taking control of the drivers’ standings and Max Verstappen’s astonishing comeback from the pit lane.

The Daily Mail: Verstappen’s God-like drive received heavy praise, as did Norris’s great weekend at the Interlagos circuit, where he claimed all 33 points available. They write: "Norris beat his buddy and went a long way to punctuating an era that is going down kicking and screaming, and reminding us of its abiding brilliance."

"We use his (Verstappen's) wonders for now only to benchmark Norris's achievements in Sao Paulo. Under the biggest pressure of his career, the Briton took pole for the sprint, won the sprint, took pole for the Sau Paulo Grand Prix itself, and was faultless in winning it."

‘A champion in waiting’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/british-media-hails-norris-brazil-win-as-of-a-champion-in-waiting


Lando Norris makes McLaren demand after 2025 Sao Paulo GP weekend
10 November 2025
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

Norris reveals why he demands more from McLaren: But with Verstappen, the defending world champion, finishing just 10.7 seconds behind despite starting from the pit lane and making an extra pit stop, the winning margin actually leaves him feeling slightly uncomfortable. That’s because last time out in Mexico City, he won by an impressive 30 seconds and the loss of that deficit is why Norris demands more from McLaren in the wake of his ruthless 2025 Sao Paulo GP performance as he expects better balance.

“We’re drivers, so we’re always going to complain about something,” Norris added. “The car balance was difficult. I’m sure the others will say the same. But it’s a realistic thing to use. In terms of when I was a bit happier with the car balance last weekend, we won by 30 seconds. This weekend, we only won by 10 and, you know, Max was coming at us quite quickly.”

“So yeah, the pace was not on another level and we set our standards high, as a team, as we rightly should. So to win by 10 seconds, I’m going to sound like an idiot saying it, but yeah, we just wanted a bit more. I still had to fight the car a lot to win by those 10 seconds. So, just a little bit trickier than what I would have liked. But I’m still very happy with how the weekend’s gone, of course. And I’m very proud of the whole team and what they’ve been able to give me.”

“We’re always going to complain about something”;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/lando-norris-demands-more-mclaren-sao-paulo-gp/


How Lando Norris found his killer instinct - just as Oscar Piastri's fell apart
The British driver has the F1 world title within reach after a golden run of form
November 10, 2025
Adam Cooper
inews

SAO PAULO — Over the past two Formula One race weekends in Mexico and Brazil, Lando Norris has gone some way towards achieving his goal of winning the 2025 world championship. He now has a lead of 24 points over his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, and he is 49 ahead of reigning champion Max Verstappen, whose challenge has faltered just as Norris has hit a golden streak of form.

Norris may have a healthy buffer, but there are still 83 points to be won over the final three events in Las Vegas, Qatar (where there is also a sprint) and Abu Dhabi, so the job is far from done. Indeed if he hits trouble in Vegas and fails to score and Piastri wins, the Aussie will be back in the lead by a point. This eventful season could yet have a few surprises in store.

However the momentum is clearly now with Norris, and the turnaround in his fortunes relative to Piastri has been an extraordinary story. As Norris again dominated in Sunday’s Sao Paulo GP Piastri found himself in trouble again, clipping Kimi Antonelli and landing a 10-second penalty that contributed to another lowly fifth place finish.

‘Found his killer instinct’;

https://inews.co.uk/sport/formula-one/f1-lando-norris-killer-instinct-oscar-piastri-4032409?ITO=newsnow


Oscar Piastri on the verge of losing title, as F1 world reacts to brutal penalty
9 Nov 2025
Kye Ferreira
Sporting News

The F1 Championship dream continues to slip away for the Aussie Oscar Piastri, as he extends his fall behind teammate Lando Norris at the São Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil. The famous gigantic lead Piastri once had is now turning into a slump, with Norris claiming his seventh victory of the season.

Norris started from pole position at the Interlagos circuit, meanwhile Piastri had a challenging finish to earn 5th place. Piastri not only had a tough race, he was also given a contentious 10 second penalty after he was blamed for causing a collision after the first of two virtual safety car restarts.

The McLaren driver launched an aggressive attack moving up the inside of Turn One on Lap 6 and locked his brakes before running out of room, colliding into Kimi Antonelli, who as consequence collided into Charles Leclerc who was on the outside. The stewards also added two points to Piastri’s superlicence, taking him up to eight points over the last year, which puts him four points away from a race ban.

‘On the verge of losing title’;

https://www.sportingnews.com/au/formula-1/news/oscar-piastri-verge-losing-title-f1-reacts-penalty/90be9d6fd5bb33828f02207c

[Fortitude]

Norris now clear favourite for F1 title, barring late twist.
Lando Norris does not have to win another race this season, although the McLaren driver will not be looking at it that way, to become Formula One champion.
Nov 10, 2025
The Straits Times

The simple sums after a weekend in Sao Paulo were clear: the title is Norris's to lose and he is favourite to follow seven-times title-winner Lewis Hamilton as the latest in a line of British world champions. Norris is 24 points clear of Australian teammate Oscar Piastri, whose title bid has rapidly imploded, with three grands prix -- Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi -- and one Saturday sprint remaining.

Even if Piastri were to take maximum points, Norris would still be champion when the final chequered flag is waved under the floodlights at Yas Marina on December 7 if he finished runner-up every time. The chances of that happening are unlikely, however.

While the constructors' champions have romped to seven one-two finishes so far this season, the last was in Hungary in August and Piastri has been off the podium in his last five regular races.

‘Norris now clear favourite’;

https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/formula-one/norris-now-clear-favourite-for-f1-title-barring-late-twist


No alcohol and ignoring the haters – how Lando Norris seized control of F1 title race
Analysis: A remarkable 58-point turnaround in just six races against his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri means Norris now has one hand on his maiden Formula One world championship
10 November 2025
Kieran Jackson
The Independent

Much like Mexico a fortnight back, it was impossible to ignore the smattering of jeers in the old-school grandstands. Just three months ago, a plethora of haters would have had a damaging impact on Lando Norris and his performance. We all love to be loved, right? Norris certainly did.

Now though, a backbone of steel has emerged: Norris 2.0 does not give a hoot. “I just ignore everyone who talks crap about you!” the McLaren driver said with a smirk, immediately after his grand prix victory in Brazil and at the precise moment a few boos were audible on the broadcast. “Just focus on yourself.”

‘A remarkable 58-point turnaround in just six races’;

https://www.independent.co.uk/f1/lando-norris-f1-2025-title-piastri-verstappen-b2862002.html


Stella reveals why Piastri was slower than Norris all weekend
10 Nov 2025
Drew Murphy
GPblog.com

Andrea Stella has discussed the reasons why Oscar Piastri struggled throughout the Brazilian Grand Prix, and was way behind his teammate Lando Norris. Across the Brazilian Grand Prix, Piastri was unable to best his teammate and championship rival Norris. “Oscar is sort of learning this technique, embedding this technique, but it may take a bit more time to fully exploit them in a natural way." - Andrea Stella

Speaking to F1TV after the Sprint, Stella revealed how Piastri struggled to adapt to the wet conditions in Brazil. He said: “A missed opportunity with Oscar, conditions are tricky. You put the wheel in a curb, and that's completely unforgiving; there is no way to control the car. It happened to 3 drivers in the same lap at the same point, so it's just unfortunate. “But the most reassuring input thus far is that Oscar has been fast.” However, across the whole weekend, Piastri was not fast enough to beat his teammate, Lando Norris.

Piastri was outqualified by Norris in all qualifying segments, including sprint and regular sessions, at Interlagos. The Australian was 0.247s down on average across the six phases. Following qualifying, Stella discussed Piastri’s struggles with the technique required to drive fast. He said: “Some of the techniques required to drive the car fast they resemble a bit the techniques that were required in Austin and Mexico.”

“Oscar is sort of learning this technique”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/stella-reveals-why-piastri-was-slower-than-norris-all-weekend


The Ten Seconds That Could Decide Piastri’s Title
November 10, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Interlagos rarely does subtle. On Sunday it put Oscar Piastri’s title chase under the hard lights, then handed him a 10 second penalty that turned his race — and maybe this championship narrative — on its head. After a scruffy Saturday sprint, Piastri’s brief on Sunday was simple: reset and chip away at his team mate’s advantage at the top of the standings. For a few laps he looked on the right side of that mission. Then came the lap six restart and a three car chain reaction that left Charles Leclerc out, Kimi Antonelli bruised, and Piastri with a time penalty that wrecked his afternoon.

Let’s start with the scene-setter. Coming off the VSC, Antonelli — on the softer tyre and leading that little train — lit up the rears just enough to check his momentum on the run to Turn 1. Piastri saw it, tucked into the tow and drew almost alongside into the braking zone on the inside. That’s the move at Interlagos: commit early, own the apex, and trust the other car gives you the racing room the rulebook promises.

Only Antonelli eased left. Not a chop, but a squeeze — the kind of millimetric drift that turns a brave lunge into a calculus problem. With the pit wall and that unforgiving inside barrier rushing up, Piastri stamped on the brake earlier than he had the lap before. The front-left snatched. Contact. Antonelli’s Mercedes pinballed into Leclerc’s Ferrari, and the red car ended up parked, race over.

‘Ten Seconds’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/the-ten-seconds-that-could-decide-piastris-title/


'Harsh Piastri penalty will discourage the F1 battles we love to see'
November 10, 2025
Chris Medland
Motor Sport Magazine

Painful penalties provoke a reaction: There was so much that was good about the Sao Paulo Grand Prix that it was quite telling how passionate some in the paddock were about one of the negative aspects of the race. Oscar Piastri‘s penalty for causing a collision with Kimi Antonelli appeared harsh on first viewing, and even more so when the reasoning from the stewards was delivered.

Piastri was called “wholly responsible” for the contact, while the stewards also claimed Piastri “did not establish the required overlap prior to and at the apex, as his front axle was not alongside the mirror of Car 12, as defined in the Driving Standards Guidelines for overtaking on the inside of a corner.”

‘Harsh on first viewing, and even more so when the reasoning from the stewards was delivered’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/harsh-piastri-penalty-will-discourage-the-f1-battles-we-love-to-see/?nowprocket=1

[Fortitude]

Wolff hails "really strong" Antonelli after second place finish in Brazil.
“All weekend he was strong. Maybe it was coming to a track he didn't know - it's a bit easier.” - Toto Wolff.
11 Nov 2025
Owen Bradley
GPblog.com

Antonelli seems to be on relatively good form at the moment, with the 19-year old claiming a podium finish in Brazil, beating experienced team-mate George Russell and defending from a charging Verstappen. Wolff stated: "Being able to fend off Max on a newer and softer tyre, well that was really strong and testament to what's to come.”

The Italian claimed his second podium finish of the season, scoring another podium at the Canadian Grand Prix earlier this year. However, with Antonelli racing in the junior categories and gaining experience on most of the European circuits, there was some expectation that the Italian may fare better at these circuits. But this has not exactly been the case.

Speaking on Antonelli's surprising recent form at circuits he doesn't know, Wolff revealed: “Expectations are maybe lower. Maybe pressure is not as high as some of the Europeans and then the execution was faultless at the end." Wolff added: "I think it's also managing his own expectations, he's so young, he's just 19 years old, You come to a track where you know you've performed very well in the past, some of the European ones, and then on the back foot."

"Really strong";

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/wolff-hails-really-strong-antonelli-after-second-place-finish-in-brazil


Wolff praises ‘faultless’ Antonelli drive at Interlagos
Kimi Antonelli scored the best result of his fledgling Grand Prix career with second place in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, earning high praise from Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff.
11 Nov 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Asked if this was the Italian’s most complete weekend to date, Wolff said: “I think all weekend it was strong, from the get-go. It's good to see. Maybe it was coming to a track that he didn't know. “It's a bit easier. Expectations. Expectations are maybe lower.

“Maybe pressure is not as high as some of the [European races], and then the execution was faultless at the end. You know, being able to fend off, fight off Max on the newer, fresher tyre, that was really strong and a testament as to what is to come.”

As to why Antonelli has found form away from Europe, Wolff added: “I think it's a development. Next year he will come to these tracks that he knows without expecting to kill it. And that's the learning year, the year that we always expected to come with all the ups and downs. Today is an up, definitely. A good moment. There will be more difficult ones.”

‘Wolff praises ‘faultless’ Antonelli drive’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/wolff-praises-faultless-antonelli-drive-at-interlagos.12Z8fm7dVoenZJLGFZamL8


Wolff explains why Antonelli shines most on unfamiliar tracks
11/11/2025
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Mercedes F1 team boss Toto Wolff believes there’s a simple – and fascinating – explanation on why Kimi Antonelli thrives when he’s racing somewhere he’s never been before. “All weekend he was strong,” Wolff said after last Sunday’s race at interlagos. “Maybe it was coming to a track that he didn't know – it's a bit easier. Expectations are maybe lower.”

“Maybe pressure is not as high as some of the Europeans and then the execution was faultless at the end: being able to fend off Max on a newer and softer tyre, well that was really strong and a testament to what's to come.” With no past results to live up to, Antonelli can focus purely on driving. “I think it's also managing his own expectations, he's so young, he's just 19 years old,” Wolff explained. “You come to a track where you know you've performed very well in the past, some of the European ones, and then on the back foot.”

“You have a sensational team-mate that is as good as it gets, and I think coming to a track that you don't know is almost like less pressure, your expectations are lower, everybody else's expectations are lower, the kind of fan pressure is less than on some of the European tracks, and I think that plays a big role.”

“Less pressure”;

https://f1i.com/news/553411-wolff-explains-why-antonelli-shines-most-on-unfamiliar-tracks.html


Antonelli's telling reaction following pile-up crash in Brazil GP
10 Nov 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Kimi Antonelli expressed sympathy for Charles Leclerc following the Turn 1 incident that ended the Monegasque’s race in the Brazilian GP. The young Italian driver, thanks to bouncing against the SF-25, managed to avoid what would have been an inevitable spin after being hit squarely by Oscar Piastri, allowing him to continue the race without major issues.

The Mercedes driver ultimately went on to finish the race in second place, benefiting from the penalty handed to the Australian following the early-race crash, which dropped him to fifth and cost him valuable points in the championship battle against his teammate, who now leads the standings with nearly a full race advantage with three rounds to go.

In the usual cool-down room after the race, reviewing the incident replays, race winner Lando Norris jokingly told Antonelli that he should thank Leclerc for avoiding even bigger trouble, to which the Italian replied with a simple “poor guy.”

‘Antonelli's telling reaction’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/antonellis-comes-with-telling-reaction-after-pile-up-crash-in-brazil-gp


How Kimi Antonelli handled ‘stressful’ late Max Verstappen onslaught in F1 Brazil GP
10th November 2025
Anirban Aly Mandal
Motorsport Week

Andrea Kimi Antonelli broke down his stellar defence that kept a fast-charging Max Verstappen at bay to secure his best-ever Formula 1 result at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. The 19-year-old showed exemplary pace throughout the Sprint weekend at Interlagos.

“Yeah, I mean I don’t know where this guy [Verstappen] came from, to be honest. I didn’t see it coming,” he told media including Motorsport Week. Antonelli revealed that his contact with Piastri had left him with some damage to the car, but he was able to still keep it on track with the aid of a bit of free air.

“But yeah, to be fair, I was lucky to come away with the restart, with the contact,” he added. “Need to check with the car, it felt a bit weird afterwards. But, you know, still a good race and the last laps were very stressful with Max coming on fresher tyres. But luckily with free air, we were able to maintain a decent pace and to finish P2.”

‘Stressful’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/11/11/how-kimi-antonelli-handled-stressful-late-max-verstappen-onslaught-in-f1-brazil-gp/


Antonelli thought “I might be in trouble” when Verstappen caught him
10th November 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

Andrea Kimi Antonelli admitted he doubted he would be able to keep Max Verstappen behind when he came under attack from the Red Bull driver at the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix. “Obviously when Max did the last pit stop and Bono [race engineer Peter Bonnington] told me the gap, I was like […] ‘I might be in trouble’, because he was just nine seconds behind. And obviously, he was on new softs.”

“I think in this race he had very strong pace. He did an amazing job coming back and he just put me under a lot of pressure at the end. I had to really push the tyre to the limit, and it wasn’t easy. But I think we did our best and I’m really happy with that.” Antonelli beat Verstappen to the finishing line by less than four tenths of a second on the final lap.

“I might be in trouble”;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/11/10/antonelli-thought-i-might-be-in-trouble-when-verstappen-caught-him/


Where Kimi Antonelli got ‘lucky’ to secure F1 Brazil GP podium
10th November 2025
Tiana Soans
Motorsport Week

Andrea Kimi Antonelli took a career-best second place in Formula 1‘s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, but he conceded he was “lucky” to survive an earlier collision in the race. “Well, first of all, the restart – I accelerated a little bit on the wet patch, so I got wheelspin and lost momentum going into Turn 1,” he told media including Motorsport Week. “But to be fair, I found myself in a very difficult position because I had one car on the outside and one car on the inside. I tried to brake late, not too late. The problem is I didn’t see the car next to me anymore.”

Antonelli revealed that he tried to take a balanced braking point. However, with Piastri on his inside and Leclerc sweeping outside, he was left in a difficult position. “I still tried to do a decent line for the position I was in,” he continued. “And yeah, ended up getting hit. I was lucky to come away like that, because obviously I hit quite hard Charles. Unfortunately, I ended his race, but on my side, I was lucky to come away with not such big damage.”

Antonelli escaped without serious damage, allowing him to continue racing, which he capitalised on to come home second, repelling a late Max Verstappen charge. “I think the steering wheel was not fully straight, but I was very lucky to come away with it and to be able to continue my race,” he acknowledged.

‘Lucky to survive’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/11/10/where-kimi-antonelli-got-lucky-to-secure-f1-brazil-gp-podium/

[Fortitude]

Verstappen reacts to Brazil GP podium: 'I did not expect that at all!'
Max Verstappen secures an unexpected podium at the Brazilian GP after starting from the pit lane.
9 Nov 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

The four-time world champion, reflecting on his standout performance after the race, said: "The race was quite full on. A lot of action. I had to overtake some cars, coming from the pit lane.
"Our pace was quite strong, overall, the stints. To be on the podium, I did not expect that at all, even with a puncture at the beginning, that's why we had to box again. Incredible result for us. Very happy with that. Very proud of everyone."

He finally added: "Yesterday was very tough. We never give up. We always try to improve and find more lap time and luckily we found that again today. To finish only 10 seconds from the lead is incredible." Max Verstappen staged an impressive recovery, finishing third to limit the damage — he gained key points on Piastri but fell a further seven behind Norris, who now leads by 49 points.

‘Unexpected podium’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/verstappen-reacts-to-brazil-gp-podium-i-did-not-expect-that-at-all


Martin Brundle hails Max Verstappen’s Brazil recovery as “a drive for the ages”
Martin Brundle heaps praise on Max Verstappen following the Sao Paulo Grand Prix
11 Nov 2025
Connor McDonagh
Crash.Net

Legendary F1 commentator Martin Brundle has described Max Verstappen’s pit-lane-to-podium recovery at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix as a “drive for the ages”. Writing in his post-race column for Sky Sports, Brundle spoke glowingly about Verstappen’s latest Interlagos heroics.

“Verstappen had started from the pitlane because his car looked so dismal in qualifying it was better to try something different on the set up and fit a new power unit rather than being stuck 16th on the grid with a package known to be off the pace. And so began one of the all-time great drives through a closely-matched pack in what would be entirely dry conditions.”

“Once he caught the pack, he had avoided all the chaos and contact between the likes of Sainz, Hamilton, Stroll, and Bortoleto, and the safety car at least allowed Max to close the gap to the leaders as he was already mid-pack pretty much straight away. But then, like a game of snakes and ladders, he had a slow puncture and had to pit again.”

“A drive for the ages”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1086434/1/martin-brundle-hails-max-verstappens-brazil-recovery-drive-ages


Wolff blown away by Verstappen: 'That's why he's a four-time world champion'
10 Nov 2025
Tobia Elia
Nicole Mulder
GPblog.com

After the Brazilian Grand Prix, Toto Wolff had nothing but admiration for Max Verstappen. The Mercedes team boss therefore refuses to write off the Dutchman in the title fight. Verstappen put in another impressive charge through the field, this time from the pit lane to the podium, and according to Wolff that proves why he is a four-time world champion.

“It’s quite interesting, the big step thatt hey made. They changed the floor, they went to the oldest. Fresh engine obviously always helps, like we had with Lewis back in the days. But never discount Max, even if he starts from last.”

The Austrian referred to Verstappen’s performance in the rain last year, but emphasized that his race this time might have been even more impressive: “A few years ago it was a wet race, so you kind of get your head around it, but that was a dry race. That's the reason why he's a four-time world champion.”

‘Wolff blown away by Verstappen’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/wolff-blown-away-by-verstappen-thats-why-hes-a-four-time-world-champion


How Red Bull's "risks" transformed Max Verstappen's Sao Paulo GP
Red Bull explain how they helped Max Verstappen turnaround his weekend in Brazil.
10 Nov 2025
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Red Bull have explained the set-up “risks” that paved the way for Max Verstappen’s stunning comeback drive at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies stressed his side were unwilling to settle with a “sup-optimal” car following the sprint race as he detailed the process behind their buccaneering approach.

"First, credit to Max for the sensational drive," Mekies said. "He won last year here from P16 in the wet. I think we would probably agree that it was as sensational as last year to bring it to P3 from the pit lane in a dry, relatively uneventful race. The simple truth is that we were not happy with where the car was in terms of balance and driver's feeling after the sprint race. We had finished P4, but it was effectively a P5 without Oscar's [Piastri] stoppage.”

"Nobody wanted to settle for a car that would have been sub-optimal. We felt the optimum window was not where we were. "We tried our only car at that moment [Verstappen's] to change it before the main qualifying. We obviously got it wrong, but it's the way we go racing. We take risks and if we don't take that amount of risks, we don't think we'll be able to win.”

“Risks”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1086411/1/red-bull-explain-approach-set-risks-transformed-max-verstappens-f1-sao-paulo-gp


Verstappen reveals ‘nothing’s going my way’ Brazil GP moment
12 Nov 2025
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Max Verstappen experienced a rollercoaster of a weekend at the São Paulo GP — at one point, he felt nothing was going his way. er finishing the Sprint in fourth place, Verstappen was eliminated in Q1 on Saturday. That led to a pit lane start after he received a new power unit and a setup change.

The Dutchman eventually finished third, right behind Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes. He said: "I jumped into the car, I was only just hoping that the car would be more competitive. But in the laps to the grid, it already felt better than the whole weekend, I would say.”

"But then still—after the start, picking up that puncture, then being last again—I was like, “My God, nothing is really going my way this weekend. But then you just settle in. You try to do the best you can: pass the cars in front of you, try to run the optimum strategy. And it all worked out."

‘Nothing’s going my way’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/verstappen-reveals-nothings-going-my-way-brazil-gp-moment


Verstappen and Red Bull's perfectionism still produces the fastest car
10 Nov 2025
Tim Kraaij
GPblog.com

It was all-or-nothing for Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen in Brazil. After a poor qualifying result, it seemed like there would be little in the way of points being scored in Sunday's Grand Prix, but in their relentless strive for perfection, the team left Sao Paulo with a smile.

In the media conferences, the reasoning was how Verstappen no longer felt comfortable with the Mexico configuration of the RB21, which is why he wanted to revert to the specification used in Austin. Red Bull advised him otherwise, but ultimately went along with the four-time world champion’s choice, as it had done in recent races, trusting the racer's instincts rather than the data. However, it proved to be the wrong decision.

Gianpiero Lambiase offered his apologies, after the race. The race engineer felt that such a performance deserved a win, but that the team had squandered that chance in qualifying with its technical gamble. Verstappen’s response said it all: “No, that’s not necessary. That was a really good race for us. At least we did our best. Thank you very much for today, it went really well.”

‘Perfectionism’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/features/ultimately-verstappen-and-red-bulls-perfectionism-still-produces-the-fastest-car

[Fortitude]

Ferrari fans want to ‘end the season’ after seeing Lewis Hamilton incident at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
“Just retire the car and stop wasting time,” said one fan. Another agreed with them, too, “There is no reason to keep the car on track. Retire the car.”
9 Nov 2025
Shay Rogers
F1 Oversteer

Lewis Hamilton found himself caught up in two incidents on lap one of the Brazilian Grand Prix that ruined his race. First of all, he was bumped wide at turn one, dropping to the back of the pack. By the end of the lap, he found himself on the tail of Franco Colapinto, but a misjudgment of space would see his front wing destroyed at high speed, before it got jammed under his Ferrari car.

The damage removed a lot of Hamilton’s downforce and ended any hopes of competing for a solid result. Ever the competitor, he refused to retire from the Brazilian Grand Prix, but was confined to the back of the pack. He was also handed a five-second penalty for clipping the Alpine. “Just retire the car and stop wasting time,” said one fan. Another agreed with them, too, “There is no reason to keep the car on track. Retire the car.”

“Just retire the car,” insisted another member of the Tifosi, upset with how the first few laps unfolded. The most passionate response urged the team to pack up for the year, already, “End the season.” “They should retire the car,” agreed another individual, while one last response shared an idea that Ferrari fans have grown familiar with, “Pain.”

“End the season”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-fans-want-to-end-the-season-after-seeing-lewis-hamilton-incident-at-the-brazilian-grand-prix/


Ferrari chairman’s bizarre “talk less” attack on Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc
10 Nov 2025
Connor McDonagh
Crash.Net

Ferrari chairman John Elkann has told Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc they should “focus on driving” and “talk less” following the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Unusually, he publicly criticised his drivers after the Sao Paulo GP for being too outspoken and that they should focus on driving.

“Ferrari wins when it is united, and the result in WEC has taught us that,” he said, as quoted by Autoracer.it. “When everyone works together, great things can be achieved. Brazil was a huge disappointment. In Formula 1, we have mechanics who are always top in executing pit stops.”

“The engineers work to improve the car. The rest is not up to par. We have drivers who need to focus on driving, talk less, and remember that important races lie ahead - and it’s not impossible to finish second. This is the most important message coming from Bahrain: when Ferrari is a team, we win.”

‘Bizarre “talk less” attack’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1086409/1/ferrari-f1-chairmans-bizarre-talk-less-attack-lewis-hamilton-charles-leclerc


Fred Vasseur phone call may have sparked Ferrari chairman John Elkann’s ‘attack’ on Lewis Hamilton
12 Nov 2025
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Team principal Fred Vasseur may have played a role in Ferrari chairman John Elkann’s outburst aimed at Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc after the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Fred Vasseur’s excuses for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix may have caused John Elkann’s outburst. As Ferrari endured such a disappointing result in Brazil, Top Speed reports that Elkann called team principal Vasseur after the Sao Paulo GP. Vasseur is thought to have given the Scuderia chairman ‘another tale’, and potentially even blamed Hamilton and Leclerc for their misery.

Elkann believing Vasseur’s excuses to justify Ferrari’s most recent failures, as the American-born Italian has done previously, led to his ‘unprecedented attack’ on Hamilton and Leclerc. His message on Monday was also aimed mainly at Hamilton after his comments on Sunday. John Elkann will not have liked Lewis Hamilton saying he is living a ‘nightmare’ at Ferrari.

Elkann launched a shock attack on Hamilton and Leclerc while speaking at an event in Milan for the 2026 Winter Olympics. He suggested the pair should “focus on driving and talk less”, and added “we certainly need drivers who don’t think about themselves but about Ferrari”. Elkann’s “talk less” remark can also be directed at Hamilton admitting he is living a “nightmare” at Ferrari after the Sao Paulo GP, as his wait for a podium continued.

“Need drivers who don’t think about themselves but about Ferrari”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/fred-vasseur-phone-call-may-have-sparked-ferrari-chairman-john-elkanns-attack-on-lewis-hamilton/


Ferrari’s fiery fallout: Button and Kravitz blast Elkann’s driver dig
12/11/2025
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Responding to Sky Sports F1’s Instagram post quoting Elkann, Button delivered a brief but cutting reply: “Maybe John should lead by example.” Short, sharp, and loaded with implication, the former Grand Prix driver’s comment landed like a jolt, highlighting the disconnect many feel between Ferrari’s top brass and the Scuderia.

Sky F1’s pitlane reporter Ted Kravitz also waded into the controversy, delivering a passionate defense of Leclerc and Hamilton on The F1 Show. “Let’s not forget that the people that got Ferrari to second in the constructors’ championship were Charles and Lewis, because they were just plugging in the points,” Kravitz said, reminding viewers of the drivers’ role in keeping Ferrari competitive earlier in the season.

He didn’t stop there, pointing to deeper issues with the team’s machinery. “And let’s not forget that this car has a fundamental flaw in it that the Belgium upgrade was not able to correct in terms of the Belgium plank and not being able to run the car low and not being able to find a fix around that.” Kravitz argued that Hamilton and Leclerc have been carrying Ferrari despite these technical shortcomings.

“Maybe John should lead by example”;

https://f1i.com/news/553477-ferraris-fiery-fallout-button-and-kravitz-blast-elkanns-driver-dig.html


Ralf Schumacher thinks John Elkann is upset with Charles Leclerc after he was linked to one F1 rival
12 Nov 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Ralf Schumacher thinks John Elkann criticised Charles Leclerc over Aston Martin interest. Schumacher was speaking on the Backstage Boxengasse Podcast about Elkann’s recent comments about his Ferrari drivers. When asked about his criticism of Leclerc and Hamilton, Schumacher said: “Yes, well, that’s a very clear message to both of them.”

“First, Charles Leclerc, there was a rumour that if he couldn’t get the world championship title at Ferrari, he might consider something else. Aston Martin was also a topic of discussion. Lawrence Stroll is probably looking for drivers after 2026. And, of course, the Elkann and Ferrari families won’t stand for that and naturally demand and say, ‘OK, if the drivers are more important than the brand, which is implicit, then we’ll leave it at that.’”

Would Charles Leclerc be a good signing for Aston Martin beyond the 2026 F1 season? Leclerc has signed a long-term deal with Ferrari, but every Formula 1 agreement is full of break clauses and other conditions that can allow teams and drivers to part ways if they desire. After seven seasons with Ferrari and only nine race victories to show for it, it’s easy to understand why the Monegasque driver might be considering his options. F1 Oversteers understands that Leclerc is on Aston Martin’s shortlist for the 2027 season, as Lawrence Stroll considers replacing both of his current drivers.

"Elkann and Ferrari families won’t stand for that";

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ralf-schumacher-thinks-john-elkann-is-upset-with-charles-leclerc-after-he-was-linked-to-one-f1-rival/


Karun Chandhok tells Ferrari what ‘the root’ of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc’s problems are in 2025
12 Nov 2025
Shay Rogers
F1 Oversteer

Karun Chandhok has now spoken out too, pointing out ‘the root’ of their problems. “Reflecting on this a bit more. In reality, if the Ferrari was as good as the McLaren this year, then I truly believe that Charles and Lewis would have been title contenders, fighting for race wins,” he said in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter). The root of Ferrari’s problem is that the car hasn’t been fast enough this year.” With one of the most talented line-ups in the championship, they would have found a way to win with their car if it were capable of doing so this year. But it hasn’t, and the team needs to front up and do a better job in the future.

‘The root’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/karun-chandhok-tells-ferrari-what-the-root-of-lewis-hamilton-and-charles-leclercs-problems-are-in-2025/


John Elkann should be blaming one key Ferrari figure for his team’s failings in 2025, not Lewis Hamilton
11 Nov 2025
Tyler Rowlinson
F1 Oversteer

Ride height problems have plagued the SF-25 this season, with Ferrari coming up with few answers to solve them. Team principal Fred Vasseur opted to introduce a new rear suspension upgrade, which went against his drivers’ wishes.

Hamilton and Leclerc pushed for aerodynamic upgrades to fix the ride height issues, but Vasseur insisted that the rear suspension was the way to go. Ferrari’s results since its introduction at Spa immediately disprove Elkann’s comments that the car has ‘undoubtedly improved’.

The friction at Maranello, plus Vasseur’s unwillingness to listen to his drivers’ feedback and demands, is exactly why the blame should lie with the Frenchman and not Hamilton. His technical approach has worsened the car’s performance and damaged relationships with the team.

‘Friction’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/john-elkann-should-be-blaming-one-key-ferrari-figure-for-his-teams-failings-in-2025-not-lewis-hamilton/

[Fortitude]

Lewis Hamilton is now learning why Fernando Alonso didn’t think Ferrari could win a world championship.
Fernando Alonso left Ferrari just over 10 years ago because he didn’t feel the team was in a position to win.
13 Nov 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Ted Kravitz says Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari problems aren’t new. In a seismic interview this week, Ferrari chairman John Elkann told his drivers to ‘talk less’ outside the car. It was then reported that Hamilton’s feedback documents had sparked ‘resentment’ in some quarters of the team. The 40-year-old publicly revealed that he’d been reviewing Ferrari’s failings. Kravitz fears that a series of great drivers have identified the same fundamental problems, but met firm resistance. That’s why, as Alonso feared, they’re not functioning as well as their rivals.

“If Lewis is writing all these documents, a kind of winning blueprint, as to what it takes to be a top-line team, then how many times do Ferrari need to hear this, and why are they not listening to it?” he asked on the F1 Show. “When you go back to Fernando Alonso, who left Ferrari because he said that he didn’t see a team that could win consistently. That was 2014. Fernando left because he said, ‘I’ve seen what it takes to be a Red Bull or a Mercedes, and that’s not what I see at Ferrari at the moment’.”

‘Hamilton’s feedback documents had sparked resentment’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/lewis-hamilton-is-now-learning-why-fernando-alonso-didnt-think-ferrari-could-win-a-world-championship/


Have Lewis Hamilton’s improvement documents offended Ferrari?
It has been suggested that Lewis Hamilton may have inadvertently insulted Ferrari.
13 Nov 2025
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Ted Kravitz wonders whether Lewis Hamilton has “insulted” Ferrari with his documents suggesting the improvements the team needs to fight for F1 world championships. Kravitz has suggested that Hamilton’s “winning blueprint” may not have been well received by all at Maranello.

“Fred’s not stupid, Fred’s a great team principal and I can’t think of anyone better who would do that. I don’t know whether Fred’s completely empowered to do what he wants,” Kravitz told The F1 Show. “Let’s think about the Hamilton documents that he’s been drawing up, the sort of blueprint from what he’s learnt at McLaren and 12 years at Mercedes and so many world championships.”

“Are Ferrari insulated by those documents? Did they think ‘well thank you very much but you just drive the car’. If Lewis is writing all of these documents, a kind of winning blueprint about what it takes to be a top line team, how many times do Ferrari need to hear this and why are they not listening to it?”

‘The Hamilton documents’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1086474/1/have-lewis-hamiltons-winning-blueprint-documents-offended-ferrari-f1-team


Some Ferrari staff ‘resented’ what Lewis Hamilton said about the team after joining from Mercedes
12 Nov 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Lewis Hamilton is trying to break the cycle at Ferrari. Since the team last won the drivers’ title, they have signed four world champions but watched their drought continue. Fernando Alonso came agonisingly close to the championship in 2010 and 2012, but left empty-handed in 2014. Sebastian Vettel, his replacement, couldn’t sustain a season-long challenge to Hamilton and Mercedes, and Kimi Raikkonen wasn’t the same driver in his second stint at Maranello. Hamilton says Ferrari have had ‘amazing’ drivers but need to ‘challenge’ themselves if they’re to win again. He ‘refuses’ to follow the same path as Vettel and co.

Hamilton sent documents of feedback to Ferrari in the months after he joined from Mercedes, where he’d won six titles over a 12-year dynasty. According to ESPN, this effectively amounted to an ‘audit’ of their methods. He had taken ‘extensive notes’ on their operation and made recommendations on where they could improve. ‘Sources’ close to the team say these were ‘welcomed in some quarters’. However, others apparently ‘resented his input’. They were ‘dismissive’ of his feedback, which doesn’t bode well for 2026.

‘Resented his input’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/some-ferrari-staff-resented-what-lewis-hamilton-said-about-the-team-after-joining-from-mercedes/


Spiraling Ferrari unfairly points finger at Hamilton, Leclerc
Nov 11, 2025
Nate Saunders
ESPN.co.uk

Ferrari chairman John Elkann's decision to throw his drivers under the bus on Monday was a microcosm of everything that has haunted the company's storied Formula 1 team during its 17-year title drought. A Ferrari spokesperson told ESPN the comments were meant to be "constructive" and the chairman's way of spurring everyone on. To anyone outside the team bubble, that's a fairly charitable interpretation of what Elkann said publicly.

It was a statement that smacked of either insecurity or arrogance (or a horrible combination of both) from a man leading a company that has not won an F1 drivers' championship since 2007 or a constructors' championship since 2008. His words revealed the same misguided interference from above that plagued the outfit before and after the glory days of Michael Schumacher.

Elkann's statements have raised further questions. Should either driver vent about the car in future, are they openly defying Elkann and destroying attempts at unity behind the scenes? Is the team's current situation acceptable for Ferrari? And, more broadly speaking, does Elkann actually understand the differences in building a successful Formula 1 program and a WEC outfit?

‘John Elkann's decision to throw his drivers under the bus’;

https://www.espn.co.uk/racing/f1/story/_/id/46929377/spiraling-ferrari-unfairly-points-finger-lewis-hamilton-charles-leclerc


John Elkann told to focus on the ‘real issue’ at Ferrari by McLaren insider after blaming his drivers
13 Nov 2025
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

Tony Kanaan is a close confidante of former Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello, with the pair of drivers once using each other’s helmets during the most prestigious events of their respective categories in 2006. Asked for his opinion on Elkann’s comments about their current driver line-up, the Brazilian said, “Ferrari is always going to be Ferrari; you’re never going to be bigger than Ferrari. Look at [Fernando] Alonso, [Sebastian] Vettel, and Rubens .

“I mean, I lived that with Rubens. It’s such a… The culture there, it’s Ferrari. They’re going to protect it, and you’re never going to be bigger than them. So no matter what, people are going to tell you what to do. The respect needs to be more of you towards Ferrari than actually Ferrari towards you. Unless you’re Michael Schumacher. That’s what’s happening there. The drivers are getting frustrated because they need to be vocal about it.”

“These people don’t want to talk about it because that’s not what they do. Then obviously, it takes a toll on the drivers and all of a sudden then the guy comes out of Brazil with, ‘They should talk less because they will do better.’ That tells you how little the guy has of an awareness of what the real issue is.”

“Ferrari is always going to be Ferrari”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/john-elkann-told-to-focus-on-the-real-issue-at-ferrari-by-mclaren-insider-after-blaming-his-drivers/


[B]Ferrari advised to listen to Hamilton to turn things around
13 Nov 2025
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Juan Pablo Montoya believes Lewis Hamilton could be 'unstoppable' with Ferrari once the Italian team listens to the seven-time world champion. According to former F1 driver Montoya, the seven-time world champion will not give up: “I think Lewis Hamilton has a point to prove, he won’t lie down and submit to defeat. He will win the championship or die trying, as they say. He will give it a big push next year. His frustration is due to him thinking he’s doing more than what Ferrari are doing for him."

He continued: “He feels he’s putting in a lot of effort to try make things work, but the team aren’t matching that energy. Give Hamilton the right tools and he’ll be there competing at the top. When things click and the motivation to compete is back, oh my god, Hamilton will be unstoppable.” He concluded: "The car isn’t getting better for Charles Leclerc either. The faster Ferrari’s team and engineers listen to Hamilton on how to make the car better, the better it will be for the team in the long term."

“Give Hamilton the right tools”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/ferrari-advised-to-listen-to-hamilton-to-turn-things-around


Ferrari must listen to what Lewis Hamilton told Niki Lauda during his toughest season at McLaren
14 Nov 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Lewis Hamilton’s conversation with Niki Lauda should guide Ferrari on how to make their F1 comeback. Hamilton continued: “Then, when people start questioning how good you are, and people say, oh, this person must be better, it’s frustrating that you can’t react and fix it by going faster because you don’t have the car. “That great thing for me was knowing that my team weren’t going to give up. If they’ve given up, then why are we racing?”

“I want to be a part of a team that always pushes, because for me, when I’m driving a car, whether it’s good or bad, I’m always pushing, So, I want the team to have the same mentality. And for sure, if I were with a team that didn’t have that mentality, then I’d be in the wrong place. Each weekend when they feel negative, I try to pull them up and hey, we can do it.”

‘Ferrari must listen’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/features/ferrari-must-listen-to-what-lewis-hamilton-told-niki-lauda-during-his-toughest-season-at-mclaren/

[Fortitude]

Ferrari’s ‘burning’ regret from the Adrian Newey deal that never happened.
Ferrari still licking their ‘wound’ after Adrian Newey turned them down in 2024.
Kieran Smith
msn.com

Ferrari were heavily tipped to sign Adrian Newey after his resignation from Red Bull, with Fred Vasseur closing in on what many thought could be an all-star team. But after four months of speculation following his May resignation, Newey joined Aston Martin instead last September. Lawrence Stroll lured him to his ambitious project with the stakeholding role of managing technical partner.

The report notes that the ‘wound’ of Newey’s rejection ‘still seems to be burning’ for Ferrari. They would be far more optimistic about next year if he was on board. Newey seemed ‘very close’ to joining the Italian marquee but walked away from the negotiations when Aston Martin made a more favourable offer. Ferrari will still be wondering how exactly they let one of the highest-rated engineers in the sport slip through their fingers.

‘Ferrari’s ‘burning’ regret’;

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/motorsports/ferrari-s-burning-regret-from-the-adrian-newey-deal-that-never-happened/ar-AA1GAqkQ


REAL REASON FERRARI REJECTED NEWEY
August 15, 2024
The Judge

Ferrari’s failed pursuit of Adrian Newey: Was technical control the deciding factor? In what could be considered one of the most significant missed opportunities in recent Formula One history, Ferrari’s pursuit of Adrian Newey – widely regarded as one of the most brilliant design minds in the sport – has ended in disappointment.

The real reason behind Ferrari’s refusal: Newey’s demand: While Ferrari were undoubtedly keen to secure Newey’s services, it seems that the British designer’s demands were simply too much for the team. According to former F1 driver Robert Doornbos, Newey not only demanded a salary double that of his Red Bull salary, but also wanted “more control over the technical staff”. This demand for greater authority, which included bringing in a large number of his own engineers, may have been the main reason why Ferrari eventually pulled out of the deal.

Ferrari’s engineering department is one of the most storied and established in the sport, with a rich history of success and a deeply rooted culture. The prospect of integrating a large group of Newey’s preferred engineers – potentially up to 20 additional staff – would have meant a significant disruption to this existing structure. Such a move could have been seen as destabilising, particularly in a team where continuity and tradition are highly valued. Engineering control: The elephant in the room for Ferrari. The potential for disruption posed by Newey’s demands is likely to have played a significant role in Ferrari’s decision to walk away from the negotiations.

‘Demand for greater authority’;

https://thejudge13.com/2024/08/15/real-reason-ferrari-rejected-newey/


Ferrari Civil War: Steiner Torches Elkann Over Driver Jab
November 14, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Guenther Steiner calls out Elkann over public jab at Hamilton and Leclerc: “That’s not leadership” Ferrari needed a pressure valve after São Paulo. John Elkann chose a megaphone. The Ferrari president’s broadside at his own drivers — urging Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc to “talk less” after the team slumped again — has landed about as well as a cross-threaded wheel nut. And Guenther Steiner, never short of an opinion, thinks the boss crossed a line.

Speaking on the Red Flags podcast, the former Haas team principal said Elkann’s public dressing-down of his star pairing was the wrong message, in the wrong forum. “He’s the boss, he can critique,” Steiner said. “But not in public. It doesn’t show good leadership to say ‘mechanics are great, engineers are great, but the drivers are not’ in front of the world.”

Ferrari’s season, once talked up as a title bid, has shrunk into a scrap to salvage the top end of the Constructors’ table, with the team sitting fourth and the races running out. Brazil was the latest bruise: a double DNF and a long flight home with more questions than answers. Elkann’s reaction was pointed. He praised pit crews and engineers — “always first” in their execution, he said — then jabbed at the rest. Drivers, he added, should “focus on driving, talk less,” and keep sight of the target: second in the championship still on the table.

‘John Elkann chose a megaphone’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/ferrari-civil-war-steiner-torches-elkann-over-driver-jab/


Civil war is the last thing Ferrari needs
In the post-São Paulo Grand Prix edition of The Scoop, I delve into Ferrari chairman John Elkann's comment in the aftermath of a miserable trip to Brazil for the Scuderia and why it is the last thing the Scuderia needs.
13 November 2025
Samuel Coop
RacingNews365

Italian team's chairman, John Elkann, went on the offensive, openly criticising the British driver and team-mate Charles Leclerc. Seemingly aggrieved by the pair being perhaps too honest with the media one too many times, and in the wake of a painful, double-DNF São Paulo Grand Prix, he aired his personal feelings.

Hamilton had claimed he was living in a "nightmare" and that slumping to fourth in the constructors' championship standings is a "disaster" and a "disappointment for everyone in the team". With just three rounds to run, Ferrari now finds itself 36 points adrift of Mercedes in the runner-up spot it secured last year, and four points off Red Bull in third.

Leclerc, meanwhile, labelled the development "frustrating" and argued the rest of the campaign needed to be "perfectly executed" to stand any chance of fighting for second place. Evidently, Elkann felt he had seen and heard enough, taking matters into his own hands, calling on the pair to "talk less" whilst talking up every other aspect of the team.

‘Why it is the last thing the Scuderia needs’;

https://racingnews365.com/civil-war-is-the-last-thing-ferrari-needs


Italian media erupts after Elkann blasts drivers
NOVEMBER 12, 2025
GrandPrix.com

Ferrari president John Elkann's extraordinary public rebuke of his Formula 1 drivers continues to dominate headlines in Italy, dividing opinion across the country's major sports newspapers.

Writing in Corriere della Sera, Daniele Sparisci said the presidential outburst was addressed specifically to Lewis. Some of Charles's comments could have been irritating”, he noted, "but the message was for Hamilton. The honeymoon is over.”

Luigi Perna in La Gazzetta dello Sport shifted the focus from the drivers to the team's broader failings. “They're the only top team not to have won a single race this season”, Perna wrote. "In fact, their last victory was the 2024 Mexican GP with Carlos Sainz - the very driver management dismissed to make way for Hamilton. Ferrari has now gone 25 races without a win, the sixth-worst drought in its history.”

‘Extraordinary public rebuke’;

https://www.grandprix.com/news/italian-media-erupts-after-elkann-blasts-drivers.html


Ferrari receives ‘beatings will continue until morale improves’ advice after Elkann statement
13 Nov 2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

After Ferrari president John Elkann’s criticism echoed across the motorsport world, former Aston Martin and McLaren figure Bernie Collins has been left asking: “what has that gained for Ferrari?” “The beatings will continue until morale improves.”

“There used to be a saying when you were in the garage: ‘The beatings will continue until morale improves.’ And that’s a bit the situation, isn’t it? What has that gained Ferrari? Not a lot.”

“Charles Leclerc and Lewis have not been there that long, either of those,” she stated. “So there’s something else, fundamentally, when you look at the investment Ferrari put in and what they’re getting out in terms of championship points, as a team, as a constructor.”

‘After Ferrari president John Elkann’s criticism echoed’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/bernie-collins-beatings-will-continue-until-morale-improves-ferrari-advice


Ferrari ‘sources’ shared the truth about the team’s problems before John Elkann blamed the drivers
14 November 2025
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari have been open regarding their struggles with the SF-25 before John Elkann’s damning verdict. Elkann was certain, in his comments, that the drivers were the root cause of Ferrari’s issues, as he highlighted that the hard work of engineers in Maranello was satisfactory, and the car wasn’t the issue.

The ride height issue has plagued the Prancing Horse throughout their efforts in 2025, which was the reason for their disqualifications in China and hindered a potential win for Leclerc in Hungary. In an attempt to fix this issue, Ferrari ignored the wishes of Hamilton and Leclerc, who felt like the car would have benefited more from some aero updates that were made redundant by the new suspension.

As it turned out, the suspension upgrade proved to throw even more spanners in the works, as it made the car less sensitive to setup changes. This means that their star drivers are now unable to tweak setups on race weekends to their individual needs.

‘Elkann was certain, in his comments, that the drivers were the root cause of Ferrari’s issues’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-sources-shared-the-truth-about-the-teams-problems-before-john-elkann-blamed-the-drivers/

[Fortitude]

Lawrence Stroll Vows Not to Stop Until Aston Martin Become World Champions.
Lawrence Stroll has reaffirmed his determination to turn Aston Martin into Formula 1 world champions, declaring that he will not “give up” until his ambitious mission is complete.
November 1, 2025
James Rees
F1 Chronicle

Speaking on the team’s official YouTube channel, Stroll said the partnership represents a major leap forward for Aston Martin’s long-term competitiveness. “The whole team’s forming into place and we’re looking forward to next year, to a huge rules and regulation change,” Stroll said.

“Another huge step we have Honda being our power unit partner. Being a works team for the first time in our life is a whole different experience. Designing an engine that’s mated together with a power unit as one, rather than being a customer and just being delivered an engine, is a tremendous step forward.”

Stroll made clear that his commitment to the project remains unwavering as the team continues its climb toward the front of the grid. “A tremendous amount of excitement is happening,” he said. “I’m relentless. I don’t give up until the mission is completed. In this case, the mission is being world champions.” With a strengthened technical lineup, a new works partnership with Honda, and a clear long-term vision, Aston Martin’s next phase under Stroll’s leadership is shaping up to be its most ambitious yet.

“The mission is being world champions”;

https://f1chronicle.com/lawrence-stroll-vows-not-to-stop-until-aston-martin-become-world-champions/?nowprocket=1


‘Relentless’ Lawrence Stroll’s firm message as Aston Martin ‘mission’ ramps up
5 Nov 2025
Henry Valantine
PlanetF1.com

Aston Martin executive chairman, Lawrence Stroll, said he will not give up on Aston Martin’s mission of being world champions. “I’m relentless. I don’t give up until the mission is completed,” Stroll said in an interview on the team’s website. “In this case, the mission is being world champions. I’ve been fortunate enough and successful in all the ventures I’ve done. This is the most passionate I’ve been, the most heartfelt, which drives me more, excites me more, frustrates me more.”

With Stroll having been at the forefront of the team’s transformation from one of the smallest on the grid to a much larger operation, he highlighted just how big a difference their new Silverstone base will make to their plans. “When I took over this team, about six years ago, I said, ‘It’ll be a 10-year journey to winning a Formula 1 World Championship’,” he explained. “You’re now witnessing the premises that we’ve built in order to provide the tools.”

‘Relentless’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lawrence-stroll-aston-martin-mission-update


Lawrence Stroll outlines Aston Martin’s final ‘mission’ ahead of Formula 1’s 2026 ruleset changes
30 October 2025
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

Speaking in a YouTube video on Aston Martin’s official channel, Stroll expressed his excitement for the upcoming season, saying, “The whole team’s forming into place and we’re looking forward to next year, to a huge rules and regulation change. “Another huge step, we have Honda being our power unit partner, being a works team for the first time in our life is a whole different experience.”

“Designing an engine that’s mated together with a power unit as one rather than being a customer engine and just being delivered an engine. So, a tremendous amount of excitement is happening. I’m relentless. I don’t give up until the mission is completed. In this case, the mission is being world champions.”

“The whole team’s forming into place”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/lawrence-stroll-outlines-aston-martins-final-mission-ahead-of-formula-1s-2026-ruleset-changes/


Adrian Newey signing ‘monumental’ as Lawrence Stroll issues Aston Martin progress update
2 Nov 2025
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

Lawrence Stroll, the executive chairman of the Aston Martin F1 team, has described the signing of Adrian Newey as “monumental” to the squad’s future hopes. “First was putting together the facilities. Most important was putting together the team of people. Obviously, getting Adrian Newey to join was monumental. He’s been with us since the beginning of March.”

He told Aston Martin’s official website: “There’s a loyalty behind this 112-year-old British iconic institution, this brand Aston Martin. There’s a tremendous amount of British pride in this factory. They want to bring their national team to the top step of Formula 1.”

“There’s always been a very high level of intensity in this sport and I provide the right leadership and let these people do their jobs. I don’t know how to build or engineer a Formula 1 car as well as the engineers do, so I give them support, give them the tools, give them the people, the finances, give them everything they need in order to not have any roadblocks.”

“Getting Adrian Newey to join was monumental”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/adrian-newey-aston-martin-lawrence-stroll-update-progress


"Winning is what we're here for," insists Lawrence Stroll
02/11/2025
NEWS STORY
Pitpass

"Winning is what we're here for," Aston Martin executive chairman Lawrence Stroll declares. "Success is measured here by how you perform. For us, the ultimate goal is to be World Champions. Now we need to give it some time for everybody to gel and to work to bring these new exciting rules and regulations that are coming in next year to our level of expectations."

Admitting that this season, which sees his team in a four-way battle for sixth in the standings, has been a disappointment, he says: "You have to filter the highs and the lows and be monotone. You can't get too excited when it's really great, and you can't get too down. There's always next weekend. There are 24 weekends.”

"It's a long season. Each weekend is not the end of the world. It's one piece of 24 races over a year. You have to put it all into context, and one year is only one year out of a journey of many years." It is widely anticipated that 2026 is when Lawrence's true vision for the team will begin to take shape, as the piece of the jigsaw fall into place.

“One year is only one year out of a journey of many years";

https://www.pitpass.com/81464/Winning-is-what-were-here-for-insists-Lawrence-Stroll


Stroll: Newey arrival at Aston ‘monumental’ but patience needed
06/11/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll has described the arrival of legendary Formula 1 designer Adrian Newey as a “monumental” step in the team’s pursuit of world championship glory – but insists it’s just one of many crucial pieces in a much bigger puzzle being built at Silverstone.

While Stroll’s ambitions for Aston Martin are crystal clear – nothing short of championship contention – he’s also pragmatic about the road ahead. “The biggest challenge now is putting everything together, making it all happen,” he admitted. “I’m quite confident it will, but you have to have the patience.”

The Canadian billionaire’s message is unmistakable: Newey’s arrival might be the headline, but it’s the synergy – of talent, technology, and tenacity – that will drive Aston Martin’s push to the top. With a reinvigorated team, a brand-new technical direction, and the pride of a nation behind them, the Silverstone squad looks ready to take the next step. And if Stroll’s confidence is anything to go by, that “monumental” leap might just land them right on the summit of Formula 1.

‘Much bigger puzzle being built at Silverstone’;

https://f1i.com/news/552683-stroll-newey-arrival-at-aston-monumental-but-patience-needed.html

[Fortitude]

EXCLUSIVE: Ferrari F1 boss has 'undermined' Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc with public comment.
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc will feel "demoralised" and "undermined" by public criticism from Ferrari's top boss. That is the view of Formula 1 legend Damon Hill after executive chairman John Elkann this week told both drivers to "focus on driving and talk less".
16 Nov 2025
Daniel Moxon
The Mirror

Exclusive: After John Elkann told drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc to 'talk less' 1996 F1 champion Damon Hill admits his 'surprise' at the Ferrari chairman's comment. He told Mirror Sport: "I saw the interview. I was a bit surprised at what I heard and I think a lot of people were. I didn't notice [the drivers] saying anything outrageous, maybe I missed a few quotes somewhere. I don't know what's happened. They're going to be critical. They're part of the team, but drivers are sort of the end-user of the product. They're not likely to say that everything's wonderful when it clearly isn't.”

"It's a Formula 1 organisation and so there are a lot of moving parts in there. [Ferrari] have not really covered themselves in glory. They've had too many ups and downs this year." He explained: "It can be quite... I don't know what the right word for it is. It's not humiliating, but it can be demoralising a little bit. I'm sure he must have said that to them in private, but when you say something in public, then it can be undermining.”

"But, ultimately, the Ferrari boss pays them and they're there to do a job, so that is always the relationship. You're supposed to be working for the team. If they've been saying the wrong things, you're going to get some kickback every now and then. It does highlight the fact that the driver is someone who's passing through and the team stays, particularly a team like Ferrari, is there forever. Or a long time, anyway."

"Demoralised" and "Undermined";

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1/hamilton-leclerc-ferrari-elkann-comment-36248182


Villeneuve defends Hamilton and Leclerc: 'It's Elkann who's done this'
15 Nov 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Jacques Villeneuve has voiced some perplexity over John Elkann’s recent remarks about Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. The 1997 world champion, speaking to a betting site, noted a recurring trend in Ferrari’s relationships with its drivers over the years, with ties gradually deteriorating, especially with certain champions. “We shouldn't be surprised because remember how it ended up with Prost, with Mansell, with Alonso, with Vettel. It seems to be a trend at Ferrari. Ferrari comes first. And Ferrari will always protect Ferrari.”

“I didn't see comments that were detrimental to the team coming from the drivers. So, it's the chairman who's done this, but this came just after winning the WEC. I guess he was pinpointing how amazing the team in WEC did, compared to F1. But it's a different ball game. It was a bit shocking, but it seems to be the Ferrari way when you look at the past. Most drivers have broken their teeth there, most drivers with personality. It's a strange environment.”

“I don't see how those comments can be helpful, not least in creating a positive mindset because they've always seemed to be quite united with their team. They both seemed to be using their social media channels to call for unity. The energy at Ferrari is not great, which is not surprising. It’s been years of not winning. There were high hopes this year, so it's been a big letdown. Emotions run high. The problem is that when it gets out into the media, it gets dirty and that's never a nice thing. Then it gets bigger than it is and it can get out of control mostly with the fans and the media.”

“And Ferrari will always protect Ferrari”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/villeneuve-defends-hamilton-and-leclerc-its-elkann-whos-done-this


Ralf Schumacher tells Charles Leclerc what he ‘definitely’ should do after John Elkann’s outburst
15 November 2025
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari are facing turmoil once again in the 2025 F1 season after chairman John Elkann stated that Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton should “focus on driving and talk less”. Leclerc has largely carried Ferrari this term, having scored 214 of their 362 points so far, yet the 28-year-old still found himself in Elkann’s crosshairs. So, Ralf Schumacher thinks Leclerc should ask Elkann why he made his remarks but also get his manager to find him a “Plan B”.

Schumacher has also suggested that the recent reports linking Leclerc with a move to Aston Martin might have inspired Elkann’s attack. F1 Oversteer understands that Aston Martin are interested in signing Leclerc in 2027, as they may replace Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. Leclerc has frequently been the subject of speculation concerning his future with Ferrari this year, and Elkann’s remarks have not helped to stop the gossip. It is now said that Leclerc can leave Ferrari for free in 2026, even if he were to win the F1 drivers’ championship next year.

His manager, Nicolas Todt, is also said to have already been searching for the potential back-up plan that Schumacher now claims Leclerc needs. It is thought that Leclerc’s manager has approached Red Bull to discuss the possibility of a drive being available for the 2027 season. While Ferrari signed Leclerc to a £20m a year contract extension in January 2024 that is due to run through 2029, his deal includes release clauses that could open the exit door in 2026. So, Elkann should hope Ferrari ace the 2026 F1 regulations instead of attacking their drivers.

“Plan B”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ralf-schumacher-tells-charles-leclerc-what-he-definitely-should-do-after-john-elkanns-outburst/


Ferrari president accused of ‘bad leadership’ after attack on Hamilton and Leclerc
14 Nov 2025
Sam Cooper
PlanetF1.com

Ferrari president John Elkann has been criticised for attacking his own drivers and former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner suggested it was bad leadership from the Ferrari chief. “He is allowed to critique because in the end he’s the boss, but I think he shouldn’t do that in public,” Steiner said on the Red Flags podcast.

“With Lewis, you know, but Charles, the guy puts his heart and soul into this, everything. What more do you want from Charles? It is not showing good leadership saying ‘this guy is doing it right, the mechanics are good, the engineers are good, but you guys are bad’ in public. And no comment about Fred [Vasseur].”

“I find it weird to say the least, to make a comment like this, from a person at that level of the company – the highest level. He doesn’t have to ask anybody to do it or not to do it.”

‘Bad leadership’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/ferrari-president-bad-leadership-attack-lewis-hamilton-charles-leclerc


Ferrari receives ‘out of control’ warning after ‘shocking’ chairman statement
17 Nov 2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Jacques Villeneuve believes that this situation is nothing new with Ferrari, though warned the team of the perils which come with it spilling out into the public domain. “A driver is not an employee of the team, he’s an independent. And he’s a human being, so you also take a personality, you take drivers that also can think, who can help move the team forward. They’re not little robots that you put in a place and basically do everything you want, just at the move of a fingertip.”

“It’s part and parcel of sports. You have emotions, you have energy, and it will go both ways. And I’m sure that’s what happened with the chairman as well. The emotions of winning and then a bad weekend result-wise in Brazil. So, the two mixed together created a big reaction. We live in an era where everything gets multiplied, whether it’s on social media or gets over-analysed. But I don’t see how those comments can be helpful, not least in creating a positive mindset because they’ve always seemed to be quite united with their team.”

“They both seemed to be using their social media channels to call for unity. Obviously, the energy at Ferrari is not great, which is not surprising. It’s been years of not winning. There were high hopes this year, so it’s been a big let-down. So, of course the emotions run high. The problem is that when it gets out into the media, it gets dirty and that’s never a nice thing. Then it gets bigger than it is and it can get out of control mostly with the fans and the media.”

‘Ferrari receives ‘out of control’ warning’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/jacques-villeneuve-john-elkann-ferrari-statement-shocking

[Fortitude]

Guenther Steiner puzzled by McLaren duo's “very weird” F1 form switch.
Guenther Steiner cannot understand how the script has flipped in the intra-team F1 title battle at McLaren.
16 Nov 2025
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner says he has “never seen anything like” the contrasting form switch between McLaren’s drivers in the F1 title race. “What Oscar did until five races ago, now Lando is doing. It’s the complete opposite. It’s like they said ‘let’s switch roles now’. It’s very weird, I’ve never seen anything like this and I didn’t expect it. I don’t think many people expected it.”

“For Lando, becoming world champion, obviously it puts you in a different bracket of drivers, if you won a world championship. That’s where he will be and I think his confidence will be very high,” Steiner explained.

“What does it do for McLaren? For next year, we don’t know who is where next year with the regulations, but for sure it proves them right what they did, that they didn’t interfere with the championship battle. They can go away with that one and I think they will milk that one if it happens.”

“What Oscar did until five races ago, now Lando is doing. It’s the complete opposite”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1086476/1/guenther-steiner-puzzled-mclaren-duos-very-weird-f1-form-switch


Piastri resents McLaren's direction change after Norris' dominant win
16 Nov 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Oscar Piastri saw 'flashes' of his old self in Brazil, but stated that McLaren had slowed between Friday and Sunday, a weekend throughout which teammate Lando Norris dominated unopposed. "Things have not been going easily, that's for sure, I think," he said after the race in Sao Paulo. "This weekend, there were definitely moments and flashes where I felt very comfortable. In practice, things were coming much more easily again.”

"Things felt really good. It kind of went away from us a little bit through the weekend. I think even just our pace as a team, I don't think was as strong as it was on Friday. The car kind of went in a direction that I wasn't a big fan of, but we tried our best to get the car in a good window." Already in the Sprint race on Saturday morning, his hopes of having a successful Sprint weekend went awry as a Turn 3 crash cut his race short, one of the many things Piastri claims are currently "going wrong."

He continued: "Obviously, the sprint crash made things much more difficult as well. So, you know, there's just a lot of things going wrong at the moment. But I think there's still flashes of really strong pace and it's just about trying to make sure I've got that all the time," he concluded.

‘Oscar Piastri saw 'flashes' of his old self’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/piastri-resents-mclarens-direction-change-after-norris-dominant-win


Oscar Piastri highlights 'trend' during F1 form slump
Oscar Piastri has endured a difficult run of form of late, placing his F1 title aspirations in doubt.
15 November 2025
Fergal Walsh & Aaron Deckers
RacingNews365

Oscar Piastri has stated he has been enduring a “trend” of having to drive his McLaren car differently compared to the rest of the year at recent rounds. Piastri detailed the decline is rooted in not being able to drive the car the same way as he did in the early stages of the campaign. “The last three weekends in particular are a similar trend,” he told media including RacingNews365.

“Austin, I had to drive very, very differently. Mexico, the same. It’s one thing adapting to different conditions, but when the way you’ve driven for the whole season has worked so well, it’s difficult to go away from that. There’s been a lot of learning on that side of things and trying to adapt to different things.”

“I think [in Brazil], practice was really, really strong. It felt like I couldn’t go slow in practice. Then through the rest of the weekend, things just went away from us a bit more. The soft tyre was obviously behaving very strangely and it was hardly better than the medium. The grip conditions [on Saturday] were very bizarre. To not go any quicker from Q1 to Q3 is almost unheard of, especially after so much rain.”

‘Piastri detailed the decline is rooted in not being able to drive the car the same way as he did in the early stages of the campaign’;

https://racingnews365.com/oscar-piastri-highlights-trend-during-f1-form-slump


Juan Pablo Montoya says Oscar Piastri has given up after hearing his comments on McLaren team orders
14 November 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

An error from the McLaren mechanics left Norris behind his teammate, but Piastri suggested this was ‘part of racing’ before backing down. Two weeks later in Baku, he crashed out twice, once in Q3 and once on the opening lap of the race. “Ultimately, a combination of quite a few things [led to the mistakes],” he said. “Obviously, the race before that was Monza, which I didn’t feel was a particularly great weekend from my own performance, and there was obviously what happened with the pit stops.”

These comments were put to Juan Pablo Montoya on the AS Colombia YouTube channel. The McLaren legend, who backs the team over their controversial car swap in Italy, fears that Piastri has ‘mentally given up’. “The problem with saying that is that it means he’s mentally given up,” the Colombian warned. “Those are the first symptoms that the relationship with McLaren is going to sour. I said it, whoever doesn’t become champion, they’re going to suffer and it’s going to cost them.”

‘Mentally given up’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/juan-pablo-montoya-says-oscar-piastri-has-given-up-after-hearing-his-comments-on-mclaren-team-orders/


Montoya says harmony between McLaren’s drivers ‘will sour'
16/11/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

“The dynamic at McLaren will change, whoever wins the championship,” Juan Pablo Montoya told betting website Poker Strategy. “I think the relationship between the drivers and the team will go sour, because one will say you didn’t do enough to help me win the championship. It will be hard to keep both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris happy. How will they manage the ‘papaya rules’ next year?” Montoya said.

Reflecting on the broader picture, Montoya insisted that the team’s in-house rules alone won’t dictate the outcome if McLaren’s car isn’t competitive. “Those rules become irrelevant if McLaren don’t have a competitive car next year. That’s the million-dollar question still, who will have the dominant car next year?”

“It could be Alpine, Aston Martin, Mercedes, we don’t know. If Red Bull ends up being slower than most other cars, Max Verstappen probably won’t even stay the whole year. He’ll take a sabbatical.” Montoya sees the upcoming Las Vegas Grand Prix as a critical moment for the internal title duel. “I predict Red Bull to win the Las Vegas Grand Prix,” he said. “I think Max Verstappen will be really good. Lando Norris will finish on the podium, the big question is, has Oscar Piastri given up?”

‘Harmony will sour';

https://f1i.com/news/553672-montoya-says-harmony-between-mclarens-drivers-will-sour.html

[Fortitude]

‘Not now. Not ever’: F1’s killing season with no end as public smackdown reveals brutal truth.
Formula 1’s most successful team is also its most violent. No team has won as much the Scuderia, but no team is as well practised at self-immolation as the men and women of Maranello.
November 17th, 2025
Michael Lamonato from Fox Sports
Fox Sports (Australia)

No individual is bigger than any F1 team, but in Maranello the team is definitely bigger than the driver. It’s been an unwritten rule for practically as long as Ferrari has competed: the team and its car aren’t up for criticism. Consider in 1991 that Alain Prost was sacked with a race to run after likening his Ferrari’s handling characteristics to that of a truck. That comment was only part of the reason he was dismissed, with politics behind the scenes sealing the deal, but the fact it was good cover illustrates that drivers at Ferrari are expected to conduct themselves in a certain way.

Sebastian Vettel had arrived at Ferrari as a four-time champion and heralded as the driver to win the team’s first title of any description since 2008. He arrived from Red Bull Racing, which had dominated the first four years of the decade and was the only one to beat Mercedes in 2016. Unsurprisingly he attempted to mould Ferrari into what he knew was title-winning shape. It didn’t go down well with management. “Everybody has to earn their position and salary,” then principal Maurizio Arrivabene said pointedly at the time. “Sebastian just needs to focus on the car.” ‘Stick to driving’ seemed to be the message. ‘We know what we’re doing.’ Ferrari’s title drought has continued.

Sebastian Vettel’s story offers a fascinating parallel at the end of a year in which Lewis Hamilton’s struggles have been a major talking point. After the mid-season break Lewis Hamilton revealed that he’d been preparing and sending the team documents about changes he felt needed to be made to get Maranello into title-winning shape and to help him get the best from himself. His notes went to structural issues as well as problems with the car. This is entirely unsurprising. Ferrari didn’t shell out for Hamilton just for fun. Elkann argued that there’s “no doubt” the car has improved, but the data doesn’t back that up. Comparing every team’s fastest lap of the weekend to the overall fastest shows Ferrari is comfortably the slowest car among the frontrunners.

‘It’s always killing season at Ferrari’;

https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport/formula-one/ferraris-chairmans-stunning-smackdown-reveals-painful-truth-behind-f1s-fallen-giant/news-story/d50a5877a4aa1d3072237e45cd1bbff0


Ecclestone tough on Elkann: 'He is now even insulting his two drivers'
17 Nov 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Bernie Ecclestone playfully said he “wouldn’t rule out” Christian Horner for a potential move to Ferrari, following comments made by president John Elkann. Speaking to Blick, the former F1 chief reacted to a photo of himself and Christian Horner wearing Aston Martin gear, pointing out: “Another team that I should buy with Horner. But didn’t technical genius Adrian Newey leave Red Bull for Aston Martin because he didn’t want to work with Horner anymore?”

When asked which team would welcome the former Red Bull CEO and team principal, the English businessman’s answer spoke volumes: "I wouldn't rule out Ferrari! There is only chaos there. And boss Elkann is now even insulting his two drivers." After twenty years of remarkable success, including 14 drivers’ and constructors’ titles, he left the Milton Keynes team last July, with Laurent Mekies — promoted from the sister team, Racing Bulls — taking over the role.

“And boss Elkann is now even insulting his two driver.";

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/ecclestone-tough-on-elkann-he-is-now-even-insulting-his-two-drivers


Ferrari’s Fuse Lit: Is Leclerc Quietly Plotting His Escape?
November 18, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Ralf Schumacher: If I’m Leclerc, I’m building a Plan B away from Ferrari. Ferrari’s season has been edgy for weeks, but John Elkann’s Milan missive lit the fuse. The Ferrari chairman, fresh off a bruising Interlagos weekend, publicly told Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to “focus on driving, talk less.” In Maranello-speak, that’s not a nudge; that’s a shove.

Ralf Schumacher heard it the same way. Speaking on Sky Deutschland, he called the statement “very serious,” the kind of top-down pressure release you get when the big-ticket decision hasn’t paid off. And in his view, one driver shouldn’t just take it on the chin. “If I were Charles, I’d ask what that’s all about,” Schumacher said, essentially urging Leclerc to line up an exit route if the tone doesn’t change. The German was sympathetic to Leclerc’s season and ruthless on Hamilton’s: the most expensive personnel move in years, he argued, without the results to match.

Ferrari expected to arrive in 2025 as title fighters after dragging McLaren to the wire in last year’s Constructors’ finish. That promise has wilted. With three rounds left, the Scuderia is still hunting its first win of the year. Brazil only deepened the bruise: Leclerc was wiped out as collateral in the Piastri–Antonelli tangle, while Hamilton picked up terminal damage after tagging the back of Franco Colapinto’s Alpine. Two red cars, zero points.

‘In Maranello-speak, that’s not a nudge; that’s a shove’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/ferraris-fuse-lit-is-leclerc-quietly-plotting-his-escape/


Ferrari warned of ‘vicious circle’ as Lewis Hamilton backed in Michael Schumacher 2.0 call
18 Nov 2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Lewis Hamilton may be 66 points behind Charles Leclerc in the standings, but he is the Ferrari driver which the team must listen to for the future. That is the opinion of ex-Ferrari stalwart Francesco Cigarini, who claims that the Michael Schumacher era can be recreated with Lewis Hamilton, but only if Ferrari “listen to him” on how the car is developed. Cigarini claims that this would benefit Leclerc as well.

Cigarini has seen the glory days at Ferrari. He was a mechanic at the time when Michael Schumacher spearheaded the dream team which secured six consecutive Constructors’ titles between 1999-2005, while Schumacher won five Drivers’ titles in a row. In a Fanpage.it interview, Cigarini spoke of “total trust between driver and team” underpinning that golden era, “based on the knowledge that everyone was working towards a common goal. “Everyone took responsibility for their own role, and if they lost, they lost together.”

Cigarini is convinced that Hamilton can be Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher 2.0, but only if he is allowed to shape the team’s direction. “Hamilton brings knowledge and organisation typical of British teams, which are highly structured and different from Ferrari,” said Cigarini. “Today, something similar can be rebuilt with Lewis: signing a multiple world champion was the right choice, not only for marketing reasons but also for the experience he brings. The question is how much weight the team really gives to what he says. If he suggests something and is not listened to because ‘Leclerc is faster’, it becomes a vicious circle: the driver does not feel part of the technical management.”

‘Lewis Hamilton backed in Michael Schumacher 2.0 call’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/ferrari-must-listen-to-lewis-hamilton-future-francesco-cigarini


Button to Elkann: Lead Ferrari Quietly, Not With Public Rebukes
November 19, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

‘Lead by example’: Button urges Elkann to keep Ferrari’s hard talks in-house. Jenson Button has added some bite to the debate around John Elkann’s public dressing-down of Ferrari’s drivers, suggesting the chairman should take his own advice and keep the conversations behind closed doors. This is the eternal Ferrari paradox. The Scuderia thrives on passion, but the glare of Maranello’s expectations can turn a spark into a wildfire. Public rebukes from the top might scratch an itch in the moment; they rarely sharpen the knife for Sunday. Button’s point is less about mollycoddling drivers and more about getting the best out of them — and two drivers of Hamilton and Leclerc’s quality, experience and stature respond best to clarity, not headlines.

“Communication is the best thing in anything,” Button added. “Especially in a team when you have thousands of people developing a car, and you’ve got two drivers that are two of the best in the world. Just go and have a chat.” It’s not hard to see why Button’s words landed. Ferrari are still fighting for position as the season winds down in 2025, and Elkann’s “talk less” line landed like a rallying cry mixed with a reprimand. The mechanics and engineers were publicly shielded; the implication was that the talking — and perhaps the noise around strategy, execution, and driver comments — had gone too far.

But if the aim is alignment, there’s a cleaner way to get there. Hamilton and Leclerc don’t need public motivation speeches; they need a united front and a car that behaves. They’ll talk when things aren’t right because that’s how feedback loops work in a high-performance environment. Tighten those loops, and the lap time tends to follow. Ferrari have been here before. The difference now is the calibre of the pairing, the depth of resource, and the opportunity still on the table. Elkann’s desire to steady the ship is understandable. Button’s reminder is that leadership isn’t just what you say — it’s where you choose to say it.

‘The Scuderia thrives on passion, but the glare of Maranello’s expectations can turn a spark into a wildfire’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/button-to-elkann-lead-ferrari-quietly-not-with-public-rebukes/

[Fortitude]

Ferrari employee intervened during Charles Leclerc press conference after endless John Elkann questions.
John Elkann’s criticism of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton is on the minds of everyone in the paddock at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
20 November 2025
Tyler Rowlinson
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari’s PR told Leclerc and Hamilton to put on a ‘brave face’ as endless questions came their way about Elkann’s criticism. It got to the point where an employee told the media during the former’s press conference to ask him about Las Vegas. Journalist Andrew Benson recalled the ordeal on the Chequered Flag podcast: “It’s a typical Ferrari scenario, isn’t it? It was interesting, it was one of those press conferences where almost every question was about one subject.”

“To the extent that, by the time we got halfway through Charles Leclerc’s press conference, who was second, the Ferrari PR woman said: ‘Have you got any questions about Las Vegas?’ It took a while to get to the nub of it, but the key line, for me, out of Hamilton’s response was, he said that this season had reminded him of how resilient he was.”

“And I asked him whether it was fair to say that he should focus more on driving, could he focus more on driving. And he said: ‘No, not really, I wake up thinking about it, I go to sleep thinking about it and I think about it when I’m sleeping. If anything, I have to focus on being able to unplug more, it’s been a really heavy year’. So, they were fundamentally PR-centred in the responses, but I thought that one particularly was quite revealing.”

‘Have you got any questions about Las Vegas?’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-employee-intervened-during-charles-leclerc-press-conference-after-endless-john-elkann-questions/


'It's going to be trickier' – Norris wary of Las Vegas Grand Prix success despite back-to-back victories
Lando Norris believes this weekend in Las Vegas will be a greater challenge than previous races this season.
20 November 2025

Formula One - Official Site

"From the last two years it's certainly been the hardest race of the year that we've had," said Lando Norris during the pre-weekend press conference. "So my expectations are not to the same level as Mexico and Brazil where we've been performing very well for a good amount of years.”

"But we've had an excellent year, we've improved in places that we struggled in the past so I'm certainly coming in with more confidence than in previous years but not the same amount of confidence going into the last few races we've had. You never know, expectations are still high, I'm still coming here to win and to want to repeat the last few weekends I've had but I think it's going to be tricker for sure than the last couple."

‘Wary’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/its-going-to-be-trickier-norris-wary-of-las-vegas-grand-prix-success-despite.6YzaPLdqDVZ8GagjN0lZVB


Lando Norris admits “worst on grid” weakness could ruin Las Vegas GP hopes
Lando Norris explains why he - and McLaren - could struggle at the Las Vegas GP
20 Nov 2025
Connor McDonagh
Crash.Net

Speaking at the FIA press conference in Las Vegas, Norris conceded that his expectations aren’t as high as in Mexico or Brazil. “Apparently I am not allowed to say we’re not favourites anymore,” Lando Norris quipped. “From the last two years it’s certainly been the hardest race of the year that we’ve had. My expectations are not to the same level as Mexico, Brazil, where we’ve been performing very well for a good amount of years. We’ve had an excellent year.”

“We’ve improved in races which we have struggled in the past so I am coming in with more confidence than previous years but not the same amount of confidence going into the past few races that we’ve had. You never know. Expectations are still higher. I am still coming here to win and to want to repeat the last few weekends that I’ve had. I think it’s going to be trickier for sure than the last couple.”

“Apparently I am not allowed to say we’re not favourites anymore”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1087037/1/lando-norris-admits-worst-grid-weakness-could-ruin-las-vegas-gp-hopes


Oscar Piastri tipped to fight back in F1 championship at Las Vegas Grand Prix
19 Nov 2025
ABC Online

McLaren expects Oscar Piastri to regain form in the final three races of the F1 championship, despite the Australian trailing teammate Lando Norris on the drivers' standings. The Melburnian has failed to reach the podium in his past five races, prompting ex-world champion Damon Hill to suggest the 24-year-old is struggling.

"Oscar suddenly looks a bit forlorn, a bit under pressure," Hill recently said. But McLaren chief executive Zak Brown defended Piastri in the build-up to the Las Vegas Grand Prix. "Oscar's definitely fighting back," Brown said. "I think one of his greatest strengths is he just gets in the zone."

‘Oscar Piastri to regain form’;

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-20/f1-las-vegas-oscar-piastri-mclaren-lando-norris/106030732


Button claims Vegas is "Max's track" ahead of crucial race in title fight
19 Nov 2025
Owen Bradley
GPblog.com

Former Formula One driver and world champion, Jenson Button, has claimed that the upcoming Las Vegas Grand Prix will likely be won by Max Verstappen, with the Brit claiming that Vegas is "Max's track." Speaking on Verstappen's championship chances, Button said: "It's the track that Max needs to maximise everything. McLaren have just got to pick up as many points as they can and not lose out to Max."

Button added: "It's going to be super cold, there's also a chance of rain from what I've seen, which definitely will mix it up. It's kind of a fast track, Vegas. In the wet it would be very tricky. It's a shame to have seen Red Bull and Max drop away the last couple races, because it was a three-car fight for the championship. Now, it's definitely a lot trickier for him."

Button continued: "Still possible {for Max}, if they get those run of performances since the summer break. But it does feel that McLaren have picked it up a little bit and have been actually maximising what they have, whereas I think they probably weren't before." The Dutchman won the Las Vegas GP back in 2023, and was crowned champion at Las Vegas last season, as Norris fell out of mathematical championship contention. Will the shoe be on the other foot this season?

"Max's track";

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/button-claims-vegas-is-maxs-track-ahead-of-crucial-race-in-title-fight


Seven things we've learned from day one of F1's Las Vegas Grand Prix
Nov 20, 2025
The Race

Drivers play Elkann’s ‘hospital pass’ well: Lewis Hamilton peddled the line that "we all need to take responsibility in this team and we all need to play our part", while Charles Leclerc offered up the palpable nonsense that "the messages he [Elkann] wanted to send was a positive one". That was more than Elkann deserved, but it did clear up the mess left by the comments made.

Hadjar apologised to Lawson: Isack Hadjar said he immediately apologised to his Racing Bulls team-mate Liam Lawson for their “close moment” on the final lap of the Brazilian GP while they were fighting for seventh and eighth places.
Tsunoda’s nervous about his future: “If I say I'm not nervous, that would be a lie,” he said. “But it's just a similar situation to last year, right? Or again two years ago. So to be honest, I got used to it. That's part of this Formula 1.”

F1 drivers want guidelines fix: Carlos Sainz issued an impassioned plea to solve Formula 1’s ‘racing guidelines’ issues, defending Oscar Piastri, who he reckons shouldn’t have got a penalty for hitting Kimi Antonelli in Brazil.
Drivers: Wet Vegas will be 'nasty': Las Vegas is well known for being a low grip track with cold temperatures and minimal downforce making cars quite skittish even in the dry.

‘Seven things we've learned’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/seven-things-weve-learned-from-day-one-of-f1s-las-vegas-grand-prix/

[Fortitude]

FP1: Leclerc heads Albon and Tsunoda in opening Las Vegas practice session.
Charles Leclerc set the pace in Free Practice 1 for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, as McLaren title rivals Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri struggled for performance.
21 November 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Charles Leclerc set the pace in Free Practice 1 for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Ferrari driver finishing ahead of Williams' Alex Albon and Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda. Leclerc posted a 1m 34.802s which left him 0.166s clear of Albon, with Tsunoda less than three-tenths behind during a session where championship rivals Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri never featured towards the top of the times.

Leclerc and Max Verstappen proved to be the pacesetters from the outset, the Ferrari driver the first to set a sub 1m 36s lap with a 1m 35.954s on the medium Pirelli tyre after 20 minutes, before Verstappen lowered the benchmark by less than two-tenths.

Teams switched focus to running the soft compound of tyre for the second phase of the session, with Hamilton the first of the leading runners to use the red-walled tyres, registering a 1m 35.561s which was quickly beaten by team mate Leclerc.

‘Charles Leclerc set the pace’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/fp1-leclerc-heads-albon-and-tsunoda-in-opening-las-vegas-practice-session.1uKXJ0pU8KFlfFxEKhwOiz


2025 F1 Las Vegas GP – Free Practice 1 Results
Who looked strongest as F1 hit The Strip for the opening practice session?
21 November 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Las Vegas GP 2025 FP1 results
Check out the full Las Vegas GP 2025 Free Practice 1 results from the first practice session in Nevada below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:34.802
2 Alexander Albon Williams +0.166
3 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +0.269
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.307
5 Carlos Sainz Williams +0.377
6 Lando Norris McLaren +0.456
7 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +0.497
8 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.648
9 George Russell Mercedes +0.732
10 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.736

‘FP1 results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-las-vegas-gp-free-practice-1-results/


Charles Leclerc tops FP1 at the Las Vegas Grand Prix as Yuki Tsunoda outperforms Max Verstappen
21 November 2025
Rebecca Braybrook
F1 Oversteer

Charles Leclerc topped the timings during the first practice session of the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend as Lando Norris struggled to find grip. McLaren brought two different rear wing specifications for the session, as teams used the first running to figure out the right mixture between downforce and mechanical grip.

Yuki Tsunoda impressed with quick lap times during the first practice session, topping the time sheets with 15 minutes remaining. The Japanese driver’s performance is critical this weekend as Red Bull continues to discuss who will partner Verstappen at the team in 2026.

Although the first practice session is not fully representative of how the results could pan out in Qualifying and the Race due to an earlier start, the start to the weekend looks reassuring for Ferrari and Red Bull.

‘Yuki Tsunoda outperforms Max Verstappen’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/charles-leclerc-tops-fp1-at-the-las-vegas-grand-prix-as-yuki-tsunoda-outperforms-max-verstappen/


Charles Leclerc fastest in FP1 for F1 Las Vegas GP, McLaren struggle
21 November 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Charles Leclerc topped the timesheets in first practice for the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, with both McLarens struggling to find pace. The Ferrari driver went fastest with a 1:34.80s, over one-and-a-half tenths ahead of Williams’ Alex Albon. Yuki Tsunoda was third, four hundredths ahead of team-mate Max Verstappen, with Carlos Sainz placing the other Williams in fifth, ahead of Lando Norris.

The cold temperatures were appearing to catch out many drivers, with a flurry of spins and lock-ups at Turn 14, the corner that truncates the fastest part of the complex. Whilst no major incidents happened, Norris brushed the wall midway through the session, telling the team over radio that he tagged it “pretty hard”.

‘McLaren struggle’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/11/21/charles-leclerc-fastest-in-fp1-for-f1-las-vegas-gp-mclaren-struggle/


Everything that happened in mixed up Las Vegas GP FP1
Nov 21, 2025
Matt Beer
The Race

Charles Leclerc led Alex Albon's Williams in a mixed-up start to Formula 1's Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend in Thursday afternoon's opening practice session. A slightly adjusted timetable for 2025 meant the new sight of F1 cars on the Vegas track at dusk initially rather than in full darkness, but with cold track temperatures and plenty of dust on the circuit meaning times well off the pace at first.

Ferrari, Williams and Red Bull generally looked the most comfortable cars in what may not turn out to be an especially representative session. Although Max Verstappen was quickest on the medium tyre runs and quickly went fastest on soft tyres too, Leclerc's repeated improvements cemented his and Ferrari's place on top by the end.

‘Ferrari, Williams and Red Bull generally looked the most comfortable cars’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what-happened-f1-2025-las-vegas-gp-fp1/


Las Vegas GP: Leclerc tops FP1; Norris sixth
Nov 21, 2025
PA
ESPN.co.uk

McLaren have been the class of the field this year but the street circuit on the Strip has not been a venue which has suited their machinery in the previous two races staged here.

In the opening running of the weekend, Norris ran wide twice at Turn 12 on two quick laps and ended the one-hour session 0.456 seconds adrift. Piastri was even further back, 0.648 seconds off Leclerc's pace-setting Ferrari.

Verstappen is the only other driver left in championship contention, trailing Norris by 49 points - the equivalent of two victories - with only 83 points available across the final three contests, starting here in Nevada, and in Qatar and then Abu Dhabi.

‘The Strip has not been a venue which has suited their machinery’;

https://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/47023049/las-vegas-grand-prix-gp-ferrari-charles-leclerc-fastest-opening-practice-fp1

[Fortitude]

Las Vegas GP: Manhole cover drama leaves questions open as Norris rebounds in FP2.
Drain cover! Race Control announced: “Following a marshal report of a possible loose manhole cover before Turn 17, Race Control were unable to confirm this information from the CCTV available. The session has been red flagged as a precautionary measure and Race Control personnel are currently on site assessing the situation.”
21 Nov 2025
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Lando Norris finished second practice in Las Vegas quickest of all, but several of his rivals were on personal bests when the session was red-flagged for the second time for manhole cover issues. The championship leader posted a 1:33.602 to finish 0.029s ahead of Kimi Antonelli with Charles Leclerc, who has gear shift issues late in the session, third fastest.

FP2 got underway at 8pm local time… to silence. None of the drivers were eager to get out, with Pierre Gasly the first some six minutes into the hour-long session. Within minutes, the rest of the field poured out with Lewis Hamilton going quickest before Franco Colapinto took over – eight seconds to the good.

As the lap times stabilised as the drivers got their tyres up to temperature, Max Verstappen hit the front before Kimi Antonelli took over in the Mercedes with a 1:35.7. Championship leader Lando Norris, almost 20 minutes into the session, was the final driver to clock a lap time. Clearly not happy with the rear grip of his MCL39, he was backed off after a near-miss in the run-off area.

‘Drain cover!’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/las-vegas-grand-prix-2025-fp2-report


Las Vegas GP: Free Practice 2 Results
Full results from Free Practice 2 for the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
21 Nov 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

Pos. No. Driver Team Time / Gap Laps
1 4 Lando Norris Mclaren 1:33.602 13
2 12 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.029s 18
3 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.161s 16
4 27 Nico Hulkenberg Kick Sauber +0.277s 14
5 6 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +0.291s 16
6 30 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +0.299s 16
7 63 George Russell Mercedes +0.435s 18
8 23 Alexander Albon Williams +0.465s 17
9 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.503s 16
10 44 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.525s 17

‘Free Practice 2 Results’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-las-vegas-grand-prix-strip-circuit-free-practice-2-fp2-results/


Lando Norris tops chaotic FP2 as Las Vegas GP hit by fresh red-flag drama
McLaren star rises above the chaos as red flags disrupt vital night-time running
21 November 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

The second practice session at the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix was supposed to be the moment teams finally got a true read on their cars under race-representative conditions. Instead, the hour turned into a fragmented, stop-start affair defined by loose infrastructure, late-session confusion, and a flash of form from Lando Norris that leaves the title contender poised for a crucial weekend.

Race control suspended the session on reports from marshals of a possible loose drain cover at Turn 17 — an issue painfully familiar to Las Vegas after the notorious 2023 incident that severely delayed running during the event’s debut. A 15-minute inspection followed, with officials combing through the area as teams waited in the pit lane. When the green light finally returned with six minutes remaining, drivers rushed back onto the track to salvage whatever performance running they could.

But the reprieve was short-lived. Just minutes after resuming, another red flag flew, once again linked to concerns around the same section of the circuit. With little time remaining, the session was abandoned, leaving teams without the critical data normally gathered in FP2.

‘A fragmented, stop-start affair defined by loose infrastructure, late-session confusion’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/las-vegas-gp-fp2-norris-tops-chaotic-session-f1-2025/


Las Vegas GP: Loose drain cover causes multiple red flags in practice
Nov 21, 2025
Laurence Edmondson
ESPN.co.uk

The second practice session for the Las Vegas Grand Prix was red flagged twice on Thursday evening due to concerns over a loose manhole cover near Turn 17. The stoppages had shades of a similar incident at the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix two years ago, during which a water valve cover came loose on The Strip and damaged the underside of Carlos Sainz's Ferrari.

The 2023 incident resulted in the first practice session ending early and second practice being delayed until the early hours of the following morning. Thursday's first stoppage came as a precaution after a trackside marshal reported concerns that a manhole cover appeared to be loose.

The suspension to the session allowed race control personnel to visit Turn 17 and inspect the manhole cover, with the FIA issuing a statement 15 minutes later that it was "confident everything is in a suitable condition to resume the session". However, in the closing stages of the session a second red flag was flown amid more concerns over the manhole, which ultimately timed out second practice.

‘FIA: "confident everything is in a suitable condition to resume the session"!’;

https://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/47044570/las-vegas-gp-grand-prix-loose-manhole-cover-causes-multiple-red-flags-practice-fp2


Las Vegas Grand Prix: Loose manhole cover causes multiple red flags in practice
November 21, 2025
Laurence Edmondson
TSN

In the closing stages of the session a second red flag was flown amid more concerns over the manhole, which ultimately timed out second practice. "Some race control personnel remained on-site when the session was restarted," an FIA statement said after the second red flag. "They reported that the manhole cover was moving as cars passed over it, which led to the session being ended under red-flag conditions. Further inspections are underway."

Loose drain covers are not unusual at street circuits and tend to come unfixed due to the forces generated by the underside of F1 cars, which are designed to generate low pressure and suck the car to the track. Although the premature finish to Thursday's second practice marked the end of F1's schedule for the evening, F1 Academy was able to run its qualifying session 32 minutes after the end of FP2 with just a two-minute delay to the scheduled start time.

‘Multiple red flags’;

https://www.tsn.ca/motorsports/article/las-vegas-gp-loose-manhole-cover-causes-multiple-red-flags-in-practice-n1-47044570/


FIA takes action after ‘track maintenance’ issue interrupts Las Vegas GP FP2
21 Nov 2025
Mat Coch
PlanetF1.com

“Following a marshal report of a possible loose manhole cover before Turn 17, Race Control were unable to confirm this information from the CCTV available,” and FIA statement received by PlanetF1.com confirmed during the first red flag period. “The session has been red flagged as a precautionary measure and Race Control personnel are currently on site assessing the situation.” During that stoppage, officials visited and inspected the manhole in question, satisfying themselves that it was safe for running to resume.

Some Race Control personnel remained on-site when the session was restarted,” the statement said. “They reported that the manhole cover was moving as cars passed over it, which led to the session being ended under red-flag conditions. Further inspections are underway.” The delay impacted F1 Academy qualifying, which followed Free Practice 2, though lasted only two minutes before track action resumed. The Las Vegas Grand Prix is promoted by Liberty Media, the commercial rights holder of Formula 1.

‘Track maintenance’/Loose manhole cover';

https://www.planetf1.com/news/fia-las-vegas-gp-red-flag-track-maintenance-fp2-manhole

[Fortitude]

George Russell tops final practice for F1 Las Vegas GP, both McLarens bottom.
The Mercedes driver’s 1:34.054s saw him take top spot ahead of Max Verstappen, two tenths behind.
22 November 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

The session started with a damp track, as intermittent spits of rain persisted to fall upon Sin City. Drivers opted for Intermediate tyres, which were wearing off quickly.

George Russell topped the timesheets in final practice for the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, in a session which saw both McLarens finish at the bottom of the order.

Alex Albon was third, with Isack Hadjar fourth. Lewis Hamilton was fifth, over a second off Russell’s time, with the second Mercedes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli sixth.

‘McLarens bottom’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/11/22/george-russell-tops-final-practice-for-f1-las-vegas-gp-both-mclarens-bottom/


2025 F1 Las Vegas GP – Free Practice 3 Results
George Russell tops FP3 at the 2025 Las Vegas GP as Max Verstappen takes second and Alex Albon stars for Williams in a chaotic final practice
22 November 2025
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

F1 Las Vegas GP 2025 FP3 results
Check out the full Las Vegas GP 2025 Free Practice 3 results from the third and final practice session in Nevada below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 George Russell Mercedes 1:34.054
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.227
3 Alexander Albon Williams +0.821
4 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +1.115
5 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +1.215
6 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +1.331
7 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +1.385
8 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1.479
9 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +1.486
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine +1.508

‘FP3 results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-las-vegas-gp-free-practice-3-results/


Las Vegas GP: Russell tops tricky FP3 - McLaren drivers suffer issues
22/11/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Mercedes ‘ George Russell mastered a fickle, drying Las Vegas Strip Circuit to top the third and final practice session ahead of qualifying, edging Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.227s.

With the track evolving rapidly after morning showers, the standings told only part of the story – especially for McLaren, which endured a bruising session at the bottom of the times.

The session began on a surface still damp from overnight rain, marking the first wet running of the weekend. Early tours on intermediate tyres were cautious and revealing: Alex Albon’s slide at Turn 5 underscored grip levels that hovered nearly 10 seconds off the expected dry pace.

‘Track evolving rapidly’;

https://f1i.com/news/554075-las-vegas-gp-russell-tops-tricky-fp3-mclaren-drivers-suffer-issues.html


FIA reveal fix to Las Vegas GP drain covers after overnight inspections
A busy time for the FIA ahead of final practice for the Las Vegas Grand Prix
22 Nov 2025
Connor McDonagh
Crash.Net

The FIA has detailed the extensive overnight work carried out at the Las Vegas Grand Prix to prevent any repeat of the manhole cover failure that disrupted FP2. The second hour of practice in Las Vegas was disrupted by two red-flag stoppages.

Ahead of final practice and qualifying, the cover of the manhole has been welded to provide “further mitigation”. This has also been done to 14 additional manhole assemblies. “The manhole that prompted the red flag in FP2 was disassembled and further inspected,” the FIA said ahead of final practice. “A specific fault was found with the closure mechanism, and it was possible to address this issue overnight.”

“In addition to the work conducted to address the issue identified, the cover of this manhole has been welded to provide further mitigation. All other manhole covers on or close to the racing line were reinspected overnight, and additional welding was applied to a further 14 manhole assemblies.”

‘[15] manholes have been welded’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1087162/1/fia-reveal-fix-las-vegas-gp-drain-covers-after-overnight-inspections


Russell fastest in final Las Vegas GP practice
Nov 22, 2025
The Straits Times

LAS VEGAS - Last year's winner George Russell of Mercedes topped the timesheets in the final free practice for the Las Vegas Formula One Grand Prix on Friday, edging Red Bull's Max Verstappen and the Williams of Alexander Albon.

Russell posted a fastest time of one minute, 34.054, which was 0.227 seconds ahead of four-times world champion Verstappen, with Albon 0.821 behind the Mercedes. McLaren's championship leader Lando Norris struggled with an electrical issue with his car that limited his session.

The Briton, who has a 24-point lead over teammate Oscar Piastri, was the fastest in Thursday night's second practice, which was twice red-flagged due to a suspected loose drain cover. Piastri lost telemetry in his car, which also curtailed his practice. He finished 19th and Norris 20th.

‘Russell fastest’;

https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/formula-one/russell-fastest-in-final-las-vegas-gp-practice

[Fortitude]

Norris masters wet Las Vegas to claim pole ahead of Verstappen and Sainz.
Lando Norris mastered a treacherous qualifying session in Las Vegas to claim his third pole position in a row.
22nd November 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

The McLaren driver captured pole position by three tenths of a second from Max Verstappen with a rapid final lap on a soaked track. Carlos Sainz Jnr took third place for Williams ahead of George Russell but both are under investigation. The stewards are looking into whether Sainz rejoined the track unsafely in Q1 and Mercedes failed to submit its set-up sheets in time for both its cars.

‘Treacherous qualifying session in Las Vegas’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/11/22/norris-masters-wet-las-vegas-to-claim-pole-ahead-of-verstappen-and-sainz/


2025 F1 Las Vegas GP – Qualifying Results
Norris beats Verstappen to Las Vegas pole as Sainz shocks with P3
22 November 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Las Vegas GP 2025 Qualifying results
Check out the full Las Vegas GP 2025 Qualifying results from Nevada below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:47.934
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.323
3 Carlos Sainz Williams +0.362
4 George Russell Mercedes +0.869
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren +1.027
6 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +1.128
7 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +1.532
8 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +1.620
9 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +1.938
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine +3.606

‘Qualifying Results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-las-vegas-gp-qualifying-results/


Norris and Verstappen brawl incoming after front row lockout in Vegas GP
22 Nov 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Lando Norris got pole position for the Las Vegas Grand Prix ahead of Max Verstappen in P2 and Carlos Sainz in P3.

Despite Verstappen and Russell showing pace earlier on, Norris and Piastri dominated the session as the circuit dried up. The British McLaren driver put in a lap ove five tenths quicker than Piastri and more than eight tenths faster than Verstappen in P3. Despite Sainz' late surge to the top, the Dutch driver retook the the lead, albeit briefly.

‘Front row lockout’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/norris-and-verstappen-brawl-incoming-after-front-row-lockout-in-vegas-gp


Lewis Hamilton last at Las Vegas GP as Ferrari nightmare continues
Lewis Hamilton will start last at the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
22 Nov 2025
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Lewis Hamilton has qualified last in a wet and wild qualifying session at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The seven-time world champion suffered a shock Q1 elimination in the wet in Las Vegas and ended up slowest of all in 20th. Hamilton was nearly three seconds slower than Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, who safely progressed into the next part of qualifying.

There appeared to be some miscommunication as Hamilton looked to have aborted his final flying lap, having only just made the line in time. "Are we safe?" Hamilton asked, to which race engineer Riccardo Adami replied: "Keep pushing." Hamilton said "I got the light..." before Adami came back "No, push!".

Having been eliminated, Hamilton reported he "couldn't get the tyres to work". Hamilton has endured a torrid maiden campaign with Ferrari, branding his first season in red as a "nightmare" after retiring from the Sao Paulo Grand Prix last time out. It marks the first time in Hamilton's F1 career that he has qualified last on pure pace.

‘Ferrari nightmare continues’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1087212/1/lewis-hamilton-qualifies-last-las-vegas-gp-ferrari-nightmare-continues


Vegas Shock: Stewards Put Sainz’s P3 Under Threat
November 22, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Las Vegas stewards probe puts Sainz’s hard won P3 under threat after near miss with Stroll. Carlos Sainz’s sharp, rain soaked qualifying lap around the Strip may not hold up under the floodlights for long. The Williams driver, who stuck his FW47 third on the grid for Sunday’s Las Vegas Grand Prix behind Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, has been summoned to the stewards over an alleged unsafe rejoin during Q1 after a close call with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

The flashpoint came at Turn 5, the tight 90 degree right hander that caught out a handful of drivers in treacherous conditions. Sainz overshot and ducked down the escape road, then rejoined as Stroll arrived on the scene. The two came uncomfortably close to trading carbon, and that’s all it takes to trigger an investigation these days. Both drivers have been called to see the stewards at 21:25 local time.

It’s a gut punch moment for Sainz, whose late season form has been one of the year’s genuine bright spots. Since joining Williams, he’s helped drag the team back onto the podium for the first time since 2021 with a third place in Baku, then matched the result in the sprint at the United States Grand Prix. The Vegas lap — precise, patient, ruthless in the wet — looked like another well timed statement from a driver who’s rebuilt momentum in deep water. Whether he keeps that P3 is now in the hands of the officials…

‘It’s a gut punch moment for Sainz’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/vegas-shock-stewards-put-sainzs-p3-under-threat/

[Fortitude]

Las Vegas GP: Max Verstappen wins as Lando Norris closes in on world title with second, Oscar Piastri finishes fourth.
Norris and Oscar Piastri under investigation for alleged excessive skid block wear and could be disqualified.
23 Nov 2025
Nigel Chiu
Sky Sports

Max Verstappen dominated the Las Vegas Grand Prix as Lando Norris fought back to finish second - but the McLaren driver and team-mate Oscar Piastri could be disqualified for excessive skid block wear.

Two hours after the chequered flag, the FIA announced both McLarens were under investigation for too much plank wear, a ruling which would see them thrown out of the race - as happened with Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at the Chinese Grand Prix earlier this year.

In the race pole-sitter Norris lost out to Verstappen and George Russell in a dramatic start but, as it stands, increased his advantage in the Drivers' Championship to 30 points over Piastri, who was fourth, and 42 points to Verstappen.

'Investigation for alleged excessive skid block wear ';

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12040/13474306/las-vegas-gp-max-verstappen-wins-as-lando-norris-closes-in-on-world-title-with-second-oscar-piastri-finishes-fourth


Las Vegas GP: Race Results
Full results from the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix where Max Verstappen took his sixth victory of 2025.
23 Nov 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

Pos. No. Driver Team Laps Time / Retired Pts.
1 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 50 1:21:08.429 25
2 4 Lando Norris McLaren 50 +20.741s 18
3 63 George Russell Mercedes 50 +23.546s 15
4 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren 50 +27.650s 12
5 12 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 50 +30.488s 10
6 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 50 +30.678s 8
7 55 Carlos Sainz Williams 50 +34.924s 6
8 6 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls 50 +45.257s 4
9 27 Nico Hulkenberg Kick Sauber 50 +51.134s 2
10 44 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 50 +59.369s 1

‘Full results’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-las-vegas-grand-prix-strip-circuit-race-results/


Norris and Piastri face exclusion from Vegas GP F1 results
Nov 23, 2025
Scott Mitchell-Malm, Jon Noble
The Race

Formula 1 title rivals and McLaren team-mates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri face disqualification from the Las Vegas Grand Prix after a skid wear problem was recorded during post-race technical inspections. Norris finished second with Piastri fourth in a race won by championship outsider Max Verstappen.

Both have now been referred to the stewards after the measured thickness of the rearmost skid on both McLarens was less than 9mm, the minimum thickness required by the technical regulations. A technical infringement is usually a black-and-white matter so both drivers could be excluded. McLaren was called in to see the stewards at 11.45pm local time.

Standings right now
1 Norris 408
2 Piastri 378 (+30)
3 Verstappen 366 (+42)
Standings if McLarens excluded
1 Norris 390
2 Piastri 366 (+24)
3 Verstappen 366 (+24)

‘Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri face disqualification’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/norris-piastri-vegas-gp-f1-mclaren-investigation-exclusion-risk/


BREAKING: Norris and Piastri facing Las Vegas GP DSQ as FIA launches McLaren investigation
23 Nov 2025
Thomas Maher
planetf1.com

A McLaren representative has been summoned to appear before the stewards in Las Vegas due to an alleged breach of the technical regulations related to plank wear. “The skid wear of car numbers 81 [Piastri] and 04 [Norris] was checked,” read the stewards’ document, quoting technical delegate Jo Bauer.

“The rearmost skid was measured on both cars according to the team’s legality documents submission in accordance with TD039 M, item 1.2 b) I). The measured thickness was less than 9 mm on both cars, which is the minimum thickness required by TR Article 3.5.9 e). I am referring this matter to the stewards for their consideration.”

‘Summoned to appear’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/mclaren-summons-2025-las-vegas-grand-prix-lando-norris-oscar-piastri


Norris and Piastri under threat of disqualification from Las Vegas Grand Prix
23rd November 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

The scrutineers in Las Vegas have confirmed Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s rear skid blocks were worn beneath the legal limit when they were checked after the race. As this would put the car in breach of the technical regulations, both drivers are at risk of being disqualified.

‘Threat of disqualification’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/11/23/norris-and-piastri-under-threat-of-disqualification-from-las-vegas-grand-prix/


BREAKING: F1 title race bombshell as BOTH McLarens face DQ from Vegas GP
November 23rd, 2025
Max Laughton from Fox Sports@maxlaughton
Fox Sports (Australia)

F1 championship leader Lando Norris and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri are both facing potential disqualifications from the Las Vegas Grand Prix. In a bombshell moment for the title race, McLaren has been summoned to the stewards following the third-last race of the season, which was won by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Norris finished second to extend his title lead over fourth-placed Piastri to 30 points, while his lead over Verstappen moved to 42 points. But both drivers’ cars were checked and alleged excessive skidblock wear has been found, similar to Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc being DQ’d from the 2023 US Grand Prix.

‘F1 title race bombshell’;

https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport/formula-one/f1-2025-mclarens-lando-norris-oscar-piastri-face-disqualification-after-las-vegas-grand-prix-due-to-skid-block-wear-technical-delegate-referral-to-stewards/news-story/ae91f75a689e0d5c5b73fce430a1db1b


Norris risks losing P2 after Vegas GP with FIA investigation
23 Nov 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Lando Norris risks forfeiting his second-place finish at the Las Vegas Grand Prix following the scrutiny of the McLaren driver’s car after the race.

The British driver, who is within touching distance of a maiden Drivers’ Championship, has seen his No. 4 MCL39 come under the crosshairs of the FIA’s Nikolas Tombazis in the garage, who, alongside his team, was conducting a thorough check on the 26-year-old’s car.

While the reason for this check has not yet been officially revealed, it is worth noting that the McLaren driver was forced to lift and coast in the final stages of the Nevada race.

‘McLaren driver was forced to lift and coast’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/breaking-news/norris-and-mclaren-risk-losing-p2-after-issue-in-the-race

[Fortitude]

Official: Norris and Piastri disqualified from Las Vegas Grand Prix.
A post-race inspection found the rear skid blocks were worn beneath the legal limit on the two MCL39s.
23rd November 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer stated: “The rearmost skid was measured on both cars according to the team’s legality documents submission” and “the measured thickness was less than 9mm on both cars, which is the minimum thickness required.” After summong the team’s representatives to a hearing, the stewards confirmed both cars had been disqualified.

McLaren’s double disqualification cuts Norris’s lead over both drivers to 24 points. The result is a huge boost for Verstappen, who arrived in Las Vegas 49 points behind Norris. The stewards’ decision has handed more points to several of their rivals. George Russell moves up to second place and is joined on the podium by his team mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

‘Both cars had been disqualified’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/11/23/official-norris-and-piastri-disqualified-from-las-vegas-grand-prix/


Norris and Piastri disqualified from Las Vegas Grand Prix
23 Nov 2025
Ben Winship
GPblog.com

The McLaren F1 team have been disqualified from the Las Vegas GP due to a technical infringement, the FIA has confirmed.

Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri's cars failed post-race scrutineering after their skid blocks were found to be below the required 9mm minimum thickness level. The disqualification has a significant impact on the world championship as Norris has lost the 18 points he received for his P2 finish, giving race winner Max Verstappen a 25-point swing in the title fight.

Updated championship standings
McLaren's disqualification has blown the championship wide open as Verstappen jumps to within a race win of Norris.
STANDINGS DRIVER POINTS
P1 Lando Norris 390
P2 Oscar Piastri 366
P3 Max Verstappen 366

‘Skid blocks were found to be below the required 9mm minimum thickness level’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/breaking-news/norris-and-piastri-disqualified-from-las-vegas-grand-prix


Both McLarens thrown out of Las Vegas GP in huge F1 title twist
McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri disqualified from Las Vegas Grand Prix for technical infringements.
23 Nov 2025
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

"The rear skids of Car 4 [and Car 81] were measured and found to be below the minimum thickness of 9mm specified under Article 3.5.9 of the Technical Regulations," the stewards said in a statement.”

"The relevant measurements were RHS Front 8.88mm, RHS Rear 8.93mm. The measuring device was a Mitutoyo Micrometre purchased in May 2025, and according to the manufacturer’s specifications, accurate to within 0.001mm.”

"The rear skids were re-measured in the presence of the Stewards and the three McLaren representatives, and those measurements confirmed that the skids did not comply with the regulations. The relevant measurements were even lower than those measured originally by the Technical Delegate.”

‘Huge F1 title twist’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1087338/1/both-mclarens-thrown-out-las-vegas-gp-huge-f1-title-twist


McLaren disqualified from Las Vegas GP
Both McLarens have been disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix for excessive plank wear, throwing the drivers’ championship wide open with two rounds remaining.
23 Nov 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

The closing stages of the grand prix had already seen moments of concern for Norris, who slowed aggressively in the final laps, losing around 14 seconds to Verstappen in what was widely assumed to be a fuel-saving measure, with radio messages indicating the team was monitoring fuel levels. Norris later hinted at “some issues with the car” but said he did not fully understand the cause.

The Race reported that both McLarens were held longer than usual in parc ferme, with team principal Andrea Stella seen speaking with FIA technical officials. In an earlier statement announcing the investigation, FIA Technical Delegate Jo Bauer confirmed the referral to stewards:

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were referred to the stewards after finishing second and fourth respectively, when post-race checks revealed the rear skids on their cars were worn below the minimum 9mm thickness required by regulations. After deliberating for more than three hours, the stewards confirmed both cars breached the rules and excluded them from the race.

‘Throwing the drivers’ championship wide open with two rounds remaining’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-mclaren-disqualified-las-vegas-grand-prix-investigation-result-plank-wear-championship-ramifications/


OFFICIAL: Norris and Piastri suffer shock disqualification from the Las Vegas Grand Prix
23 Nov 2025
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

FIA's statement read: "The Stewards heard from the Team Principal, Team Sporting Director and Technical Director of McLaren Formula 1 Team, the FIA Single Seater Director, the FIA Single Seater Technical Director and the FIA Technical Delegate.

"The Team argued that mitigating circumstances existed in that there was additional and unexpected porpoising at this event, limited opportunity to test due to the weather on Day 1, and shortened practice sessions. Further the Team submitted that the degree of the breach was lower than prior breaches of this regulation in 2025.”

"The FIA argued that unfortunately there was no provision in the regulations or in precedent for any penalty other than the usual penalty (i.e. disqualification). The FIA noted that it strongly held the view that the breach was unintentional and that there as not deliberate attempt to circumvent the regulations.”

‘Shock disqualification’;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/28008

[Fortitude]

McLaren DISQUALIFIED in VEGAS F1.
@re1ky: if you get your news from comedy. @Gallalad1: Simply lovely. @TheAniSi: Papaya rules.
Nov 23, 2025
Conor Moore Racing

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have been disqualified at the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix by the FIA

@camdav8323: What shenanigans have they been up to Oscar needs to move on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBJeCf3zXGc


Lando Norris & Oscar Piastri REACTION to McLaren Disqualification in Las Vegas
Nov 23, 2025
Behind Grand Prix

BREAKING news from the Las Vegas Grand Prix: both McLaren cars — Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri — have been disqualified from the race. The FIA confirmed that the rear skid block thickness on both cars failed post-race inspection, coming in below the legal minimum.

This shock ruling wipes out McLaren’s double points finish and dramatically reshuffles the championship picture. Norris loses his hard-earned P2 and Piastri also drops out of the classification completely, handing crucial positions — and points — to their rivals.

@Olifantenstaart: Why McLaren took ANY risk with the planks is beyond me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJO32LhuQo8


Lando Norris confirms he knew of McLaren ‘issues’ as during Las Vegas GP as he suffers DSQ
The Brit was struck from the records for excessive plank wear on November 22.
23 November 2025
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

Lando Norris confirms he knew McLaren had issues during the 2025 Las Vegas GP, as he confirms he had to back off to manage a plank wear issue – only to later suffer a title-damaging DSQ.

Aware something was wrong, Norris confirms he knew McLaren had “issues” with their car at the Las Vegas GP, although it seems nobody expected a DSQ as he suffers a big title set-back.

“I think there was just some issues with the car,” Norris said to media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “The team were telling me on the radio. So, yeah. Just had to back off a bit.”

‘Issues’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/lando-norris-confirms-he-knew-of-mclaren-issues-as-during-las-vegas-gp-as-he-suffers-dsq/


Red Bull hails Max Verstappen ‘masterclass’ in F1 Las Vegas GP
23 November 2025
Anirban Aly Mandal
Motorsport Week

Starting alongside the McLaren driver, the 28-year-old got a better start off the line. But Norris was quick to cover off Verstappen’s advances going into Turn 1. However, as Norris veered off to the left, he missed his braking point and ran deep, allowing the four-time F1 champion to slide down the inside to take the lead.

Mekies hailed the Dutchman’s instincts, crediting his move as the decisive moment of the race. “Well, you know, Lap 1, Turn 1, he just never gets it wrong, no? So that was a typical Max, he nailed it, got a good start, got Lando,” he told media including Motorsport Week. “You guys can judge it better than I do, but he just never gets it wrong, so that’s what it’s then.”

‘Masterclass’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/11/23/red-bull-hails-max-verstappen-masterclass-in-f1-las-vegas-gp-win/


F1 title race explained: How Norris and Piastri's disqualification opens door for Verstappen
Possibility of Abu Dhabi championship decider increases after controversy in Las Vegas
November 23, 2025
Mina Rzouki
The National

The Formula One title battle has been given a thrilling lease of life after the disqualification of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Hours after the race finished, both McLaren cars were kicked out for excessive plank wear, with the skid blocks below the minimum thickness, meaning Norris lost his points for second place and Piastri for his fourth spot.

The implications are significant, with race winner Max Verstappen benefiting the most from this decision. Instead of leading Piastri by 30 points and Verstappen by 42, Norris now leads both rivals by just 24 points going into next weekend's Qatar GP. Verstappen moves up to joint-second with Piastri (the Australian stays ahead on win countback).

Piastri and Verstappen: Both in second place level on 366 points. To stay in the title fight after Qatar, both Piastri and Verstappen must remain within 25 points of Norris. If the gap becomes 26 or more, Norris is champion. Verstappen hugely benefits from the double disqualification. His deficit shrinks from 42 to 24, dragging him back into contention.

‘The Formula One title battle has been given a thrilling lease of life’;

https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/f1/2025/11/23/f1-title-race-explained-how-norris-and-piastris-disqualification-opens-door-for-verstappen/

[Fortitude]

The McLaren radio messages which show how they tried to manage plank wear.
McLaren’s radio messages during the Las Vegas Grand Prix show how they tried to contain the problem which led to their double disqualification.
23rd Nov 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

It seems that Norris decided his pursuit of Verstappen was futile, knew he had a significant gap over Russell and decided to focus on looking after his plank as much as possible. The fact he was able to do this may explain why his plank was not over-worn to the same extent as Piastri’s, but it was not enough to prevent him joining his team mate in disqualification after the race.

Lap: 42/50 NOR: 1’34.081, PIA: 1’34.641
Joseph: And suggest silver D4 silver D4, the fronts look more robust on this tyre. And reminder, overtake.
Norris: Yep. Let’s just do whatever we got to do, please, so tell me whatever I got to do.
Joseph: Okay, in which case just do more.
Lap: 43/50 NOR: 1’34.271, PIA: 1’34.499
Norris: What do I do with 10? Because sometimes I lift more, it just feels worse.
Joseph: Whatever you do in 10 doesn’t make much difference. It’s more 11 and 12. The next thing you can do is earlier into 17.
Lap: 46/50 NOR: 1’35.534, PIA: 1’34.588
Joseph: And overtake. And happy to try a lift in 10.
Joseph: That’s four laps to go.
Lap: 47/50 NOR: 1’36.128, PIA: 1’34.086
Norris: You’re happy with everything? Need more or what?
Joseph: So Lando still do overtake into 14. We can do an earlier lift into 17, bigger lift into 11. Happy to lose two seconds in the three laps remaining.
Lap: 48/50 NOR: 1’37.702, PIA: 1’34.165
Joseph: Overtake and then that lift.

Underlining how concerned McLaren were about the plank situation, Piastri was even reminded on the final lap to lift off again, past the point at which the team would have been worrying about tyre wear.
The only message to Norris regarding fuel came on the final lap, long after he had begun backing off.

‘The McLaren radio messages’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/11/23/the-mclaren-radio-messages-which-show-they-tried-to-manage-plank-wear-during-the-race/


McLaren disqualification gives Verstappen more than hope: now Max is at his best
23 Nov 2025
Ludo van Denderen
GPblog.com

Publicly, Max Verstappen won’t speak of any mindset other than the one he shared this weekend in Las Vegas: take it race by race and see what that brings in Abu Dhabi. Quietly, though, he’ll be even more motivated in his pursuit of Lando Norris after the disqualification of both McLarens. That’s when he is at his best.

Verstappen thought he needed a small miracle after the Las Vegas Grand Prix winner saw Lando Norris sitting beside him on the couch in the press conference room. The gap to the McLaren driver was enormous—too big, really—to still hope for another title. What the Red Bull Racing driver couldn’t foresee was that, elsewhere in the paddock, the FIA stewards were creating that miracle. The plank under Norris' McLaren was excessively worn, which ultimately resulted in disqualification.

‘Small miracle’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/analysis/mclaren-disqualification-gives-verstappen-more-than-hope-now-max-is-at-his-best


Double DQ—McLaren, Piastri, Norris react to Las Vegas F1 skid wear stuff-up
23 Nov 2025
Peter Maniaty
Sporting News

Undoubtedly the biggest loser of the DQ decision is 2025 drivers championship leader Lando Norris, who has seen his margin over the resurgent Max Verstappen now reduced to just 24 points. “It’s frustrating to lose so many points. As a team, we’re always pushing to find as much performance as we can, and we clearly didn’t get that balance right today,” Norris commented.

McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri was equally as frustrated, acknowledging the razor fine margins between success and failure in Formula One. “Disappointing … given how close the grid is we’re always looking at where we can gain performance and we didn’t get it right this time,” Piastri said.

‘Las Vegas F1 skid wear stuff-up’;

https://www.sportingnews.com/au/formula-1/news/mclaren-piastri-norris-react-las-vegas-f1-skid-wear-dq/2fbb90ff3c58d29c09ae5c12


What we know about misjudgement behind shock McLaren double DSQ
Nov 23, 2025
Scott Mitchell-Malm
The Race

The disqualification of both McLarens from the Las Vegas Grand Prix was a shock given the way the race ended had left a big implication that only Lando Norris was at risk, and for a very different reason. Whenever Norris or McLaren were asked about the aggressive lift and coast measures Norris had done in the final few laps of the race, the answers were cagey at best.

But the lift-and-coast messages and fuel implications turned out to be a red herring. It seems McLaren’s messages were essentially coded and that Norris was having to lift and coast but not to manage fuel - to try to protect the plank. Norris is even quoted in McLaren’s press release as confirming the end-of-race management was “due to some issues on our car, which have unfortunately resulted in us being disqualified”.

‘But the lift-and-coast messages and fuel implications turned out to be a red herring’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what-we-know-about-misjudgement-behind-shock-mclaren-double-dsq/


Las Vegas Strips Norris: McLaren DSQs Ignite Title Chaos
Nov 23, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Norris stripped of Las Vegas P2 as McLaren double DSQ shakes up title run-in. Under the neon lights of Las Vegas, Lando Norris walked away with nothing but frustration and a slimmer margin in the championship fight. Hours after finishing second to Max Verstappen on Sunday night, both McLarens were thrown out of the results for excessive plank wear — a black and white technical breach with no wiggle room.

The penalty stung. Norris’ runner-up finish would have stretched his lead to 30 points over Oscar Piastri, with Verstappen 42 back and only two rounds left. Instead, the disqualification cuts his advantage to 24 points — now over both Piastri and Verstappen — with the title picture taking on a cooler, sharper edge just when McLaren could least afford it.

“Frustrating,” Norris said, summing up a long night that turned on a few hundredths of a millimetre. “We had to do some managing towards the end of the race and now we know it was due to some issues on our car, which have unfortunately resulted in us being disqualified. It’s frustrating to lose so many points… nothing I can do will change that now. Full focus switches to Qatar.” The FIA’s scrutineering sheet told the tale: Norris’ plank measured 0.07mm and 0.12mm under the required 9mm thickness at its designated points

‘Under the neon lights of Las Vegas, Lando Norris walked away with nothing but frustration…’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/las-vegas-strips-norris-mclaren-dsqs-ignite-title-chaos/


What could be behind McLaren's plank wear DSQ shock
Nov 24, 2025
Jon Noble
The Race

One of the intriguing aspects about McLaren’s double disqualification from the Las Vegas Grand Prix for worn planks is that the infringement was at the rear of its Formula 1 car. In a season when rivals have been paying super close attention to where McLaren’s advantage comes from, it’s been widely acknowledged that the MCL39 has a concept that predominantly runs on its front skids.

Sauber’s sporting director Inaki Rueda offered some fascinating insight recently about the benefits that a team can gain from the current cars in being able to run the front of the car low down like McLaren. "I think most cars this year are wearing the rears," he said. "But whichever team has managed to pivot to the front, that means they actually are able to run lower than the rest of us.”

"This is something that is quite clever. Most of the downforce [generated by the floor] comes from where the driver is sitting, and towards the back. So that's where you really want the floor to be close to the ground. So if the main point of wear is back there, then you need to raise the car at that point – and you lose downforce. A lot of design effort is spent on trying to migrate that work to the front, so that you can run it low. But it's not an easy task."

‘Where McLaren’s advantage comes fro’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what-could-be-behind-mclarens-plank-wear-dsq-shock/


Internet reacts to McLaren disqualification in Las Vegas
23 Nov 2025
Ben Winship
GPblog.com

McLaren's disqualification from the Las Vegas Grand Prix has blown the world championship right open and made shockwaves across the internet. Fans react to McLaren disqualification. As the world championship is blown open, fans now believe a three-way world title fight has truly come alive.

Sensing the drama one person commented: "Are they filming Drive to survive this year by chance?" Another chimed in with "Abu Dhabi will be a movie."
Someone else said: "We are getting a race for the championship now."
Stunned by the development another fan said: "Did not have this on my Bingo card for today!"

The news has helped the Dutchman's fanbase to come alive. "Max could win it now. Oh God. We are dead here when it happens," said one Verstappen fan.
Another excited Verstappen fan typed: "DU DU DU DU MAX VERSTAPPEN!!!! 5TH CHAMPIONSHIP COMING!!!"
The result elevated George Russell to P2 and his teammate Kimi Antonelli to P3, a feat which was not lost on one fan: "1) The championship is wide open, and Max could easily grab it now. 2) Kimi is now P3, meaning he went from P17 to P3."

‘Shockwaves across the internet’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/internet-reacts-to-mclaren-disqualification-in-las-vegas

[Fortitude]

McLaren’s car is now ‘compromised’ for the Qatar Grand Prix after Las Vegas disqualifications.
Former F1 designer Gary Anderson explained how the disqualification would affect the McLaren car at the final two races. They will need to be more ‘cautious’ than usual. (Writing in his column for The Telegraph).
25 Nov 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

McLaren revived Max Verstappen’s world championship hopes with a double disqualification at last weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix. The FIA found excessive skid block wear on both cars. The upshot is that Norris and Piastri are ‘slightly compromised’ at the next two weekends as the team try to avoid ‘one of the worst collapses in F1 history’.

The obvious change is raising their car’s ride height to protect the plank, a measure Ferrari had to take after they were thrown out of the Chinese GP in March. This will cost them downforce and, as a result, lap time. By contrast, Verstappen is bound to be as aggressive as possible. Red Bull think McLaren are vulnerable to pressure due to their inexperience – they haven’t won a championship double in the 21st century.

‘McLaren’s car is now compromised’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/mclarens-car-is-now-compromised-for-the-qatar-grand-prix-after-las-vegas-disqualifications/


F1 tech expert claims McLaren left ‘compromised’ after "screw-up"
McLaren's double disqualification at the Las Vegas Grand Prix leaves the team "compromised".
25 Nov 2025
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Former Jordan and Jaguar F1 technical director Gary Anderson, wrote in his column for The Telegraph; “It would be bad enough for a midfield team scrapping for a few points, but for a team in McLaren’s position it is far worse… It can only be described as a screw-up that now leaves them vulnerable instead of comfortable.”

“McLaren as a team will also need to be cautious,” he explained. “First, with the plank wear and setting their car up to avoid this (which means losing some lap time), but there are also other risks. “Not under-fuelling the cars too much, for example. This is a way to save lap time by saving weight, but the penalty for not having enough fuel to provide a sample is enormous, as George Russell found out last year in Belgium.”

“They also need to make sure their cooling is sufficient to avoid having to back off when they are in traffic. In other words, they are slightly compromised heading into a crucial two races. It would have been unthinkable not too long ago that a McLaren driver would not win the title, yet they need to really switch on to avoid one of the worst collapses in F1 history.”

"Screw-up";

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1087381/1/f1-tech-expert-claims-mclaren-left-compromised-final-races-after-screw


Verstappen and Red Bull may have triggered McLaren’s Vegas disqualification
24 Nov 2025
Kada Sárközi
Ludo van Denderen
GPblog.com

Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing may have pushed McLaren to set up the cars of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri so aggressively that it ultimately led to illegal plank wear and thus disqualification. It was almost unimaginable that this happened. At a very costly moment in the championship, McLaren made the mistake of apparently setting their drivers’ cars too low. Precisely when Lando Norris could use every point in his title fight to make his dream a reality, they made such a major blunder.

Because yes, it was a mistake, as McLaren framed it after the Las Vegas Grand Prix. In a statement released late in the night in the US, team principal Andrea Stella said what they did was ‘unintentional’ and that there was ‘no deliberate attempt to circumvent the regulations.’ What Stella said is undoubtedly true. Still, the fact remains that the plank under Lando Norris’ car was worn down by 0.12 millimeters over the limit, and on Oscar Piastri’s car by no less than 0.26 millimeters beyond what is allowed.

This could only have happened if the cars were set too low to the ground, because eight other F1 cars from rival teams had no excessive wear. The reason a car sits as low as possible is because of the downforce effect. After all, a car generally goes faster the lower it sits to the ground. The follow-up question is: why did McLaren push the absolute limit in terms of ride height? It could well be that the British team considered Red Bull Racing such a serious threat that the Woking-based squad decided to take a gamble. Perhaps knowing that without an extremely low ride height, Verstappen would have easily defeated them anyway. Or was this really a one-off, as McLaren would have us believe?

‘Major blunder’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/analysis/verstappen-and-red-bull-may-have-triggered-mclarens-disqualification


How Verstappen Won Vegas Before Lights Out
November 25, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Las Vegas served up neon, nerves and a little needle. An untelevised slice of team radio from the grid has surfaced, catching Lando Norris accusing Max Verstappen of “taking the p*ss” with the gaps on the formation lap — moments before the McLaren swept across to defend and then skated wide at Turn 1, handing the lead to the Red Bull. It was classic pre-start brinkmanship in tricky conditions. With temperatures down and rear tyres reluctant to wake up, race control had told drivers to crank out up to five burnouts at the end of the formation lap.

Verstappen obliged, aggressively, all five of them. Norris managed three, none too wild, because he was busy policing the space ahead and the Red Bull looming behind. “Yeah, he’s taking the p*ss with how big of a gap he’s leaving. It’s way over the allowed allowance,” Norris told McLaren as they rolled to the grid, pushing again: “You can’t do this. It’s 10 car lengths, no?” The wrinkle: that 10-car-length rule applies under the Safety Car. On formation laps, the wording is softer — “kept as tight as possible” — which gives drivers room to, well, interpret.

Verstappen interpreted it like a four-time world champion chasing a title should. He dialled in the tyre temp, launched better, then watched as Norris pinched right to close the door, ended up on the dust and at too sharp an angle, and slid wide. Verstappen was gone. Gianpiero Lambiase, back on the podium with his driver for the first time since Qatar 2023, came over the radio with the sort of pat on the back he saves for big days: “Good job, Max. You kept it calm. Kept your head.”

“Yeah, he’s taking the p*ss with how big of a gap he’s leaving”;

https://fastestlap.com/news/how-verstappen-won-vegas-before-lights-out/


Why Verstappen ‘laughed’ at McLaren ‘come and get’ him message to Norris
24 Nov 2025
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Between Lando Norris’ first lap aggression and McLaren’s call to “get Max”, Max Verstappen was given all the motivation he needed in Las Vegas – and it didn’t even come from Red Bull.

Norris asked McLaren if they want him to “overtake” Russell. The reply was emphatic: “Overtake, we want to go get Max.” He promptly did so to applause from the McLaren garage. He was, however, five seconds down on Verstappen, who was told by GP: “Lando has been told to come and get you.”

But instead of closing in on Verstappen, Norris dropped time lap after lap. Initially it was a tenth here and there, but at the end of those 15 laps, the gap between Verstappen and Norris was over 20 seconds, as Norris battled a mystery issue with his McLaren.

“Overtake, we want to go get Max”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/why-max-verstappen-laughed-at-mclaren-las-vegas


Mark Hughes: How Verstappen suckered Norris into a race-losing move
Nov 23, 2025
Mark Hughes
The Race

The start – which may or not have been crucial to Verstappen’s victory – was partly about the perfect preparation Verstappen made and Norris getting himself wound up on the approach to the grid about how far behind Max was. As Norris bogged down slightly he moved smartly to the inside to counter the Red Bull’s better acceleration, Verstappen forced to lift slightly. Easing right to open up Turn 1, the Red Bull took the lead as Norris found himself pulled out wide through the turn, having braked too late. Norris’ lost momentum as he rejoined allowed Russell alongside and up to second as they reached Turn 4. That was the most important part of Verstappen’s race.

Whether it was part of Verstappen’s ploy to maximise the time Norris’ tyres were cooling we can’t know. But on such a cold track, good starting temperatures were even more crucial than usual. Drivers were being instructed to do as many as five burn-outs. Norris was so preoccupied with where Verstappen was that he did only three burn outs, none of which were as aggressive as any of Verstappen’s five. Norris’ rear tyres were almost certainly significantly cooler than Verstappen’s as the start lights went out.

Verstappen seemed particularly pleased with his 69th career victory: “Yes, because back in ’23 winning races was like ticking boxes, but now it’s not so easy. Today it was just about seeing how much you could push, especially in the first stint on the more fragile [medium] tyre.” “But the tyres were good today and it’s not something we’ve always been good on, but the car was working pretty well and I didn’t need to take too much out of the tyre.” As for the answer to those other questions regarding fuel and plank wear, Norris was severely constrained in the last few laps with lift and coasting. Radio exchanges between him and engineer Will Joseph suggested excessive fuel consumption. Then the officials took a look at the planks…

‘Norris was so preoccupied with where Verstappen was’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/mark-hughes-how-verstappen-suckered-norris-into-a-race-losing-move/

[Fortitude]

F1 world champion backs Max Verstappen to win title after McLaren disqualifications.
Jacques Villeneuve has backed Max Verstappen to win this year’s F1 world championship after the dramatic events following the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday night.
25 Nov 2025
The Independent

Championship leader Lando Norris had one hand on the trophy after extending his lead to 30 points over Oscar Piastri with a second-place finish in Vegas, with race winner Verstappen 42 points off the Briton.

Yet the shock double disqualification of both McLaren cars for excessive skid plank wear has thrust Verstappen back into the fight. With two rounds to go and 58 points on the table, Verstappen is now level on points with Piastri – a driver he trailed by 104 points at the start of September – and 24 behind Norris.

‘Backed Max Verstappen to win’;

https://www.independent.co.uk/f1/f1-max-verstappen-lando-norris-oscar-piastri-qatar-gp-b2871994.html


Strip Slip, Plank Flip: Norris’s DSQ Turbocharges Verstappen
November 25, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Norris owns Las Vegas start blunder as disqualification turns damage into disaster. Lando Norris didn’t sugarcoat it. “Pretty embarrassing,” he said of his opening move in Las Vegas — a lunge to the inside, on the dustier half of the Strip, that handed Max Verstappen the lead before they’d even settled into Turn 1. He braked late, ran deep, and the Red Bull was gone. That part he could live with. What came next stung far more.

Norris and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri were both thrown out of the results after the flag for excessive plank wear, scrubbing a hard-fought P2 on the road into nothing and turning a bad start into a bruising night. Verstappen, meanwhile, banked another win and tightened the championship chase just when it looked like Norris had room to breathe. The sequence was born on the formation lap. Verstappen loitered, then rattled off a string of burnouts before forming up — five in total to Norris’s three — priming the Red Bull’s rears for a cold desert launch. It was savvy, legal, and it worked.

With better initial bite off the line, Verstappen forced Norris to make a choice into Turn 1: hang it around the grippier outside, or slice to the inside and hope the marbles would hold. Norris chose the latter. Vegas chose violence. “You’ve got to be punchy into Turn 1,” he said afterwards. “I was just a bit too punchy and that cost me, so that’s the way it is sometimes.” Later, to Sky Sports F1, he was harsher: “Pretty embarrassing. I need to learn from Turn 1 and try to do a better job than I’ve been doing recently.”

‘Strip Slip, Plank Flip’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/strip-slip-plank-flip-norriss-dsq-turbocharges-verstappen/


Lando Norris has Max Verstappen on the brain
25 Nov 2025
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

Why did Max Verstappen make such a concerted effort to mark himself as a tough and uncompromising competitor in his earliest days in F1? Taking every single opportunity that presented itself to launch a bold, late-braking move down the inside?

Moving unpredictably on the brakes in defence against the Nico Rosbergs, Sebastian Vettels and Lewis Hamiltons of this world, drawing all three world champions into mistakes? Twitching suddenly in eighth gear on the straight at Spa just as Kimi Raikkonen went in for the kill, leaving him with no option but to back right off or risk eating tree?

Precisely for moments like the start of the Las Vegas Grand Prix. It messes with the minds of other drivers. Gets them thinking. Overthinking. Keeps them guessing. Second guessing. Driving unnaturally to combat whatever it is they think Max might – or might not – be about to do.

‘Lando Norris has Max Verstappen on the brain’;

https://www.planetf1.com/features/lando-norris-max-verstappen-evidence-f1-2025-las-vegas-grand-prix


What Verstappen still needs after McLaren's disastrous assist
Nov 25, 2025
Scott Mitchell-Malm
The Race

McLaren's disastrous double disqualification in Las Vegas has brought Max Verstappen closer to the lead of the Formula 1 drivers' championship points than he has been since an opportunistic victory at Imola in May. But does it mean anything with Lando Norris still in control of the championship? After all,

To go from the brink of being eliminated in Vegas, had Norris finished ahead of him, to now having a very real chance of taking the fight all the way to Abu Dhabi is a big shift in control for Verstappen. That's the biggest thing he's gained because for Verstappen it will all be about keeping it alive until the final day: he knows better than anyone how much the championship situation can suddenly swing in your favour in a one-race shootout.

Assistance still needed: What hasn't changed is that Verstappen still needs outside assistance, even though he's just had a big assist already. The extent of the points deficit meant Verstappen needed Norris to suffer two setbacks in the final three races. Getting such a massive swing in one go definitely helps. Verstappen's best chance, obviously, is to win everything that there is left to win. Much easier said than done, of course, and it could still leave Verstappen quite a few points shy.

‘Assistance still needed’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what-max-verstappen-still-needs-after-mclaren-disastrous-assist/


Lando Norris vows ‘nothing changes’ despite Max Verstappen's title charge
25 Nov 2025
Olly Darcy
GPblog.com

Lando Norris has stated that "nothing changes" in his "mentality" as the penultimate race weekend at the Qatar Grand Prix approaches. "What's done me so well the last few weekends is by going flat, staying out of trouble, staying out of the chaos behind. It’s almost a safer bet in terms of pushing," Norris started by saying during Thursday's press conference in Vegas.

"I think it's not the right mindset to have. I come here this weekend to try and win. I’ll go to Qatar to try and win. I still treat it as if I’m not in a championship – I’m just here to try and win this weekend, and that’s the mentality I’ll have.”

"Of course, when you're on track, you make different decisions depending on risk levels and things like that. But I feel like my judgment of that, generally, is pretty good and pretty accurate. So I’m happy. Nothing changes because of whatever points I’ve got."

‘Nothing changes’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/lando-norris-vows-nothing-changes-despite-max-verstappens-title-charge

[Fortitude]

McLaren to be 'Closely monitored' by FIA at Qatar GP after allegations of cheating emerge.
The FIA are set to place McLaren under increased scrutiny at this weekend's Qatar Grand Prix after allegations that the team have been cheating emerged.
26 Nov 2025
Christopher Durning
Give Me Sport

This past weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix was one to forget for the 2025 Constructors' Championship winners, as drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were both disqualified after the race. Norris had originally finished second in Sin City, behind race winner Max Verstappen, with Piastri back in fourth. However, the Papaya pair were then excluded from the official classifications after their cars were found to have skid block wear. Stewards deemed that the thickness of the planks under both McLaren cars measured less than 9mm, which is the required minimum by the end of a grand prix.

team principal Andrea Stella apologising to both Norris and Piastri; "We apologise to Lando and Oscar for the loss of points today, at a critical time in their championship campaigns after two strong performances from them all weekend." Stella went on to add: "As a team, we also apologise to our partners and fans, whose support means so much. While this outcome is extremely disappointing, we remain fully focused on the last two races of the season.”

"The theory as to why the skid blocks wore down below the limit has been linked to "unexpected porpoising" which happens when the car bounces on the track. Heading into this weekend's race in Qatar, the team are to be 'closely monitored' after it was claimed that they (along with several rival constructors) had been using the illegal practice of teams using skid blocks that expand when heated. The FIA have been monitoring the issue since it was first brought to their attention by other teams at the Brazilian Grand Prix in November.

'Closely monitored';

https://www.givemesport.com/mclaren-accused-cheating-closely-monitored-fia-f1/


How Porpoising Torpedoed McLaren’s Vegas Dream—Twice
November 27, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

McLaren pins Las Vegas double DSQ on “unexpected” porpoising, not a setup gamble. McLaren left the Strip empty handed after a bruising Las Vegas Grand Prix that looked, for a few hours at least, like a tidy night’s work: Lando Norris second on the road, Oscar Piastri fourth. Then the scrutineers pulled out the gauges, found too much plank wear, and both cars were disqualified. Team principal Andrea Stella has now spelled out the root cause. It wasn’t an over eager setup or an aggressive ride height gamble. It was porpoising—back with a vengeance and, in McLaren’s case, far worse than anything their data predicted.

“The specific cause that led to the situation was the unexpected occurrence of extensive porpoising, inducing large vertical oscillations of the car,” Stella explained, adding that the phenomenon was “exacerbated by the conditions in which the car operated during the race.” On paper, the infraction was clear. Under post race checks, Norris’ plank measured below the mandatory 9mm at two points—8.88mm front right and 8.93mm right rear—while Piastri’s car tripped three locations at 8.96mm front left, 8.74mm front right and 8.90mm right rear.

McLaren saw trouble coming early. Telemetry during the Grand Prix flagged unexpected bouncing, and the drivers were told to lift and coast to try to save the plank. It didn’t save the day. The cars still failed the scrutineering box. Crucially, Stella insists this wasn’t the by product of McLaren chasing an edge it couldn’t sustain. The team had already raised the car versus practice, he said, building in margin for qualifying and the race. The problem was the margin got wiped out by those vertical hits at speed.

‘Porpoising Torpedoed McLaren’s Vegas Dream’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/how-porpoising-torpedoed-mclarens-vegas-dream-twice/


Norris sees pressure piled on by Verstappen - F1 Qatar GP preview
26 NOV 2025
Olly Darcy
GPblog.com

No more room for error: It was a 49-point gap between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen before action got underway in Las Vegas. A bit of wriggle room in a tightening title battle for the McLaren driver. That wiggle room has disappeared. Now, that point gap drops below the 25 points for a Grand Prix win after Norris was disqualified due to excessive plank wear. While Verstappen roared to victory, he also threw all the pressure onto the championship leader.

But don't write Oscar Piastri off just yet, either. It was another rocky race weekend that saw the Australian cross the line in fifth before his disqualification, with the 104-point deficit between himself and Verstappen now no more as they sit on 366 points each. The 24-year-old may be trending downwards compared to the other title protagonists, but the talent and pace shown across the campaign means the McLaren man cannot be ruled out.

For their part, Red Bull Racing needs to find the right set-up straight away, as the Sprint weekend format would eventually strongly penalise Verstappen in the Sprint, making him lose important points to Norris in the championship.

‘No more room for error’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/norris-sees-pressure-piled-on-by-verstappen-f1-qatar-gp-preview


Oscar Piastri backed to have edge over Lando Norris in Qatar
26 Nov 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Jamie Chadwick has tipped Oscar Piastri to have the edge over Lando Norris at this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix. The British racer, who made an appearance on the Sky Sports F1 show, highlighted how the changing conditions of the Qatar Grand Prix, compared to circuits where Piastri had struggled, could play into the hands of the young Australian.

“I think in terms of tracks, if you look at Vegas and you look at Qatar, they couldn't be more extreme in terms of differences in track layout, temperature, grip, everything. It's so polar opposite: tyre degradation, everything. If there's any sort of positive feeling going into this weekend, for sure, Oscar should have it," she said.

Piastri has suffered a dip in form in comparison to Norris, particularly since the aftermath of the Italian Grand Prix. The Australian driver has failed to record a top-three finish since the race in Monza. However, Piastri boasts fond memories of racing in Qatar, finishing ahead of Norris in both the 2023 and 2024 editions of the Grand Prix in Lusail.

‘Oscar Piastri backed to have edge’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/oscar-piastri-backed-to-have-edge-over-lando-norris-in-qatar


George Russell has privately made a Max Verstappen prediction ahead of Qatar GP showdown
26 November 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

George Russell privately thinks Max Verstappen will win the Qatar Grand Prix. Speaking on the Formel Schmidt show after the race in Las Vegas about the penultimate event of the Formula 1 season, Schmidt said: “Of course, there are super-fast corners in Qatar. They’re not particularly long in terms of radius, but they are fast.”

“And George Russell told us yesterday that his favourite is Max Verstappen. Fast corners at Silverstone, Suzuka; Red Bull were at the front there, and he’ll be at the front again. Not good news for McLaren. It will increase the pressure. I’m really curious to see what McLaren will do now, whether there will be team orders, covert or not.”

“But as I said, I can’t imagine that they will hold back. So, they’ll fight to the last moment, because you might only become world champion once in your life, and if you still have a theoretical chance, and on paper it’s as big as Verstappen’s, then you almost have to take it.”

“His favourite is Max Verstappen”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/george-russell-has-privately-made-a-max-verstappen-prediction-ahead-of-qatar-gp-showdown/


IT'S RACE WEEK: 5 storylines we're excited about ahead of the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix
Chris Medland breaks down the key talking points as Formula 1 heads to the Qatari desert.
26 Nov 2025
Chris Medland
Formula One - Official Site

The McLaren disqualifications. Just when you thought this season couldn’t get any more exciting, think again.
Verstappen’s gains in the title race. A podium finish in Qatar might not be enough, because despite losing his 18 points from Las Vegas, Lando Norris can still win the championship on Sunday.

The final Sprint weekend. Those points could be crucial not only for the top three, but for Teams’ Championship permutations, too.
The Teams' fight is hotting up…

Hamilton’s search for a first Ferrari podium. While he also went winless in 2023 before taking two victories last year, Hamilton is now on the verge of going an entire season without a podium for the first time ever.
In a quite remarkable turn of events given how strong Ferrari were this time last year, they could go an entire season without a victory for the first time since 2021.

‘5 storylines’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/its-race-week-5-storylines-were-excited-about-ahead-of-the-2025-qatar-grand.1pY79vTKkolMlHibnM1lbv

[Fortitude]

Verstappen vows to go 'all in' for title ahead of Qatar Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen has claimed he and Red Bull are "all in" for this weekend's Qatar Grand Prix in pursuit of five consecutive Drivers' Championships, having slashed the points gap at the previous round.
27 Nov 2025
Formula One Official Site

The Dutchman enters the penultimate round of the season just 24 points behind Lando Norris thanks to his victory last time out in Las Vegas as both McLaren drivers were disqualified. "Ready! See what happens. It is the same, I feel the same as last week," said Verstappen

"Yes, it is closer. Ideally I would have loved to have had it even more close, of course we'll try our best. All in, and hopefully we can make it exciting to the end." While Verstappen admits that the second half of the season has been strong, he believes results going in his favour have played their part. "Something that I definitely wouldn't have expected but here we are," said Verstappen.

"I think we have had a very strong end to the season, much more happy with that and [I] guess also we've been helped a little bit with certain things. Results, crashes, disqualifications. We should not forget that I guess but I'm happy. Naturally I would have liked a bit of a better first half but that's something that you can't change. We'll just try to focus on the last two races and try to do the best we can."

“See what happens”;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-vows-to-go-all-in-for-title-ahead-of-qatar-grand-prix.2UcymjarbwHc4qHwycy63i


Max previews Qatar GP: 'We can only afford to have a perfect weekend'
26 Nov 2025
Niels Hendrix
Verstappen.nl

Max Verstappen said: “The points in the championship have got closer after Vegas however, as we go into Qatar, we will still approach the weekend the same way we have always done and just take it one race at a time. We go into each weekend focused on maximising as many points as we can and extracting the best performance out of the car possible, which is exactly what we will be doing for this race too.”

Max continued: “It is a sprint weekend so there are even more points to win here and we can only afford to have a perfect weekend. Lusail is a demanding circuit, the heat means tyre management is key and we need to make sure we execute everything right with the mandatory two stop. We are focused on keeping the positive momentum going and the team are pushing as hard as we can to bring the best performance.”

‘Focused on maximising as many points as we can’;

https://news.verstappen.com/en/article/6025/


Relaxed Norris says 'nothing needs to change' for Qatar GP
27 Nov 2025
Nate Saunders
ESPN.com

A relaxed Lando Norris insisted it feels like business as usual ahead of a weekend in which he could clinch his first world championship. The McLaren driver said he sees teammate Oscar Piastri and Red Bull's Max Verstappen as equal threats despite their radically different form coming into such a crucial race. His lead over both would have been greater had McLaren not been sensationally disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix last Saturday for running two cars with illegal levels of plank wear underneath the car, a slam-dunk DQ under F1's rulebook.

"Of course it hurts," Norris said, reflecting on that outcome. "There's a lot of effort that goes into every weekend from everyone, including myself, and it certaintly just felt like that effort disappeared very quickly ... Everyone at McLaren feels let down by what we what we had as a result and we're all disappointed ... but actually I found it quite easy just to move on and have a few days off and come to this weekend."

"[It's felt] same as it has always been to be honest. I feel good. I've had a nice few days off. I came already on Monday morning so I've been here a while to play some golf, some padel, enjoyed some days off, enjoyed some warm weather for once ... feels like it's been a while! I know I feel good. I feel excited for this weekend. It doesn't feel like I had a bad weekend last weekend or we had a bad result so that's a good thing."

'Nothing needs to change';

https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/47118948/relaxed-lando-norris-needs-change-qatar-gp


Norris adamant that ‘nothing has changed’ in title fight following Las Vegas disqualification
27 Nov 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Asked whether he was angered by the disqualification in Las Vegas, Norris replied: “No. It doesn’t help. I think from what I had to do in the race, there was already some expectation that it might happen so it wasn’t a shock or a surprise. We knew we were having a lot more issues than we ever expected during the race. Maybe it would have hurt more if we won the race, but we didn’t so it doesn’t change anything. There’s no point being too sad about it.”

“Of course, everyone in the team was a bit gutted about the result because there’s a lot of effort that goes into it. It was frustrating, but actually I was quite okay. I’m just excited to go again this weekend. It doesn’t change anything – I want to try and win here in Qatar and I want to try and win in Abu Dhabi. It sucks, but that’s life sometimes.”

‘Nothing has changed’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/norris-adamant-that-nothing-has-changed-in-title-fight-following-las-vegas.1hm4TTzME1fF1zvqygySFC


Why Aussie star Oscar Piastri will NOT help McLaren teammate Lando Norris win the F1 title - 'answer is no'
27 Nov 2025
IAN CHADBAND
MailOnline

Long-time title frontrunner Piastri, who's been on a wretched run of six podium-free races, revealed on Thursday when asked if McLaren had talked about him playing the team game and assisting Norris: 'We've had a very brief discussion on it and the answer is 'no'. 'I'm still equal on points with Max and I've got a decent shot of still winning it if things go my way, so, yeah, that's how we'll play it.'

'I think there's still a chance and it's played out that way a couple of times before, so I know it's not impossible,' said the Melburnian, who's seeking to become the first Australian champion since Alan Jones in 1980. 'Obviously, I also know that it's a bit of an outside shot.’

'Even if I have a perfect final two weekends, I can't just rely on that. I need other things to go my way and I'm very aware of that. So I think for me I'm just going to try and have the best weekends I can, which I try and do every weekend, and see what happens to everyone else basically.'

"No";

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-15333245/Why-Aussie-star-Oscar-Piastri-NOT-help-McLaren-teammate-Lando-Norris-win-F1-title-answer-no.html


Zak Brown’s Oscar Piastri interaction on the F1 grid suggests their relationship has been ‘damaged’
27 Nov 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Journalist Peter Hardenacke has reported what he saw on the grid at the Las Vegas Grand Prix that suggests Brown has a very different relationship with each of his drivers. Zak Brown’s ‘really intense’ Lando Norris chat in Las Vegas highlights ‘damaged’ Oscar Piastri relationship. Hardenacke was speaking about what he witnessed in Las Vegas on the Backstage Boxengasse Podcast.

He said: “That was really interesting to see, wasn’t it? Always with caution, of course, so as not to read too much into it, but we were right at the front at the very beginning with Lando’s car, Zak Brown and the two of them really talked a lot. Zak and Lando, there was a really intense exchange, and then later we were also at Piastri’s car when Zak Brown came by, and there really wasn’t much to see there anymore.”

“There was hardly any conversation, just handshakes, and Webber also stopped by briefly, but he didn’t give us an interview either. But even there, you can sense that it’s different with Zak and Lando and, in this case, Zak with Oscar Piastri. Of course, it’s just a snapshot, but I think something has been damaged along the way.”

‘Relationship has been damaged’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/zak-browns-oscar-piastri-interaction-on-the-f1-grid-suggests-their-relationship-has-been-damaged/


Six things we've learned from the first day at F1's Qatar GP
27 Nov 2025
Josh Suttill, Scott Mitchell-Malm, Samarth Kanal, Jon Noble
The Race

Shock Newey appointment a 'logical' move – Alonso. The shock news that Adrian Newey will become Aston Martin’s new team principal is a “normal, logical step into 2026” according to Fernando Alonso.
Sainz and Russell disagree on TV-style stewarding wish: Carlos Sainz’s press conference comments drew particular attention as he said TV broadcasters Jolyon Palmer, Anthony Davidson and Karun Chandhok were correct about contentious incidents “90%” of the time.

McLaren stance is 'perfect' for Verstappen: Verstappen said he'd have told his team to "f off" if they'd asked him to do that, but believes this situation is "perfect" for his title bid.
What's going on with a big intra-team deficit: Esteban Ocon has scored four points to Ollie Bearman’s 25 in the last five rounds and brakes seem to be the issue with Ocon. Or at least, they seemed to be the issue.

Hamilton doesn't regret Ferrari move: Hamilton also said he doesn't regret signing for Ferrari almost two years ago now, "I know it takes time to build and grow within an organisation, and I expected that".
Norris's big 'strength' in title fight: If there is pressure building it didn’t show on Thursday. Norris looks and sounds very calm, and far from being rattled by Verstappen closing in. Whether that translates to the track is the big question.

‘6 things we've learned’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/six-things-weve-learned-from-the-first-day-at-f1s-qatar-gp/

[Fortitude]

Max Verstappen reports gearbox 'disaster' as Oscar Piastri aces Qatar practice.
It is advantage Oscar Piastri in Qatar ahead of Sprint qualifying, whilst Red Bull has work to do following several complaints from Max Verstappen.
28 November 2026
Nick Golding
RacingNews365

Oscar Piastri made a dream start to the Qatar Grand Prix by topping the only practice session, whilst Max Verstappen complained that his gearbox clipping at Turn 6 was a "disaster". Piastri topped practice in Qatar after posting a 1:20.924, to go just 0.058s faster than McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.

Norris can seal a maiden drivers' title this weekend if he out scores Verstappen and Oscar Piastri by two points, but found the start of practice difficult on the hard compound. Verstappen could only salvage sixth-quickest and was almost six-tenths slower than Piastri, raising concerns for Red Bull ahead of Sprint qualifying. The Dutchman was left frustrated with his gear changes throughout the session.

Fernando Alonso went third, ahead of Carlos Sainz, Isack Hadjar, Verstappen, Alex Albon, Charles Leclerc, Kimi Antonelli and Lance Stroll.

‘Advantage Oscar Piastri’;

https://racingnews365.com/max-verstappen-reports-gearbox-disaster-as-oscar-piastri-aces-qatar-practice


2025 F1 Qatar GP – Free Practice 1 Results
McLaren recover from a scrappy start as Oscar Piastri edges Lando Norris in a tight FP1 session that reshapes expectations for the Qatar GP weekend
28 November 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Las Vegas GP 2025 FP1 results
Check out the full Qatar GP 2025 Free Practice 1 results from the first practice session in Lusail below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:20.924
2 Lando Norris McLaren +0.058
3 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.386
4 Carlos Sainz Williams +0.480
5 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +0.579
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.580
7 Alexander Albon Williams +0.685
8 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.744
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +0.745
10 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.774

‘FP1 results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-qatar-gp-free-practice-1-results/


McLaren have cause for concern: Verstappen's pace remains untapped
28 Nov 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Oscar Piastri led a McLaren 1-2 in the first and only practice session in Doha, distorting the outlook provided by the first half of the session where Verstappen seemed to thrive and the papaya drivers appeared to struggle.

The breaking point that reversed the positive Red Bull trend was aligned with Verstappen's complaints of a balance issue in his RB21 that triggered bouncing whenever the Dutch driver eades off the throttle. Max Verstappen placed P6 in FP1 in Qatar ahead of the Sprint qualifying. Sky Sports analyst, Jamie Chadwick thinks the reigning world champion's complaints are actually a positive sign, which McLaren should be wary of as they head into the first relevant session of the race weekend.

"We hear snippets of team radio and it seems like he is moaning but a lot of the things he is complaining about can be quickly adjusted. He is delivering what the team need and I would be worried if I were the other teams as he is feeling a lot more performance is available." Fellow presenter Bernie Collins was of a similar opinion saying: "Red Bull have work to do, I think," the former F1 strategy engineer said. "Verstappen often complains in P1 about shifts in the car and Red Bull are generally very good at reacting to that and getting the car back out in a better position,” she concluded.

‘Verstappen's pace remains untapped’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/mclaren-urged-to-worry-as-verstappen-hides-pace-ahead-of-qatar-sprint-quali


F1 2025 Qatar GP FP1: Piastri leads Norris and Alonso in Lusail
Can McLaren respond from their Las Vegas setback?
28 November 2025
Euan Burns
Total Motorsport

FP1 comes to a close: There we go, the only practice session of the weekend comes to a close and, somewhat surprisingly given their pace earlier in the session, it’s Oscar Piastri in P1 and Lando Norris in P2. The top three is rounded out by an impressive Fernando Alonso who seemed to have strong pace on both the hard tyre and the soft tyre.

Max Verstappen started the session very strongly and seemed to set good times on the hard tyre, although he was complaining constantly about various elements of his Red Bull. The switch to the soft-tyre did not help, and he ended the session down in P6.

It was a bad session for Ferrari, who end up P8 with Charles Leclerc and P12 with Lewis Hamilton. That is actually higher than seemed likely for a lot of the hour. The soft tyre also didn’t bring George Russell any joy as he ended up P14, despite spending almost half the session at the top of the leaderboard. Heading into Sprint Qualifying later today, McLaren may have the edge, but it is fair from certain.

‘Piastri leads Norris and Alonso’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-2025-qatar-gp-fp1-live-updates/


Smelling Wood: F1’s Title Fight Teeters On A Plank
November 28, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

‘Smelling a lot of wood’: Russell’s radio quip sums up Qatar’s plank paranoia after McLaren’s Vegas DSQs. George Russell didn’t need sensors to tell him the tide had shifted. “I’m smelling a lot of wood,” the Mercedes driver radioed early in FP1 at Lusail — a neat, slightly deadpan nod to the topic no one in the paddock can stop talking about: plank wear.

Seven days on from McLaren’s double disqualification in Las Vegas, every out-lap, every kerb strike, every ride-height tweak suddenly feels loaded. The sport’s oldest materials science lesson — wood meets asphalt, wood loses — has become the subplot to the penultimate round of the season.

And sure enough, the timing screens framed the stakes. McLaren returned to the front immediately on Friday, Oscar Piastri topping the lone practice hour by 0.058s over Lando Norris. Russell was 14th, nine tenths adrift in the Mercedes W16 as teams tried to thread a very fine needle in a compressed Sprint weekend.

‘Smelling Wood’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/smelling-wood-f1s-title-fight-teeters-on-a-plank/

[Fortitude]

Oscar Piastri snatches F1 Sprint pole for Qatar GP as Max Verstappen struggles.
Oscar Piastri will start the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix F1 Sprint race on pole position, with the McLaren joined on the front row by George Russell in his Mercedes.
28 November 2025
Euan Burns
Total Motorsport

Lando Norris had a compromised final flying lap in SQ3 which meant he could only achieve P3, whilst Max Verstappen‘s misbehaving Red Bull will start Saturday’s Sprint from P6. There was more misery for Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc qualifying in P9 and Lewis Hamilton all the way down in P18.

Piastri put himself on provisional pole after his first lap, as he was 0.044 seconds quicker than Norris. It seemed inevitable that a McLaren would be on pole for the Sprint, unless Verstappen could produce something on his next attempt. His final lap was only good enough to go to P4, and Tsunoda then went up to P4, pushing Verstappen further down.

“It’s been a good day, which is nice for a change. It has been a day where things have clicked from the start. I’m happy with the result, a few things to tidy up but it is nice to be able to say that starting from pole,” Piastri said after the session. “It is only the Sprint, but I’ll take what I can get. The pace was there all day, hopefully we can keep that going.”

‘Oscar Piastri snatches F1 Sprint pole’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/oscar-piastri-snatches-pole-qatar-gp-f1-sprint-max-verstappen-struggles/


Qatar GP: Sprint Qualifying Results
Full results from Sprint Qualifying for the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix.
29 Nov 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

Pos. No. Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Laps
1 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:21.286 1:21.005 1:20.055 18
2 63 George Russell Mercedes 1:21.432 1:21.136 1:20.087 19
3 4 Lando Norris McLaren 1:21.398 1:20.956 1:20.285 18
4 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:21.276 1:21.272 1:20.450 18
5 22 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull Racing 1:21.458 1:21.152 1:20.519 20
6 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:21.172 1:21.036 1:20.528 20
7 12 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:21.555 1:21.376 1:20.532 18
8 55 Carlos Sainz Williams 1:21.438 1:21.172 1:20.542 20
9 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:21.636 1:21.190 1:20.622 20
10 23 Alexander Albon Williams 1:21.721 1:21.212 1:20.788 20

‘Sprint Qualifying’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-qatar-grand-prix-lusail-sprint-qualifying-results/


Oscar Piastri fires 'nice to be back' warning after stealing Qatar Sprint pole
Oscar Piastri claimed pole position for the Qatar GP Sprint - his first in any format since the Dutch Grand Prix.
28 November 2025
Jake Nichol
RacingNews365

"It was a good day, which is nice for a change, and it has been a day where things have clicked, from the start," Piastri explained. "The Sprint quali session went really well, and I had a pretty big moment on my lap, but it was just enough in the end. The car has been really good this weekend, so I'm pretty happy.”

"I think if you hook it up, there was a 1:19 in there, but I'm just happy with the result. There are obviously a few things to try and tidy up, but it is nice to be able to say that when you are starting on pole. It's only Sprint pole and for a few points, but I will take whatever I can get.”

"Sprint weekends are always really tough to know if you are fully on top of things from when you roll on the track, but the car was really good all day. We made some good adjustments in qualifying, which was nice, and the pace was there all day, so hopefully, we can keep that running."

'Nice to be back';

https://racingnews365.com/oscar-piastri-fires-nice-to-be-back-warning-after-stealing-qatar-sprint-pole


Qatar GP: Piastri’s championship revival continues with Sprint quali pole
28 Nov 2025
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Oscar Piastri’s comeback in the championship race in Qatar continued in the Sprint qualifying as he clinched pole position for the eight-point short race ahead of George Russell. Championship leader Lando Norris was third with Max Verstappen only P6, beaten by Yuki Tsunoda.

The all-important pole position began on a sour note for Verstappen as he complained about the handling of his RB21 as he went flying off the track. Swearing as he went wide, he ranted that the car was “bouncing like a ***** idiot.” Piastri went fastest with a 1:20.2, 0.044s ahead of Norris with Russell three-tenths down on the McLaren teammates. Verstappen went on to explain that “Turn 2 and Turn 4”, he couldn’t control the car. His race engineer GP told him not to give up track position.

Heading into the final two minutes, Piastri lead Norris and Russell with Verstappen down in 10th place. Verstappen improved to P4 but dropped as Yuki Tsunoda went third, and then Fernando Alonso. The front row had yet to be decided. Russell went quickest overall, but then came Piastri with a 1:20.0 took Sprint pole ahead of the Mercedes driver. Norris was third ahead of Alonso, Tsunoda and Verstappen. Antonelli, Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc and Albon completed the top ten.

“Bouncing like a ***** idiot”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/qatar-grand-prix-2025-sprint-qualifying-report


Lewis Hamilton’s unbroadcast radio after Qatar Grand Prix SQ1 exit makes for painful listening
28 November 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

The ‘silence’ was deafening from Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari engineer. Hamilton’s 1:22.043 was only faster than the two Alpine cars, who have only combined for 22 points all season. While Charles Leclerc was only 13th in the corresponding session, the gap between the two Ferrari drivers was still over four-tenths of a second.

After crossing the line with his final effort in SQ1, which left him a precarious 15th, Hamilton complained that ‘the car won’t go any quicker’. That message was played out on the F1 world feed, but what wasn’t broadcast was his exchange with Riccardo Adami afterwards. “Assume by your silence that I’m out?” Hamilton asked Adami. “P18,” the engineer replied.

The radio messages, which are indicative of the low morale on his side of the garage, make for painful listening for Hamilton fans. Hamilton said it was the ‘same as always’ when he reflected on his lack of pace in the media pen afterwards. When asked whether the higher-downforce rear wing he fitted for the session made any difference, he replied: “No, clearly not.” And a sardonic Hamilton could only think of one positive that he could take into Saturday: “The weather’s nice.”

“P18”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/lewis-hamiltons-unbroadcast-radio-after-qatar-grand-prix-sq1-exit-makes-for-painful-listening/

[Fortitude]

The damning image which further fuels rumours McLaren is AGAINST Australian F1 star Oscar Piastri.
'McLaren's garage was so sad when Piastri got pole....you'd think they were attending a memorial service'. F1 fan to reacting with one posting on X.
29 November 2025
ANDREW PRENTICE
MailOnline

Damning vision circulating online has only enhanced speculation that McLaren's pit crew are desperate for Lando Norris to be the next F1 world champion. The significant problem, among accusations of favouritism, is that Aussie Oscar Piastri happens to drive for the same team. Eyebrows were raised when Piastri, 24, secured pole for Sunday morning's AEDT Qatar Grand Prix sprint race.

Norris - the current championship leader - finished third behind Mercedes driver George Russell. And as F1 broadcaster Sky Sports panned to the McLaren engineers, their forlorn faces told the story. 'The lack of clapping from the McLaren garage (for Piastri) wasn't nice to see'. F1 fan to reacting with one posting on X. Speaking post-race, Piastri was elated at the result. 'It's been a good day, which is nice for a change,' he said. 'Things clicked from the start, so thanks to the team. It is only the sprint, but I'll take what I can get. The pace was there all day, and hopefully we can keep that going.'

Piastri also admitted McLaren had raised the possibility of giving 26-year-old Norris priority this weekend to avoid the possibility of Red Bull star Max Verstappen stealing the championship. However, the Aussie confirmed the suggestion was quickly shut down. 'We've had a very brief discussion on it....and the answer is no,' he said.

‘Damning image’;

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-15336671/Damning-image-fuels-rumours-McLaren-against-Australian-F1-star-Oscar-Piastri.html


He’s BACK! Piastri Takes Sprint Pole by 0.032s | Qatar GP | Formula 1.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CPYv9r-KGHg


Karun Chandhok saw how Mark Webber reacted to Oscar Piastri taking Qatar Sprint pole
28 November 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Karun Chandhok says Mark Webber let out a ‘massive whoop’ after Oscar Piastri’s Sprint pole. Piastri hasn’t taken pole, in any format, since the Dutch GP just after the summer break. That was also his most recent pole position.

In fact, he’s only been in the top three in one of the last 11 competitive sessions, having lost form in a crucial phase of the season. In that context, one can understand why manager Mark Webber was thrilled after Friday’s session, even though it’s only a Sprint qualifying session. Webber was watching the session alongside Piastri’s father.

Your dad and Mark Webber were watching, not far from where we are,” Karun Chandhok told Piastri on Sky after the session. “It was a massive whoop! I can tell you they were very happy with qualifying.” Andrea Stella says Piastri hasn’t ‘elevated his game’ like Norris or Verstappen, but there was optimism that the last two tracks on the calendar would be better suited to his driving style.

“It was a massive whoop!”

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/karun-chandhok-saw-how-mark-webber-reacted-to-oscar-piastri-taking-qatar-sprint-pole/


'Nice to be back' – Piastri reflects on Qatar Sprint pole as he looks for title fightback
28 Nov 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Oscar Piastri took a vital pole for Saturday's Sprint, with McLaren team mate and title rival Lando Norris starting P3. Oscar Piastri admitted it was "nice to be back" before adding "I’m just happy with the result" having taken pole for the Qatar Sprint, slightly shifting momentum away from McLaren team mate Lando Norris in their title fight.

"It’s been a good day, which is nice for a change," said Piastri after hopping out of the car. "It’s been a day where things have clicked from the start and I think the Sprint Qualifying session went really well. I had a pretty big moment on my lap but it was just enough in the end so thanks to the team – it’s a great car and it’s looked really good this weekend so far. I’m pretty happy with that.”

"I think if you hook it up, there’s a 1m 19s in there. We’ll see what we can do, but at the moment I’m just happy with the result. There are obviously a few things to try and tidy up but it’s nice to be able to say that when you’re starting on pole. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. Obviously it’s only a Sprint pole and for a few points but I’ll take whatever I can get."

'Nice to be back';

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/nice-to-be-back-piastri-reflects-on-qatar-sprint-pole-as-he-looks-for-title.4BfrRJwoFJej8qSim5PYd6


‘Clicked from the start’: Oscar Piastri makes Qatar qualifying statement to keep title bid alive
November 29th, 2025 3:30 pm
AFP with Fox Sports from Afp
Fox Sports (Australia)

Oscar Piastri confirmed his return to form to keep alive his title bid by claiming pole position on Saturday (AEDT) for Sunday’s sprint race at the Qatar Grand Prix. The Australian, who is 24 points behind McLaren teammate Norris in the drivers’ championship, clocked a best time of one minute and 20.055 seconds to outpace George Russell of Mercedes by 0.032 seconds.

In a closely fought sprint qualifying session, series leader Norris was third fastest, two-tenths adrift, ahead of Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin and the two Red Bulls led by Yuki Tsunoda in fifth. “A good day for a change!” said Piastri, who has not won a race since the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August. “Things clicked from the start and qualifying went well and I had just enough in the end. I’m happy with that result but there are a few things to tidy up and it’s nice to say than when you’re starting on pole.”

‘Clicked from the start’;

https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport/f1-2025-qatar-grand-prix-sprint-qualifying-result-oscar-piastri-pole-position-lando-norris-max-verstappen-claim/news-story/b2b0420a232e6cf2bfcbde9386855c6f


Qatar GP: Oscar Piastri reviews his Sprint pole lap
28 November 2025
Sky Sports

‘Sprint pole lap review’;

https://www.skysports.com/f1/video/12870/13476742/qatar-gp-oscar-piastri-reviews-his-sprint-pole-lap


Piastri reveals mistake that almost cost him Qatar GP Sprint pole
28 Nov 2025
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Talking to Sky Sports, the Australian said his lap was far from perfect. He explained: "It almost went horribly wrong at Turn 4! Turning left in a right-hand corner is never a good thing. I lost two tenths. At that point I thought that lap was over, but I kept pushing and was able to find some more time."

“Turn 4!”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/piastri-reveals-mistake-that-almost-cost-him-qatar-gp-sprint-pole

[Fortitude]

Piastri wins sprint race at Qatar GP to close gap on F1 leader Norris to 22 points.
Heading into Sunday's penultimate race of the season, Norris had 396 points, Piastri 374 and Verstappen 371.
29 November 2025
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MailOnline

Oscar Piastri won the Qatar Grand Prix sprint race from pole position Saturday to move 22 points behind McLaren teammate Lando Norris heading into Sunday's main Formula 1 race. "Yeah, car was good," Piastri said. "Let's keep it going."

Piastri has not won since the final day of August at the Dutch GP and the 24-year-old Australian has no podiums in the past six F1 races, excluding Saturday's sprint.

Race strategy in Qatar will be harder to impose given that teams have two mandatory pit stops, a measure imposed on safety grounds due to a high risk of tire degradation at the 5.4-kilometer (3.3-mile) Lusail International Circuit.

‘Piastri wins sprint race’;

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-15337513/Piastri-wins-sprint-race-Qatar-GP-close-gap-F1-leader-Norris-22-points.html


2025 Qatar GP – F1 Sprint Race Results
Piastri’s Sprint win tightens the McLaren title battle as Verstappen struggles to keep pace
29 November 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Qatar GP 2025 Sprint Race results
Check out the full Qatar GP 2025 Sprint Race results from Lusail below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren Leader
2 George Russell Mercedes +4.951
3 Lando Norris McLaren +6.279
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull +9.054
5 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +19.327
6 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +21.391
7 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +24.556
8 Carlos Sainz Williams +27.333
9 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +28.206
10 Alexander Albon Williams +28.925

‘Sprint Race results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-qatar-gp-f1-sprint-race-results/


Oscar Piastri reveals late tyre scare en route to F1 Qatar GP Sprint victory
29 November 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

After the race, Oscar Piastri revealed that he was feeling issues with his rubber, which triggered some anxious moments in the cockpit before the chequered flag fell. “Yeah, like five or six laps to the end, I think it was front left was starting to vibrate a bit and I hadn’t locked up or anything,” he explained to media including Motorsport Week.

“So it’s never a great sign when you start getting vibrations out of nowhere. So I think it was a similar thing for other people as well. So yeah, we’ll see if there’s any concerns with that. But that was pretty much the only concern.” Oscar Piastri spoke of his relief that it was nice to feel out in front again.

“Yeah, it was nice,” he said. “It was nice to have some clean air again, it makes a pretty big difference. Yeah, just nice to get off to a smooth start to the weekend really. Yeah, the car’s been good so far and I feel like I’ve been able to gel with it pretty good. So yeah, obviously the kind of short part of the weekend’s over and now the real stuff begins.”

‘Late tyre scare’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/11/29/oscar-piastri-reveals-late-tyre-scare-en-route-to-f1-qatar-gp-sprint-victory/


Piastri upbeat after commanding Sprint win
Oscar Piastri said his return to winning form in Qatar has so far come down to a smooth weekend and a circuit that played perfectly to his strengths.
30 Nov 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

The McLaren driver led all 19 laps in the Sprint from pole to claim his third career Sprint victory at the venue, finishing comfortably ahead of George Russell and Lando Norris as the title fight tightened heading into qualifying. Piastri said the performance was the product of a trouble-free run and a layout that immediately suited him after several frustrating weekends. “It’s been a good weekend so far,” he explained. “I think everything went smoothly in the Sprint there. So, yeah, happy with how it’s been so far. I just need to keep it rolling.”

“It’s obviously a very different circuit to where we have been. Much higher speed. Much higher grip,” he added. “I think in the last couple of weekends has just been things going wrong rather than being a lack of pace.” Piastri noted that while gains would be limited ahead of the grand prix, the team’s baseline remained encouraging. “Ideally if we can find more pace, I think you know, everyone slowly finds a little bit more through Sprint weekends,” he said. “But I think our base performance seems very strong around here, so it’s more just tuning rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.”

‘Piastri upbeat’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-oscar-piastri-sprint-win-qatar-grand-prix-reaction-upbeat-mclaren-hopes-qualifying-form/


Max fourth in sprint race Qatar: 'Car is bouncing everywhere'
29 November 2025
Florence Cobben
Verstappen.nl

Max Verstappen has come fourth in the sprint race of the Qatar Grand Prix. “It’s been difficult so far. The start was of course good and I think in the first three laps I just pushed a bit more compared to the guys ahead of the track, looking for an opportunity, knowing that passing was tough. But after that, yeah, you just get into the same trouble. The more the tyres wear, the more you feel those kind of issues, and that basically is what prevented us from really following them. I was basically doing my own race out there. We need to work on that, get rid of the bouncing, jumping, get rid of the oversteer in general. That’s still a big problem.”

Elaborating on the bouncing problem, Max shares: “My car is bouncing everywhere, something I had yesterday already. In the race you go through the turns a bit slower, so the bouncing is a bit less aggressive, but even in the slower turns under braking I am bouncing. You can’t attack a corner consistently. That’s just annoying.”

'Car is bouncing everywhere';

https://news.verstappen.com/en/article/6032/


Hamilton slams Ferrari with stark team radio after Qatar GP sprint race
29 Nov 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Another forgettable race for Lewis Hamilton, who finished the Qatar Sprint in just seventeenth place. The seven-time world champion, speaking over the radio at the end of the race, summed it up with an eloquent: “I don’t know how we made the car worse,” once again highlighting his lack of feel with the SF25, an issue he’s battled almost all season.

The Englishman had started from the pit lane, opting for a setup change in an attempt to try something different in the race — a gamble that clearly didn’t pay off, as his final result shows.
Things didn’t go much better for his teammate either, with Leclerc finishing just thirteenth, stuck behind Oliver Bearman’s Haas for the entire race.

“I don’t know how we made the car worse”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/hamilton-slams-ferrari-with-stark-team-radio-after-qatar-gp-sprint-race

[Fortitude]

Piastri snatches vital pole position off Norris with final lap in qualifying.
All three title contenders will start at the sharp end of the grid as Max Verstappen narrowly beat George Russell to third.
29th November 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

The final stage of qualifying was red-flagged after drivers completed their first runs for an unusual reason. Carlos Sainz Jnr’s Williams picked up a sticker from the garage floor as it left, which fell off the car after he joined the track. The stewards noted Williams for a potential unsafe release. By the time the session was halted, Norris had set the fastest time with a lap of 1’19.495. Piastri came close to beating him, lapping quicker through the middle sector, but was three hundredths of a second behind at the line.

The McLaren pair had the fight for pole position to themselves. Verstappen was almost half a second slower, while Russell pipped him by a tenth of a second. Leclerc had a dramatic moment on his first run when he lost control of his car on the exit kerb at turn 15. The Ferrari spun through 720 degrees at high speed. Norris followed Russell out of the pits after the session restarted, but the Mercedes driver did a build lap before starting his first run. The McLaren driver got as far as turn two before having to make a major correction and backed off. “I just got a bit of understeer and was going to go off so I had to abort,” he explained afterwards.

Behind him, Piastri chipped away at his best time from sector to sector and took a tenth of a second off Norris’s time at the line. Verstappen initially looked like a threat for pole position but faded to third. Russell didn’t improve in his first sector but ended his lap well. However it wasn’t quite enough to beat Verstappen, falling short of the Red Bull by a hundredth of a second. His team mate Antonelli backed him up in fifth ahead of Hadjar. Sainz rebounded from his peculiar problem to take seventh ahead of Alonso, but Leclerc’s final effort wasn’t good enough to better 10th on the grid.

‘Piastri snatches vital pole’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/11/29/piastri-snatches-vital-pole-position-off-norris-with-final-lap-in-qualifying/


2025 F1 Qatar GP – Qualifying Results
29 November 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Qatar GP 2025 Qualifying results
Check out the full Qatar GP 2025 Qualifying results from Lusail below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:19.387
2 Lando Norris McLaren +0.108
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.264
4 George Russell Mercedes +0.275
5 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.459
6 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +0.727
7 Carlos Sainz Williams +0.900
8 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +1.031
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine +1.090
10 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +1.174

‘Qualifying results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-qatar-gp-qualifying-results/


Piastri continues title resurgence with massive pole lap in Qatar Grand Prix
29 Nov 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Oscar Piastri continued his brilliant resurgence with a pole position at the Qatar Grand Prix qualifying. The McLaren driver clocked the quickest time of the session – ahead of Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. Piastri, who appears to have revived since his dip in form following the Grand Prix in Azerbaijan, set a staggering 1:19.382, fast enough for pole position.
Mercedes driver George Russell finished in fourth place, with Kimi Antonelli in fifth. Isack Hadjar, Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, Pierre Gasly, and Charles Leclerc rounded out the top 10.

‘Piastri continues title resurgence’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/breaking-news/piastri-continues-title-resurgence-with-massive-pole-lap-in-qatar-grand-prix


Oscar Piastri takes Qatar Grand Prix pole as Lando Norris makes error on final lap.
Oscar Piastri will start the Qatar Grand Prix from pole position after snatching the front spot from his McLaren teammate Lando Norris.
29 November 2025
Rebecca Braybrook
F1 Oversteer

Early laps saw Piastri top the timing sheets from George Russell and Fernando Alonso, with Lando Norris finding himself down in P8.

Red Bull tried a new strategy with Verstappen in the middle part of qualifying. The team sent the Dutchman out on two warm-up laps before starting the flying time to see if this could get his tyres into a more optimal window. He initially went top of the timings before McLaren’s laps, with Piastri jumping Verstappen by nearly half a second. Norris was unable to catch Verstappen with his first flying lap, finding himself in third before his time was deleted for track limits.

Norris was able to put his first flying lap together, to set a time of 1:19.495 as the pace from McLaren seemed unbeatable. Piastri’s first attempt saw him three-hundredths of a second behind his teammate with Russell and Verstappen unable to match the pace. Oscar Piastri will start the Qatar Grand Prix from pole position after snatching the front spot from his McLaren teammate Lando Norris.

‘Oscar Piastri will start the Qatar Grand Prix from pole’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/oscar-piastri-takes-qatar-grand-prix-pole-as-lando-norris-makes-error-on-final-lap/


Qatar GP: Piastri ‘buses’ his way to pole position ahead of Norris and Verstappen
29 Nov 2025
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Oscar Piastri secured his second pole position of the Qatar weekend with a P1 in qualifying for the grand prix, beating Lando Norris after the Briton abandoned his lap having made a mistake. In a weekend of high stakes with Norris in a position to win the World title, it was Piastri who came to the fore at the Lusail International Circuit.

Only five drivers went into Q3 with two new sets of soft tyres: Piastri, Norris, Verstappen, Russell and Isack Hadjar. Verstappen was the first out, crossing the line with a… no, it was another double warm-up for the Red Bull driver. Norris set a 1:19.495 as the benchmark time with Piastri coming through 0.035s down on his teammate to put Norris on provisional pole. Leclerc had a spin and pitted without a time on the board. Russell went third ahead of Verstappen, Hadjar and Kimi Antonelli.

The red flags were waved with 5:27 on the clock as the marshals ventured out… Back underway, Russell was the first driver out of the pits ahead of Norris. Norris, however, had a moment at Turn 2 and abandoned his lap. He still had time for another. Piastri upped his pace, purple in the first sector, as too did Verstappen. As they traded purple sector times, Norris did not cross the line to start another flying lap and pulled into the pits. Piastri posted a 1:19.387 to snatch pole position away from Norris with Verstappen’s time only good enough for third behind the McLaren teammates. Russell was P4 ahead of Antonelli and Hadjar.

‘Piastri ‘buses’ his way to pole’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/qatar-grand-prix-2025-qualifying-report


Piastri takes Qatar GP pole as Norris rues crucial qualifying error
Nov 29, 2025
Ben Anderson
The Race

Oscar Piastri beat Lando Norris to pole position for Formula 1’s 2025 Qatar Grand Prix, after Norris made a crucial mistake on his final flying lap in Q3. Norris held a narrow 0.035s edge on Piastri heading into the final runs of qualifying at the Losail F1 circuit, but had to abort his final Q3 lap after understeering wide at Turn 2.

There wasn’t enough time left for championship leader Norris to cool down his tyres and go again and he didn't have enough fuel anyway, so he returned to the pits as Piastri completed a clean final lap to take pole by a tenth of a second. This came off the back of a tricky time in Q2 for Norris, who required a second run after his first lap was deleted for exceeding track limits.

Max Verstappen couldn’t complete with the McLarens for pole, lacking pace particularly in the winding turns of the middle sector, but he found enough speed to beat George Russell’s Mercedes to third on the grid.

‘Norris rues crucial qualifying error’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/piastri-takes-qatar-gp-pole-as-norris-rues-crucial-qualifying-error/

[Fortitude]

Ferrari's dismal sprint a 2025 low.
"Even Pierre came up to me afterwards, he was like 'yo... it looks so bad'! I was like 'yeah, yeah... no sh- Sherlock.' "
Nov 29, 2025
Jon Noble
The Race

Hamilton told Spanish broadcaster DAZN that things looked so difficult that it came as a surprise to Alpine driver Pierre Gasly, who followed him for much of the sprint. "Even Pierre came up to me afterwards, he was like 'yo... it looks so bad'! I was like 'yeah, yeah... no sh- Sherlock.' "

From Leclerc’s perspective, a scrappy opening lap where he ran wide and lost positions set the tone for more dramas throughout the race. “Just incredibly difficult to drive the car,” he said. “I don't have any explanations for now. I thought there was damage on the car - we saw something, but it was after the first few laps, where[as] the problem was mostly in the first lap. So we'll analyse that, but it felt horrible.”

“I was like 'yeah, yeah... no sh- Sherlock.' ";

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/ferrari-qatar-gp-sprint-leclerc-hamilton/


Martin Brundle shakes his head at Ferrari after hearing their excuse for their 2025 woes
29 November 2025
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

Martin Brundle picks apart Ferrari’s excuse for their struggles this season. During his comments to the media in the pre-event press conference ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix, Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur revealed that engineers in Maranello switched focus to their 2026 challenger at the end of April, ending any chance of improving the SF-25 for the remainder of the season.

However, Martin Brundle doesn’t buy it. With every other team currently in the same boat ahead of F1’s new 2026 regulations, it can’t be pinpointed as a direct cause for their regression down the pecking order. Speaking to Sky Sports F1 ahead of the Sprint race in Qatar, he said (29/11 13:27), “If they’re satisfying themselves [that] their problems are because they switched off development, like pretty much every other team, then they’re missing a trick because they’ve got bigger things to sort out.”

Martin Brundle also highlighted how he now dreads Lewis Hamilton’s interviews on race weekends. During his assessment of Ferrari before the beginning of the Sprint, Brundle also drew attention to Hamilton’s downtrodden interview after the shootout on the evening prior. “I kind of dread his interviews now on days like that. We know all the great times Lewis has had in Formula 1, races and sessions, and it just won’t come together. If he had a fundamental issue that he knew would take some time to fix, then he could park that. But Leclerc is kind of getting some performance out of his car, which puts salt in his wounds.”

‘Martin Brundle picks apart Ferrari’s excuse’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/martin-brundle-shakes-his-head-at-ferrari-after-hearing-their-excuse-for-their-2025-woes/


Hamilton and Leclerc stuck in a rut as Ferrari’s woes deepen
29/11/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have raised serious concerns about Ferrari’s form in Qatar, warning that the SF-25 has gone from difficult to barely drivable after an overnight slide that left both men floundering outside the points in Saturday’s Sprint at Lusail. “Well, I mean, we started from the pitlane because we wanted to explore and make some changes,” Hamilton said. “They had some things they found on the simulator last night, so we implemented those changes. And yeah, the car was really in the wrong direction and very, very difficult for whatever reason.”

His frustration centered on a complete lack of rear stability. “We just don’t have any stability,” he added. “So when I say that, it’s the rear end is not planted. So it’s sliding, snapping a lot. Then we have bouncing. So when you’re going into corners like Turn 10, the thing starts bouncing. We have a lot of mid-corner understeer. And then you apply the steering and then it snaps and you try and catch it. So it’s different between low, medium and high. And it’s a fight like you couldn’t believe.”

Leclerc: ‘The feeling has changed completely’ If Ferrari hoped Hamilton’s problems were setup-specific, Leclerc confirmed the situation is far more worrying. “It definitely did,” he said when asked if the car had worsened since qualifying. “I have no idea how that happened from qualifying to today. The feeling has changed completely to yesterday and I don’t really know from where it’s coming from.”

‘Stuck in a rut’;

https://f1i.com/news/554829-hamilton-and-leclerc-stuck-in-a-rut-as-ferraris-woes-deepen.html


Ferrari have become a midfield F1 team and Charles Leclerc’s Qatar Sprint radio proves it
29 November 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Speaking on Sky Sports before the Sprint, Jamie Chadwick said Ferrari have become a ‘midfield’ team at the end of the 2025 season. They are increasingly likely to finish fourth in the constructors’ championship. “Most teams stopped development, so OK, they can be excited about 2026, but this year, they are in the midfield,” said Chadwick. “Charles crept into Q3 and was P9 but it’s not anything to get very excited about.”

After unsuccessfully pursuing the Haas of Oliver Bearman, Leclerc found himself battling Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson. The Monegasque, who reported a serious imbalance at the rear, ran off the track and Lawson went wide with him. The New Zealander stayed ahead when they rejoined, and was predictably instructed to return the position. But Leclerc sounded disinterested when he noted the infringement on the radio. “Position gained out of the track, but I don’t really mind,” he said.

Messages like this confirm that Ferrari have descended into an end-of-season purgatory, unable to fight their traditional rivals and now falling into the clutches of the midfield. Both Leclerc and Hamilton are becoming disengaged as a result. “The first lap I thought I would destroy the car in the wall,” Leclerc said after the race, highlighting the severity of the rear instability.

‘Ferrari have descended into an end-of-season purgatory’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-have-become-a-midfield-f1-team-and-charles-leclercs-qatar-sprint-radio-proves-it/


Charles Leclerc sides with Lewis Hamilton with Ferrari verdict after Qatar sprint
“The feeling has changed completely to yesterday and I don’t really know from where it’s coming from.”
29 Nov 2025
Connor McDonagh
Crash.Net

Charles Leclerc agrees with Lewis Hamilton’s assessment that Ferrari’s car took a worrying step backwards overnight at the Qatar Grand Prix. It was a miserable sprint race for both Ferrari drivers. Starting from ninth on the grid, a scrappy opening lap saw Leclerc drop back to 13th in the order. Leclerc ran wide as he struggled with the handling of his SF-25. Hamilton elected to start from the pit lane after his SQ1 exit.

Assessing Leclerc’s comments, former F1 strategist Bernie Collins believes his feedback will worry Ferrari, given there were minimal changes to his car since sprint qualifying. “I think the most interesting thing there listening to both drivers is that we know Lewis changed his car. He started from the pit lane so to hear him say ‘we made it worse today’ isn’t that much of a surprise because you know they changed something,” Collins explained.

“I don’t really know from where it’s coming from”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1087565/1/charles-leclerc-sides-lewis-hamilton-ferrari-verdict-after-qatar-sprint


Hamilton fires back at media for Ferrari mental blow amid Qatar GP debacle
29 Nov 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Lewis Hamilton has held the media accountable for the psychological impact Ferrari staff have been hit with throughout the tough F1 2025 season. "The negativity that's constantly within the media and everything like that, that affects them, they get home to their wives and their wives say 'they've been saying this about the people where you work'."
- Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton reveals Ferrari's Achilles' heel: "Yeah, the development's not been the issue," Hamilton told GPblog dismissing the lack of development as the cause for Ferrari's woes. "I mean, I wanted them to move to next year's car when we knew the car was not good. I wanted to make sure we started early. So I was in full support of that. It means it's a long year with what we've had. There's just other things that need to be worked on," he added without clarifying what he meant.

When asked what Ferrari was currently battling, Hamilton pointed to the natural consequence of such an early development freeze. "Stability, the challenge is stability," he continued. "We're obviously lacking downforce to the others [F1 Teams]. We haven't developed the car for some time, so the cars have been on the ragged edge, and I guess just a bit of luck."

‘Lewis Hamilton has held the media accountable for the psychological impact Ferrari staff’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/hamilton-fires-back-at-media-for-ferrari-mental-blow-amid-qatar-gp-debacle

[Fortitude]

David Coulthard says Lewis Hamilton had a ‘told you so’ moment watching Charles Leclerc at Qatar Grand Prix.
Leclerc suffered a violent spin in Q2 but continued, no doubt thankful for the expansive run-off at the Lusail International Circuit.
29 November 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Charles Leclerc’s Qatar Grand Prix spin shows the Ferrari is so ‘difficult’ to drive. F1TV commentator Alex Jacques noticed that pundits Jolyon Palmer and David Coulthard were wincing every time the world feed cut to Leclerc’s onboard footage during qualifying.

“Every single time we go on board with him, everyone leans back in this commentary box,” he observed. Leclerc suffered a violent spin in Q2 but continued, no doubt thankful for the expansive run-off at the Lusail International Circuit.

Coulthard reckons Hamilton must have felt vindicated watching his teammate’s mishap. There is some disagreement as to who’s to blame for their dismal 2025 season – John Elkann has told the drivers to ‘talk less’ and focus more on their job. “Hamilton, though, if he was watching that will go, ‘I told you so, look how difficult it is!'” Coulthard said.

‘Told you so’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/david-coulthard-says-lewis-hamilton-had-a-told-you-so-moment-watching-charles-leclerc-at-qatar-grand-prix/


Leclerc’s Huge Mistake in Qatar Q2! Wild Double 360 Degree Spin Shocks Qualifying
@F1UndercutShort

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mD0JEqtjWYk


Charles Leclerc SPINS HARD | 2025 Qatar Grand Prix
@DifferentTurn

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Vl3XZN6H5GE


Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc outline Ferrari car woes amid 'unbelievably difficult' Qatar GP weekend
Lewis Hamilton's Qatar troubled continue with a second-successive 18th place on grid while Charles Leclerc again fares better but also struggles with Ferrari's car.
30 November 2025
Sky Sports

Lewis Hamilton described trying to get performance out of Ferrari's car as "a fight like you couldn't believe", while Charles Leclerc said they were enduring an "unbelievably difficult" weekend, on a chastening Saturday for the team at the Qatar Grand Prix.

Hamilton made his comments after Saturday's 19-lap Sprint, for which he had started from the pit lane due to set-up changes after originally only qualifying 18th. He finished only one place better off in 17th and said on the radio afterwards: "I don't know how we made the car worse".

Team-mate Charles Leclerc had started in the top 10 but also struggled, despite sticking with the set-up he qualified with, with the Monegasque having numerous off-track moments on his way to 13th.

‘Ferrari car woes’;

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12040/13476892/lewis-hamilton-and-charles-leclerc-outline-ferrari-car-woes-amid-unbelievably-difficult-qatar-gp-weekend


Ferrari change left Lewis Hamilton out to dry at 2025 Qatar GP
A late Ferrari setup call left Lewis Hamilton furious after a disastrous F1 Sprint Qualifying showing at the Qatar GP
29 November 2025
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

Karun Chandhok: No obvious driver error on Hamilton lap. Making matters worse? According to Karun Chandhok, who raced in F1 from 2010-11, there didn’t appear to be any obvious driver error on the car – it was simply slow as it oversteered and understeered its way around the circuit.

There’s little doubt the lack of knowledge with the new rear-wing and behaviour changes to the car sapped away at the Brit’s confidence and left him unaware and with little confidence to extract the pace from his car. Clearly frustrated, Hamilton opted to cut his post-race interview short after Ferrari and their change left him out to dry at the 2025 Qatar GP.

Asked whether the car had been difficult, Hamilton replied to F1 TV, “Same as always.” When pressed on if the high-downforce setup chosen made any difference, he sarcastically laughed off the question and said no. Finally, he said the nice weather is the only thing he’s looking forwards to as far as Saturday was concerned.

‘Lewis Hamilton furious’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/ferrari-change-left-lewis-hamilton-out-to-dry-f1-2025-qatar-gp/


Lewis Hamilton ‘constantly challenged’ with critical Ferrari SF-25 flaw
29 Nov 2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

“We made changes, the car felt better in quali,” Hamilton informed PlanetF1.com and other media outlets. However, that could not prevent Hamilton from suffering back-to-back departures at the Q1 stage. “I think the early session was looking pretty decent, and then just didn’t get the last lap,” he said.

Hamilton believes he will need to get creative if he wants to progress from 18th on the grid. “Not really,” said Hamilton when asked if he has a chance to try anything tomorrow to improve, “you saw in the Sprint there’s no overtaking. I’ll try something different with strategy maybe, and we’ll see what I can do tomorrow.”

Lewis Hamilton was asked by PlanetF1.com what is still lacking for him and taking his confidence away at the wheel of the SF-25. “Stability. We’re constantly challenged with stability,” he said. “We’re obviously lacking downforce compared to the others obviously, because we haven’t developed the car for some time, so the car is on the ragged edge, and just I guess a bit of luck.”

‘Critical Ferrari SF-25 flaw’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lewis-hamilton-ferrari-constantly-challenged-stability

[Fortitude]

‘Anything can happen’ – Verstappen outlines Qatar GP expectations as he bids to keep title chances alive.
Optimistic that “anything can happen” in the upcoming Grand Prix.
29 Nov 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Asked whether his car performance had improved, he replied: “I think this Qualifying was a little bit better even though we were still quite far off, let’s say it like that. I felt a little bit happier but there are still some limitations that don’t allow us to push harder around the lap, but at least we are P3.”

“Starting on the second row creates better opportunities because we know it’s quite hard to pass around here. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow. Realistically, it’s a bit tough this weekend. It’s just not been what I wanted it to be so far, but we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”

Prompted on his expectations for the race, he said: “I already saw it of course in the Sprint. I don’t expect that to be completely different tomorrow so we’ll see. We’ll try to do the best we can. I’ll try to have a good start and just go from there because anything can happen.”

‘Anything can happen’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/anything-can-happen-verstappen-outlines-qatar-gp-expectations-as-he-bids-to.QHUWS7BMx4c5QgRNiK1DD


Brown bracing for fireworks: ‘Don't miss the start of the Qatar GP’
30/11/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

McLaren boss Zak Brown is bracing for a blockbuster opening lap on Sunday in Qatar… …Brown expects the reigning champion to try something spectacular the moment the lights go out. “For sure, you know he's going to try and lead into Turn 1, so I wouldn't miss the start of tomorrow's grand prix,” Brown told F1 TV – a comment that landed somewhere between excitement and warning.

Brown says the mission is simple: keep the orange cars ahead and turn F1’s season finale next week at Yas Marina into a straight fight between his two drivers. “Our goal is to make sure papaya wins this championship, so if we can finish where we've started here and just have it be a two-horse race in Abu Dhabi, that's our goal. And if they want to reverse positions that's up to them, I don't care.”

“It’s business as usual, they know the rules. We love watching them race, they race each other hard, they race each other cleanly, so, they know if they can kind of check out that we'll be looking good in Abu Dhabi. But let’s see, they’ve got to do that first.”

Don't miss the start of the Qatar GP’;

https://f1i.com/news/554932-brown-bracing-for-fireworks-dont-miss-the-start-of-the-qatar-gp.html


Verstappen vows to ‘try everything’ to keep F1 title hopes alive
November 29, 2025
Laurence Edmondson
TSN

"We'll try everything we can," Verstappen said after Saturday's qualifying session. "At the start [of the race], turn one, all the laps." He added: "It will be tough. I mean, in the sprint as well, I tried, but then, yeah, we just fall into that window where we just struggle a lot on the tires and we don't seem to really be able to keep up."

Verstappen also doubts he has the race pace to match the McLarens based on the lap times Piastri was able to achieve at the end of Saturday's sprint race. "Also, the few final laps of Oscar in that sprint, I need to cut a corner to do that. It will be maybe a little bit better, but yeah, it will be tough, I think, to do that. But let's see. It's a long race. Anything can happen."

‘Try everything’;

https://www.tsn.ca/motorsports/article/verstappen-vows-to-try-everything-to-keep-f1-title-hopes-alive-n1-47141541/


Max Verstappen tells Red Bull where to improve at 2025 Qatar GP: ‘That’s still a big problem’
The world champion has struggled with bouncing on his RB21 in the Middle East
29 November 2025
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

Max Verstappen pinpoints to Red Bull where he is struggling with his car as he tells his engineers have to improve the bouncing at the 2025 Qatar GP if he hopes to keep his Formula 1 title goals alive.

Team boss Laurent Mekies, the team is going to work to find an engineering solution to the bouncing at the Losail International Circuit to give their start driver the platform he needs to take control of his championship destiny again. “A bit of damage limitation,” Mekies told Sky Sports F1, praising Verstappen. “It’s fair to say we are not quite happy with the car, hopefully we have more to come.”

“We have to try to see if we can extract a tenth or more out of the car. The top four guys were quite close but on our side, there’s something more we can do. The optimum performance window is undoubtedly very narrow. That’s not a secret. We don’t rest until we are in that window. That’s how we go racing. We don’t take second for an answer. We will keep trying.”

“We don’t rest until we are in that window”;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/max-verstappen-red-bull-warning-bouncing-issue-qatar-gp/


Verstappen reveals strategy to keep title hope alive after Qatar qualifying
29 Nov 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Max Verstappen has promised to go on an all-out attack on the opening lap of the Qatar Grand Prix after finishing P3 in qualifying. The Red Bull Racing driver, who spoke to GPblog following Qatar GP qualifying, promised to go on a full attack when discussing his approach for the race.

“I will try everything at the start. If I don't pass Lando [Norris], he scores more points than me,” he said. The Dutch driver, however, admitted it would be a tough challenge, referencing the Sprint race where he was stuck behind the McLaren driver.

“It will be tough. In the sprint as well, I tried, but then we just fall into that window where we struggle a lot on the tyres and don’t really manage to keep up,” he added. Further highlighting the pace the McLaren car has, Verstappen concluded: “Also, those final laps of Oscar in that sprint, I’d need to cut a corner to match him. So it might be a little better, but I think it will be tough to do that. But let's see. It's a long race. Anything can happen.”

‘Max Verstappen has promised to go on an all-out attack on the opening lap’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/verstappen-reveals-strategy-to-keep-title-hopes-alive-after-qatar-qualifying

[Fortitude]

Verstappen wins Qatar GP to set up three-way title fight in F1 finale.
Verstappen clinches Qatar Grand Prix victory ahead of Piastri, and the championship will be decided in Abu Dhabi next weekend.
November 30, 2025
Pablo Elizalde
Motor Sport Magazine

Max Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix ahead of Oscar Piastri to take the 2025 Formula 1 championship fight all the way to the wire in Abu Dhabi.
Piastri and team-mate Lando Norris paid the price for not pitting during a safety car period early on, and Verstappen made good use of the misstep to take a comfortable victory and keep his title hopes alive ahead of the final race of the season.
Verstappen was running in second when the safety car came out and duly made the first of his two mandatory pitstops.
Only Piastri and Norris didn’t pit, a decision that essentially eliminated them from the victory fight.
Verstappen crossed the finish line eight seconds ahead of Piastri, with Carlos Sainz completing the podium for Williams after a superb performance.
Norris finished outside of the top three in fourth after a disappointing day, which saw his championship lead shrink to just 12 points from Verstappen and 16 to Piastri.
Kimi Antonelli finished fifth after being overtaken by Norris on the final lap.

‘Three-way title fight’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/verstappen-wins-qatar-gp-to-set-up-three-way-title-fight-in-f1-finale/?nowprocket=1


2025 F1 Qatar Grand Prix – Race Results
Verstappen storms to victory at Lusail as Piastri and Sainz complete the podium on a pivotal night in the championship fight
30 November 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 2025 Qatar Grand Prix Race Results
Check out the full Qatar GP 2025 F1 race results from Lusail below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Leader
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren +7.995
3 Carlos Sainz Williams +22.665
4 Lando Norris McLaren +23.315
5 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +28.317
6 George Russell Mercedes +48.599
7 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +54.045
8 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +56.785
9 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +60.073
10 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +61.770

‘Grand Prix Race Results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-qatar-grand-prix-race-results/


Max Verstappen wins the Qatar Grand Prix as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri suffer McLaren strategy nightmare.
30 November 2025
Shay Rogers
F1 Oversteer

The 2025 Formula 1 title battle will go to the season finale as Max Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix ahead of Oscar Piastri in second, with Lando Norris crucially down in fourth. Carlos Sainz held on for third place, despite late damage to his Williams, while Kimi Antonelli was fifth for Mercedes.

Piastri got the start he needed, easing into turn one in the lead, while Verstappen swooped around the outside of Norris. Jeopardy occurred on lap seven, when Nico Hulkenberg was clipped by Pierre Gasly at turn one, forcing a safety car.

Everyone would make their first of two planned pit stops for the race, apart from McLaren. It meant that their two drivers would have one more stop to make than their rivals for the rest of the Qatar Grand Prix. They would eventually change tyres on laps 24 and 25, but couldn’t gain enough time to catch Verstappen.

‘McLaren strategy nightmare’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/max-verstappen-wins-the-qatar-grand-prix-as-lando-norris-and-oscar-piastri-suffer-mclaren-strategy-nightmare/


Max Verstappen wins Qatar GP as Lando Norris nightmare sees F1 title battle go to Abu Dhabi
Max Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix after a McLaren blunder and a nightmare race by Lando Norris means the championship heads to the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi
30 November 2025
CAMERON WINSTANLEY
Daily Star

The F1 World Championship battle will go to the final race in Abu Dhabi. Lando Norris had the chance to win the title this weekend in Qatar but endured something of a nightmare weekend to his recent fortunes after he was only able to finish third in Saturday’s sprint race before coming home fourth in the Grand Prix.

Norris was gifted a fourth-place finish and a crucial two extra points after Kimi Antonelli ran wide and Norris passed the Mercedes on the final lap. On the final lap of the race, Norris passed Antonelli with ease after the Mercedes rookie appeared to make an error. The message was relayed to a furious Piastri and to Verstappen by a flabergast Gianpiero Lambiase.

‘Lando Norris nightmare’;

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/f1/breaking-f1-norris-piastri-verstappen-36330588


Qatar GP: Verstappen holds off Piastri to win; Norris 4th
Nov 30, 2025,
Laurence Edmondson
ESPN.com

The 2025 title fight will go down to the final round in Abu Dhabi after Max Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix while championship leader Lando Norris finished fourth.

Verstappen is now Norris' closest competitor heading into next weekend's season finale as Norris' McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri slipped to third place in the standings with a second-place finish in Qatar.

Verstappen is just 12 points behind Norris in the standings with a maximum of 25 points available at the final round, with Piastri 16 points adrift after his McLaren team appeared to throw away his shot at victory by opting against a pit stop under a safety car on Lap 7.

‘The 2025 title fight will go down to the final round in Abu Dhabi’;

https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/47107408/qatar-grand-prix-max-verstappen-holds-oscar-piastri-win


Verstappen picks up Qatar victory as McLaren make strategy error
30 Nov 2025
Steven De Groote
F1 Technical

Max Verstappen has kept the Championship fight alive by winning the Qatar Grand Prix. The race was effectively decided by McLaren opting not to pit its car under SC, leading to Piastri salvaging to second and Sainz scoring a brilliant podium for Williams. The Qatar Grand Prix kicked off with the best possible start for pole sitter Oscar Piastri as he enjoyed a clean getaway and maintained first place. Lando Norris on the other hand was quickly attacked by Verstappen and passed before the first corner, the latter likely benefiting from starting on the clean side of the track and enjoying a bit of a slipstream behind Piastri. Norris tried to come back after Turn 3 but Verstappen held on to second place.

Hulkenberg gained a position in the start and became the first runner on soft tyres until he crashed off in lap 7. The German attempted to overtake Gasly round the outside of Turn 1 and was pretty much past until Gasly slid wide and into the right rear of the Kick Sauber. Hulkenberg was stunned and indeed couldn't really have done anything else to avoid this incident. The incident immediately triggered a Safety Car that saw Verstappen, Antonelli, Russell, Sainz, Alonso and most others to pit. The McLaren duo and Ocon were the only ones to continue on the same tyres. Ocon pitted one lap later, deciding to immediately serve his fresh 5s penalty of his false start .

The stops didn't really change much with most switching to the hard tyre. Bearman however dropped to 18th after trying to leave the pits too early, requiring his team to property fix the rears before enabling him to get going again. Bearman badly slammed his steering wheel out of frustration moments later as he saw a possibly points finish disappear. The end of lap 42 is when Piastri dove into the pits to change to hard tyres. Piastri returned to the track in third place, 17 seconds behind Norris and Verstappen who by then were glued together. Norris got pitted two laps later, returning to the track down in 5th and promoting Sainz into a podium position.

‘McLaren make strategy error’;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/28044

[Fortitude]

How ‘shellshocked’ Zak Brown and Andrea Stella instantly reacted after Qatar GP McLaren disaster.
“They don’t really know what to say; they’ve gone to the back of the garage. They said no interviews until after the podium.” Ted Kravitz
30 November 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Ted Kravitz says Zak Brown and Andrea Stella were ‘shellshocked’ after the Qatar Grand Prix. Ted Kravitz was reporting from the pit lane on Sky Sports F1 (30/11 5:32 pm) and as he was waiting for an interview with team principal Andrea Stella and CEO Zak Brown, he said: “Crofty, you know, at the end of these races, I normally get a line with Andrea Stella or Zak Brown quite quickly. Normally, at this moment. They are shellshocked down here at McLaren.”

“They don’t really know what to say; they’ve gone to the back of the garage. They said no interviews until after the podium. They need to go and understand, get their ducks in a row, talk about what they’re going to say and manage to explain this all away.”

‘Shellshocked’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/how-shellshocked-zak-brown-and-andrea-stella-instantly-reacted-after-qatar-gp-mclaren-disaster/


‘Rabble’: Tony Jones blasts ‘inept’ McLaren team after Qatar F1 Grand Prix
1 Dec 2025
3AW

Tony Jones has blasted the “inept” McLaren team after their “stuff up” during the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Qatar overnight. “They’re a rabble, they really are,” Jones told Tom Elliott. “It seems as though McLaren has done everything within its power, to thwart him (Piastri) becoming world champion.”

“No one should be treated like he’s being treated.” 3AW Breakfast sports reporter Jon Anderson also shared his thoughts on the race earlier this morning. “You’d say (Max) Verstappen is a better chance than Oscar (Piastri) is, which is just totally unfair,” Anderson told Ross and Russ.

‘Rabble’;

https://www.3aw.com.au/rabble-tony-jones-blasts-inept-mclaren-team-after-qatar-f1-grand-prix/


The worst strategy error of 2025? McLaren’s mystifying Qatar GP call analysed
30th November 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

When the Safety Car was deployed on lap seven of the Qatar Grand Prix, teams generally did not rush to tell their drivers whether to pit or not. Mostly they waited until each of their cars was rounding the final corner before instructing them to pit. Clearly, none of them wanted to tip their rivals off about their strategies. As it turned out, all of them decided to do the same thing, with one significant exception.

McLaren left both their cars on track. It was a decision which cost Oscar Piastri a likely win and left both drivers ruing valuable points lost to championship leader Max Verstappen. What led McLaren to make a decision which, on the face of it, was such an obvious mis-step? As is often the case things are never quite as obvious as they seem. Other teams will have weighed the same risks McLaren did, each facing slightly different circumstances, and come up with quite different answers.

‘The worst strategy error of 2025?’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/11/30/the-worst-strategy-error-of-2025-mclarens-mystifying-qatar-gp-call-analysed/


McLaren's botched strategy call helps Verstappen win Qatar GP as F1 title fight goes to final race
30 Nov 2025
JEROME PUGMIRE
Japan Today

One week after losing all their points from the Las Vegas Grand Prix, McLaren threw away a bunch more in an increasingly tense Formula 1 title race by botching a strategy call at the Qatar GP on Sunday. Red Bull's Max Verstappen took full advantage of the unexpected gift to clinch a seventh win this season — his 70th overall — as he closed the gap on championship leader Lando Norris from 24 points at the start of the weekend to 12 points, heading into next Sunday’s title decider in Abu Dhabi.

At the Qatar GP, Norris would have clinched his first F1 title with a win but finished fourth, with Piastri placing second having started from pole position and looking assured. But after an early safety car, McLaren's decision to keep both drivers out backfired badly as Verstappen effectively benefited from a free tire change in a mandatory two-stop race. “It's tough, we just have to have faith in the team to make the right decision,” Norris told broadcaster Sky Sports. ”Now it's the wrong decision, we shouldn't have done it (and) we didn’t do a good job today."

Piastri also said McLaren made an error by staying out following the safety car, which came out after Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber was sent spinning off the track on Lap 7 after being clipped by Alpine driver Pierre Gasly. “Speechless. I don’t know any words,” Piastri said. “It is a little bit tough to swallow at the moment.” Later, the Australian added: “Clearly we didn't get it right” and said there would be discussions.

‘McLaren's botched strategy call’;

https://japantoday.com/category/sports/red-bull-driver-max-verstappen-wins-formula-1's-qatar-grand-prix-as-title-fight-heads-for-final-race


Piastri left ‘speechless’ by McLaren strategy fumble in Qatar GP
30/11/2025
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Oscar Piastri cut a gutted figure under the Lusail floodlights on Sunday night, the Aussie left “speechless” after a blistering start to the Qatar Grand Prix was undone by a McLaren strategy call that he admitted – in hindsight – was massively wrong. Speechless. I don’t have any words,” Piastri said on team radio as he coasted back to parc fermé.

Piastri, meanwhile, didn’t sugarcoat the result. “There was nothing left out there. So I tried my best, but it wasn’t to be tonight, unfortunately,” he admitted. “I think in hindsight, it’s pretty obvious what we would have done, but I’m sure we’ll discuss it as a team.” Despite the sting, Piastri still has a mathematical shot at the crown heading into Abu Dhabi. He needs to win – and crucially, Norris must finish no higher than sixth.

The odds are long, and Piastri knows it. “Yeah, I mean, it’s, you know, it’s not all bad,” he said, trying to salvage some optimism. “Obviously, it’s been a really good weekend. The pace has been very strong, but yeah, obviously a little bit tough to swallow at the moment.”

“Speechless”;

https://f1i.com/news/555005-piastri-left-speechless-by-mclaren-strategy-fumble-in-qatar-gp.html


'Help me': Martin Brundle pinpoints the moment Lando Norris's head 'dropped' during the Qatar…
30 November 2025
Tyler Rowlinson
F1 Oversteer

Speaking on Sky Sports F1’s coverage of the race, Martin Brundle noticed that Norris’ head ‘dropped’ when he realised he could not catch his rivals: “Sainz and Antonelli, at this stage in the Grand Prix, are faster than Norris, and not that far off Piastri and Verstappen, as it happens.”

“So, Norris really has got to find… it sounds like his chin had dropped, didn’t it? He’s like: ‘Help me through turn seven’, and the stopwatch is not showing anything much better than that either, sadly.”

Andrea Stella and Zak Brown were ‘shellshocked’ after the race, as they did not understand how they had lost the race. They would not speak to the media until after the podium, with a lengthy debrief certain to take place.

'Help me';

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/martin-brundle-pinpoints-the-moment-lando-norriss-head-dropped-during-the-qatar-grand-prix/


McLaren boss Andrea Stella attempts to explain Qatar GP strategy blunder
There is a lot of disappointment in the McLaren camp after the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix.
30 November 2025
Euan Burns
F1 Oversteer

A big decision on Lap 7: The key moment of the race came on Lap 7, as there was a safety car following an incident between Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly. Teams were only allowed to run one set of tyres for a maximum of 25 laps around Lusail, and it was a 57 lap race, so pitting on Lap 7 left you with two convenient 25 lap stints to complete for the rest of the race.

The McLaren‘s were P1 and P3 at this stage, and they made the call to leave their cars out and stick to the original plan. As it would turn out, only they and Esteban Ocon made that call, with Verstappen and every other driver coming into the pits. “It was a decision not to pit. In fairness, we didn’t expect everyone else to pit,” Stella said to Sky Sports F1 after the race.

“Once everyone pitted, it makes that the right thing to do. When you have the lead car, you don’t know what the others are going to do. There could have been a loss for Lando if we pitted both cars with the double stack, but, effectively, the main reason was not expecting everyone else to pit. It was a decision. As a matter of fact it wasn’t the correct decision.”

‘Big decision on Lap 7’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/mclaren-andrea-stella-explain-qatar-gp-strategy-blunder-piastri-norris/

[Fortitude]

McLaren’s ‘unforgivable’ reaction to Oscar Piastri podium as his camp reacts to Qatar blunder.
“Let me talk briefly about Parc Ferme. Oscar got out of his car, having finished second, threw his gloves in anger and then went looking for his crew, but they weren’t there. Why weren’t they there?” Photographer Kym Illman.
1 December 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

How Oscar Piastri’s camp reacted to McLaren’s strategy blunder at the Qatar Grand Prix. Illman was speaking on his YouTube channel after the race, and explaining what he saw outside McLaren’s hospitality, he said: “I spoke to some of his inner sanctum tonight in the paddock after the race, and it was very clear that there is tension between Oscar and his entourage and the McLaren team. And you only had to have a look at Oscar’s Instagram post tonight after the race to realise something is wrong. A simple picture of him on the podium, and not a happy shot, and no caption, no words whatsoever.”

“He’s left it up to us to work out what he’s feeling, and I can tell you he’s not happy. I was at the front of the McLaren hospitality suite tonight for some time, and one thing that got my full attention was Zak Brown making a beeline for the TV media pen. It’s only a walk of 30 metres, but he went with purpose at speed, went into the media pen, pulled Oscar away from an interview, gave him a hug, congratulated him in front of the media, and then headed back to the hospitality suite. And at that time, I wondered, was that a PR stunt? Was that something to show that the team is united? Because they’re not. …Zak had to walk past Mark Webber… …he gave Zak a very icy look.”

Illman then noticed something when Piastri was preparing to go onto the podium and continued: “Let me talk briefly about Parc Ferme. Oscar got out of his car, having finished second, threw his gloves in anger and then went looking for his crew, but they weren’t there. Why weren’t they there? Well, maybe a couple were, but certainly second [place] would normally warrant a number of your crew being there to help celebrate. Carlos Sainz had almost all of his side of the garage at Parc Ferme to meet him post-race. I think it’s almost unforgivable to think that you don’t bring your crew down to celebrate with your driver.”

“Went looking for his crew, but they weren’t there. Why weren’t they there?”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/mclarens-unforgivable-reaction-to-oscar-piastri-podium-as-his-camp-reacts-to-qatar-blunder/


Piastri the biggest loser in McLaren misstep - Qatar GP takeaways
Piastri dominated on pace but saw his F1 championship chances slip further away at Lusail. We look at the main storylines from the Qatar GP
December 1, 2025
Pablo Elizalde
Motor Sport Magazine

The Qatar Grand Prix, the penultimate race of a rollercoaster Formula 1 season, was supposed to clarify the title fight, but instead it twisted the narrative into its most intriguing shape yet. As the grand prix circus heads to Abu Dhabi for the finale, the spotlight is now firmly fixed on Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, the Dutchman having edged even closer to a historic comeback after winning at Lusail.

Meanwhile, the driver who truly walked away from Qatar feeling the sharpest sting of disappointment was Oscar Piastri, as a cruel combination of circumstance and strategy meant his title hopes now require his rivals to have a dismal weekend in Abu Dhabi.

McLaren blunder cost Piastri a lot more: Piastri left Qatar knowing he was the weekend’s biggest loser – not because of any glaring mistake, but because he spent three days looking like the quickest driver and somehow left with his title hopes hanging by a thread.

‘Piastri left Qatar knowing he was the weekend’s biggest loser’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/piastri-the-biggest-loser-in-mclaren-misstep-qatar-gp-takeaways/?nowprocket=1


Oscar Piastri concedes lost F1 Qatar GP win ‘hurts more’ than McLaren’s double Las Vegas DSQ
1 December 2025
Taylor Powling
Motorsport Week

Asked to describe his frustration, Oscar Piastri told media including Motorsport Week: “Pretty high – and that’s saying quite a lot given the last few races I’ve had. But, yeah, I mean, clearly, we didn’t get it right today, which is a shame because the whole weekend went very, very well. We had a lot of pace. I felt like I drove well. So, yeah, it’s pretty painful.”

“I asked, ‘What are we doing?’ Because we were getting pretty close to the pit entry and I hadn’t had a call yet,” he recalled. “So I think when you don’t get a call instantly when the Safety Car comes out, clearly there’s probably some discussions going on about what to do.”

“And in that situation, you have to trust the team because they have a lot more information than the driver in the car on where gaps are and stuff like that. So, yeah, I mean, in that scenario I have to trust what the team decide.”

‘Hurts more’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/12/01/oscar-piastri-admits-lost-f1-qatar-gp-win-hurts-more-than-double-mclaren-dsq-in-las-vegas/


McLaren setting up biggest defeat in F1 history?
The 2025 world championship will go down to the wire after McLaren threw away a likely 1-2 in Qatar with what rivals are calling one of the most baffling strategy errors in years.
DECEMBER 1, 2025
GrandPrix.com

The Papaya-coloured team was the only outfit not to pit under the early safety car - a call that detonated Oscar Piastri's dominant weekend and handed Max Verstappen and Red Bull another lifeline. Sky Italia's Carlo Vanzini didn't hold back: “If McLaren lose the world championship, it would be the biggest defeat in F1 history.”

Even Dr Helmut Marko mocked the team's much-debated “Papaya Rules” philosophy of equal treatment. “I'm not that familiar with all these papaya rules”, he smiled. “We certainly would have brought in at least one of our drivers.”

Ralf Schumacher was even more scathing. “You don't need to be a doctor to realise you need to pit”, he said. “There are too many errors with a superior car. They're overthinking it. Whoever is behind these strategies, it's about time they looked for a better solution.”

‘Biggest defeat in F1 history?’;

https://www.grandprix.com/news/mclaren-setting-up-biggest-defeat-in-f1-history.html


Mark Hughes: Everything that fed into McLaren's Qatar debacle
Dec 1, 2025
Mark Hughes
The Race

A few weeks ago, Zak Brown and Andrea Stella sat down with Sky Sports F1 to talk about the complex dynamics of the three-way fight for the 2025 Formula 1 drivers' title, when two of those involved drivers are in McLarens. "I'd rather Max Verstappen win the title than favour Lando or Oscar," said Brown.

On a warm Qatar evening, after Verstappen took his seventh grand prix victory of the season through a McLaren pitwall decision to leave race-leading Oscar Piastri and third-place Lando Norris out as everyone else pitted - bringing the Red Bull driver 12 points short of Norris going into next weekend's Abu Dhabi season finale - Stella acknowledged the following:

"The misjudgement is something we will have to review internally. We'll have to assess for instance whether there was a certain bias in the way we were thinking that led us as a group to think that not necessarily all cars would have pitted. There can be some biases in the way that you think."

‘Debacle’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/mark-hughes-everything-that-fed-into-mclarens-qatar-debacle/


Not McLaren's finest day, says Norris as lead cut to 12 points
November 30, 2025
The Straits Times

Four-times world champion Verstappen is now second in the standings, 12 points off the lead, but Norris would have been champion had he won. He still will be if he finishes at least third at Yas Marina, regardless of where his rivals end up. "It is not our greatest day, it is not our greatest weekend," the 26-year-old told reporters.

"But I don’t know if anyone saw the run of results I had before? They were great. I put myself in this position and I am still happy. It was not my finest day in terms of driving and putting things together. That is life. Everyone has bad weekends. I take it on the chin, we all take it on the chin, and we will see what we can do next weekend."

“That is life”;

https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/formula-one/not-mclarens-finest-day-says-norris-as-lead-cut-to-12-points

[Fortitude]

Sainz casts verdict after claiming surprise podium in Qatar GP.
“I’m so happy, so proud of the whole team and of what we’ve achieved today.” - Carlos Sainz
30 Nov 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Carlos Sainz expressed his excitement over Williams’ strong performance after claiming a podium finish at the Qatar Grand Prix. “I’m so happy, so proud of the whole team and of what we’ve achieved today.” - Carlos Sainz. He also praised Williams for their flawless execution on race day, from pace to strategy. “We nailed the race pace. I was super quick—much quicker than expected. We nailed the strategy, the tyre management, the start, the defending, and overall race management—and that brought us an unexpected podium, so I couldn’t be more proud," he added.

Sainz highlighted how the team maximised the few opportunities available in the race. “We got everything right today. We had a tough first half of the season when things didn’t come together, but we improved in so many areas over the year. Today, there were a few opportunities out there to grab, and we seized every single one by executing a perfect race.”

Reflecting on his elation at securing the podium. “I’m over the moon with this podium because I absolutely didn’t expect it,” he concluded. The podium for Sainz marked his third since his move to the Williams team, after claim third place in the race in Azerbaijan and another third place in the third place in US Grand Prix Sprint.

“Over the moon”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/sainz-casts-verdict-after-claiming-surprise-podium-in-qatar-gp


How a Williams experiment led to ‘very strong’ F1 Qatar GP qualifying for Carlos Sainz
30 Nov 2025
Tiana Soans
Motorsport Week

Following a difficult outing in Budapest, Sainz remained adamant that the team could and would improve. “Yeah, I’ve been pushing hard since Budapest,” Sainz explained. “We had a very off weekend at this kind of track corner, to say let’s make sure we use this year as a learning and try something in Qatar, because in Qatar in theory we should suffer, it should be a very tricky weekend for us.”

The Spaniard brought his own simulator-tested ideas to the table, while the team contributed additional concepts. “So let’s make sure we put a plan together, we test,” he said. “I had some ideas in the simulator that I wanted to test. The team came up with other ideas, we put them all together, we went to the simulator, we tested the car, and that gave us what we believe was maybe potentially a good baseline to start the weekend and give it a bit of a go.”

From Friday’s free practice session, the progress was clear. Sainz said, “And right from the get-go it was working well this weekend and it has given us a good understanding, good learnings and confidence because as a team it’s important to do these sort of tests and get them to work.”

“We put them all together”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/11/30/how-a-sainz-williams-qatar-experiment-led-to-a-strong-qualifying/


Sainz: How a brutal race was the key to Williams' Qatar GP podium
1 Dec 2025
Drew Murphy
GPblog.com

Carlos Sainz revealed how a rollercoaster Qatar Grand Prix, full of forced pit stops, helped him earn his second podium of the season. "Right from the get-go in practice, the car was a lot better than expected, a lot more competitive." - Carlos Sainz. Sainz’s hot start: Beginning the race from P7 on the grid, the Spaniard quickly improved on the opening lap as Isack Hadjar and George Russell lost positions.

Williams then made the correct call to bring him into the pits during the safety car period, and because of Kimi Antonelli's slow getaway, Sainz pushed further up the grid. Due to the Lusail International Circuit being notoriously difficult to overtake, Sainz was able to maintain his brilliant position. Proud of his team: Speaking to the media, post-race, he said: "I think it’s my proudest day in Williams.”

He was asked to explain the turnaround from previously stating Qatar would be his most difficult weekend of the season, to finishing P3. “I think it's obviously partly due to—or mainly due to—the hard work I think everyone's done trying to prepare this race after the very difficult weekend we had in Budapest. Which is kind of this long, medium-speed combined corners that we always seem to be very, very weak. We put together a plan with the team to try some different things in the simulator and in the factory to try and switch on the car for these kinds of tracks.”

"My proudest day in Williams”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/sainz-how-a-brutal-race-was-the-key-to-williams-qatar-gp-podium


Carlos Sainz reveals how Williams defied internal odds to score shock F1 Qatar GP podium
2 Dec 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Sainz explains difference between Baku and Qatar podiums. “It feels different,” he said. “Baku was a bit of a relief because I’d had such a difficult 10 races. I was very quick in the first few races, but always things happening to me. No results coming my way. One of those seasons. I think in the career of an F1 driver, you always have years where, for some reason, things don’t come your way.”

“Doesn’t matter if it’s luck, racing incidents, whatever. It just never comes together. But Baku was a relief – as soon as I got a chance to fight for a podium, I took it, and I gave the team the podium that I felt we needed and we deserved. And here, it’s more a combination of hard work and understanding. I’m extremely proud of the team because we’ve also struggled a bit at the beginning of the year with race execution, team calls, quali execution. And this weekend, everyone’s done a perfect job. Also, the pitstops were perfect. Everyone was perfect, and it’s exactly what we all needed.”

“Perfect job”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/12/01/carlos-sainz-reveals-how-williams-defied-internal-odds-to-score-surprise-f1-qatar-gp-podium/


Carlos Sainz reveals “something broke” late on as Williams seal eight-year high
30 Nov 2025
Connor McDonagh
Crash.Net

Sainz hinted over team radio that he had encountered an issue with his car. Explaining his final 10 laps, Sainz described a dramatic shift in his car’s handling. “10 laps to go I decided to push flat-out because we were saving the tyres to keep Antonelli at bay,” he explained.

“Once they told me Lando was going to pass Antonelli, I was like ‘we need to open the gap to Lando as much as possible’ to see if they get into a fight. Five laps to go, something broke in my car, in the front-end. I don’t know if a piece of front wing fell off or something on the tyre. I lost massive front-end in the high-speed and medium-speed.”

“Turning right, actually on the straights, the steering wheel was like this and turning right it wouldn’t turn. Turning left would be fine. Lando caught up on me in the last two laps quite a bit, losing 0.5s of race pace. To be honest, today was controlled but at the same time pushing because I was around cars that were much quicker than me today.”

“Five laps to go, something broke in my car”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1087696/1/carlos-sainz-reveals-something-broke-late-williams-seal-eight-year-high


Sainz grabs brilliant podium for Williams in Qatar despite late scare
01/12/2025
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Despite how assured Sainz looked from trackside, the final laps were far more dramatic inside the cockpit. With ten laps to go... ...something suddenly went wrong. “I don’t know if a piece of front wing fell off or something on the tyre. I lost massive front-end in the high-speed and medium-speed. Turning right, actually on the straights, the steering wheel was like this and turning right it wouldn’t turn.”

With a car refusing to steer properly to the right and Norris closing rapidly, Sainz somehow held firm. The McLaren made it into DRS range on the final lap, but the Williams driver’s sheer commitment – and his earlier racecraft – proved untouchable. He crossed the line to secure a joyous and hard-earned third place, his first podium since Baku and one of the most dramatic of his Williams tenure.

Sainz’s podium didn’t just energize the team – it cemented a major achievement. Williams is now guaranteed fifth in the Constructors’ Championship with one round still to go, their best seasonal result since 2017. The Spaniard also etched his own mark in the team’s recent history, becoming the first Williams driver since Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas in 2015 to take multiple podiums in a single year.

‘Williams driver’s sheer commitment’;

https://f1i.com/news/555126-sainz-grabs-brilliant-podium-for-williams-in-qatar-despite-late-scare.html


Sainz secures fifth place for Williams in constructors' standings
Dec 01, 2025
The Straits Times

Carlos Sainz expected Qatar to be his hardest race of the year and ended up celebrating a surprise second podium of the season that secured fifth place in the championship for his resurgent Williams team. The Spaniard has now taken twice as many top three placings in 2025 as Lewis Hamilton, the seven-times world champion who replaced him at Ferrari in January and has yet to finish higher than fourth.

"I was proud of Carlos and the team when we got our first podium in Baku," said team boss James Vowles. "The second is a dream come true, but perhaps more importantly at a track that was almost our worst last year. And we've come back, we've reinvented ourselves and the result is there for everyone to see."

‘The Spaniard has now taken twice as many top three placings in 2025 as Lewis Hamilton’;

https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/formula-one/sainz-secures-fifth-place-for-williams-in-constructors-standings

[Fortitude]

Lewis Hamilton has ‘so many notes’ for Ferrari in ‘no reason couldn’t fix’ claim.
“It definitely has been the most challenging year both in and out of the car,” he said. “I’ve got so many notes in terms of things we need to improve on.”
03 Dec 2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Ferrari has a long list of “notes” from Lewis Hamilton on how the team can improve. Ferrari is now consigned to fourth in the Constructors’ Championship. F1 2025 has not been the season which Ferrari had hoped for, the ambitions of a title challenge not coming close to fruition. However, Hamilton is “hopeful” for progress, as he sees nothing in his “notes” that Ferrari would be incapable of triggering to make progress.

“It definitely has been the most challenging year both in and out of the car,” he said. “I’ve got so many notes in terms of things we need to improve on. Time will tell whether or not we act on those things and we keep hold of the things that are good and change the things that are not – and there’s plenty of those. There’s literally no reason why we couldn’t fix those if we just put those into action. I’m hopeful for us making progress.”

‘So many notes’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lewis-hamilton-so-many-notes-for-ferrari-to-improve


Enzo Ferrari’s son issues ‘guarantee’ to Lewis Hamilton after dismal Qatar Grand Prix weekend
2 December 2025
Tyler Rowlinson
F1 Oversteer

Piero Ferrari issues ‘guarantee’ to Lewis Hamilton that Ferrari will improve after torrid Qatar Grand Prix. He told RMC Motori: “After a race like this, there is little to say. It’s a blow and a punch in the stomach. It hurts to see Ferrari like this, but I console myself with the thought that there is still one race left, the last of the season, and then we can put this championship behind us. In the history of Ferrari, we have had ups and downs; that’s what happens in racing.”

“It doesn’t console me, but we have had worse moments and we have always managed to bounce back. I remember 1973 and the 1975 world championships after a growing season in 1974, the crisis of the 1990s and the subsequent triumphs. “It’s part of racing, so I’m confident we’ll recover. We have some things that haven’t worked, but I can guarantee that at Maranello we also have many other things that do work.”

“The hard part is putting them all together to get the most out of them, and I’m sure we’ll do that. I have faith in the good things we have at home, and as a fan, I hope we can put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Ferrari will return to winning ways, we will certainly not give up, I know the excellence we have at our disposal.”

‘Guarantee’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/enzo-ferraris-son-issues-guarantee-to-lewis-hamilton-after-dismal-qatar-grand-prix-weekend/


Hamilton’s Ferrari Warning: Fix This, Or Else
December 3, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Headline: Hamilton’s bruising Ferrari debut ends with a thick notebook — and a warning. Lewis Hamilton didn’t come to Maranello for a season like this. One to go in 2025, and Ferrari is already locked to fourth in the Constructors’ standings, winless, and running out of ways to sugar-coat a campaign that never got off the ground. Hamilton’s response? A stack of notes big enough to wedge under a wobbly simulator. And a pointed message: there’s no reason these can’t be actioned.

“It’s definitely been the most challenging year both in and out of the car,” he said after a scrappy Las Vegas–Qatar double that summed up Ferrari’s fade. “I’ve got so many notes in terms of things we need to improve. Time will tell whether we act on those things… There’s literally no reason why we couldn’t fix those if we just put those into action. I’m hopeful for us making progress.” Hopeful, but hardly blind to reality. The last three rounds brought only 20 points for Ferrari across both cars, and the drop-off has been stark. Hamilton’s qualifying form deserted him at exactly the wrong time — last on the grid in Vegas, then a double Q1 exit in Qatar as set-up experiments sent the weekend sideways.

He started the Sprint from the pit lane and the Grand Prix from P17, scrapping to 12th at the flag and finishing 12 seconds behind Alex Albon’s Williams. The contrast hurt. Carlos Sainz, now leading Williams’ resurgence, logged his second podium of the year in Lusail. Hamilton admitted it “highlighted just how developed everybody else is and how undeveloped we are at this point of the year,” adding that he was nearly swallowed by the Stake and couldn’t live with the Williams on race pace. When a car in blue takes a trophy and Ferrari leaves with a shrug, Maranello takes notice.

‘A thick notebook — and a warning’:

https://fastestlap.com/news/hamiltons-ferrari-warning-fix-this-or-else/


Jean Alesi slams Fred Vasseur’s ‘embarrassing’ excuse for Lewis Hamilton’s dire first Ferrari season
2 December 2025
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Jean Alesi slams Fred Vasseur’s ‘very weak excuse’ that Ferrari focusing on 2026 ruined 2025. Having also failed to get a single Grand Prix podium during the first 23 rounds, Hamilton has called 2025 his “worst season ever” in F1. The seven-time champion has never failed to take a rostrum before, and he will set his worst total under the points system introduced in 2010.

Team principal Fred Vasseur suggested at the Qatar Grand Prix that Ferrari have struggled in 2025 as they shifted their development focus onto the 2026 F1 regulations back in April. Yet Jean Alesi thinks Vasseur offered a “very weak” excuse for the misery Ferrari have produced. “Ferrari’s attitude makes me think of an embarrassing attempt to protect this failure,” Alesi told Corriere della Sera, via quotes by Fanpage. He added: “Saying that all development was interrupted to prepare for next year’s car seems like a very weak excuse.”

‘Embarrassing’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/jean-alesi-slams-fred-vasseurs-embarrassing-excuse-for-lewis-hamiltons-dire-first-ferrari-season/


Lewis Hamilton’s ‘only hope’ identified after atrocious F1 season
Martin Brundle assesses a dismal weekend for Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton.
02 Dec 2025
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Martin Brundle believes Lewis Hamilton’s “only hope now” is that Ferrari ace the 2026 F1 regulation shake-up. “Ferrari had a miserable weekend which team boss Fred Vasseur has attributed to the very high tyre pressures mentioned earlier,” Brundle wrote in his latest Sky column.

“They lacked rear grip and general handling balance and are now confined to fourth in the Constructors' championship behind McLaren, Mercedes, and Red Bull. Charles Leclerc appeared to be fighting his car every corner of every lap to secure eighth place and Lewis Hamilton looked equally challenged and too had many adventures for an anonymous 12th place.”

“It's very difficult times for the Scuderia and particularly Lewis, who can only hope now that Ferrari do a great job on the massive 2026 regulation changes if he's going to add to any of the statistic tables in a positive way. Antonelli is just two points behind Hamilton in the championship, the man he replaced at Mercedes, and despite nine races in the wilderness it will sum up Lewis's year if the Italian teenager beats him to sixth in the championship.”

“Challenged and too had many adventures”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1087742/1/lewis-hamiltons-only-hope-identified-after-atrocious-f1-season


Lewis Hamilton’s priceless response to Max Verstappen’s Qatar F1 win
Lewis Hamilton reacts to the latest twist in the 2025 F1 title race.
02 Dec 2025
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Seven-time world champion Hamilton endured another miserable race for Ferrari, finishing a lowly 12th. Afterwards, he admitted he had no idea who had won, and assumed Piastri had. “How's Max 12 behind now?” Hamilton asked upon being told the championship picture. “Max won? Oh, shoot, I didn't know, I had no idea. Wow, holy sh*t. No, no, I thought Piastri won, I don't know.”

When informed that Norris had only finished fourth, Hamilton responded: “Oh, really? Lando was fourth? Where’s Piastri?” Hamilton was then informed that Piastri finished second ahead of Carlos Sainz’s Williams. "So Oscar's third now [in the championship]?” Hamilton added. “Well that’s exciting! Goes right to the wire!”

Hamilton praised the job Verstappen has done this year to remain in the hunt, having remarkably reduced what was a 104-point deficit after the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August. “Well, we all know Max does a great job,” Hamilton said. “I think he's got a phenomenal team behind him, which there's no denying they've had the best car over the last four years. And maybe less so at the beginning of this year, but they somehow came back. He's obviously got a great car, but he does an amazing job with it, so I can't fault him.”

‘Priceless response’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1087735/1/lewis-hamiltons-priceless-response-max-verstappens-qatar-f1-win

[Fortitude]

Verstappen is only one McLaren blunder away from his fifth title.
Things keep going wrong at McLaren, where the first signs of championship pressure seem to be emerging.
1 Dec 2025
Tim Kraaij
GPblog.com

After the Qatar Grand Prix, Max Verstappen is just one slice of luck away from wrapping up his fifth world title. Even a seemingly hopeless position in Qatar ended up breaking his way. After qualifying for the GP in Qatar, the mood was gloomy. Although a pole position for Oscar Piastri was good news for the world title fight, a third place for Max Verstappen wasn’t enough to truly have hope for the result the Dutchman needed.

Although Verstappen saw the gap to Lando Norris shrink dramatically due to the disqualification of both McLarens in Las Vegas, the 24-point deficit was still large enough that Verstappen could already be eliminated from title contention in Qatar. After qualifying behind both McLarens, the title fight seemed over for Max.

But 24 hours later, the mood in the paddock had completely flipped. After yet another major blunder from McLaren, it was Verstappen who seized the victory and suddenly sits second in the championship. The gap to Norris is now just 12 points, leaving everything to fight for in Abu Dhabi.

‘Championship pressure seem(s) to be emerging’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/features/verstappen-is-only-one-mclaren-blunder-away-from-his-fifth-title


Verstappen now McLaren’s worst nightmare: ‘Call me Chucky’
30/11/2025
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

In the post-race press conference, Verstappen laughed off Brown’s comments — and even leaned into the metaphor. “You can call me Chucky,” he laughed, the Dutchman referencing the demonic ‘Child’s Play’ character. "I don’t know, I mean I saw it as well, I thought it was quite funny. From my side I just focus on myself, you know…”

“I know that when I go in the car, I just try to do the best like I guess everyone does. That’s the only thing that I can control, right? And that’s the only thing that I focus on. I'm a lot more relaxed now,” he said. “I know that I'm 12 points down. I go in there with just positive energy, I try everything I can but at the same time if I don't win it, I still know that I had an amazing season. So it doesn't really matter. It takes a lot of the pressure off. I'm just out there having a good time like I had today.

“I also started today with 'oh, we'll see how it goes.' I know that when I sit in the car I will always maximise everything I can and that's what I'll try to do also in Abu Dhabi. But at the same time, I also know that we need to rely on probably some external factors to have a go at it. But a race like today shows that we think it's going to be boring and straightforward. It's not, so I'm hoping that Abu Dhabi is going to be similar.”

‘McLaren’s worst nightmare’;

https://f1i.com/news/555027-verstappen-now-mclarens-worst-nightmare-call-me-chucky.html


[B]Verstappen lands ‘another one’ McLaren quip after Qatar GP strategy error
30 Nov 2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Earlier in the race weekend, Verstappen had suggested that he was only still in the title picture due to “other people’s failures”. Norris had responded by stating his “respect” for Verstappen, but added: “Max generally has a good clue about a lot of things. But, there’s also a lot of things he doesn’t have much of a clue about.” He suggested that “Red Bull’s way of going about things is this kind of aggressive nature and, yeah, just talking nonsense a lot of the time.”

Following his victory, Verstappen was asked whether McLaren’s Qatar strategy blooper supported his claim. “Another one, yeah,” he responded. “When they called me in, I had to look and remember that we were going into Lap 7. So I was like, ‘Okay, now we can go to the end,'” said Verstappen. “So then, yeah, I was a bit surprised once I did the whole pit stop, because, I mean, when they call you in, you’re focused on the box and making sure you’re not in trouble with releasing and whatever.”

“So when I came out of the pits, I was like, ‘Okay, I think this is a very good opportunity now for us to win the race.'” Asked if he thought, at that moment, that this was his race to lose, Verstappen replied: “I thought at that moment that there was a big chance of winning it, yeah. I don’t think about losing. That’s not in my head. I think about how to win.”

“Another one, yeah”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/max-verstappen-another-one-mclaren-error-quip-qatar-gp


‘Call me Chucky’: Max Verstappen revels in McLaren’s Qatar Grand Prix horror show
30 Nov 2025
The Straits Times

Formula One champion Max Verstappen revelled in McLaren’s strategy horror show at the Qatar Grand Prix on Nov 30 as the Red Bull driver won again, days after the team’s boss compared him to a movie monster who keeps on coming back. Verstappen passed Norris at the start and pitted from second on Lap 7 when the safety car was deployed, while the McLarens stayed out and paid the price... “We should have followed him in, no? If we knew the car in front was staying out?“ asked Norris on team radio. Norris would have won his maiden F1 crown with victory in Qatar.

That rocketed Verstappen up to second in the championship, 12 points behind Norris with only the Abu Dhabi finale remaining and four ahead of Piastri. At the end of August, the Dutch driver had been 104 points off Piastri’s lead. “I didn’t expect to win today, that’s for sure,” Verstappen told Sky Sports. “Looking at pure pace, we were not on the same level as McLaren, but we made the right call, as most of the grid did, in boxing under the safety car. That almost gives you a free pit stop and that made the race for me. For sure, that call at the pit stop made me win the race today.”

Red Bull reinforced that feeling by sending Hannah Schmitz, the team’s principal strategy engineer, up to the podium to share the 28-year-old Verstappen’s fizzy celebrations under the floodlights. Verstappen said he did not think McLaren had messed up by trying to be fair to both drivers, not wanting to disadvantage one over the other in the title battle if they had double-stacked them at a pit stop, but just made a wrong call. “It was about missing the whole pit-stop opportunity,” he said. “On pure pace they are faster, but as it showed today again, anything is possible.”

‘Red Bull reinforced that feeling by sending Hannah Schmitz, the team’s principal strategy engineer, up to the podium’;

https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/formula-one/call-me-chucky-verstappen-revels-in-mclarens-qatar-horror-show


Abu Dhabi F1 finale: History haunts McLaren, beckons for Verstappen
Dec 3, 2025
Laurence Edmondson
ESPN.co.uk

Strange things often happen when a Formula 1 title fight goes down to the final race of the season. Nerves ramp up, past form counts for nothing, and even the rules of the game -- such as how a race director implements the safety car procedure -- can get lost in the madness ... just ask Lewis Hamilton.

Logical advantages -- such as holding a 12-point margin at the top of the championship, like Lando Norris has over Max Verstappen -- can hold little comfort when you qualify out of position and line up on the grid needing to make up places to secure the title. Each setup decision over a weekend can snowball in the wrong direction or you could, simply, become the unwitting victim of someone else's accident, safety car or pit strategy gamble during the race.

And when there's more than two protagonists in the running -- like there is this year with Norris, Verstappen and Oscar Piastri all still mathematically in contention -- it's not unheard of for the outsider to emerge victorious. Minimizing pressure can sometimes be the easiest way to maximizing lap time. To borrow a phrase from legendary commentator Murray Walker: "Anything can happen in Formula 1, and it usually does."

‘Nerves ramp up, past form counts for nothing, and even the rules of the game’;

https://www.espn.co.uk/racing/f1/story/_/id/47180531/abu-dhabi-f1-finale-history-haunts-mclaren-beckons-max-verstappen


Don’t Blink: Norris, Verstappen, Piastri Decide It All
December 3, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Headline: Norris unmoved as Verstappen closes in: “He’s been the threat all year” Lando Norris walks into Yas Marina with a 12-point cushion and a clear conscience. Max Verstappen is close enough to make it interesting, Oscar Piastri is still in the fight, and McLaren’s title leader insists nothing changes for the finale. “We’ve treated Max like the threat since day one,” Norris said in Qatar, keeping his voice flat and his eyes on the bigger picture.

“Every race, every briefing — we know what he and Red Bull can do. So there’s no reason to act differently now.” It’s not posturing. Even when Verstappen looked miles back — 104 points off then-leader Piastri after the Dutch Grand Prix — McLaren never bought into the gap. They know how a championship unravels, and how quickly Verstappen tidies it back up. Over the final third of the season, the reigning champion has dragged himself into range and arrives in Abu Dhabi with a shot at a fifth consecutive title.

Norris can kill the suspense with a podium on Sunday. That’s the cleanest line through this. Verstappen’s win last time out tightened the screws, but it didn’t flip the narrative: the title is still Norris’s to lose. Verstappen, four points ahead of Piastri, must do what he usually does at Yas Marina — qualify up front, control the tempo, and pray McLaren blinks.

“We’ve treated Max like the threat since day one.. Every race, every briefing”;

https://fastestlap.com/news/dont-blink-norris-verstappen-piastri-decide-it-all/

[Fortitude]

Australian politician raises Oscar Piastri-McLaren F1 title 'conspiracy'.
One Australian politician has raised the idea that McLaren is "biased" against Oscar Piastri in the F1 title fight.
3 December 2025
Jake Nichol
RacingNews365

In a committee meeting of the Australian Senate Rural, Regional Affairs, and Transportation Legislation Committee, Canavan asked secretary Jim Betts if McLaren "is biased" and "costing" Piastri the title.

"It’s been a bit of a frustrating night for some Australians,” said Canavan, a National Party senator for Queensland. "I don’t know who to ask this to, but you deal with transport and cars. So do you think McLaren is biased against Oscar Piastri and costing him the world championship?"

The hearing room then erupted into laughter as Betts tried his best not to answer the question, with Regional Affairs minister Anthony Chisholm then being asked. "I definitely think he's copped some raw decisions this year," came the reply.

‘Canavan asked secretary Jim Betts if McLaren "is biased" and "costing" Piastri the title’;

https://racingnews365.com/australian-politician-raises-oscar-piastri-mclaren-f1-title-conspiracy


Piastri conspiracy theory reaches parliament
The debate over whether McLaren has shown bias against Oscar Piastri has jumped from social media threads to the floors of parliament.
3 Dec 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

“It’s been a bit of a frustrating night for some Australians,” Canavan said as he raised the Qatar Grand Prix blunder that saw Piastri miss out on victory. “I don’t know who to ask this to, but you deal with transport and cars. So do you think McLaren is biased against Oscar Piastri and costing him the world championship?”

Betts avoided committing to an answer, prompting Canavan to turn to Regional Affairs Assistant Minister Anthony Chisholm. “I definitely think he’s copped some raw decisions this year,” Chisholm replied, noting his daughter, now “obsessed with F1,” would be “very upset when she gets up this morning.”

The exchange, delivered with clear humour, highlighted how strongly some fans believe Piastri has been disadvantaged in McLaren’s title fight. Those theories gained traction after Qatar, where McLaren’s decision not to pit Piastri and Norris under an early Safety Car allowed Max Verstappen to claim a victory Piastri had appeared set to convert from pole.

‘The floors of parliament’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-oscar-piastri-conspiracy-theory-parliament-discussion-mclaren-favouritism-bias-claims/


‘Looking for his crew’: McLaren questioned as Piastri fan footage raises eyebrows
Piastri in pit lane, where is McLaren?
December 3rd, 2025
Tyson Otto from News.com.au
Fox Sports (Australia)

Oscar Piastri’s team has come into question after fan footage showed Piastri getting congratulated by the pit crew of a rival team following Monday morning’s dramatic Qatar Grand Prix. McLaren engineers and officials continue to come under fire from F1 commentators after the team’s race strategy blew up in its face at the Lusail circuit.

The way the race unfolded poured fuel on speculation that McLaren has a favouritism for British driver Norris. Such a conclusion could be drawn after fan footage of Piastri showed a lack of McLaren staff when he parked his MCL39 in parc ferme following the race. An elated Verstappen climbed out of his Red Bull and performed a swan dive into the arms of waiting team members as the team celebrated the unlikely win. There appeared to be at least 10 Red Bull team members roaring and first-pumping.

Williams driver Carlos Sainz, who recorded just his second podium with the team, was celebrating wildly with up to 20 members of the team screaming behind the fence. Piastri, meanwhile, looked far lonelier following the disappointing result. The 24-year-old cut a dejected figure as he was seen walking to the fence for a brief stop before walking over and congratulating Verstappen and Sainz. Footage showed Piastri getting congratulated by members of the Williams team, with his own crew not visible on the live Fox Sports broadcast.

‘Looking for his crew’;

https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport/f1-2025-oscar-piastri-fan-footage-after-qatar-grand-prix-mclaren-red-bull-williams-video/news-story/b7a2ad4281695621af9d570704ed96cc


Oscar Piastri set for critical Abu Dhabi disadvantage as McLaren replacement named
Oscar Piastri has no choice but to sit out Free Practice 1 at the title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
3 December 2025
Jake Nichol
RacingNews365

McLaren has confirmed that Pato O'Ward is to deputise for Oscar Piastri in Free Practice 1 at the title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Piastri has no choice but to miss the opening 60 minutes of practice at Yas Marina, as he has only filled one of the two mandatory slots for his car to be handed over to a rookie driver.

For Piastri to be crowned champion, he must finish in the top two. If he wins, he moves to 417 points, so he requires Norris to be sixth (eight points) or lower, with Verstappen's result irrelevant. If Piastri is second, he moves to 410 points, meaning Norris must be 10th or lower (one point), with Verstappen fourth or lower (12 points).

‘Critical Abu Dhabi disadvantage’;

https://racingnews365.com/oscar-piastri-set-for-critical-abu-dhabi-disadvantage-as-mclaren-replacement-named


‘Worst ever seen’: Insiders lift lid on ‘disgusting’ Piastri treatment... as ex-F1 champ makes big claim
Piastri in pit lane, where is McLaren?
December 4th, 2025
Fox Motorsport from Fox Sports
Fox Sports (Australia)

An F1 insider has lifted the lid on the perceived bias against Oscar Piastri in an explosive report, while a former F1 world champion believes all the outside noise is starting to get to the Australian. Villeneuve even suggested that if Piastri was in a position where he was asked to listen to team orders he may not be so willing to do so this time around with the title on the line. “Will Piastri help Norris win the championship if he can’t? No, because until the last lap Piastri could still win the championship,” Villeneuve said. “On the last lap, both Max and Norris could blow an engine.”

Villeneuve’s comments came as a report from CODE Sports lifted the lid on the tense situation at McLaren, including one sight at last weekend’s Qatar Prix that didn’t go unnoticed. While McLaren’s botched strategy cost Piastri a shot at the win, he still was able to get onto the podium in second place. However, Piastri was joined by just two members of the McLaren crew in contrast to the dozens that are usually in attendance. According to the CODE Sports report, Piastri noticed it too and words were exchanged behind closed doors.

One veteran UK reporter told the publication that Piastri’s mistreatment was the worst he’d ever seen towards a top driver, while a F1 insider called the bias against the Australian “unquestionable”. “It’s disgusting to see what’s happening. It’s like he’s fighting with one arm tied behind his back,” the insider said. “He’s constantly being undermined by the team.”

'Insiders lift lid on ‘disgusting’ Piastri treatment...';

https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport/formula-one/f1-2025-inside-the-oscar-piastri-and-lando-norris-bias-claims-drivers-championship-standings-before-abu-dhabi-grand-prix/news-story/1c7466fb4cc4620d2e02e1edc99ff5b7

[Fortitude]

Bernie Ecclestone lists five reasons why Lando Norris will lose the 2025 F1 title to Max Verstappen.
“Lando is fine, a really good driver, but he is over-confident, too cocky, believing his own publicity, but he gets nervous at crunch moments and can’t quite deliver the way Max can when the pressure is on.”
4 December 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

McLaren are trying to protect Norris at all costs, but Bernie Ecclestone has given a variety of reasons why he thinks Verstappen is going to secure a fifth consecutive title in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. Ecclestone was speaking to the Daily Mail ahead of another season finale, and asked who he thinks will win the championship.

He said: “I still believe Max will do it. He deserves it. I used to say Alain Prost was the best driver of all time, doing it on his own without a radio to the pit wall telling him what to do, but I think Max is the best I have known. He stands alone.”

‘McLaren have been very helpful to Lando over Oscar, supporting him over the other guy, such as changing them around in Monza after Lando had a bad pit stop, and that way of working may yet be good for them, I don’t know. It’s not what I would have done. A bad pit stop is part of racing. You have to accept it, not engineer it.”

‘Nervous at crunch moments’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/bernie-ecclestone-lists-five-reasons-why-lando-norris-will-lose-the-2025-f1-title-to-max-verstappen/


Bernie Ecclestone questions “too cocky” Lando Norris in 2025 F1 title fight
Bernie Ecclestone has his say on the 2025 F1 title race
04 Dec 2025
Connor McDonagh
Crash.Net

Former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone believes Max Verstappen will seal the championship in Abu Dhabi, casting doubt over Lando Norris’ ability to deliver under pressure. The 95-year-old has never been shy about giving strong opinions on F1. Giving his view on the 2025 title fight, Ecclestone said Verstappen “deserves” the championship and criticised Norris for being “over confidence” and “too cocky”.

“Too cocky”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1087795/1/bernie-ecclestone-questions-too-cocky-lando-norris-2025-f1-title-fight


Bernie Ecclestone reveals why he believes Max Verstappen will pip 'cocky' Lando Norris to the title this weekend
3 December 2025
JONATHAN MCEVOY
MailOnline

Formula One’s Godfather Bernie Ecclestone has declared that Max Verstappen will spoil the dreams of a ‘cocky’ Lando Norris, acclaiming the Dutchman as the best driver the sport has ever known. ‘I still believe Max will do it. He deserves it. I used to say Alain Prost was the best driver of all time, doing it on his own without a radio to the pit wall telling him what to do, but I think Max is the best I have known. He stands alone.’

‘Lando is fine, a really good driver, but he is over-confident, too cocky, believing his own publicity, but he gets nervous at crunch moments and can’t quite deliver the way Max can when the pressure is on.” In a sign of his heightened anxiety, however, Norris has reaaranged his schedule by pulling out of his customary briefing with the British press for the first time in his 152 races, to concentrate on the task in hand.

‘In a sign of his heightened anxiety’;

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-15350633/Bernie-Ecclestone-reveals-Max-Verstappen-pip-Lando-Norris.html


Sainz: Norris’s Title to Lose—Unless Yas Marina Strikes
December 4, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Carlos Sainz backs Norris for title — with a pointed warning about Yas Marina. Carlos Sainz thinks Lando Norris has the title right where he wants it — but he’s not pretending a Sunday podium at Yas Marina is ever straightforward, even in a McLaren.

The Williams driver, who shared a garage (and a fair bit of golf) with Norris at McLaren in 2019–20, expects the Abu Dhabi layout to play to his former teammate’s strengths as this three way championship fight lands on the final square. Norris arrives 12 points clear of Max Verstappen with Oscar Piastri four further back; finish on the podium and the Briton can lock up his first world title regardless of what the others do.

“I’ll be watching very closely,” Sainz said in Abu Dhabi. “Everyone knows how well I get on with Lando — I wish him the best possible outcome. I also have a lot of respect for Max and Oscar. But if the finale had to be anywhere for Lando, it’s here.”

‘Lando Norris has the title right where he wants it’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/sainz-norriss-title-to-lose-unless-yas-marina-strikes/


Norris faces nerve-shredding three-way scrap to claim maiden title
December 4, 2025
France 24

Abu Dhabi (AFP) – Lando Norris will battle his own nerves as much as his rivals' speed as he bids to end Max Verstappen's four-year reign as F1 world champion in Sunday's season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

After two weekends of self-inflicted setbacks, championship leader Norris and his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri need an error-free event to ensure Red Bull's number one cannot complete a spectacular end-of-season recovery in glorious style. On paper, it is Norris's title to lose, but history – recent and past – shows anything can happen when the stakes are at their highest.

In 2010, for example, Ferrari's two-time champion Fernando Alonso arrived with an eight-point lead on Red Bull's Mark Webber with his team-mate Sebastian Vettel 15 adrift in third ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton. Vettel took pole position and won, Hamilton was second and Alonso and Webber seventh and eighth.

‘Nerve-shredding three-way scrap’;

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20251204-norris-faces-nerve-shredding-three-way-scrap-to-claim-maiden-title


Norris take note: The F1 points leader usually loses three-way title fights
2025 Qatar Grand Prix stats and facts
3rd December 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

No driver in Norris’s situation has won the title in the last 50 years, though this of course reflects on the scarcity of championship deciders involving more than two drivers:
Year Champion Position before final race Rivals
1950 Giuseppe Farina 3rd Juan Manuel Fangio, Luigi Fagioli

1959 Jack Brabham 1st Stirling Moss, Tony Brooks

1964 John Surtees 2nd Graham Hill, Jim Clark

1968 Graham Hill 1st Jackie Stewart, Denny Hulme

1974 Emerson Fittipaldi 1st Clay Regazzoni, Jody Scheckter

1981 Nelson Piquet 2nd Carlos Reutemann, Jacques Laffite

1983 Nelson Piquet 2nd Alain Prost, Rene Arnoux

1986 Alain Prost 2nd Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet

2007 Kimi Raikkonen 3rd Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso

2010 Sebastian Vettel 3rd Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton


‘No driver in Norris’s situation has won the title in the last 50 years’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/12/03/norris-take-note-the-f1-points-leader-usually-loses-three-way-title-fights/


David Croft thinks Oscar Piastri could use controversial tactic to beat Lando Norris at Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
3 December 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

David Croft says Oscar Piastri could back Lando Norris into the pack. McLaren aren’t planning to impose team orders this weekend because both of their drivers can still mathematically win the title. This stance could change in race if Piastri’s hopes disappear entirely.

One pundit has suggested that Piastri will try to ‘trip up’ Norris to show his ‘dissatisfaction’ with the McLaren management. But Croft has no doubt that he will ‘play the team game’ based on a conversation earlier in the season. However, he does think that, if Piastri gets into the lead and Norris is second, the Australian might start lowering his pace, which would push his teammate into the clutches of the cars behind.

“I can see Oscar winning the race, I can see a Lewis Hamilton/Nico Rosberg 2016 scenario, where Oscar doesn’t go quite as fast and might back his teammate up into the pack. That is absolutely acceptable, and I would expect nothing less. But I think Lando will emerge as champion with Oscar winning the race.”

‘Controversial tactic’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/david-croft-thinks-oscar-piastri-could-use-controversial-tactic-to-beat-lando-norris-at-abu-dhabi-grand-prix/

[Fortitude]

F1 - 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Thursday Press Conference Transcript.
04.12.25
FIA (Press Release)

Q: Tell us about your preparations and how you're going to approach the season finale. Lando, perhaps we could start with you.
Lando NORRIS: Sure. Same as every weekend. Nothing changed. Of course, just some reviews of last weekend, like the same after every weekend really—review what went on, what was clearly and obviously not good for us, some of the mistakes we’ve made, and also the less obvious things that we could improve on. But that’s normal post-race understandings and therefore preparations for the next race. But otherwise, nothing does change. I mean, it gets treated the same from everyone inside the team. Just more excitement, I guess, for everyone at the same time. But apart from that, the work and how you approach it all remains the same
Max VERSTAPPEN: Spent some time with my daughter, figured some stuff out for GT3 for next year, figured out some stuff for my sim team as well, planning for next year. So, yeah, just pretty straightforward stuff before arriving here, to be honest.
Oscar PIASTRI: I mean, I wasn’t organising GT3 teams, but I played some padel, and just treated it like normal. Obviously, there’s not that many days in between. Had a marketing day, so that was good fun, and that’s been about it.

Q: (Marina Becker – TV Bandeirantes): I just wanted to know if your parents are here, and some friends, and did you allow them to come, or did you ask them to come?
LN: A mix. I mean, it’s end of season. Every year I invite some of my friends because they’re just as important as the rest in terms of – a lot of my friends support me every weekend, support me every week, cheer for me. I always lean on my friends for advice and help in different moments. So yeah, win or lose, end of the season, it’s always nice to share it with them. But I do that every year, so it’s nothing special from that point of view. And my parents come to many races, and they’re here again because it’s the final one – not because of it being a good one or a bad one or whatever it may be. They come to the final race of the season every time. So, a little mix, but no, I want them to be there because it’s a moment again, win or lose, it’s a moment where I just want to share every bit that I can with my friends, with my family, because it’s also fun for them.
MV: No. Parents are not here. My dad is rallying in Africa. And my mom… Yeah, I guess it was not planned. I also didn’t really plan to be in the title fight till the end. So, yeah, here we are. Yeah, I think after Zandvoort everything was a bit cancelled, I would say. My mom is at home happy with the dogs. So yeah. You can see a lot on TV anyway.
OP: Yeah, my family is here. Kind of similar to Lando in some ways. It’s the last race. I’ve done a lot of racing without any of my family and friends in my career, so it is always nice to have them there. But it doesn’t change the world, let’s say. It is nice, obviously, but I know some people actually prefer it when their parents aren’t there or they don’t have people around. But for me, it is a nice thing.

Q: (Scott Mitchell-Malm – The Race) It’s a question to all three, starting with Max. In terms of dealing with the weight of the occasion—you’ve obviously been here and done it. And compared to 2021 in particular, how are you feeling about it in terms of tension or whatever? Because I think I remember in '21 you said you ended up driving with cramp during the Grand Prix because it was obviously so stressful. And then for the two McLaren drivers—how are you dealing with the pressure?
MV: I’m very relaxed. Nothing to lose, you know? So, I’m just enjoying being here. But for me, it’s not even about being here. I’ve been enjoying the second half of the season, working with the team, how we’ve been able to turn it around from difficult times and really having a debrief after the race, being very disappointed and frustrated with the performances to just enjoying, smiling. Having these wins again is fantastic. So, I just take it – everything here is just a bonus, sitting here fighting for the title. So that’s also what makes it very straightforward for me. We will just try to have a good weekend. But then even then, it’s not really in my control, you know? So we just, yeah, like I said, try to enjoy it.
LN: Similar. I know I’ve obviously not been in this situation before, so pretty different, I guess, for both of us. But at the minute, I feel good. Like, I really don’t think of it at all until you guys ask it all the time. So, it’s trying to avoid you guys as much as possible! But that’s also part of the job. So it’s nothing new. It’s nothing that shocks me. Whatever. I come into the weekend not thinking of it. For the last three days, just playing some golf and being with my mates and having a good time. And I look forward to doing that on Monday, whether I’m hungover or not. So, yeah, really it is the same, and I think it’ll be the same on track as how I’ve been the last few weeks. As much as there’s been pressure the last few weeks, I’ve still felt comfortable and I still feel good in the car. So, just yeah. All good.
OP: Yeah, I’m relaxed. I’ve been on the opposite side of the championship battle in the junior categories, and I know what that felt and it was pretty tough. So, coming into it from, you know, the least to lose out of us three is quite different for me. And I think off the back of Qatar, I’ve got a lot of confidence that I can perform well. Obviously, I need a fair few things to happen this weekend to come out champion, but I’ll just make sure I’m in the right place at the right time and see what happens.

‘Preparations, support, dealing with the weight of the occasion’;

https://www.fia.com/news/f1-2025-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-thursday-press-conference-transcript


Seven things we've learned from first day of F1's Abu Dhabi GP
Dec 4, 2025
The Race

Antonelli reveals Verstappen message after online abuse: "He saw what happened, he wasn't bothered by anything [he saw]," said Antonelli of Verstappen. "He even, like, showed support, so, really-really nice from him. He just said... I cannot really say what he said because it contained some bad words, the message, but it just said 'don't worry about these kind of people, because they're brainless...just focus on the job'." - Valentin Khorounzhiy

McLaren's big team order admission: A perfect weekend for Norris will make it unnecessary, but McLaren has to have those tough conversations with its drivers pre-race in the unlikely - but not impossible - event that team orders are the only thing that can stop Verstappen from stealing away the title. - Josh Suttill.

What rivals make of the title fight: "Abu Dhabi is a Lando track," Sainz said. "He's not lucky but I think he's...It's good for him that I think the final is in Abu Dhabi, which from my experience, being his team mate here, it's one of his best tracks at driving and the win he took last year in front of me still hurts.
Williams team-mate Alex Albon cited Norris's "really impressive" second half of the season, while Leclerc believes "if nothing big happens, it will be Lando".
Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto believes Max Verstappen "deserves the title", having proved he's one of the best drivers in the world this year.

‘Seven things we've learned’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/seven-things-we-learned-from-first-day-of-f1-abu-dhabi-gp/


Charles Leclerc names Ferrari wish to avoid 'quite depressing' F1 send-off
4 Dec 2025
Jake Nichol & Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

Charles Leclerc believes a podium in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix can avoid sending Ferrari into the F1 Christmas break on a "quite depressing" final two races. This is something Leclerc felt was "unrealistic" but that a podium was possible to ensure "happiness" heading into the winter.

"On the one hand, yes, but at the same time, I'm just looking forward to Abu Dhabi to try and finish the season on a more positive note," Leclerc told media when asked by RacingNews365 if he was glad 2025 was nearly over. I'm hoping to give us a little bit more happiness to go into the holidays because it would be quite depressing to go into the holidays after two weekends like [Qatar and Abu Dhabi.”

"That would be very bad, but I just want to get [Abu Dhabi] out of the way, but in a positive way. I just want to do absolutely everything in order to extract whatever is left in our car, and hopefully jump on the podium one last time this year. A win is quite unrealistic, but a podium, I really hope so, but to be honest, after a race [like Qatar], I have very little hope."

“Jump on the podium”;

https://racingnews365.com/charles-leclerc-names-ferrari-wish-to-avoid-quite-depressing-f1-send-off


How did McLaren let the title race get this far?! | The F1 Show
Dec 2, 2025
Sky Sports F1

‘How did McLaren let the title race get this far…’;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YWIZT7RFPY


What time is F1's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix? Qualifying + race times
Dec 3, 2025
The Race

Abu Dhabi GP schedule (local time)
Abu Dhabi, part of the United Arab Emirates, is on Gulf Standard Time and is four hours ahead of GMT (UK time).
Friday December 5
FP1: 1.30pm
FP2: 5pm
Saturday December 6
FP3: 2.30pm
Qualifying: 6pm
Sunday December 7
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: 5pm
Abu Dhabi GP schedule (UK time)
Friday December 5
FP1: 9.30am
FP2: 1pm
Saturday December 6
FP3: 10.30am
Qualifying: 2pm
Sunday December 7
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: 1pm

‘All the times for this weekend's action’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/f1-2025-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-qualifying-race-times/

[Fortitude]

Lando Norris draws first blood in title fight against Max Verstappen in FP1 at 2025 Abu Dhabi GP.
Lando Norris draws the first blood of the weekend-deciding F1 title fight by edging Max Verstappen in FP1 at the 2025 Abu Dhabi GP, setting the tone for an intense finale between the championship’s contenders.
5 December 2025
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

Holding a 12-point advantage heading into Sunday, December 7, the McLaren driver delivered when it mattered with a 1:24.485 lap good enough to shade Red Bull’s defending champion by just 0.008. That could be key establishing an early psychological edge at Yas Marina on Friday, as the pair look to contend for the Formula 1 title in the United Arab Emirates, whilst Oscar Piastri could only watch on.

The Australian sat out the opening hour as part of his mandated rookie handover, leaving Pato O’Ward to step into the McLaren leaving Charles Leclerc to slot into third, only 0.016s adrift, whilst Kimi Antonelli continued his fine recent form with a strong fourth.

With 15 minutes left, Norris delivered what proved the session’s benchmark whilst Leclerc maintained third for Ferrari despite a hefty spin that led to some fraternal banter from his brother, Arthur. At the same time, Verstappen radioed concerns that there “might be something broken” and said the problem was “everywhere,” on his car, prompting concern from his fans around the world – although he continued circulating.

‘First blood’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/lando-norris-draws-first-blood-in-title-fight-against-max-verstappen-in-fp1-at-2025-abu-dhabi-gp/


2025 F1 Abu Dhabi GP – Free Practice 1 Results
5 December 2025
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

Pos. Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Lando Norris McLaren 1:24.485
2. Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.008
3. Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.016
4. Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.123
5. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +0.144
6. George Russell Mercedes +0.248
7. Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber +0.257
8. Oliver Bearman Haas +0.274
9. Carlos Sainz Williams +0.286
10. Franco Colapinto Alpine +0.370

‘Free Practice 1’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-abu-dhabi-gp-free-practice-1-results/


Max second fastest in Abu Dhabi FP1
5 December 2025
Stefan Meens
Verstappen.nl

Max Verstappen set the second fastest time in the first practice session of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Oracle Red Bull Racing driver was only 0.008s slower than pace setter Lando Norris (McLaren). Charles Leclerc completed the top three.

As the session gets underway, Max heads out on the hard Pirelli tyres and is immediately on the pace. Only Lando Norris is quicker in the first half of the session, but the McLaren has set his time on the medium compound.

At the halfway point, Max switches from the hards, straight to the softs and goes quickest (1:24.493). Again, only Norris is able to lap the Yas Marina circuit quicker than the Dutchman and does so by 0.008s.

‘Max second fastest’;

https://news.verstappen.com/en/article/6041/


F1 – Norris tops FP1in Abu Dhabi ahead of Verstappen as title showdown gets underway
05.12.25
FIA (Press Release)

It was Verstappen who set the early pace in the session with a 1:27.130s on the Hard tyre, 0.038s ahead of George Russell on the same compound. There was a variety of compounds on display, however, and Medium-shod Norris took his turn at the top as the opening half hours saw a number of drivers have a moment in P1, including Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar who will replace Tsunoda at Red Bull Racing in 2026.

The field then began to move to the C5 Soft compound tyres for performance running and Verstappen once again made his way to P1 with a lap of 1:24.493s, two hundredths of a second ahead of Norris and almost a tenth ahead of third-placed Ferrari regular Charles Leclerc. Norris and Verstappen then traded best times before Norris eventually cemented himself into P1 with a lap of 1:24.485s that left him 0.008s clear of his championship rival. Leclerc completed the top three with a lap 1:24.501s, 0.016s behind Norris.

‘Norris tops FP1in’;

https://www.fia.com/news/f1-norris-tops-fp1-abu-dhabi-ahead-verstappen-title-showdown-gets-underway


Zak Brown makes 'crazy' decision over McLaren F1 team orders at Abu Dhabi GP
Both McLaren drivers enter the Abu Dhabi F1 race weekend with a chance of winning the drivers' championship.
5 December 2025
Fergal Walsh
RacingNews365

Speaking to Sky F1 in Abu Dhabi, Brown highlighted it will implement team orders if it becomes clear during the race that one driver is clearly holding the upper hand. “Yes, of course,” he said. “We're realistic. We want to win this drivers' championship. We're coming into the weekend knowing that they both have equal opportunity, even though there's obviously a point spread.”

"You don't know how qualifying is going to go, reliability, but if we get into the race and it's becoming pretty clear that one has a chance and the other doesn't, we're going to do what we can to win the drivers' championship. It would be crazy not to.”

"We want to win the drivers' championship. So, we'll kind of see how the race plays out, but we're not going to not win the championship because we're trying to protect a third and a fourth or a sixth and a seventh, or however the situation may play out."

‘Zak Brown makes 'crazy' decision’;

https://racingnews365.com/zak-brown-makes-crazy-decision-over-mclaren-f1-team-orders-at-abu-dhabi-gp


Abu Dhabi GP: Norris edges Verstappen in opening practice
05/12/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Lando Norris opened the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend in commanding fashion, topping the first practice session at Yas Marina on the cusp of becoming Formula 1 world champion. The McLaren driver clocked a 1m24.485s on soft tyres, edging championship rival Max Verstappen by just 0.008s while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completed the top three, just 0.016s adrift.

Norris arrives in Abu Dhabi 12 points clear of Verstappen and 16 ahead of McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri. A podium on Sunday would seal his maiden title regardless of what Verstappen achieves. Piastri, however, played no part in FP1 due to regulations requiring teams to hand their car to a rookie in at least two Friday sessions. His seat went to IndyCar star Pato O’Ward, one of nine rookies in action on a hot and clear afternoon in the UAE.

With the season finale underway, cars flooded the track early. Verstappen set the first meaningful benchmark – a 1m27.130s on hard tyres – narrowly ahead of George Russell. Not everyone ran the same programme, with O’Ward immediately on softs and Norris on mediums, prompting a mixed early order shaped by rapid track evolution.

‘Commanding fashion’;

https://f1i.com/news/555415-abu-dhabi-gp-norris-edges-verstappen-in-opening-practice.html

[Fortitude]

Lando Norris tops Abu Dhabi Grand Prix FP2 with Oscar Piastri out of the top 10.
Title leader Lando Norris topped the timings for the first practice session on Friday, just two hundredths of a second ahead of the other championship rival, Max Verstappen.
5 December 2025
Rebecca Braybrook
F1 Oversteer

Lando Norris was the fastest in FP2 as Oscar Piastri struggled to put a fast soft tyre lap together during McLaren’s qualifying practice runs. The second practice is the most representative session for qualifying and race pace, with conditions similar to those that will be seen in the later weekend sessions, making it incredibly important for drivers and teams.

Early in FP2, Verstappen was noted for impeding Norris at Turn 1, after Red Bull appeared unsure if the Brit was starting a flying lap. Norris sounded unimpressed on the radio, asking, “what is this guy doing?”, although stewards were quick to decide there would be no further action for the incident. Verstappen was the first championship driver to bolt on the soft tyres, with the Dutchman setting a strong time of 1:23.446, which was two tenths of a second ahead of Isack Hadjar.

McLaren then brought their drivers in to begin qualifying practice runs, with Norris clinching the top time from Verstappen by three tenths. Piastri went for a second flying lap on his soft tyres after a difficult first run; however, the Aussie saw a big lock-up at Turn 6, which kept him in 10th place. The title contender had made improvements in sectors one and three compared to his McLaren teammate, but appeared not to have the same straight-line speed as Norris.

‘Lando Norris was the fastest in FP2’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/lando-norris-tops-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-fp2-with-oscar-piastri-out-of-the-top-10/


2025 F1 Abu Dhabi GP – Free Practice 2 Results
5 December 2025
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

Red Bull faces a crucial night of setup work, while Piastri continues to adapt, aiming to support Norris in a title-deciding weekend.
Pos. Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Lando Norris McLaren 1:23.083
2. Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.363
3. George Russell Mercedes +0.379
4. Oliver Bearman Haas +0.418
5. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +0.467
6. Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber +0.487
7. Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +0.574
8. Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.575
9. Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.625
10. Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.667

‘Free Practice 2 Results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-abu-dhabi-gp-free-practice-2-results/


Lando Norris ‘almost crashed’ with Max Verstappen as Abu Dhabi GP team radio emerges
5 Dec 2025
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

McLaren driver Lando Norris was heard claiming over team radio that he “almost crashed” into Max Verstappen after a minor impeding incident in FP2 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Verstappen slowed on the main straight after completing a timed lap with his Red Bull race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, initially informing him that Norris was not on a push lap behind. Lambiase told Verstappen: “You’ve got Norris… not opening a lap behind you.” However, Lambiase then realised that Norris actually was on a fast lap, adding: “Or maybe he is… coming through.”

The confusion left Verstappen with little time to react to the fast-approaching McLaren, with the Red Bull jinking to the left of the track on the exit of Turn 1. Norris was less than impressed by the incident, claiming over team radio that the pair nearly made contact. The McLaren driver was heard saying: “What’s this guy doing? Almost crashed.” The incident was briefly noted by Race Control, with the FIA stewards taking no further action.

‘The confusion’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lando-norris-max-verstappen-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-2025-fp2


Abu Dhabi GP: Norris stamps his authority in FP2 as a lock up costs Piastri
05 Dec 2025
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Lando Norris made a perfect start to the Abu Dhabi title decider as he finished Friday’s practices comfortably quickest by three-tenths ahead of Max Verstappen. On the other side of the McLaren garage, Oscar Piastri was off the pace a mistake at Turn 6 cost the Australian and left him down in 11th place.

As the sun set over the Yas Marina circuit, the track temperature dropped ahead of FP2 with conditions more in line with what the drivers will experience in qualifying and the grand prix. The first of the frontrunners to swap to the soft Pirellis, Verstappen went quickest with a 1:23.446 ahead of Nico Hulkenberg. Carlos Sainz complained about a “weird snap Turn 2”, and Bearman wasn’t happy about an “unsafe release from a Sauber”.

Norris hit the front midway through the session with a 1:23.083, three-tenths on Verstappen with Russell third. Piastri was down in 10th place. He had a huge lock-up into Turn 6 on his second flying lap.

‘Stamps his authority’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/abu-dhabi-grand-prix-2025-fp2-report


Is Oscar Piastri feeling the pressure at 2025 Abu Dhabi GP? F1 title contender weighs in
Piastri is 16 points off the championship lead at the Yas Marina Circuit.
5 December 2025
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

Oscar Piastri says he is not feeling the pressure at the 2025 Abu Dhabi GP due to his experience in previous motorsport title battles, and the limited odds of him winning anyway. “I’ve been on the opposite side of the championship battle in the junior categories,” Piastri told media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “And I know what that felt and it was pretty tough.

“So, coming into it from the least to lose out of us three is quite different for me. And I think off the back of Qatar, I’ve got a lot of confidence that I can perform well. Obviously, I need a fair few things to happen this weekend to come out champion, but I’ll just make sure I’m in the right place at the right time and see what happens.”

Piastri knows it isn’t over until it’s over, and his tall order in the F3 campaign proves that he can still win the title, even from what seems to be an unthinkable position. “So yeah, obviously it would be a very cool achievement. But I’m not getting my hopes up too high. We’ll see what happens. And yeah, if I can achieve it, then I’ll be a pretty happy guy.”

‘Oscar Piastri says he is not feeling the pressure’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/is-oscar-piastri-feeling-the-pressure-at-2025-abu-dhabi-gp-f1-title-contender-weighs-in/


Max Verstappen sceptical of Red Bull pace at F1 Abu Dhabi GP
5 December 2025
Motorsport Week

Max Verstappen appeared sceptical of Red Bull’s pace ahead of this weekend’s Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which will decide the Drivers’ title. Speaking after practice, Verstappen told Sky Sports F1 that the RB21 is responding relatively well to him, but not enough to envisage a likelihood of challenging the McLarens.

“[The car was] Pretty okay, I mean I was fairly happy with the car, we just need to be probably a little bit faster,” he said. “I think, yeah, still not quick enough, but I think overall we’ve been in a, for us, I think in a decent window around here.”

“Seems like it’s a decent gap that we need to close, but from our side we’ll just try to put the best car forward, and yeah, let’s see how much we can find overnight,” he added. Verstappen concluded that the “single lap and long run needs to be better” if he is to be left feeling happy about his chances.

‘Sceptical of Red Bull’s pace’;

https://f1i.com/news/555439-abu-dhabi-gp-norris-comfortably-tops-fp2-from-verstappen.html


Lando Norris has ‘nothing to smile about just yet’ despite ominous Abu Dhabi GP pace
05 Dec 2025
Henry Valantine
PlanetF1.com

McLaren driver Lando Norris has warned there’s “nothing to smile about just yet” despite topping both Friday practice sessions at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Asked about how the car feels, Norris took time to respond, taking a breath before replying: “Obviously from the times and everything, things are good at the minute, but I still want a bit more from the car.”

“We’re a bit in the middle of trying some different things and then trying to understand some things with the car, so hopefully some more stuff we can get out of it overnight. But it’s not been a bad day, for sure. It’s been a positive day, but we always know it gets a lot closer going into quali, so nothing to smile about just yet.”

‘Norris took time to respond, taking a breath before replying’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lando-norris-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-fp2-reaction

[Fortitude]

Piastri confident for pole despite difficult Friday in Abu Dhabi.
Oscar Piastri says he is “finding my feet” after a reduced Friday workload in Abu Dhabi but believes he has a “pretty good” chance of fighting for pole in on Saturday.
6 Dec 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

Despite the headline position, Piastri emerged upbeat. He admitted his soft-tyre run cost him time but felt the underlying pace was strong. “I think I got there pretty well on the medium [tyres] – just the softs didn’t get the most out of the grip on that first timed lap,” he said. “Finding my feet, I think, but clearly some things to try and improve for tomorrow. But I think after just one session, not too bad.”

Asked whether he felt capable of fighting for the top spot again, Piastri did not hesitate. “I think pretty good,” he said. “I think the car’s looked quick – just need to get some more laps under my belt and find my feet a bit more really, that’s all. A few more laps tomorrow, a few more sets of tyres, hopefully we’ll be there.”

‘Fighting for pole’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-abu-dhabi-oscar-piastri-reaction-friday-practice-pole-chances-championship-battle/


Piastri aims for 'small tweaks' to overturn near 7-tenth deficit to Norris
05 Dec 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Oscar Piastri ended FP2 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix outside the top ten. Piastri returned to the car in the afternoon, effectively starting his weekend from FP2, but ultimately finished the day in eleventh, unable to put together a competitive lap on the softs and running slower than both his teammate and Max Verstappen over race pace.

"I think it's more just little details. The car feels like it's in a pretty decent place, just didn't get the grip out of it in that first soft lap. Some small tweaks, of course. (It) didn't feel perfect out there, but nothing major.”

'Small tweaks';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/piastri-maps-out-areas-to-turn-around-underwhelming-start-in-abu-dhabi


Piastri ‘finding feet’ in Abu Dhabi as he predicts ‘pretty good’ chance of fighting for pole
Oscar Piastri set the 11th quickest time during Free Practice 2 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the McLaren driver having sat out the day's opening session while rookie Pato O'Ward took his place.
05 Dec 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Looking ahead to Saturday’s Qualifying, Piastri – who claimed his sixth career pole position last time out in Qatar – is hopeful about his chances of putting himself at the front of the grid again this weekend.

“I think pretty good,” he answered when asked about his prospects of battling for pole. “I think the car’s looked quick – just need to get some more laps under my belt and find my feet a bit more really, that’s all. A few more laps tomorrow, a few more sets of tyres, hopefully we’ll be there.”

‘Finding feet’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/piastri-finding-feet-in-abu-dhabi-as-he-predicts-pretty-good-chance-of.6icVaMAFALG1LqjwXsT8Hu


Piastri unconcerned at ending Friday practice 11th after missing first session
5th December 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

Oscar Piastri was satisfied with his car’s balance despite ending the second practice session 11th and missing the first. The championship contender had to miss the first hour of practice so McLaren could run a junior driver in his car for the second time this year, as required by the rules.

First practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix tends to be unrepresentative of the competitive sessions as it takes place earlier in the day when the track is hotter. Piastri made a mistake on his final run on the soft tyres in the second session but said he was happy with his car’s balance on the harder rubber.

‘Piastri unconcerned’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/12/05/piastri-unconcerned-at-ending-friday-practice-11th-after-missing-first-session/


‘It is possible’: relaxed Piastri holds firm in title bid
Oscar Piastri insists he can still win the 2025 drivers’ championship, taking a sliver of confidence from how previous multi-driver finales have played out.
5 Dec 2025
Ben Waterworth
Formula One - Official Site

When asked by Speedcafe whether it was encouraging that the last two title deciders involving at least three contenders were won by the driver entering third, Piastri admitted it offered a small boost. “[It’s] a nice stat to have, given that I’m in that position,” he said. “But just because history has gone that way once doesn’t mean it will again.”

“So, I’m certainly not leaning on that, but maybe it gives me the tiniest amount of comfort that it is possible.” The Australian added that the wave of support from home has been impossible to ignore — especially after his name was mentioned in the Australian Senate this week during a light-hearted exchange about McLaren’s strategy calls. “I did see it reach Parliament,” he said. “Yeah, that’s quite impressive.”

“I think the support from back home has been really special. I obviously don’t see a huge amount of it. I’ve not being back to Australia since the grand prix but I think the fact that Formula 1 and regardless of why it was in Parliament, the fact that my name is in Parliament in Australia is pretty cool in some ways. A pretty cool thing. And I guess it signifies the magnitude of the support and the following that we’ve had back home. So that’s very, very cool to see, and I’ll try my best to bring it home for everyone.”

“I did see it reach Parliament”;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-oscar-piastri-championship-hopes-comments-interview-abu-dhabi-grand-prix/


Oscar Piastri’s camp believe he’s ‘come off worse’ from McLaren decisions ‘far too often’ in 2025
5 December 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Oscar Piastri’s team feel a sense of injustice before Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. At the opening round of the season in Australia, Piastri was told not to attack Norris when the two drivers navigated traffic. He later spun out in treacherous conditions and finished ninth, while his teammate won the race.

The pit wall came under far more scrutiny after Monza, when they instructed Piastri to give up second place after Norris’ slow pit stop. He had been allowed to pit first from P3. Two rounds later in Singapore, McLaren allowed Norris to retain second despite making contact with Piastri during a first-corner overtake. The team later recognised that the move was overly aggressive, but this didn’t help driver #81 recover the lost points.

“They certainly feel, on the Piastri side, that Piastri has come off worse far too often this season,” ESPN journalist Nate Saunders, who spoke to Mark Webber in Qatar, said on the Unlapped podcast. “I don’t think there’s been too much malicious in it, but that’s clearly in their heads. “That alone is why Piastri is going into this race in a really interesting headspace. It maybe complicates things down the line for McLaren if the finishing order is a certain way.”

‘Come off worse’ from McLaren decisions ‘far too often’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/oscar-piastris-camp-believe-hes-come-off-worse-from-mclaren-decisions-far-too-often-in-2025/


Oscar Piastri's journey from humble beginnings to the brink of the Formula One championship
05 Dec 20235
Chloe Hart
ABC Online

Oscar Piastri has the chance to make Australian sporting history with the Formula One title just one podium away when he competes at this weekend's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It is a long way from where it all began for the Melbourne boy at Oakleigh Go-Kart Racing Club, where his career hardly got off to a high-flying start.

"He would've been about eight when he first started. There was a race meeting at Ballarat and there he was, this tiny little kid who was coming dead last," said club president Adam Bourke. "He didn't stand out to me, but his trainer said he always could see something in him that was just different from others. Like all kids when they first get started, it's all a little bit tentative. He was one of those kids who didn't take long to work it all out. If you told him something, he got it."

Outgrowing the local go-kart scene, Oscar took a leap of faith getting a sporting scholarship to the UK to chase his F1 dream at just 16 years old. From there, he's risen to be one race away from clinching the F1 drivers' championship and securing a dream that's a lifetime in the making. "We are so proud of him. Once he gets in front and ... [takes it] to Max Verstappen, that's one of the hardest things to do," Bourke said. "[He's] taking it to the number one driver in the world and he doesn't back off. "He's confident and not intimidated by anyone. He has this attitude of 'I'll fight you Max, Lando and the rest'."

‘From humble beginnings’;

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-05/oscar-piastri-f1-abu-dhabi-melbourne-racing/106102654

[Fortitude]

Seven F1 eras ending at the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix doesn’t just mark the end of a Formula 1 season but several significant partnerships too.
Dec 6, 2025
The Race

From one of the championship’s most successful engine manufacturers to the last race for one of F1’s greatest underdogs - here are seven eras ending this weekend, our thoughts on how successful they were and what kind of high (or low) they’ll likely end on.
Yuki Tsunoda + F1 (2021-2025): “Yuki Tsunoda went far further than most Red Bull juniors, of which there has been a truly astounding amount, and stuck around in its F1 roster far longer than many of his high-rated peers. Valentin Khorounzhiy.

Sauber (1993-2025): “The Sauber name has been an ever-present in Formula 1 since it marked its debut in the 1993 South African Grand Prix by running fourth and fifth at the end of the first competitive lap.” Edd Straw.
DRS (2011-2025): “Imagine telling any hardcore fan understandably put off by the inevitably gimmicky, un-meritocratic nature of the Drag Reduction Systrem and its arbitrary one-second trigger point: "Don't worry, it will only stick around for...oh, 15 years." Valentin Khorounzhiy.

Red Bull + Honda (2019-2025): “Honda's most successful F1 era ever comes to an end this weekend, so even though the manufacturer will live on in F1 with its new Aston Martin venture, a very significant chapter is coming to a close.” Scott Mitchell-Malm.
These ground effect F1 cars (2022-2025): “This is the last weekend for this shortlived generation of ground effect F1 cars and, for some, it’s a case of good riddance.” Samarth Kanal.
'Team Silverstone' + Mercedes (2009-2025): “Aston Martin and Mercedes’ partnership ending might feel insignificant, but when you do the maths, this pairing has actually been together 17 years!” Jack Benyon.
Farewell Renault F1 engines (1977-2025): “I will actually be a bit sad to see the Renault engine disappear from F1 this weekend.” Gary Anderson.

‘Seven F1 ending eras’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/seven-f1-eras-ending-at-the-2025-abu-dhabi-grand-prix/


PRACTICE DEBRIEF: Is Norris in the pound seats for the 2025 title – or do Verstappen and Piastri have more to show?
Lando Norris started the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend on top as he aims to convert his championship lead into a maiden title, but will he stay there?
5 Dec 2025
Lawrence Barretto
Formula One - Official Site

Lando Norris' bid to convert his championship lead into a first Formula 1 world title at the finale in Abu Dhabi got off to a strong start as he set the pace in Friday practice – but how did his championship rivals Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri fair?

Just how good was Norris on Friday? Well, on paper, pretty good. The McLaren racer, who leads the championship by 12 points from Verstappen with Piastri four points further back, looked quick in both the daytime first practice and the more representative second session at dusk.

‘Is Norris in the pound seats?’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/practice-debrief-is-norris-in-the-pound-seats-for-the-2025-title-or-do.7pem5rpdKxlpOfkMd7Xx4h


‘Not his first rodeo’ – Why Max Verstappen has psychological edge over Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri
6 Dec 2025
Sam Cooper
PlanetF1.com

In the Thursday press conference, Verstappen appeared as relaxed as could be and insisted he was unfazed about any pressure that may be upon him. As to how he was able to keep so calm, his former colleague Wheatley said “it’s not his first rodeo.” “He’s been here before,” Wheatley said. “I think he has a coolness and a calm and I think that permeates through the team. If everyone in the team seems calm, starting with the driver, the team gains confidence from it.”

‘Not his first rodeo’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/why-max-verstappen-psychological-edge-lando-norris-oscar-piastri


Oscar Piastri insists he’s firmly in title battle at 2025 Abu Dhabi GP despite tough Friday
The Australian had a tough beginning to his weekend at the Yas Marina.
6 December 2025
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

Oscar Piastri insists he is still firmly in the Formula 1 title battle despite a challenging start to his 2025 Abu Dhabi GP weekend, as the McLaren driver struggled early – but remains confident he is not out of contention. As the battle intensifies under the Abu Dhabi floodlights, Piastri believes additional track time will bring him fully up to speed, thus, he remains determined to rejoin the fight at the very front.

Consequently, he remains determined to rejoin the fight at the very front as McLaren’s form through Norris gave Piastri renewed belief heading into qualifying. “I think pretty good. I think the car’s looked quick. Just need to get some more laps under my belt and find my feet a bit more really, that’s all. “A few more laps tomorrow, a few more sets of tyres, hopefully we’ll be there.”

‘Firmly in title battle’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/oscar-piastri-insists-hes-firmly-in-title-battle-at-2025-abu-dhabi-gp-despite-tough-friday/


Mark Hughes: Verstappen's closer to McLarens than you think
Dec 5, 2025
Mark Hughes
The Race

Max Verstappen is steadily pushing his Red Bull into contention at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Although his second-quickest time to Lando Norris's McLaren was around 0.35s adrift, his long run was over 60% longer than that of the McLaren driver's and the 0.43s difference in their race run averages on the medium tyre is almost accounted for by the difference in run length.

Furthermore, that includes a step-change drop-off in pace for the last three laps of Verstappen's run where he was convinced that something was broken in the car. If we take his average up until the moment he reported that problem (with three laps of his run still to go), he is within less than 0.1s of Norris's average.

"I was fairly happy with the car," said Verstappen. "We just probably needed to be a little bit faster. We were in a decent window, but I think still think not quite quick enough. It seems like there is a decent gap that we need to close but we still need to work on the race pace, so let’s see how much we can find overnight. The ride has been tricky and the single laps and long runs need to be a bit better, but let’s see what we can do."

‘Steadily pushing his Red Bull into contention’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/mark-hughes-verstappen-closer-to-mclaren-than-you-think-abu-dhabi-f1-decider/


HUGE NEWS for Verstappen: Mekies CONFIRMS MASSIVE RB21 Performance Upgrade for Abu Dhabi
Dec 6, 2025
PitStop Andrew

Red Bull enters the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with stunning momentum after Laurent Mekies confirmed a massive performance upgrade for the RB21 and the news could not be bigger for Max Verstappen. In this video, we break down everything revealed about the new package, including the aerodynamic refinements, floor efficiency improvements, rear stability gains, and straight-line speed boost that Red Bull believes will completely change the balance of power at Yas Marina.

This analysis explains how the upgrade addresses Verstappen’s weaknesses from Qatar, why simulation data shows a significant step forward, and how the team’s confidence has skyrocketed heading into the final Grand Prix of the season. With key SEO terms such as RB21 upgrade Abu Dhabi, Red Bull performance boost, Mekies confirms upgrade, Verstappen Abu Dhabi news, and F1 breaking news, this description is fully optimized for YouTube search, browse features, and suggested algorithms. If you want the full breakdown of why this upgrade is such huge news for Verstappen, this video reveals every critical detail.

‘MASSIVE RB21 Performance Upgrade’;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e6t3-DGEiI

[Fortitude]

Abu Dhabi GP: Russell tops frantic final practice – Hamilton crashes.
George Russell snatched the top spot in a frantic final practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, beating championship leader Lando Norris by just 0.004s as Max Verstappen settled for third.
06/12/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

FP3 delivered everything from traffic chaos to a red flag and late-session time attacks – the perfect warm-up for Sunday’s title showdown. Norris, Verstappen and Oscar Piastri all enter the finale with a mathematical shot at the crown, though the McLaren driver holds a 12-point lead over Verstappen and 16 over his team-mate.

Red Flag Chaos and Final Flurry. Just as the session reached full intensity, Lewis Hamilton brought everything to a halt. The Ferrari driver spun into the Turn 9 barrier with 29 minutes remaining and reported that “something buckled at the front and snapped the rear” as he hit the apex.

Verstappen lit the fuse with a 1m24.116s once running resumed, but Piastri immediately reset the bar with a lap half a second quicker. Norris then outdid his team-mate by another quarter of a second, thanks largely to a scorching final sector. Drama unfolded in the pitlane too, as Mercedes released Andrea Kimi Antonelli directly into Tsunoda, ending the RB driver’s session on the spot.

‘George Russell snatched the top spot’;

https://f1i.com/news/555563-abu-dhabi-gp-russell-tops-final-practice-hamilton-crashes.html


Abu Dhabi GP: Free Practice 3 Results
Full results from Free Practice 3 for the Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
6 Dec 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

Pos. No. Driver Team Time / Gap Laps
1 63 George Russell Mercedes 1:23.334 14
2 4 Lando Norris McLaren +0.004s 20
3 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.124s 15
4 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.251s 17
5 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.259s 17
6 31 Esteban Ocon Haas F1 Team +0.271s 19
7 87 Oliver Bearman Haas F1 Team +0.275s 16
8 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.341s 18
9 12 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.373s 14
10 23 Alexander Albon Williams +0.388s 18

‘Free Practice 3 Results’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-yas-marina-free-practice-3-fp3-results/


Nico Rosberg has heard ‘some voices’ suggesting McLaren want Lando Norris to win the F1 title
6 December 2025
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Nico Rosberg warns Oscar Piastri that it ‘won’t help’ to dwell on McLaren prioritising Lando Norris.

McLaren had opposed team orders through the first 23/24 rounds of the 2025 F1 season, as Brown and team principal Andrea Stella wanted to give Norris and Piastri an equal chance to win the title. But McLaren have faced accusations that they have prioritised Norris this term. There has been much speculation in the F1 paddock that McLaren favour Norris over Piastri over the course of 2025. Nico Rosberg also now claims that he has “heard” ahead of the Abu Dhabi GP that “everybody” at McLaren is almost rooting to see Norris claim the drivers’ title.

“For Oscar, it is a very tough situation,” Rosberg told Sky Sports News (6/12, 09:12). “He was the leader throughout most of the championship and looked like the dominant force, and then Lando has come back. It’s also a British team, and you sense that, I’m sure, without knowing exactly, but I heard some voices like Mark Webber being there and being the only Australian, and everybody is kind of a little bit towards favouring Lando as a world champion.

‘Rooting to see Norris claim the drivers’ title’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/nico-rosberg-has-heard-some-voices-suggesting-mclaren-want-lando-norris-to-win-the-f1-title/


Max P3 in third free practice of Abu Dhabi
06 December 2025
Florence Cobben
Verstappen.nl

With a quarter of an hour to go, the session is resumed. The pit lane is crowded as many drivers jockey to get onto the track. Max also heads out on a new set of soft tyres. He improves his time to a 1:24.116, but quickly has to relinquish his hold on first place to Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the McLarens, who are about half a second faster than the Dutchman.

Max returns to the pits, and heads out on a new set of soft tyres. He improves his time to a 1:23.514, placing him third behind George Russell and Lando Norris. In the pit lane, Kimi Antonelli is released straight into the path of Yuki Tsunoda, causing the two to make contact and sustain damage.

At the fall of the flag marking the end of the session, Max improves his time (1:23.458) but stays in P3. He is just 0.124 seconds slower than George Russel, while Lando Norris has a gap of four-thousandths of a second to P1. Fernando Alonso comes fourth, and the third championship contender, Oscar Piastri, finished P5.

‘Max P3’;

https://news.verstappen.com/en/article/6044/


Nico Rosberg brutally mocks Lewis Hamilton straight after Abu Dhabi Grand Prix crash
6 December 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Nico Rosberg saw Lewis Hamilton trying to put his Ferrari ‘in reverse’ after crash. As the world feed cut to Hamilton’s onboard camera, Nico Rosberg saw his former teammate trying to select reverse as if he could get going again. That prompted a brutal reaction.

“Crofty, he’s trying to put it in reverse, should we tell him he’s missing a tyre?” he quipped. Hamilton suggested over the radio that the accident was due to a mechanical issue rather than a driver error: “Something buckled at the front and snapped the rear.”

Rosberg thought the SF-25 was unsettled by striking the ground as Hamilton entered the left-hander. “It starts on the entry already,” he observed. “It starts with bottoming as he was turning in. That already loosened up the rear, and then it just had a follow-on effect. He’s already loose right at the beginning. He thinks something broke.”

‘He’s missing a tyre’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/nico-rosberg-brutally-mocks-lewis-hamilton-straight-after-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-crash/

[Fortitude]

Abu Dhabi GP: Verstappen takes stunning pole ahead of Norris, Piastri.
Max Verstappen took pole position for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix ahead of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Dec 6, 2025
ESPN

‘Max Verstappen took pole’;

https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/47189333/abu-dhabi-gp-max-verstappen-takes-pole-lando-norris-oscar-piastri


2025 F1 Abu Dhabi GP – Qualifying Results
Dec 6, 2025
Total Motorsport

F1 Abu Dhabi GP 2025 Qualifying results
Check out the full Abu Dhabi GP 2025 Qualifying results from Yas Marina below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:22.207
2 Lando Norris McLaren +0.201
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.230
4 George Russell Mercedes +0.438
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.523
6 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.695
7 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber +0.697
8 Esteban Ocon Haas +0.706
9 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +0.865
10 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull –

‘Qualifying results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-abu-dhabi-gp-qualifying-results/


F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2025 starting grid
Dec 6, 2025
The Race

Max Verstappen beat the two McLarens to take pole position for the 2025 Formula 1 world championship deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

No grid penalties have been incurred yet. Ten drivers - including all three title contenders - automatically triggered stewards' investigations for breaches of the maximum delta time rules but these were quickly deemed to not be worthy of penalties.

‘Starting grid’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/f1-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-2025-starting-grid/


Max Verstappen secures Abu Dhabi Grand Prix pole ahead of Lando Norris
6 December 2025
Rebecca Braybrook
F1 Oversteer

Max Verstappen will start the 2025 season finale from pole ahead of Lando Norris as pressure begins to build on the three championship contenders. Norris leads the standings ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with Verstappen and Oscar Piastri closely behind heading into the final race of the year.

Verstappen once again went first with a Q3 lap, which saw him initially put in a really strong first sector. Yuki Tsunoda was used to give the Dutchman a tow during the back straight, which saw Verstappen set an impressive lap time, which initially couldn’t be matched by either McLaren driver.

Russell’s first flying lap on new tyres saw him place only fifth after losing grip under the hotel. The Mercedes driver had a massive slide at Turn 14, which saw him nearly in the barrier. The Brit then asked his team to ensure he came out behind Verstappen for the final qualifying laps, hoping that the Red Bull would give him a tow and help pull him above the McLarens.

‘Max Verstappen will start the 2025 season finale from pole’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/max-verstappen-secures-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-pole-ahead-of-lando-norris/


Verstappen beats title rivals to pole position for championship-deciding finale | 2025 Abu…
6th December 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

Verstappen took full advantage of his team mate making one of his rare appearances in Q3, as Red Bull arranged for Tsunoda to give him a tow down Yas Marina’s long straights. With Verstappen also doing his first lap on a new set of tyres, he comfortably went fastest with a lap of 1’22.295.

The McLaren drivers used old tyres for their first runs: Piastri took second, three tenths of a second behind, Norris next a further tenth back. The two orange cars took to the track ahead of Verstappen for their final runs, now on fresh tyres. Piastri, first across the line, couldn’t find enough to move up the order. Norris did, but it was only enough to relegate his team mate from the front row of the grid.

Verstappen tightened his grip on pole position by lowering his time to a 1’22.207. Russell was the last driver who looked like he had a chance to beat him but he could only manage fourth behind the McLarens, oversteering wildly out of the last corner. Leclerc salvaged a strong fifth for Ferrari ahead of Alonso and Bortoleto. Tsunoda will start 10th in the second Red Bull having not set a time in Q3.

‘Red Bull arranged for Tsunoda to give him a tow down Yas Marina’s long straights’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/12/06/verstappen-beats-title-rivals-to-pole-position-for-championship-deciding-finale/

[Fortitude]

F1 - 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Post-Qualifying Press Conference Transcript.
DRIVERS: 1 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing), 2 – Lando NORRIS (McLaren), 3 – Oscar PIASTRI (McLaren)
06.12.25
PARC FERMÉ INTERVIEWS (Conducted by James Hinchcliffe)
FIA (Press Release)

Q: Max, first of all, congratulations – 48th career pole. You found an enormous amount of lap time in Q3 there. Where did that come from?
Max VERSTAPPEN: Well, in Q2 I stayed on scrubbed tyres and I think those laps already felt quite decent. And then in Q3 around here, you know, the track temp is coming down. You know that you can push a bit more and that's exactly what we did. We found a bit more lap time and, of course, incredibly happy to be in first. That's the only thing that we can do, right? That's the only thing that we can control, try to just maximise everything we have and then do what we can with the car – and we definitely did that in qualifying.

Q: Lando Norris starts outside of the front row. You guys are really writing the script for us – all three of you starting one, two, three. Lando, you're ahead of one championship rival, behind the other. Are you satisfied with how you did out there? Did you leave anything on the table?
Lando NORRIS: It's tough. I mean, Max did a good job, so congrats to him. We did everything we could. I think my lap was pretty good. I was pretty happy. So yeah, of course disappointed to not be on pole for the final weekend, but we were just not running fast enough today. So, we'll have to try do it tomorrow.

Q: And Oscar, for you, great effort throughout. You were very quick in Q1, came up a little bit short in Q3. How was the run for you?
Oscar PIASTRI: Yeah. I mean, I think it was pretty good. I think the lap I did in Q1, it was nice to finally get into a rhythm through the weekend. And honestly, I think the last lap in Q3 was pretty good as well. There wasn't a whole lot left in that. No, just not quite quick enough today. But yep, sets up a pretty exciting day tomorrow.

‘Post-Qualifying Press Conference’;

https://www.fia.com/news/f1-2025-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-post-qualifying-press-conference-transcript


Max Verstappen admits to needing ‘help or luck’ to win F1 title despite Abu Dhabi GP pole
06.12.25
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Verstappen was thankful to team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who, by making it into Q3, was able to sacrifice one lap to give him a tow to help him to pole. “But yeah, it was a good lap already with a little bit of help also of course from Yuki with the tow,” he said. “So that was very nice of him to give up one of his rides. And then in the second lap, I was not sure if I was going to improve just because of the tow that I got. But then again, I just found a little bit more lap time in the corners and that gave me a little bit more lap time. So happy with that, happy with the one lap performance at the end in qualifying. Now, of course, the big question mark is can we keep that up in the race?”

Verstappen, fully aware that his gap to Norris will make it extremely difficult to win the championship, admitted that some intervention and good fortune will be perhaps the only key to success. “Of course, I’m excited and looking forward to it. I’m going to try to win that race,” he said. “But of course, with that, I still need a little bit of help or luck to win the championship. But we’ll see how that goes tomorrow.”

Asked if he will agonise over the various permutations needed to win the title, Verstappen was nonplussed on the subject. “No, we’ll figure it out tomorrow. Not tonight. It’s like talking about strategy,” he said. “You can talk about it for one hour, two hours. And then after one lap, you throw it in the bin. A lot that can go well for you, can go against you. We’ll find out tomorrow.”

‘Help or luck’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/12/06/max-verstappen-admits-to-needing-help-or-luck-to-win-f1-title-despite-abu-dhabi-gp-pole/


Norris ‘disappointed’ to miss out on pole in Abu Dhabi as he explains approach to title-decider
Championship leader Lando Norris will line up in second place for Sunday's decisive Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with the Briton conceding that he was "not fast enough" to outpace title rival Max Verstappen for pole position.
06.12.25
Formula One - Official Site

Lando Norris admitted that he was “disappointed” to not take pole position for the title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but the Briton vowed to try to win as he looks to claim a maiden World Championship.

After setting the pace in both of Friday’s practice sessions, Norris did not top the timesheets during any of Saturday’s Qualifying segments, with McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri and Mercedes’ George Russell going quickest in Q1 and Q2 respectively.

Max Verstappen then beat the rest of the pack in Q3, the Red Bull driver clinching pole thanks to his effort of 1m 22.207s. Norris proved to be his closest challenger, but at 0.201s adrift could not beat the Dutchman, meaning that the championship leader will line up in second on the grid.

‘Norris disappointed’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/norris-disappointed-to-miss-out-on-pole-in-abu-dhabi-as-he-explains-approach.1FRdOZ0HnuqnYslVOkmPwM


Martin Brundle concerned by Lando Norris’ hand movements in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix cockpit
6 December 2025
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

Martin Brundle has voiced his concerns over Lando Norris’ driving style during qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after Max Verstappen secured pole for the final race of the season. So far, Norris is playing into the prophecy set by Mathias Lauda. The son of the late and great Niki Lauda voiced his opinion that the championship leader should just focus on finishing within the top-three positions rather than gunning for the race lead.

Martin Brundle shares his concerns over Lando Norris’ driving style during Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying. During Sky Sports F1’s coverage of the final qualifying session of the season in Abu Dhabi, Martin Brundle highlighted how Norris had seemingly changed his driving style between the final free practice session and qualifying.
The former F1 driver turned pundit said, “He’s not had that lovely, fluid driving style that we’ve seen in the free practices, Lando. There’s something a bit edgy and a bit tight about the way Lando’s driving. He needs to calm those hands down for his final attempt.”

“Something a bit edgy and a bit tight about the way Lando’s driving”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/martin-brundle-concerned-by-lando-norris-hand-movements-in-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-cockpit/


Norris denies Abu Dhabi GP title fight jitters after crucial pole missed
6 Dec 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Lando Norris will start the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in P2 behind main championship rival Max Verstappen on pole. A fragile mentality is something various F1 pundits and analysts have argued afflicts the leader in the Standings, which might have been the reason for his drop in form at Doha, at could play out again tomorrow during the race that will ultimately see a world champion crowned.

"I mean, it feels a bit different, but just because it's the final race of the year, not because of anything else," Norris said after qualifying. "And I felt pretty normal into Sunday last week. I didn't really have the expectation that I was going to get the championship because I started P3 [He started the race in Qatar in P2] and didn't really expect it."

Norris is "ready to go" into decisive battle for the title. Norris then dismissed any talk of pre-championship nervousness playing a role in missing his second title 'match point' tomorrow, and argued that he was eager to wrap up the season. "I felt good then, [and] I feel good now," the Bristol-born driver clarified. "I feel comfortable and ready to go. I feel like we have a good plan for things. Like Max said, you also just can't plan for everything. So, no, I feel good. I feel excited to get the final race done and then going on with it," Norris concluded.

‘Norris denies Abu Dhabi GP title fight jitters’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/norris-denies-abu-dhabi-gp-title-fight-jitters-after-crucial-pole-missed


Winners and losers from Abu Dhabi GP F1 qualifying
Dec 6, 2025
The Race

Winner - Max Verstappen (1st)
Loser - Oscar Piastri (3rd)
Winner - Lando Norris (2nd)
Loser - Lewis Hamilton (16th)

Winner - Fernando Alonso (6th)
Winner - Esteban Ocon (8th)
Loser - Kimi Antonelli (14th)

Winner - Gabriel Bortoleto (7th)
Loser - Alpine (19th and 20th)
Loser - Nico Hulkenberg (18th)

‘Winners and losers’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/winners-losers-from-abu-dhabi-gp-f1-qualifying/

[Fortitude]

Norris takes 2025 F1 title as Verstappen wins Abu Dhabi GP.
Verstappen did all he could, but it was Norris who secured the F1 2025 title.
December 7, 2025
Pablo Elizalde
Motor Sport Magazine

Lando Norris secured his first Formula 1 title with third place in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, a race dominated by Max Verstappen. Norris lost second place to team-mate Oscar Piastri on the opening lap and spent his day mainly defending from the threat of Charles Leclerc‘s Ferrari. The British driver managed to keep his rival at bay by following Ferrari’s two-stop strategy, crossing the finish line in third and becoming the 2025 world champion.

Norris is the first McLaren world champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2008. Verstappen took his seventh win of the season in commanding fashion, but fell three points short of the title as not enough rivals separated him from Norris.

Piastri, who also had an outside chance in the championship race, finished second behind Verstappen. Leclerc’s challenge to Norris eventually evaporated, the Ferrari driver having to second for fourth ahead of George Russell, who finished a very distant fifth in the top Mercedes.

‘Lando Norris first McLaren world champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2008’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/norris-takes-2025-f1-title-as-verstappen-wins-abu-dhabi-gp/?nowprocket=1


2025 F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Race Results
Lando Norris seals the 2025 F1 title by holding onto a crucial third place at Yas Marina despite Max Verstappen winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
7 December 2025
John Smith
Total Motorsport

F1 Abu Dhabi GP 2025 race results
Check out the full Abu Dhabi GP 2025 race results from Yas Marina below.
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Leader
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren +12.594
3 Lando Norris McLaren +16.572
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +23.279
5 George Russell Mercedes +48.563
6 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +67.562
7 Esteban Ocon Haas +69.876
8 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +72.670
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +74.523
10 Oliver Bearman Haas +76.166

‘Race results’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/2025-f1-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-race-results/


Max Verstappen wins the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as Lando Norris becomes 2025 Formula 1 champion
7 December 2025
Shay Rogers
F1 Oversteer

Verstappen got the start he needed and held both McLaren drivers off into turn one, before a surprise move towards the end of lap one from Piastri on harder tyres caught Norris napping, promoting him to second. The gaps remained fairly stagnant until the first set of pit stops, when McLaren brought Norris in to cover George Russell and Charles Leclerc.

He fought his way through traffic before crucially coming up against Yuki Tsunoda in the Red Bull. He finally got past him on lap 24, despite being off the track, but still had a Ferrari breathing down his neck. After staying out, Piastri would have to push his planned first stop of the race back when Norris had to pit to cover his rivals for a second time.

The Aussie rejoined in second, with a clear margin to his teammate, but more than a pit stop behind Verstappen out front. The running order would remain the same until the end, with Verstappen refusing to back the pack up, rolling to a 71st career victory. Norris didn’t have it easy, pushing right to the end, holding on to third place, not far ahead of Leclerc in the Ferrari.

‘Lando Norris becomes 2025 Formula 1 champion’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/max-verstappen-wins-the-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-as-lando-norris-becomes-2025-formula-1-champion/


Lando Norris wins 2025 F1 Drivers’ Championship despite Max Verstappen winning Abu Dhabi GP
Lando Norris clinches a dramatic first Formula 1 World Championship after a tense Abu Dhabi GP showdown with Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri
7 December 2025
Euan Burns
Total Motorsport

McLaren‘s Lando Norris won his first Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship at the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with a P3 finish around Yas Marina. That was enough to take the championship by just two points, despite rivals Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri finishing P1 and P2 respectively.

Verstappen made an aggressive move to the inside at the start in order to cover Norris, and the front three got through the first half of the lap with no incident. At Turn 9, though, Piastri made a stunning move on his teammate and moved up to P2, despite being on the hard tyre. Norris knew that P3 would still be enough for the championship, but it left him at more risk of falling further back.

All sorts of scenarios were being discussed by the McLaren pit wall, primarily focused on potential safety cars and how they would stack up against Leclerc on a restart. The laps just kept ticking by, though, and there was no nasty surprise for McLaren and Norris, who became the 35th different driver to win the Drivers’ Championship.

‘Lando Norris clinches a dramatic first Formula 1 World Championship’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/lando-norris-wins-2025-f1-drivers-championship-max-verstappen-abu-dhabi-gp/


Oscar Piastri cheekily quizzes Max Verstappen over F1 finale tactics
Oscar Piastri questioned Max Verstappen's tactics in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
07 Dec 2025
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

After the race, the Australian cheekily questioned Verstappen’s approach to the race. There had been suggestions that Verstappen would try and replicate the tactics used by Lewis Hamilton in 2016 when he tried to back up title rival Nico Rosberg into the chasing pack.

But Verstappen did not deploy such tactics and instead sealed a dominant win. “Didn't want to back everyone up?” Piastri asked Verstappen in the cool down room. Four-time world champion Verstappen replied: "When I heard the top 16 were still in the pit window, I thought that wasn't too bad."

“Didn't want to back everyone up?”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1088079/1/oscar-piastri-cheekily-quizzes-max-verstappen-over-f1-finale-tactics


Lando Norris takes Formula One title despite Max Verstappen win in finale
British driver finishes third at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to take championship by two points
Dec 07 2025
Giles Richards
Irish Times

Lando NorrisLando Norris has won his first Formula One world championship with a gutsy, nerveless drive of no little bravery to seal it with third place at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. A podium was enough for the 26-year-old British driver despite Red Bull’s Max Verstappen winning and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri taking second. Norris did exactly what was required of him in an enormously intense and high-pressure contest at the Yas Marina Circuit, including making a series of bold overtakes, with a flawless execution by himself and by his McLaren team.

In taking his first world championship he becomes the 11th British driver to do so and it brings to an end McLaren’s drivers’ championship drought, which stretched back to 2008, when Lewis Hamilton last won it for the team. It had been 27 years since McLaren last secured the drivers’ and constructors’ double in 1998, with Mika Häkkinen.

It marks a remarkable turnaround for the team, since a nadir in the mid-2010s when they twice finished ninth in the constructors’ championship. The revival has been helmed by Zak Brown, the team principal, who joined in 2016, and most recently by Andrea Stella, who as team principal has delivered an operationally sharp outfit with a hugely competitive car.

‘Lando Norris takes Formula One title & championship by two points’;

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/2025/12/07/lando-norris-takes-formula-one-title-despite-max-verstappen-win-in-finale/

[Fortitude]

Norris on first F1 title: I started to shake before finish.
“I felt calm until three corners to go. I started to shake a little bit. I got to think of all those incredible memories. Very quickly. And then I got to see the team.” Lando Norris.
December 07, 2025
Nate Saunders
TSN

YAS MARINA, Abu Dhabi -- Lando Norris said he started to shake in the final corners of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Englishman managed a tense race without putting a foot wrong, admitting the magnitude of the situation only hit him as he neared the chequered flag.
“I did feel calm,” Norris said on Sunday evening. “I felt calm until three corners to go. I started to shake a little bit. I got to think of all those incredible memories. Very quickly. And then I got to see the team. And I went over the line. And this is a moment that I’ll never forget.”

“I started to shake before finish”;

https://www.tsn.ca/motorsports/formula-1/article/norris-on-first-f1-title-i-started-to-shake-before-finish-n1-47236608/


Lando Norris' mum breaks down in tears as Lewis Hamilton congratulates F1 champ
Cisca Wauman gave an emotional Sky Sports interview after watching footage of Lewis Hamilton congratulating her son Lando Norris on his world championship triumph at Abu Dhabi
07 Dec 2025
DANIEL CLARK
Somerset Live

Cisca Wauman struggled to contain her emotions whilst speaking about her son Lando Norris securing the Formula One Drivers' Championship at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The McLaren driver came third in the desert race, which saw him edge out race winner Max Verstappen for the title by just two points. His Belgian mum then appeared before the Sky Sports cameras, where she was shown seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton - one of his childhood heroes - personally congratulating her son.

He's only the third British driver this century, following Hamilton and Jenson Button, and the eighth ever to lift the title. "That's special," Wauman remarked as she viewed footage of Hamilton, who subsequently declared himself "really, really happy" for Norris, congratulating her son in the media pen. Wauman, who repeatedly had to stop as she grappled with her tears of happiness, said: "I'm emotionally drained - so happy for McLaren and all the fans.”

“A lot of sacrifices - by the time he was eight, Lando and his brother Ollie were competing [in karting]. I feel like he missed a lot of childhood.", reports the Express. "The last few laps took ages! They were calling us down with 10 laps to go ... the race is not over. Anything could still happen! But we did it. I don't know what the plan is [for tonight]. Normally I just walk back to the hotel and I start reading my book, and I was planning on doing the same. I don't know what is happening!".

‘Lando Norris' mum breaks down in tears’;

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/sport/other-sport/lando-norris-mum-breaks-down-10691529


Norris survives ferocious Verstappen comeback to claim F1 title
December 7, 2025
Jerome Pugmire
Washington Times

No Formula 1 driver puts pressure on his rivals quite like Max Verstappen. The Red Bull star did it to Lewis Hamilton in 2021, winning his first title on the last lap of the season and preventing Hamilton from clinching a record eighth F1 title. Verstappen came close to winning the title again this year, mounting an incredible late charge to crank up the pressure on Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Earlier in the season, the McLaren teammates were contesting the F1 title between themselves.

But Verstappen changed all that. Heading into Sunday’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, it had become a three-way battle. Verstappen did all he could. He won in Abu Dhabi from pole position for a third straight race win, a season-leading eighth and 71st of a stellar career. It was not quite enough to overtake Norris, who won his first F1 title by placing third in the race and ending up just two points ahead of Verstappen in the standings.

But it showed why Verstappen commands so much awe. “This Max guy is pretty hard to beat,” McLaren CEO Zak Brown told broadcaster Sky with a large dose of understatement. One race earlier, at the Qatar GP, Brown had jokingly compared Verstappen to a horror movie ghoul who keeps resurfacing. “He’s like that guy in a horror movie, that right as you think he’s not coming back, he’s back,” Brown said in a podcast interview before the Qatar race. “What an unbelievable talent he is. He never makes mistakes. He seizes every opportunity. We’ve never thought he was out.”

“This Max guy is pretty hard to beat”;

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/dec/7/lando-norris-survives-ferocious-max-verstappen-comeback-claim-f1/


'You've driven insane this year' – Norris' fellow drivers congratulate him on his maiden title
Lando Norris became the 2025 champion in a nail-biting finale in Abu Dhabi.
07 Dec 2025
Formula One - Official Site

"I want to wish congratulations to Lando as he becomes World Champion. We’ve raced together for so long and he is more than deserving of the title. Hopefully we can do battle on track next year for the 2026 crown!" George Russell.
"Congratulations to Lando too," his Mercedes team mate Kimi Antonelli said. "He deserves it but also well done to both Max and Oscar Piastri who have also been brilliant this year. It was a great battle all year."

"Massive congratulations to @lando on his first Drivers’ Championship! He’s an incredible driver and he has proven that you can achieve your highest goals staying true to yourself! Congrats my muppet friend! Well deserved!" Carlos Sainz.
As the fireworks went off over the Yas Marina Circuit, Hamilton walked into Norris' post-race interview to say "I told you!" with a grin in a heartwarming moment, with both drivers now able to call themselves champions with McLaren.

"I think a very deserving winner," he said when asked to give his thoughts on Norris' achievement. "I know that every weekend I go on track, it’s going to be tough. And I think we’ve pushed each other through the last three years.” Oscar Piastri.
Max Verstappen congratulated Norris immediately after the race in Abu Dhabi

'You've driven insane this year';

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/youve-driven-insane-this-year-norris-fellow-drivers-congratulate-him-on-his.E68tNnOj8UI3Y3UPzQAi4


Lando Norris Clinches Historic F1 Championship: How Sporting World Celebrated His Success
Lando Norris won his first Formula 1 World Championship in Abu Dhabi, earning praise from rivals like Max Verstappen and legends including Lewis Hamilton.
Dec 08, 2025
NDTV Sports Desk

Max Verstappen, the man who was competing with Norris for the top spot in the drivers' championship, was among the first ones to congratulate the 26-year-old.
"Unbelievably proud," Verstappen wrote on social media. "We never gave up and kept pushing until the very end... @lando congratulations on your first championship. Well done mate."
Unbelievably proud We never gave up and kept pushing until the very end. Thank you @redbullracing, Honda and everyone for your support along the way!!!@LandoNorris congratulations on your first championship. Well done mate pic.twitter.com/bASx4nhvMU
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) December 7, 2025

The final race was a testament to the respect forged in intense competition. F1 legend Lewis Hamilton, himself a multiple world champion, struggled to hide his joy, especially upon seeing a fellow drive from the United Kingdom topping the drivers' charts.
"I'm really, really happy for Lando. Winning your first world title is truly special. The UK continues to pump out great drivers," he said.

Even the tennis world stopped and took notice of what happened in Abu Dhabi as wishes poured in. The legendary Novak Djokovic, a man familiar with the pinnacle of sporting success, posted on Instagram: "Congratulations Lando What a season! You are a World champion @lando."
Djokovic, who was present at an F1 Sprint Race earlier in the season, showed that he is truly a Formula 1 follower.
The 2025 Australian Open and Wimbledon winner, Jannik Sinner, was present in Abu Dhabi for the final race. Sinner, a known F1 enthusiast, witnessed the historic moment live, at the circuit.
"What a day Incredible to watch," he shared, "Huge congrats @lando on your first F1 World Championship ."
Spain's young star, Carlos Alcaraz, added his concise but powerful endorsement: " Many congrats @lando!"

‘How Sporting World Celebrated His Success’;

https://sports.ndtv.com/formula-1/lando-norris-clinches-historic-f1-championship-how-sporting-world-celebrated-his-success-9769115


FIA post-race press conference – Abu Dhabi
The top three chat to the press after the final race of the season.
7 Dec 2025
Formula One - Official Site

TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by David Coulthard)
Q: Lando Norris, you are a world champion! The world champion!
Lando NORRIS: The world champion. Oh, God. I've not cried in a while. I didn't think I would cry, but I did. It's a long journey. First of all, I want to say a big thanks to my guys, everyone in McLaren, my parents. I'm not crying. My mom, my dad, you know, they're the ones who supported me since the beginning. Oh, I look like a loser!
Q: You look like a winner to me. You're only the 35th man to win a Formula 1 world championship. This is the biggest prize in motor sport.

‘FIA post-race press conference’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/fia-post-race-press-conference-abu-dhabi-2025.13SwZ3sWL8IE8nXvPGiLiM

[Fortitude]

Was 2025 Oscar Piastri’s best chance at an F1 title or a prelude to future glory?
Oscar Piastri let slip a big lead in this year’s F1 title race but has vowed to learn some lessons for next season.
9 Dec 2025
Jack Snape
Yahoo! Sport

Tumbling from the Formula One precipice, ultimately Oscar Piastri was not the first Australian in 40 years to be crowned world champion. The man from Melbourne finished a narrow third in the driver standings this year behind his McLaren teammate Lando Norris and four-time champion Max Verstappen. Now, he is back to square one.
Midway through the season Piastri lead Norris by a comfortable 34 points and Verstappen by a chasm. But a run of six rounds without a podium left him on the outside looking in, and by the end at Abu Dhabi he finished 13 points behind his teammate.

The slender margin makes it tempting to find where those points might have been lost. McLaren’s order to switch positions in Monza cost the Australian six points in the battle with his teammate. The decision not to pit Piastri in Qatar during a safety car? Probably even more. Across a long season however, the Australian was responsible for his spin in Melbourne, and his accident in Azerbaijan. McLaren chief executive Zak Brown may be hard to like, but he is also hard to blame. On one hand, that means Piastri might not get a better chance to win a championship. He fumbled the title from the cockpit of the fastest car, with a 34-point lead on his nearest rival in the second half of a season.

Verstappen, racing for a new-look Red Bull team, now without long-time advisor Helmut Marko, will lead a field sure to improve. On the other, McLaren with all their resources and technical wherewithal are unlikely to become terrible overnight. Piastri is still one of Formula One’s younger drivers, and will be well-placed to adapt to the modified cars. In the time since Norris has been at McLaren, Piastri has driven for Alpine and in other classes, winning F3 and F2 championships.

‘Piastri’s best chance at F1 title or a prelude to future glory’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/helmut-marko-cost-red-bull-thousands-after-going-against-team-orders-with-2025-driver-decision/


Oscar Piastri vows F1 title hasn’t made Lando Norris ‘Superman’
8 Dec 2025
Taylor Powling
Motorsport Week

Oscar Piastri has denied that the situation at McLaren could change with Lando Norris’ title win in Formula 1, quipping that his team-mate hasn’t “become Superman”.

Asked if he suspects the dynamic at McLaren could change, Piastri told media including Motorsport Week: “No, I don’t think so. I don’t think that will change anything. “For me, he’s obviously had a great season this year and a deserving champion, but he’s still Lando Norris. It’s not like he’s become Superman.”

“So, I don’t think things will change with that. I’m expecting full fairness from the team and equality going forward. I don’t have any concerns that that will change at all. Clearly, Lando’s had a very strong season this year, and ultimately did a better job.”

‘Lando Norris hasn’t become Superman’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/12/08/oscar-piastri-vows-f1-title-hasnt-made-lando-norris-superman/


McLaren boss cuts in on Piastri's engineer team radio after Norris title win
9 Dec 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

A moment involving McLaren CEO Zak Brown interrupting Oscar Piastri’s post-race radio has drawn attention following Lando Norris’ title triumph. The McLaren team boss appeared to cut into the exchange between Piastri and his race engineer, Tom Stallard, moments after the chequered flag at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The British engineer, who was speaking to the 24-year-old upon the chequered flag at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, witnessed his conversation cut short as Brown jumped in with his own celebration.
Great job, Oscar. Obviously, that means Lando is world champion,” Stallard said.
“Oscar, what a season. What a season. You're a star, seven wins. We love you. We'll do it again next year. Thank you, Oscar, for everything you've done. What a year,” Brown interjected.

Stallard subsequently resumed his message, adding: “Well done to you, Oscar, as well. I mean, to be honest, where we were last year, the season you put together is pretty impressive. So when we go away, there are a few wounds to lick.”
However, Brown would again cut into their conversation to add: “Oscar, very proud of you. Awesome. What a team player. We're going to get it next year. See you at the podium.”

‘McLaren boss cuts in’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/brown-cuts-in-on-piastris-engineer-with-tone-deaf-message-after-norris-win


Furious fans unleash over two words Oscar Piastri's team boss used after the Aussie's F1 championship dream was shattered
8 Dec 2025
SHAYNE BUGDEN, SPORTS EDITOR, AUSTRALIA
MailOnline

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has been blasted by fans and a former F1 world champion for his message to Oscar Piastri just after the Aussie's title dream was crushed at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. However, two words in his message set fans off, and former champion Nico Rosberg accused the American of lacking empathy. 'What a season! What a season!' Brown began as Oscar was driving back to the pits after the final lap. 'You're a star. Seven wins. We love you. We'll do it again next year. Thank you Oscar for everything you've done. What a year. Oscar, very proud of you. Awesome. What a team player.'

The choice of the words 'team player' set off fans who have accused the team of breaking their promise to let Piastri and Norris race freely and without favouritism under McLaren's 'papaya rules'.
'Shafting Oscar all the way to the end,' one wrote on X.
'Stepping over his radio guy and sounding so full of s**t,' another said.
'I do not understand how Zak Brown and [team principal] Andrea Stella will be able to look Oscar in the eyes next season. Seriously disgraceful,' a third commented.
'1 grand slam, 6 poles, 7 wins, 13 podiums. all reduced down to “what a team player”. zak brown i wish you nothing but the worst,' another angry fan added.

Rosberg reacted to Brown's words by accusing him of being callous. 'That's his [Piastri's] most horrible moment in his racing career,' the 2016 drivers' champion said in commentary. Maybe Zak could have had a little more empathy there, rather than celebrating. He could have said "next year will be your year" but it's difficult for Zak because he's so ecstatic at the same time.'

‘Furious fans unleash’;

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-15362131/Oscar-Piastri-Zak-Brown-Max-Verstappen-radio-team-player-joke-Abu-Dhabi-Grand-Prix-McLaren.html


Martin Brundle and Nico Rosberg admit they got one thing wrong about Oscar Piastri in 2025
7 Dec 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Martin Brundle admits he ‘misread’ Oscar Piastri’s calmness during the 2025 F1 season. Brundle was previewing the race in Abu Dhabi for Sky Sports F1 (7/12 11:28 am), and while discussing Piastri, he said: “What we have to remember is he has 82 races less experience than Lando Norris. That’s three and a half seasons. Imagine how much Lando’s improved in the last three and a half seasons”.

“So, he is a future world champion. I have no doubt about that, Oscar Piastri. He’s had a couple of brutal penalties this year that have cost him dearly, at Silverstone, and of course, in Brazil as well. But I think we might misread him a little bit as well. I thought when he sort of went on the missing list a little bit for six races, didn’t he? Threw it in the wall in Baku had lost his head a little bit, and just generally, he basically. He’s not absolutely stone cold horizontal. I think he soaks a little bit as well. We misread him.”

Rosberg added: “I mean, mentally, he is so strong. I would consider him one of the strongest out there. He’s just so level-headed. It’s the same pizza in the evening, whether he wins the race or finishes fourth with the same crowd. Lando was also saying throughout this weekend that if there was one thing he’s jealous of Oscar for, then it would be Oscar’s level-headedness, and his mental approach and being so balanced.”

‘Mentally strong’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/martin-brundle-and-nico-rosberg-admit-they-got-one-thing-wrong-about-oscar-piastri-in-2025/


Juan Pablo Montoya thinks Oscar Piastri will ask one ‘big question’ after Lando Norris wins 2025 title
9 Dec 2025
Tyler Rowlinson
F1 Oversteer

Juan Pablo Montoya thinks Oscar Piastri will wonder if McLaren will change after Lando Norris becomes champion. McLaren have reiterated throughout 2025 that their drivers are equal and that they keep things fair between them. However, Piastri’s camp think they have ‘come off worse’ far too often at McLaren this season.

Team orders in Monza and Singapore left a sour taste in Piastri’s mouth, and Juan Pablo Montoya thinks he will ask a ‘big question’ at McLaren in 2026. He will wonder if things will change within the team, especially now that Norris will bear the number one on his car next year. Montoya said via F1 TV: “It’s hard. I think what Oscar said, at least he finished on a higher note, like he found the pace, he found the speed, he found everything he needed.”

“The big question for him in his mind is, next year, can I beat Lando again? Is the team going to change? Is anything going to change in the team because Lando is world champion? “And not only in Oscar but everybody in his camp, people are going to be wondering, do we need to stay, do we need to go? There’s going to be a lot of questions.”

‘Big question’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/juan-pablo-montoya-thinks-oscar-piastri-will-ask-one-big-question-after-lando-norris-wins-2025-title/

[Fortitude]

Dr. Helmut Marko decides to leave Red Bull.
After more than 20 years as Red Bull's motorsport advisor, Dr. Helmut Marko has decided to step down at the end of 2025.
9 December 2025
Niels Hendrix
Verstappen.nl

Helmut Marko, said: “I have been involved in motorsport for six decades now, and the past 20-plus years at Red Bull have been an extraordinary and extremely successful journey. It has been a wonderful time that I have been able to help shape and share with so many talented people. Everything we have built and achieved together fills me with pride. Narrowly missing out on the world championship this season has moved me deeply and made it clear to me that now is the right moment for me personally to end this very long, intense, and successful chapter. I wish the entire team continued success and am convinced that they will be fighting for both world championship titles again next year.”

Oliver Mintzlaff, CEO corporate projects and investments Red Bull, said: “Helmut approached me with the wish to end his role as motorsport advisor at the end of the year. I deeply regret his decision, as he has been an influential figure for more than two decades, and his departure marks the end of an extraordinary era. After a long and intensive conversation, I knew I had to respect his wishes, as I gained the impression that the timing felt right for him to take this step. Even though his departure will leave a significant gap, our respect for his decision and our gratitude for everything he has done for Red Bull Racing outweigh it. Helmut Marko will be deeply missed, both personally and professionally. We wish him all the very best for the future and hope that he will remain closely and warmly connected to the team.”

“Now is the right moment for me”;

https://news.verstappen.com/en/article/6050/


What's really behind Marko's sudden Red Bull exit
Dec 9, 2025
Scott Mitchell-Malm
The Race

Helmut Marko will leave Red Bull at the end of 2025, ending a run of more than 20 years as the Formula 1 team’s motorsport advisor. The move has been framed as Marko’s decision “to step down” but his exit is understood to have a complicated backstory. Significant clashes included Marko making derogatory remarks about then-Red Bull driver Sergio Perez being Mexican in late 2023, a fallout over a failed attempt to oust Marko in early 2024 that Verstappen publicly criticised, and lately Marko sparking significant abuse of Kimi Antonelli for comments made after the Qatar Grand Prix.

Reports in the Netherlands also suggested that Marko has made questionable junior driver decisions this year that Red Bull disagreed with and had to intervene on to overturn. This is believed to relate to whether ex-McLaren junior Alex Dunne would join the programme or not. Despite the claims in Red Bull's release, Marko's exit is no surprise given relations seemed to have cooled significantly and it was understood that both Mintzlaff and Red Bull shareholder Chalerm Yoovidhya were in agreement after the Abu Dhabi finale that he should be removed.

It is understood that his exit was agreed upon and communicated across Sunday evening and then Monday, ahead of Tuesday's announcement. What is less clear, though, is what this means for Verstappen. The four-time world champion was a staunch defender of Marko – who gave Verstappen an F1 seat at Toro Rosso straight out of Formula 3 in 2015, which fostered an intense loyalty to each other.

‘Complicated backstory’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/whats-really-behind-helmut-marko-sudden-red-bull-exit/


Red Bull’s Silent Coup: Helmut Marko Ousted
December 9, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

For years Helmut Marko was the unfiltered voice and roaming enforcer of the old regime: a director at Red Bull Racing, a talent spotter with a fearsome hit rate, and the man who could swing a junior driver’s career with a phone call. But power at Milton Keynes shifted after Mateschitz’s death in 2022. Oliver Mintzlaff moved into a top role at Red Bull GmbH, and the guard changed again this season when Christian Horner was removed from his positions, with Laurent Mekies elevated to run Red Bull Racing after his stint heading Racing Bulls. Marko survived that first storm. It appears he didn’t survive the second.

The flashpoints have been building. Marko has always spoken on his own terms, often dropping sensitive tidbits into the media stream with little sign-off. That autonomy was largely tolerated in the Horner years. Not anymore. Under Mintzlaff and Mekies, the leash tightened, and Marko’s independent streak became a liability rather than an asset. One episode in particular jarred. As reported elsewhere this week, Marko struck a deal on his own to bring Irish youngster Alex Dunne into the Red Bull programme — with no input from Mekies or Mintzlaff. When that contract was subsequently terminated, a penalty clause is said to have been triggered, leaving Red Bull on the hook for a six-figure sum that could now end up underwriting parts of Dunne’s 2026 F2 campaign with Rodin, along with his exit from McLaren’s junior ranks. For the current leadership, it was a flashing red line: unilateral decisions, corporate bills.

The temperature rose further around Singapore, where Chalerm Yoovidhya — who represents the powerful Thai shareholding in Red Bull — was understood to be unimpressed with aspects of Marko’s behaviour in the paddock. The final straw, sources say, arrived in Qatar. On live television, Marko suggested that 18-year-old Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli had effectively opened the door for Lando Norris late in the Grand Prix. Antonelli was already dealing with a wave of social media bile; the insinuation poured petrol on it. An apology followed from the team, with Mekies personally involved. Bridges don’t burn easily at Red Bull, but that one was well alight.

‘Silent Coup’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/red-bulls-silent-coup-helmut-marko-ousted/


Red Bull are about to pay the price for the big mistake Helmut Marko made just before his exit
9 December 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Helmut Marko has rushed Arvid Lindblad into an F1 seat. Few within Red Bull would have had any qualms about Hadjar’s promotion given his scintillating form at Racing Bulls and Tsunoda’s bleak results. There was more resistance, however, to the idea of promoting Lindblad. Some at Red Bull doubt that Lindblad is ready for F1, which isn’t a slight on the Briton given that he only turned 18 in August. He only stepped up from karting in 2022.

Juan Pablo Montoya, whose son Sebastian also races in F2, shared the same concerns but said Marko was fast-tracking Lindblad ‘by force’. F2 insiders think Lindblad needed a second year in the series to address the weaknesses he displayed in 2025. He only scored two podiums in the last 16 races of the campaign. Laurent Mekies didn’t want to rush Lindblad but Marko’s opinion clearly held sway. Now Red Bull could pay the price.

‘Marko was fast-tracking Lindblad by force’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/red-bull-are-about-to-pay-the-price-for-the-big-mistake-helmut-marko-made-just-before-his-exit/


Helmut Marko's Red Bull exit fuelled by 'recent antics' - report
Helmut Marko appears to be heading for the exit door at Red Bull - is this the reason why?
9 Dec 2025
RacingNews365 Staff
RacingNews365

De Limburger report states that Marko signed Lindblad on his own initiative, which was not completely aligned with other members of the Red Bull management team. Even more strikingly, however, De Limburger reports that Marko also signed a contract with Alex Dunne. “Marko knew that it had already been decided by shareholders, team boss Laurent Mekies and sporting director Mintzlaff that Dunne would not be an option for the junior program. Without anyone knowing it, Marko signed the Irishman anyway," the report reads.

It was a situation that did not go down well inside Red Bull, and Marko was immediately instructed to terminate the contract. Dunne, who left the McLaren F1 programme earlier this year, was never presented as a new Red Bull junior - and the team reportedly had to fork out a significant fee to get out of the contract.

The Austrian was in the spotlight once again after the Qatar Grand Prix after accusing Kimi Antonelli of deliberately handing over position to Lando Norris amid a tense title fight. Antonelli lost momentum through a mistake, gifting a crucial two points to Norris.

'Recent antics';

https://racingnews365.com/helmut-markos-red-bull-exit-fuelled-by-recent-f1-signings---report


Verstappen's first reaction after Marko officially departs Red Bull
9 Dec 2025
Olly Darcy
GPblog.com

Max Verstappen said he is "forever grateful" for Helmut Marko and his "belief" in the Dutchman as the Austrian is set to depart Red Bull. Along with Sebastian Vettel, Verstappen became the second four-time World Champion to come out of the Young Driver Program, and there was plenty of praise from the 28-year-old towards Marko.

"Thank you, Helmut," the Dutchman started by saying in a post on Instagram regarding the news of Marko's departure. "We’ve achieved everything we ever dreamed of together. I’m forever grateful for your belief in me."

‘Verstappen's first reaction’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/verstappens-first-reaction-after-marko-officially-departs-red-bull

[Fortitude]

Leclerc reveals why he doesn't "have any real expectations" for 2026 despite his faultless drive in Abu Dhabi.
"Next season is still a blank slate, and we don’t know where the other teams stand, so we don’t have any real expectations yet. After this week, we will head back to Maranello to regroup, and our job will be to focus all our efforts on preparing for the season ahead as best as we can." Charles Leclerc.
08 Dec 2025
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

On the back of a disastrous Qatar Grand Prix a week ago, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc delivered a faultless drive at the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, albeit he still missed out on a podium finish at the Yas Marina Circuit. Explaining, Leclerc said: "I gave it everything and our team executed the race perfectly. Unfortunately, P4 was all there was in it for us today. "I really wanted to finish the season on a high, bringing home a podium for everyone, and I was close to Lando (Norris) in a few moments of the race, but it was not enough to make a pass.”

"A huge thank you to our whole team, both at the track and at home in Italy, for all the hard work put in this year, as well as our Tifosi for their ongoing support. It’s been a tough season for us." Ahead of the sweeping technical changes that will come into force next season, Leclerc admitted that nobody can have a "real expectations" until the brand-new cars complete their first laps during pre-season testing.

"Blank slate”;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/28091


Leclerc's 'now or never' F1 warning to Ferrari
Dec 10, 2025
Jon Noble
The Race

Charles Leclerc says Ferrari's progress next year is critical to his future at the Formula 1 team, as he warns it will be a ‘now or never’ season for the squad. Asked by The Race, off the back of the current struggles, if he still believed he could be world champion with Ferrari, he said: “I do." But he added: "And next year will be a crucial year.”

This is why Leclerc thinks that where teams end up next year will pretty much decide their fate in F1 for the medium term. “It's tough but at the same time, honestly, I think the whole team is hugely motivated for next year, because it's such a big change, a huge opportunity to show what Ferrari is capable of,” he said. “And it's now or never. So I really hope that we will start this new era on the right foot, because, yeah, it's important for the four years after.”

'Now or never';

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/charles-leclerc-ferrari-f1-warning-2026/


Hamilton Demands Ferrari Reset—Who Loses the Radio?
8 Dec 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Hamilton hints at Ferrari shake-up as engineer dynamic stays under scrutiny. Lewis Hamilton isn’t hiding behind platitudes anymore. On the eve of the Abu Dhabi finale, the seven-time champion made clear Ferrari’s winter to-do list isn’t just about wind tunnels and updates. It’s about people. “Whether people need to move into different positions to work better,” he said, is on the table when he sits down with Ferrari’s key decision-makers. Coming after a season of radio friction and thin results, his words land with weight.

Paired with Riccardo Adami, the experienced voice who previously steered Carlos Sainz. On paper, solid. In practice, it’s been scratchy. We’ve heard the sharp edges over team radio this year, and seen the body language too. Hamilton has publicly pushed back against the idea of a broken partnership — “Our relationship is great… We don’t have any problems whatsoever,” he said earlier in the season, dismissing the noise as “BS” — but he also hasn’t glossed over how hard it’s been to mash styles together on the fly.

In Abu Dhabi, he described a meticulous personal audit running all season long: every weekend catalogued, decisions logged, mistakes dissected. The winter plan? Analyse it all, then press for changes in how his camp, and the wider team, works around him. “My surroundings in terms of personal personnel, team personnel, how you utilise people… all these different things need to be looked upon… so that we can optimise our teamwork.” That reads like more than a casual tidy-up. It’s a driver making the case that Ferrari’s structure around him needs rebalancing — and yes, that could extend to who sits on the other end of the radio next year.

“Optimise our teamwork”;

https://fastestlap.com/news/hamilton-demands-ferrari-reset-who-loses-the-radio/


Ferrari set to copy Mercedes and abandon Sebastian Vettel innovation to help Lewis Hamilton in 2026
8 Dec 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari planning new steering wheel in their 2026 F1 car to help Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton has spent much of this season trying to help Ferrari improve, using the experience he gained from winning six titles at Mercedes to his advantage. Some Ferrari staff haven’t appreciated Hamilton’s advice, but a report from Motorsport Italia has shared more details about the work being done by Ferrari ahead of next year.

Arthur Leclerc was in Hamilton’s car in FP1 in Abu Dhabi, testing a ‘prototype’ steering wheel, which is slightly lighter and doesn’t contain as many of the myriad of options that the current part does. This simplified steering wheel is said to be more similar to what Hamilton worked with at Mercedes.

However, it should be noted that Hamilton requested steering wheel changes before his Ferrari debut at the start of the year, but continuing to evolve in his requests should only suit him better in the future. The layout of the buttons has been ‘completely redesigned’ with 2026 new aerodynamic rules in mind. DRS was officially retired at the end of Sunday’s race, but there will still be different racing modes that drivers have to adapt to.

‘Helping Ferrari improve’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-set-to-copy-mercedes-and-abandon-sebastian-vettel-innovation-to-help-lewis-hamilton-in-2026/


Martin Brundle gives his verdict on Lewis Hamilton’s F1 future after harrowing 2025 Ferrari season
8 Dec 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Two former drivers were speaking about the seven-time world champion’s future. Rosberg said: “It’s horribly tough. And that’s why, actually, Martin, do you think he might call it a day on this incredible career and retire?”

Brundle replied: “The trouble is that his stats and his reputation are not being enhanced with this. But I would have thought he’ll wait and see if Ferrari get it together for 2026, see how he’s going, see how they’re going, if he’s enjoying it. I think if we were asking that question a year from now, when he’s had a difficult season. I would be very surprised if he just switches it off in the winter. What do you think?”

Rosberg continued: “I think he has to continue, because he’s stopping, that’s not cool. He only just started this Ferrari project, and to give up in a way, after only one season, I think that doesn’t work. So, he has to continue and give it another shot and hope that maybe he feels comfortable and that next year’s car, and that maybe that car is also a good car, because this year’s car is not great.”

‘Verdict’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/martin-brundle-gives-his-verdict-on-lewis-hamiltons-f1-future-after-harrowing-2025-ferrari-season/


Ex-Ferrari boss questions Hamilton signing after first troubled season
9 Dec 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Former Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene spoke about the decision he would’ve made on Lewis Hamilton if he were still running the team. The seven-time world champion was the bold gambit Maranello’s top management were willing to make to haul Ferrari back to the top and build a dream line-up alongside Charles Leclerc… … But the reality of this season has told a very different story, with Hamilton unable to score even a single podium and sitting miles behind his teammate in the standings.

“I honestly don’t know if I ever would have signed him,” Arrivabene told Sky Italy. “It’d be too easy to say no now, at the end of the season. The only truthful answer is: I don’t know. When you bring in a driver of his calibre, the team also takes on huge responsibilities. You can’t just assume that he’ll show up — even as a world champion — and magically change everything. You have to give him a competitive car and the conditions to do his job. You need real guarantees and you have to feel the weight of that responsibility.” Asked whether he’d have taken Adrian Newey instead, Arrivabene didn’t hesitate in his answer: “Yes. I’d have taken him without a second thought.”

‘Ex-Ferrari boss questions Hamilton signing’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/ex-ferrari-boss-questions-hamilton-signing-after-first-forgettable-season


Lewis Hamilton reveals winter break plans: 'Phone going in the bin'
10 Dec 2025
Fergal Walsh & Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

Lewis Hamilton has shed light on his plans for the F1 winter break, stating he will be uncontactable as he prepares for the new season. “I don’t particularly feel relieved,” Hamilton said after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. “I feel fine. I feel pretty fresh. I’m just looking forward to the break." Reflecting on the season, Hamilton replied: “I don’t. I’ve said all I can about this season already. Just moving forward.”

As he prepares for the new campaign, Hamilton replied, “At the moment, I’m looking forward to the break, to disconnecting, not speaking to anyone,” he said. “No one will be able to get hold of me this winter. I won’t have my phone with me, I’m looking forward to that. I would say I’ve generally always had it around. But this time, it’s going in the frickin bin.”

“Disconnecting”;

https://racingnews365.com/lewis-hamilton-reveals-winter-break-plans-not-speaking-to-anyone

[Fortitude]

Antonelli apologises to Verstappen for costing him F1 title.
Kimi Antonelli apologised to Max Verstappen after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, believing his Qatar mistake played a part in the Red Bull driver missing out on the world championship.
10 Dec 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

Mercedes’ strategy in Qatar had put Antonelli ahead of Norris for most of the race, but after defending for several laps he slipped up while pushing for a podium against Carlos Sainz. “After so many laps in dirty air, I’m pushing so hard, the mistake arrived,” Antonelli said after the penultimate race. “At that moment I did a mistake and Lando passed me.”

While the two points from Lusail ultimately matched the title margin, several figures in the paddock stressed that the rookie’s moment was not the decisive factor. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff labelled any suggestion of intentional interference “nonsense,” adding: “He had a small moment. That’s all.” It was also noted that McLaren would have no doubt moved Norris ahead of Oscar Piastri in Abu Dhabi regardless, meaning the championship would not have hinged solely on the Qatar result.

After 58 laps in Abu Dhabi, he approached Verstappen in the media pen, embraced him and said, “I’m really sorry.” Verstappen immediately dismissed the idea that the teenager owed him anything, replying: “Mate, don’t be. It’s all good. No hard feelings.”
Max saying “mate don’t, it’s all good, don’t worry” to kimi who’s probably apologising omg ��pic.twitter.com/jcjQzak7fE
— zax (@maybezax) December 7, 2025
The exchange, captured by Mercedes’ social channels, showed no tension between the pair. Verstappen listened with a smile and shook Antonelli’s hand before the two went their separate ways, offering a stark contrast to the online hostility the Italian has endured since Qatar.

“Mate, don’t be. It’s all good. No hard feelings.”;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-kimi-antonelli-apology-max-verstappen-championship-swing-qatar-incident/


The Max Verstappen request that spoke volumes about Kimi Antonelli
Kimi Antonelli made an unusual post-race request to Mercedes.
10 Dec 2025
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Moments after crossing the finish line in P15, Antonelli asked race engineer Peter Bonnington for an update on the state of the championship.
“So Norris won the championship?” Antonelli questioned.
“Affirm, yes,” ‘Bono’ replied, to which Antonelli immediately asked: “How much?”
“So Norris P3, 16-and-a-half seconds,” Bonnington responded.
“No, but by how many points?” Antonelli clarified.
“So that was just two, just two points,” came Bonnington’s reply.

The 19-year-old Italian made a mistake on the second-to-last lap which enabled Norris to sweep past into fourth place and collect two extra points that would turn out to be crucial in the title fight. Antonelli inadvertently played a role in the title fight on two occasions that involved Verstappen, having torpedoed the four-time world champion into retirement at the Austrian Grand Prix.

On both occasions, Verstappen made it clear Antonelli had done nothing wrong and supported his younger colleague and friend. But Antonelli’s post-race actions in Abu Dhabi suggest he felt an element of guilt in Verstappen’s failed bid to become a five-time world champion.

‘ “No, but by how many points?” Antonelli clarified. “So that was just two, just two points,” came Bonnington’s reply’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1088144/1/max-verstappen-request-spoke-volumes-about-kimi-antonelli


Wolff calls Abu Dhabi ‘mediocre’ – but admits he’s ‘pleased’ Mercedes finished P2 in championship
Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff reflects on the Silver Arrows finishing second in the Teams' Championship.
10 Dec 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Mercedes secured second place in the Constructors’ Championship behind winners McLaren courtesy of George Russell’s fifth in Abu Dhabi. It meant the Silver Arrows finished 18 points ahead of Red Bull – but while team boss Toto Wolff was pleased, he was not over the moon with the race itself. “Our race can be summed up in one word: mediocre. It was a lonely one for George who wasn’t threatened from behind but didn’t have the pace of the front four cars,” Wolff explained.

“He was managing his tyres to bring the car home on the one-stop, and he did that successfully. For Kimi, he tried his best from a difficult starting position, but we just didn’t have the speed in the car to enable him to get back into the points. It is not the way we wanted to end the year, but we can be pleased we secured P2 in the Constructors’. Since the midpoint of the season, that has been our aim.”

‘Mediocre’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/wolff-calls-abu-dhabi-mediocre-but-admits-hes-pleased-mercedes-finished-p2.ri4k2xCS2yvdsUEXMV5o2


‘A dreadful race from start to finish’ – Russell rues ‘odd’ lack of pace in Abu Dhabi
It was a tough season finale in Abu Dhabi for George Russell, the Mercedes driver having slipped backwards at the start before ending the race in P5.
10 Dec 2025
Formula One - Official Site

George Russell was left bemused by having “no pace” in his Mercedes W16 during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with the Briton crossing the line in fifth on a weekend that saw the squad seal P2 in the Teams’ Championship.

“A dreadful race, start to finish,” Russell conceded afterwards. “We just had no pace – it was a bit odd. I was fifth, which is a result that was much better than the true picture. Obviously Kimi being down in 15th is quite abnormal, for us as a team to be that far off.”

“I think you always want to end on a high, but we had a goal these last couple of race weekends, and that was just to secure P2 in the championship,” Russell explained. “I think we’re all very glad this era has come to a close, because it’s been a real challenging one for everyone bar McLaren and Red Bull, and we’re excited for a clean slate.”

‘Dreadful’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/a-dreadful-race-from-start-to-finish-russell-rues-odd-lack-of-pace-in-abu.6jeGpbnlbE2heMX58Ykkis


Mercedes will cut number of F1 teams it supplies engines to – Wolff
10 Dec 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

CEO and co-owner Toto Wolff says he and Mercedes chairman Ola Kallenius have discussed scaling back the number of teams which use its power units after Formula 1 introduces its new engine formula next year. “Our current mindset is, also discussing with Ola, that we will reduce the amount of teams we’re going to supply in the next cycle,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. He said the optimum number of teams is likely to be “between two and three, I guess.”

“It depends on new regulations going forward,” said Wolff. “Are they rather simple or not? What is it we believe we can learn by supplying more [teams] whilst at the same time needing to lock in some designs earlier?” Supplying a total of four teams means Mercedes will have to bring a total of 16 power units to the first race of next season. If you’re Honda on your own [it will be] four or five. So that means longer lead times, longer production cycles.

Hywel Thomas, the managing director of Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains: “We’ve shown in the past that having more than one team [means] you’re getting more data, you’re getting more information, you’re [covering] more kilometres,” he said. “Just because you’ve got all those cars. You’ve got four times the engineers all sitting around telling you ‘no, you can do this better, you can do this more this way’, and that is very, very beneficial to have all that coming at you. It doesn’t always feel like it, but it definitely is in terms of making a great product. I’m not even sure whether the right place is one team, two teams, three teams, four teams. I’m not sure. There’s definitely a sweet spot in there somewhere and I think it’s probably nearer four than one.”

‘Scaling back the number of teams which use its power units’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/12/10/mercedes-will-cut-number-of-f1-teams-it-supplies-engines-to-wolff/

[Fortitude]

Vasseur shrugs off Ferrari drivers’ criticism: ‘It’s part of the job’.
“I would be destroyed if I had the drivers telling me that we are doing a good job” Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur.
10/12/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Whether Ferrari finishes first or fourth, Team Principal Fred Vasseur said the internal culture demands continuous improvement. “It doesn't matter if you are P4, P3, P1. The DNA is to do a better job,” he said. “I accept this perfectly and the most important [thing] for me is that they keep the same approach to the debriefing. To try to get a better car, a better team, a better everything and it's like this that we will improve.”

Vasseur argues that silencing criticism would be a warning sign – not a solution. “I would be destroyed if I had the drivers telling me that we are doing a good job,” he said. “The summary of the season for a driver is to find where we can improve. Always that I'm not there to have [drivers telling me] 'we are doing a good job on this and this and this'.”

He emphasised that pushing the team to its limits is an essential part of both drivers’ responsibilities. “But their DNA and my DNA is to try to push the team to do a better job. It means, they have to come to us, Charles and Lewis, when it's not Lewis, it's Charles, it's both of them. They have to come to us and to push the team on the limit. Everywhere, on every single area and for sure, we can improve and we can improve everywhere.”

“The DNA is to do a better job”;

https://f1i.com/news/556202-vasseur-shrugs-off-ferrari-drivers-criticism-its-part-of-the-job.html


Fred Vasseur gives thoughts on Hamilton/Leclerc complaints after Ferrari chairman criticism
10 Dec 2025
Sam Cooper
PlanetF1.com

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur said he has no problems with his drivers complaining in the media as he is more focused on improving the team. The criticism of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc was put into the spotlight after Ferrari chairman John Elkann said they should “talk less” but Vasseur has taken a less combative approach, it would seem.

After a disappointing season, the Ferrari team morale took a hit when Elkann suggested his drivers should do less talking – leaving Vasseur caught between a rock and a hard place in terms of who he sides with. To his credit, the Frenchman managed to navigate the situation with minimal backlash and has now said he does not care what Hamilton or Leclerc say as his main focus is on improving the team.

“I don’t pay attention to the reaction in the TV pen,” Vasseur said after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. “The most important for me is to have a guy coming back to us and pushing the team to do a better job and to work all together to try to get better results. The fact that they are emotional sometimes on the radio and it depends on the guys. All of you know Charles, [he] is always a bit critical with himself first and with the team and with everybody, but it’s always with a positive dynamic.

‘Vasseur caught between a rock and a hard place’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/fred-vasseur-pays-no-attention-hamilton-leclerc-complaints-ferrari-chairman-critcisim


Vasseur: "would be destroyed" if drivers praised Ferrari in 2025
10 Dec 2025
Owen Bradley
GPblog.com

Ferrari was forced to endure an extremely difficult 2025 season, with both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton appearing frustrated throughout the year. Ferrari Team Principal, Frédéric Vasseur, has addressed comments made by both Ferrari drivers. "I would be destroyed if I had the drivers telling me that we are doing a good job." - Frédéric Vasseur

Ferrari Team Principal, Frédéric Vasseur, was asked about how the drivers are feeling. The Frenchman responded: "I would be destroyed if I had the drivers telling me that we are doing a good job. The summary of the season for a driver is to find where we can improve. Their DNA and my DNA is to try and push the team to do a better job."

Vasseur continued: "They have to come to us, Charles and Lewis, it's not Lewis or Charles, it's both of them. They have to come to us and to push the team on the limit, everywhere, on every single area. For sure, we can improve and we can improve everywhere." This comes after rumours that Lewis Hamilton wasn't being listened to by Ferrari, with ex-F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya stating: "The faster Ferrari’s team and engineers listen to Hamilton on how to make the car better, the better it will be for the team in the long term."

“They have to come to us and to push the team on the limit, everywhere, on every single area”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/vasseur-would-be-destroyed-if-drivers-praised-ferrari-in-2025


Ferrari boss reframes Hamilton's 'anger' following torturous F1 2025 end
11 Dec 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Lewis Hamilton finished the F1 2025 season P6 in the Drivers' standings, 86 points behind teammate Ferrari Charles Leclerc and with "a lot of anger." "Honestly, the most important for me is to have a guy coming back to us and pushing the team to do a better job and to work all together to try to get better results." - Frederic Vasseur.

After seeing out the F1 2025 campaign with a fourth consecutive Q1 exit in Abu Dhabi, Hamilton admitted to have been left with "just a lot of rage," comments which inevitable caught the media's attention. Ferrari team principal Fredereic Vasseur reacted to the seven-time world champion's comments understanding that they came from the consequential sensations after yet another poor result

Vasseur reframes Hamilton's anger as passionate proactivity. However, the Frenchman then highlighted Hamilton's action-taking attitude to setbacks, clarifying that emotional comments in the heat of the moment are not always a negative dynamic. "Honestly, the most important for me is to have a guy coming back to us and pushing the team to do a better job and to work all together to try to get better results," Vasseur added.

‘Vasseur reframes Hamilton's anger as passionate proactivity’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/ferrari-boss-reframes-hamiltons-anger-following-torturous-f1-2025-end


Ferrari boss vows the issues that derailed 2025 F1 prospects ‘won’t be there next year’
11 Dec 2025
Anirban Aly Mandal
Motorsport Week

“I think the philosophy of the car next year will be completely different,” Vasseur told media including Motorsport Week when asked if the lessons learned in 2025 would bear fruit for the team’s latest challenger next year. “Mainly the aero map of the car won’t be the same. And the issue that we have all this season won’t be there next year.”

While the Frenchman was confident that the regulations reset would eliminate any lingering weaknesses, he sprouted in the caveat of the team suffering from “other issues” that the new regulations might pose. “But we’ll have other issues for sure,” he clarified. “Tyres are a key factor all the mid-season. Not the mid-season, but this one is a bit different due to the layout of the track. The event Mexico, Austin, all these events.”

“You had a tendency that everybody was taking on the out lap. And it was crucial sometimes for 5 kph on the out lap. You were out or in the window. And this is making a difference of one or two tenths on the quali lap. But one or two tenths, once again, it’s a good or a very bad result.”

‘Issues that derailed 2025 F1 prospects won’t be there next year’;


https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/12/11/ferrari-boss-vows-the-issues-that-derailed-2025-f1-prospects-wont-be-there-next-year/


Vasseur explains why Ferrari shifted focus to 2026 car back in April
29/11/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Team principal Fred Vasseur has pulled back the curtain on why the Scuderia decided to shift its attention to 2026 so early. Vasseur explained that Ferrari’s early-season missteps and McLaren’s rapid pace made the decision unavoidable. "We didn't start in the best way, there was the double disqualification in China,” he explained. “This cost us tons of points compared to the direct competitors. And quite early in the season, McLaren was so dominant in the first four or five events that we realised it would be very difficult for 2025.”

Vasseur made it clear that the decision to prioritise 2026 was shared across the team, including with both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. "This decision was shared by everybody in the team," he said. "For sure, the drivers were part of this decision, because they are fully committed to the project. It's something that we have to share all together, that in this kind of situation you have to act as a team and it's what we did at this stage of the season."

With resources concentrated on the future, Ferrari also continued mechanical development to ensure the 2025 car remained competitive where possible. "At one stage you have a look at the championship, and it would be very difficult to come back on McLaren with the pace and points [difference]. And you say: 'Okay, with the resources that we have in the wind tunnel, let's be focused on 26. On the other end, you can still continue to develop the mechanical side and bring some upgrades on the car except aero, and it's what we did. Honestly, we had a good reaction to tough sessions and weekends, and let's see next year if we did a good job this season."

‘Fred Vasseur has pulled back the curtain’;

https://f1i.com/news/554796-vasseur-explains-why-ferrari-shifted-focus-to-2026-car-back-in-april.html

[Fortitude]

How Helmut Marko beat one of his fiercest F1 rivals to signing Max Verstappen for Red Bull in 2014.
A full-time seat with Red Bull’s sister team, Toro Rosso, was tabled, and the rest is history.
11 December 2025
Ashley Hambly
HITC

Helmut Marko would later get one over on Niki Lauda by beating him to Max Verstappen’s signature. It’s no secret that both Mercedes and Red Bull were vying for the signature of a 16-year-old Verstappen after previously making waves in karting and holding his own in Formula 3.

According to Hughes, there was a ‘tug of war’ for Verstappen’s talents, and his father, Jos Verstappen, was entertaining both sides, waiting for the right offer. Mercedes were just entering their dominant period, and Lauda had offered the young Dutchman a seat in GP2 with a ‘planned pathway to F1’.

Marko knew this and also knew that he had to come up with an even more attractive offer in order to sway his mind. A full-time seat with Red Bull’s sister team, Toro Rosso, was tabled, and the rest is history.

‘An even more attractive offer’;

https://www.hitc.com/how-helmut-marko-beat-one-of-his-fiercest-f1-rivals-to-signing-max-verstappen-for-red-bull-in-2014/


Helmut Marko’s unseen reaction to Gianpiero Lambiase looking upset after the 2025 F1 finale
11 December 2025
Shay Rogers
F1 Oversteer

After the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Helmut Marko was seen talking to an emotional Gianpiero Lambiase, Verstappen’s race engineer, after missing out on the world title.

“When GP was in tears on the pitwall, three days ago, who came and gave him an ‘It’s alright mate, it’s alright.’? It was Helmut,” Ted Kravitz told the Sky Sports F1 Podcast. “There’s something deep inside me that is sorry to see the old guy go.”

“Something very small, and I will take it up, put it in a small bag, and throw it in the bin when we’ve finished this podcast, because I think his time has finished.”

‘It’s alright mate, it’s alright.’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/helmut-markos-unseen-reaction-to-gianpiero-lambiase-looking-upset-after-the-2025-f1-finale/


Vettel voices disbelief at Marko stepping away from Red Bull
Vettel caught off guard by Marko's sudden departure from Red Bull
12 Dec 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Sebastian Vettel was surprised by Helmut Marko’s departure from Red Bull. Speaking to Sport1 and F1-Insider, the four-time world champion said: “I was just as surprised as everyone else. I wish Helmut all the best for his future and a well-deserved retirement.”

“Helmut can call himself the originator of Red Bull’s success in Formula 1,” Vettel added, also noting that Marko was “the architect of success not only in terms of driver selection — central decisions on the team’s lineup, personnel, and strategy were also made by him.” The first fruits of Marko’s empire came during the peak years of the former German driver, who was the first to deliver a championship to the Milton Keynes team in 2010 and continued to do so for four consecutive years until 2013.

In an exclusive interview with GPblog, Marko didn’t rule out the possibility of attending “one or two Grand Prix,” but made it clear he has no interest in returning full-time. The Graz-born executive also dismissed any role as an F1 analyst, jokingly saying, “You’ll never see me running around with a microphone making interviews.”

‘Vettel voices disbelief’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/vettel-caught-off-guard-by-markos-sudden-departure-from-red-bull


Guenther Steiner explains why Red Bull won’t be ‘worse off’ after Helmut Marko’s F1 exit
11 December 2025
Shay Rogers
HITC

Guenther Steiner expects ‘well-established’ Red Bull to be fine without Helmut Marko. Ex-Haas boss Guenther Steiner thinks that the team and drivers will be just fine without Marko’s influence. His departure isn’t so significant, in his eyes.

“I don’t think they will be worse off,” he told the Red Flags Podcast. “I don’t know if they are better off, but I don’t think they will be worse off, because the team is well-established, it seems like, under the leadership of Laurent [Mekies].”

“It seems like they know what they want and what they do. The races are the same, they did a good job and I think if there is something happening, Helmut Marko can always come back.”

“The team is well-established”;

https://www.hitc.com/guenther-steiner-explains-why-red-bull-wont-be-worse-off-after-helmut-markos-f1-exit/


What Red Bull owners have ‘explicitly’ told Max Verstappen about the team’s future after Helmut Marko exit
10 December 2025
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

In an update from Motorsport Nederland, F1 journalist Ronald Vording revealed the latest news regarding Verstappen’s future at the team following the exit of one of his closest confidantes, Marko. He said, “Max has often publicly defended Marko. The best example is Saudi Arabia last year. In the midst of that whole power struggle with Christian Horner. When Marko’s position came under pressure, he was actually in danger of being sacked. And Max said, if [Marko] has to leave, then he’s leaving too. So Max had Marko’s full support there.

“That might give the impression that this also has direct consequences for Max Verstappen, but insiders say that it’s a bit more nuanced than that. Firstly, of course, there is the much-discussed Marko clause. From Red Bull’s point of view, this has already been neutralised with a kind of side letter. But secondly, what Red Bull has now, the Austrian side and also the Thai side in terms of owners, have once again expressed their full commitment in light of all this, and they have made this clear to Max Verstappen.”

“They have also explicitly entered into that conversation. And Max himself said on Sunday that the atmosphere in the team is up to him, he can see that very clearly now. So, under the leadership of Laurent Mekies, Max Verstappen feels comfortable. He even added that he feels better here in Abu Dhabi now than he did a year ago. Of course, he was world champion then, and now he is not. But back then, he felt that everything was going wrong at Red Bull. And now there is a sense of calm.”

“Neutralised with a kind of side letter”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/what-red-bull-owners-have-explicitly-told-max-verstappen-about-the-teams-future-after-helmut-marko-exit/

[Fortitude]

Where’s Oscar? McLaren ‘team’ photo says a thousand words.
“Our last team pic of the year,” McLaren posted triumphantly… …someone was missing from the photo… Piastri.
13 Dec 2025
Peter Maniaty
Sporting News

“Our last team pic of the year,” McLaren posted triumphantly from its headquarters in Woking, Surrey, with hundreds of staffers crowded excitedly around their new F1 World Champion Lando Norris.

Only trouble was, as many observers quickly noticed, someone was missing from the photo who had a rather significant role in the constructors’ and drivers’ world championship battles for McLaren in 2025: Piastri.

“Think you’re missing a pretty important part of the team in this pic,” commented one follower.
“Team pic? I didn’t know you only had one driver…” replied another.
“Let me guess Oscar took the picture,” said another.
With Piastri contracted to McLaren until the end of 2028, the next few seasons promise to be interesting to say the least—‘papaya rules’ or not.

‘McLaren ‘team’ photo’;

https://www.sportingnews.com/au/formula-1/news/wheres-piastri-mclaren-f1-team-photo-thousand-words-norris/f20ea3bc2b7f2288326f66a4


Australian TV keeps taking swipes at McLaren for alleged ‘Norris bias'
13 Dec 2025
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

The narrative that Oscar Piastri was not being treated equally by McLaren continues in Australian media, after another TV segment was introduced this way. Following a Piastri interview with Australian media ended after the season finale in Abu Dhabi, a TV presenter said: "Let’s hope Oscar can do it next year… if McLaren don’t work against him."

Now, on Australian TV channel 10 News+, in a segment on how much money Piastri earned this year, a different presenter began: "When Australia's Formula 1 weapon Oscar Piastri lost out in the Drivers' Championship in Abu Dhabi this week, the entire country felt robbed.”

"Throughout the season, his team McLaren had seemingly preferenced his teammate and eventual champ Lando Norris, but this might soften the blow a little, at least for Piastri, with word today he will receive a $41 million bonus."

‘Australian TV keeps taking swipes at McLaren’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/australian-tv-keeps-taking-swipes-at-mclaren-for-alleged-norris-bias


George Russell privately felt sorry for Oscar Piastri over 2025 controversy, ‘he didn’t deserve that’
13 December 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

George Russell felt Oscar Piastri’s British GP penalty was wrong. Piastri is regarded as an unflappable driver but there was one moment above all in 2025 where he appeared to be seething. The Australian was on course for victory at the British GP until he received a 10-second penalty for driving erratically just before a safety car restart. The subsequent delay at his pit stop handed the win to Lando Norris. Piastri, who felt the penalty was unfair, optimistically asked McLaren if they would consider swapping the cars back. This gambit failed, and the 14-point swing is even more painful in light of the final standings.

Speaking on the F1 Show, Sky Sports pundit Karun Chandhok revealed that GPDA chief and Mercedes star George Russell sided with Piastri over the incident. “I reckon he lost 31 points, including the disqualification in Vegas, and Lando lost 36 points between the non-finishes and the disqualifications,” Chandhok said. “Silverstone, I felt that was really harsh. The safety car turned the lights off really late. You watch the onboards, and I spoke to some other drivers, including George Russell, who was in that queue, who thought he didn’t deserve that. The point is that I think he’s been on the wrong end of the penalties on a couple of occasions.”

‘He didn’t deserve that’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/george-russell-privately-felt-sorry-for-oscar-piastri-over-2025-controversy-he-didnt-deserve-that/


Herbert sees Piastri eyeing exit from McLaren after Norris’ title triumph
11 Dec 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Johnny Herbert has suggested there is a possibility that Oscar Piastri could leave McLaren following Lando Norris’ championship triumph. “At this moment in time, I can see Oscar Piastri looking to move on from McLaren. As things stand, he may feel so frustrated that he wants to look elsewhere,” Herbert began.

However, the former Sauber driver questioned such a decision, highlighting how the McLaren outfit has proven capable of delivering a championship-winning car. “But why would you want to move on from a team that can actually supply you with the car to win the World Drivers’ Championship?” he added. “If he moved to Ferrari, for example, there is no guarantee at all that he would get a chance of being World Champion. If he moved to Mercedes, there’s no guarantee either. The team that’s in the moment is McLaren, and arguably Red Bull,” he continued.

Herbert, however, suggested a move to the Red Bull Racing outfit could offer Piastri such a chance, though having Max Verstappen as a teammate could present its own challenges. “Those are the only places where you’re probably going to be able to win a World Championship. But one of them has Max in the seat. Would he want to go into that environment?” he concluded.

‘Herbert sees Piastri eyeing exit’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/herbert-sees-piastri-eyeing-exit-from-mclaren-after-norris-title-triumph


Lando Norris will be worried about what McLaren staff keep saying privately about Oscar Piastri
11 December 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

McLaren CEO Zak Brown was quick to praise Oscar Piastri on the team radio as he crossed the finish line at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, despite missing out on winning the drivers’ championship. Nico Rosberg wasn’t a big fan of Brown’s message to Piastri, but it highlighted something important about the way McLaren have conducted themselves this season.

Journalists Nate Saunders and Laurence Edmondson have now shared what staff within McLaren keep saying about the 24-year-old. McLaren staff think Oscar Piastri has a higher ceiling than Lando Norris. Saunders was speaking about Piastri on the Unlapped Podcast and explained: “I don’t buy this idea that there’s been a favourite in one way massively.

“I think he’s come off worse, maybe in the 50-50s. But I think he handled that pretty well, Piastri. You know, and he was very self-reflective.” Edmondson replied: “I think the one thing which we hear consistently about Oscar from the team is that he is incredibly intelligent and incredibly good at taking on lessons from the realities of Formula 1, from the issues that face him during a race.”

‘What staff within McLaren keep saying’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/lando-norris-will-be-worried-about-what-mclaren-staff-keep-saying-privately-about-oscar-piastri/

[Fortitude]

Ben Sulayem lets Norris off the hook after FIA Awards Ceremony 'F-bomb'.
"We had our fair share of mistakes and f*** ups. Can I say that here? I’m okay? Oh, sorry. I got fined. I can pay it off now." Lando Norris.
13 Dec 2025
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Lando Norris made a mistake on stage at the FIA Gala by dropping an 'F-bomb', but he will not have to deal with the consequences according to the reaction of FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem. On stage, before handing the trophy over to Norris, FIA President Ben Sulayem said: "First of all, when he said the ‘F’ [word], it was going to be a €5,000 fine."
However, Norris will avoid any fine. The Emirati added: "But now I think you need it for your hair after I messed it!"

Previously, Max Verstappen was required to complete mandatory community service for swearing during an FIA press conference at the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, which he served in Kigali, Rwanda, during last year's FIA Awards Ceremony.

'F-bomb - Off the hook’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/ben-sulayem-lets-norris-off-the-hook-after-fia-awards-ceremony-f-bomb


Norris escapes FIA swearing fine as McLaren confirms worst-kept secret – roundup
13 Dec 2025
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

Saturday’s fast-paced F1 news includes Lando Norris avoiding a fine for swearing during his speech at the FIA prize-giving gala as Zak Brown confirms McLaren’s worst-kept secret ahead of F1 2026.

Zak Brown, the McLaren chief executive, has dropped the biggest hint yet that the team will retain its so-called ‘papaya rules’ between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri for the F1 2026 season.

‘Worst-kept secret’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/f1-lando-norris-mclaren-fia-punishment-secret


F-Bomb, Hair Ruffle, World Title: Norris Steals The Night
December 13, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Lando Norris dropped an F-bomb in his world champion speech. The FIA president turned it into a punchline. At the federation’s end of season gala in Uzbekistan, Norris was officially handed the 2025 world championship trophy — the first McLaren driver to do so since Lewis Hamilton in 2008, and the 11th Briton to wear the crown. He’d clinched it six days earlier in Abu Dhabi with a measured P3 behind Oscar Piastri and race winner Max Verstappen.

On stage, FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem welcomed Norris with a hair-ruffle and a grin, then nearly made it expensive. When Norris thanked McLaren and reflected on “our fair share of mistakes and f— ups,” Ben Sulayem playfully shot back: “5,000.” A nod to the FIA’s tightened stance on swearing in official settings — and the going rate for a public profanity. “First of all, when he said the ‘eff’, it was going to be a €5,000 fine,” Ben Sulayem joked, before adding that he’d let the champion keep the cash to undo the Presidential hair muss. The room laughed. So did Norris.

It was a suitably loose end to a high wire season. Norris praised McLaren — the team he joined as a teenager — for delivering a car that could go toe to toe with Red Bull, lauding an internal rivalry with Piastri that sharpened both drivers. He also paid tribute to Verstappen, who missed the ceremony through illness, for the relentless pressure that forced McLaren to keep finding answers. “Congratulations and thank you to McLaren,” Norris said from the podium. “At times they gave us an incredible car that made life very easy and beautiful. Oscar’s been an incredible teammate, he’s helped me improve so much over the last few seasons. And to Max for challenging us the whole way — doing what Max does.”

‘F-Bomb - The FIA president turned it into a punchline’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/f-bomb-hair-ruffle-world-title-norris-steals-the-night/


Norris laughs off after F-bomb during FIA Gala: 'I got fined'
13 Dec 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Lando Norris let his guard down a little more than usual at the FIA Gala, where he was officially crowned world champion for the 2025 season. The newly crowned world champion received the trophy he had dreamed of since childhood just yesterday in Uzbekistan, after beating Max Verstappen and his team-mate in a three-way title showdown in Abu Dhabi last week.

“This is a lot of people’s dream, a lot of racing drivers’ dream - the Brit said during the FIA gala - I got to finally live it — live that one dream I had when I was a little kid. I remember standing on the stage many, many years ago — 2014 I think it was — standing there with Jackie, even before that.”

“It’s been amazing to grow up here alongside so many of you, growing up with McLaren, getting to race all the world champions I’ve been up against — Lewis, Max, Seb, Fernando — all the incredible drivers I looked up to and watched when I was a little kid. To get that chance to race against them, try to beat them, to show what I can do against them all — and we’ve managed to do that this year.

“This is a lot of people’s dream - I got to finally live it”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/norris-laughs-off-after-f-bomb-during-fia-gala-i-got-fined


Lando Norris finally lifts F1 trophy, crowned champion at FIA gala
Lando Norris and McLaren collect their F1 trophies at FIA gala in Uzbekistan.
13 Dec 2025
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Norris collected his trophy from FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who has been re-elected for a second four-year term. The 26-year-old Briton clinched his maiden world championship by finishing third at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last Sunday.

Norris pipped Max Verstappen to the title by two points to end the Red Bull driver’s four-year reign at the top of F1, and become the first McLaren driver to win the championship since Lewis Hamilton in 2008. Norris’s McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished third in the world championship, 13 points shy of winning his maiden world title, was also in attendance. Verstappen missed the event due to illness.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella and CEO Zak Brown collected the Woking squad’s second consecutive constructors’ championship trophy. Norris was not able to get his hands on the trophy immediately after winning the championship in Abu Dhabi. A replica of the trophy, which was created in 1995, was on the grid ahead of the season finale, but the real thing was flown to Uzbekistan.

‘Lando Norris finally lifts F1 trophy’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1088198/1/lando-norris-finally-lifts-f1-trophy-crowned-champion-fia-prize-gala


Lando Norris opens up on psychologist help with crucial 2025 title margin
12 Dec 2025
Thomas Maher
PlanetF1.com

With mind management being an area Norris has acknowledged could have tripped him up, he took on the services of a psychologist in the middle of 2025 to help him work on eliminating distractions and to keep his focus, as he detailed to Sky Sports News. “Very,” he told Craig Slater, when asked about the significance of a psychologist to his championship bid. When you look at the end of the season, two points were all I needed, you know?”

“There are plenty of places that I could have gotten more points. There’s also plenty of places I could have lost more points, and it’s hard to quantify, ‘Did this one meeting help you get this many points?’ You don’t really know this thing, because it’s just a collection of work, and you go through everything, ‘Is this going to help you potentially do a better job?’ “

“If it’s a yes, you’ve got to do as many of those different things as you can. Certainly, working with a psychologist and different people in many different areas all played a part. How much? Very difficult to know. But did it make me perform better? Did it allow me to get wins in the second half of the season and have that run, which I would say effectively got me the championship in the end? Yes. So every small piece can add up and make a big difference.”

‘Mind management’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lando-norris-how-psychologist-helped-with-f1-2025-title-win


Norris personally addreses McLaren F1 after 'unforgettable' achievement.
11 Dec 2025
Olly Darcy
GPblog.com

Lando Norris has returned to the McLaren Technology Centre for the first time since becoming World Champion, celebrating that feat with the whole team. “It’s unbelievable to be here as a Drivers’ World Champion," Norris started by saying at the factory. "It’s been my dream since all those years ago, watching on TV and wondering what it’s like to be there one day, with no idea about what it takes, and what it could mean to everyone, not just to me.”

“One of the things that’s most important to me has been the people who helped get us to this point. Whether it’s my family, friends, management, trainer, but also the people who design, create and build the car, my mechanics, and my engineers. What puts a smile on my face is seeing the team’s reaction - that’s my biggest motivation. It means nothing without the people who helped you achieve it."

“Racing alongside Oscar the last three seasons has pushed me a lot more. He’s played a massive part in this. He’s been my teammate, and we’ve helped each other. He’s made the journey better, with an incredible fight right to the very end. I would like to say a big thank you from the bottom of my heart to every single person in the team. Everyone plays a part in our story. I will remember it for the rest of my life. Here’s to many more.”

'Unforgettable achievement’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/norris-personally-addreses-mclaren-f1-after-unforgettable-achievement

[Fortitude]

Why Max Verstappen’s F1 2025 comeback is ‘one for the history books’.
“It’s you guys [the media] that are here to judge how historical a season is compared to the others.” Laurent Mekies, Red Bull, Team Boss.
14 Dec 2025
Thomas Maher
PlanetF1.com

According to team boss Laurent Mekies, who took over from Christian Horner in the role during the summer, he witnessed something special from Verstappen, but said it’s in the eye of the observer as to whether F1 2025 was, in fact, the Red Bull driver’s best season performance. “It’s you guys [the media] that are here to judge how historical a season is compared to the others,” he said.

“I think it’s probably fair to say that the world discovered an even more extraordinary Max this season after his fourth world title. A bit because of the magnitude of the comeback. A bit because he has been so relaxed, so well seated in the team. Embracing so much that challenge with the right spirit.”

“A bit also because we have seen him racing elsewhere. I think it has all taken a bit of a part of our heart when we have seen him spending his free weekends being a new dad, racing with GT cars around the world. But for sure, in terms of whatever happens next, the scale of the comeback is something that hopefully will go in a few history books.”

‘Magnitude of the comeback’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/laurent-mekies-max-verstappen-f1-2025-comeback-one-for-history-books


Bernie Ecclestone Hails Max Verstappen as the Greatest Driver He’s Ever Seen
December 14, 2025
James Rees
F1 Chronicle

In a letter shared by F1 Insider, the former Formula 1 supremo described Verstappen as “the best Formula 1 driver I can ever remember,” a remarkable endorsement from the man who oversaw the championship for decades. “This year marks 75 years since the start of Formula One,” Ecclestone wrote. “I’ve seen many world changes, plus a few in Formula One, from bye-bye Christian [Horner] to catching up with Max, the best Formula 1 driver I can ever remember.”

Ecclestone also touched on the shifting competitive landscape, highlighting McLaren’s return to form under Zak Brown, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff “waking up,” and Lewis Hamilton’s struggles amid a less competitive package. Looking ahead, the 95-year-old warned that the next era of the sport may be anything but calm.

“2026 will not be a peaceful year for Formula 1, and the world is also looking for peace,” he wrote. “So take a few quids at the end of 2025. At 95 and with a five-year-old inquisitive son, I can’t follow my own advice. Do your best at whatever you are doing.”

“Max, the best Formula 1 driver I can ever remember”;

https://f1chronicle.com/bernie-ecclestone-hails-max-verstappen-as-the-greatest-driver-hes-ever-seen/?nowprocket=1


Ex-Ferrari boss hails Verstappen as Schumacher’s true heir: 'A phenomenon'
14 Dec 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Maurizio Arrivabene has lauded Max Verstappen, likening him to seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher in his recent assessment of the Red Bull Racing driver. "Don't joke! Max is a phenomenon. You see, there are fifty thousand components in a single-seater. Well, the Dutchman manages to squeeze the best out of every detail," Arrivabene said via Quotidiano Sportivo.

Further pressed about which driver from the previous era he would compare Verstappen to, Arrivabene continued: "Verstappen is Michael Schumacher's heir. He has the same strength, the same sense of leadership. He knows how to inspire those who work with him." Like Schumacher, Verstappen has continued to etch his name firmly into Formula 1’s history books. The 28-year-old has so far claimed four Drivers’ titles and also follows Schumacher on the list of all-time race wins with 71.

'A phenomenon';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/ex-ferrari-boss-hails-verstappen-as-schumachers-true-heir-a-phenomenon


Hill too chooses Verstappen over Norris: 'Sometimes the best doesn't win'
15 Dec 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Whereas in the past Damon Hill seemed to be one of Max Verstappen's most ardent critic, he now has nothing but praises for the Dutch driver. Speaking to Sky Sports, Hill said: “Max has that Schumacher quality. The focus, the relentlessness, the ability to extract everything from the car every single lap.”

“He does not switch off. Even when the pressure is enormous, he stays completely in control. That is something you only see in the very best. There are no wasted movements. Everything he does is calculated and effective.” Hill then recalled Verstappen's title charge in the second half of the season, in which he cut down a 104-point deficit down to only two with his Abu Dhabi Grand Prix win. “Coming back from such a big points gap and pushing it to the very end takes a special mentality," Hill added.

“He just kept delivering. Week after week, he was there," stating that: "Anyone can shine when things are easy. Max shines when things are difficult. Championships are important, but they do not tell the whole story. Sometimes the best driver does not win the title.” His praising of Verstappen then reached a new high, when he said the not only drivers, but teams were also forced into action by the Dutchman. “Teams had to react to him. Drivers had to think about him. That tells you everything. When you race against someone like Max, you have to raise your game or you fall behind.”

“He just kept delivering. Week after week, he was there";

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/f1-champion-damon-hill-sometimes-the-best-driver-doesnt-win-the-title


‘I see him as my friend’ – Verstappen pays tribute to race engineer Lambiase after ‘emotional year’
Following an eventful season for Red Bull, Max Verstappen has praised race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.
11 Dec 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Following the race, Lambiase sounded emotional as he told his driver: “Max, you have given everything – you can be proud of that, mate. Hold your head up high.” Verstappen was heard to say in response: “We showed them one final time who’s boss! Congrats guys, what a comeback in our second half of the season. We can be really, really proud of that so don’t be too disappointed. I’m definitely not disappointed. I’m really proud of everyone to never give up.”

‘Emotional year’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/i-see-him-as-my-friend-verstappen-pays-tribute-to-race-engineer-lambiase.0MDWfJVYlbPEP08tgwmfR


Verstappen reveals why he ended the current season with "a better feeling" than last year
11 Dec 2025
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

Asked when he could take as much pride from this season compared to the pride he took from the last four years when he won the championship, Verstappen revealed that the reason why he had "a better feeling" at the end of the current season than last year.

"I mean, at the end of the day, of course, it’s always nicer to win it. But, honestly, I’m sitting here now with probably a better feeling than what I had last year at this time because the second half of last year was pretty tricky at times as well. So, we have been struggling for, I would say, a year — the second half of last year and the first half of this year. But I actually feel a lot better now.”

The Dutchman continued: "Of course, shame to miss out on the title, but at the same time, for a long period of time I was not even thinking about the title. I never felt like I was in it until a few rounds ago. That’s pretty crazy. But, yeah, you take your pride in different ways. I’m happy with myself and going into next year I’m not in a state of having to worry about my skills or whatever. So, yeah, I feel good.”

“You take your pride in different ways”;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/28096


What really cost Verstappen title beyond his biggest error
Dec 11, 2025
Scott Mitchell-Malm
The Race

Max Verstappen mentioned with the "early Christmas presents" he was given in the second half of the season, there were many mistakes made by the McLaren drivers and their team in the second half of the year. You can construct all manner of combinations of lost points on that side to explain why Piastri wasn't champion and why Norris nearly got beaten - far, far more than what Verstappen gave up.

"The first half had some nice moments, but mainly tough moments," Verstappen said. "Some really tough races and feelings." It is astounding he ever came anywhere near winning the title after that. This speaks to the quality of the final third of his season and the progress Red Bull was able to make in getting its car to work at or near its best more often. It allowed Verstappen to amass a bigger win tally than either McLaren driver for the season - something that would have been unthinkable going into the summer break with 14 of the 24 rounds complete.

After the break, Red Bull actually had a quicker car than McLaren more often. Further car upgrades and a more aggressive set-up approach brought big wins - at the cost of a couple of weekends with big setbacks, although Verstappen mitigated those brilliantly. He views this season as his best in F1 and maybe that is why, even if you can pick out one or two moments that could have been better, Verstappen insists he has "no regrets" about it.

"Early Christmas presents";

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what-really-cost-max-verstappen-title/

[Fortitude]

Max Verstappen 'thanked' for keeping McLaren title fight alive.
"We have to thank Max Verstappen for once again putting in such an incredible overtaking [performance]," added Timo Glock. "Trailing by 104 points, we all thought: that's it."
12 December 2025
Gerd Jansen & Nick Golding
RacingNews365

Max Verstappen staged a remarkable comeback in the second half of the 2025 season, but fell just short of capturing his fifth consecutive world title. When Verstappen found himself 104 points adrift, Norris was also a reasonable margin behind Piastri after suffering a technical failure in the Dutch GP. As a result, many expected the title to be won before the final race, let alone for a three-way scrap to be decided in Abu Dhabi.

"It was great how he [Verstappen] managed to make this world championship so exciting again," Glock said. "About the best driver of all time, we don't need to argue — that's Max Verstappen at the moment. He is open, he has admitted his weaknesses, and yet he has remained true to himself," highlighted Former F1 driver Timo Glock. "It's nice to see that drivers today are not just made of steel."

‘Max Verstappen thanked';

https://racingnews365.com/max-verstappen-thanked-for-keeping-mclaren-title-fight-alive


Max Verstappen handed 'miracle' praise despite F1 title defeat
Max Verstappen came agonisingly close to winning a fifth F1 title earlier this month in Abu Dhabi.
16 December 2025
Fergal Walsh
RacingNews365

Former F1 driver Romain Grosjean has declared it was a “miracle” that Max Verstappen entered the season finale in Abu Dhabi as a title contender. “Abu Dhabi was almost the least exciting race of the whole season, but the build-up to Abu Dhabi was amazing,” Grosjean told beIN Sports.

“Max Verstappen, I got to say for me, this year, is the [most] outstanding driver of all of them. He didn't have a good car, lost a lot of points and then came back. It was a miracle that he was in the fight in Abu Dhabi. There was no world where he should have been in there and finishing two points only behind Lando Norris,” he said.

“He’s definitely delivered one of his best seasons. Last year was strong as well. The year before, the car was so dominant that it was easier. His first world championship was tough in the battle with Lewis. This year, just coming back so from so far behind, and being so impressive and so consistent and strong, that has been very, very inspiring for a lot of drivers.”

“The [most] outstanding driver of all of them”;

https://racingnews365.com/max-verstappen-handed-miracle-praise-despite-f1-title-defeat


Verstappen aims dig at rival teams in speech to Red Bull staff
12 Dec 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Max Verstappen appeared to aim a subtle dig at rival Formula 1 teams during his end-of-season address to Red Bull Racing staff in Milton Keynes. “Everyone is just as important to achieve this type of success, and especially, I think, in a season like this where we had tough times and everyone stuck together and made it work. I know it sucks to lose by two points,” Verstappen began.

“But at the same time, we can be super proud… coming out of very tough times and overcoming these things and starting winning again in one season. Maybe other teams can do that the season after, or two seasons, or 20… some. It’s super impressive to see that, and for me, I’m very proud to be part of it. It’s honestly like my second family,” he concluded.

“Everyone stuck together and made it work”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/verstappen-aims-dig-at-rival-teams-in-speech-to-red-bull-staff


How Red Bull is processing Max Verstappen’s narrow F1 championship loss in 2025
12 Dec 2025
Taylor Powling
Motorsport Week

Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies has insisted Max Verstappen‘s marginal Formula 1 title loss won’t lead the team to scrutinise its missed opportunities more than usual. Mekies reckons it would be wrong to get caught up thinking too much about the occasions where Verstappen could have captured those elusive two points.

“I don’t think we should now go into making the list of the circumstances on where we could have found these two points,” he told media including Motorsport Week. “We will probably do it internally in a way we will learn from the mistakes we make, but we don’t need to wait for the end of the championship to do that. We anyway always do it. But the two points could be everywhere.”

“What is important is that we as a group turned around things in the way that has been done,” he continued. “All the credit should go to our people in Milton Keynes for having believed in this year’s project, and having been proven right, I guess.”

All the credit should go to our people in Milton Keynes”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/12/12/how-red-bull-is-processing-narrow-max-verstappen-f1-title-loss/


Max rewarded with Action of the Year award at FIA Gala
14 December 2025
Kees-Jan Koster
Verstappen.nl

Max Verstappen has been honoured with the Action of the Year award at the FIA Gala. At the gala in Uzbekistan, which Max was unable to attend due to illness, he was announced as the winner following his overtaking move on Oscar Piastri just after the start of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in May earlier this year.

The other nominees were Haas driver Oliver Bearman, for his move on Max during the Mexican Grand Prix, and Lando Norris for his overtake on Oscar Piastri at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Fans were able to cast their votes online and overwhelmingly chose Max’s move. Since Max made his debut in motorsport, this is already the fifth time the Dutch native has claimed this award.

‘Action of the Year award’;

https://news.verstappen.com/en/article/6052/


Max Verstappen believes 2025 marked his strongest F1 season to date – Was that the case?
14 Dec 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Max Verstappen believes that the 2025 Formula 1 season was his best in terms of overall driving and performance. Motorsport Week examines how that might be true.

“Yeah, I think so. I mean, I have no regrets about my season,” he told media including Motorsport Week. “I think the performance has been strong. I’ve hated this car at times, but I’ve also loved it at times. And I always tried to extract the most from it, even in the difficult weekends that we’ve had.”

“But, yeah, it’s been, like I said before, a proper rollercoaster with the car. Luckily, the last, I would say, eight, nine rounds in general have been a lot more enjoyable. And also, in the team, we have a great atmosphere at the moment. We’re really on a roll – positive energy, belief, confidence – and that’s exactly what you want heading into next year.”

“Great atmosphere at the moment”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/12/14/max-verstappen-believes-2025-marked-his-strongest-f1-season-to-date-was-that-the-case/

[Fortitude]

Ex-Ferrari F1 boss brands Lewis Hamilton documents ‘useless’.
Hamilton is not the first to try and enforce a change in a team notorious for being stuck in its own ways, stated Maurizio Arrivabene, Team Principal from 2015 to 2019.
17 Dec 2025
James Phillips
Motorsport Week

Ex-Ferrari Formula 1 boss Maurizio Arrivabene has hinted Lewis Hamilton faces a terminal decline, repeating the mistakes of previous drivers who moved to the team. Arrivabene confirmed Ferrari did not act on Vettel’s recommendations, the German a four-time champion with Red Bull when he arrived at Ferrari. Labelling Vettel’s documents “almost useless”, he compared the dire situation of Hamilton to Vettel’s decline during his time at the Italian marque.

“I don’t want to say anything bad about Sebastian, but everyone should mind their own business,” he said. “When a driver starts playing engineer, that’s it. Then it’s really over. Drivers spend two or three days in the simulator and get a general impression, but the devil is in the details. When the car is on the track, the driver must provide relevant feedback so that the engineers can make targeted improvements – especially when there is potential.”

Sebastian Vettel, the only driver with an understanding of Ferrari’s ways of working, believed Hamilton faces an uphill battle to save his career in 2026. “The longer it takes, the harder it becomes,” he said on the Beyond the Grid podcast. “He has the incredible ability to reflect the situation he’s in now, struggles he might have, and I think he’s still in a point of his life where this is what he wants to do. I think he has a fair shot from his performance, but a lot of things need to come together.”

“The longer it takes, the harder it becomes”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/12/17/ex-ferrari-f1-boss-brands-lewis-hamilton-documents-useless/


Ferrari told what they must give Lewis Hamilton to stop him from falling apart in 2026
17 December 2025
Tyler Rowlinson
F1 Oversteer

Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s relationship in their first year together was far from harmonious, as both parties struggled in 2025. The Maranello outfit opted to focus more on the 2026 F1 regulations, thus halting development on the SF-25. The upgrades they did bring, such as a modified rear suspension in Spa, did not improve their fortunes as they went winless in 2025.

Hamilton disagreed with Loic Serra, whom he brought to Ferrari from Mercedes, over the SF-25’s development. He wanted to continue improving the car, but Ferrari sided against him, and his form only got worse in the second half of the season, getting knocked out in Q1 in the final three races. Riccardo Patrese tells Ferrari to give Lewis Hamilton a competitive car in 2026 or he will ‘fall apart’. Asked by Quotidiano Nazionale if Hamilton was ‘finished’, the former F1 driver simply replied: “For goodness’ sake!” When he was told that the Brit’s season was ‘really slow’, he said: “Yes, but what kind of car did he have at his disposal?”

Patrese then said that Leclerc can challenge Max Verstappen in equal machinery. When asked what that has to do with Hamilton, he explained: “It does, because Lewis is the driver who has broken all the records in F1. He has won seven world championships, which would be eight because we all know how his eighth title was taken away from him in Abu Dhabi in 2021. You have to give a guy like that a competitive car, otherwise he’ll fall apart. Put Lewis in a Ferrari that’s at least close to the strongest team and you’ll see he’ll still be in contention.”

‘Give Lewis Hamilton a competitive car in 2026’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-told-what-they-must-give-lewis-hamilton-to-stop-him-from-falling-apart-in-2026/


Vasseur admits he underestimated psychological impact of switching focus to 2026 as he reflects on ‘tough’ 2025 season
Ferrari ended the season as the fourth-best team after they elected to put more of their resources into refining their 2026 challenger.
16 Dec 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur has conceded that the choice to sacrifice some upgrades in 2025 in order to have more resources available for next season’s car was “quite tough to manage psychologically", despite it being a collective decision. Asked to reflect on this season, Vasseur explained: “McLaren was so dominating in the first four or five events that we realised it would be very difficult for 2025. It meant that we decided very early in the season – I think it was the end of April – to switch to '26.”

“It was a tough call. Perhaps I also underestimated a little bit the call on the psychological side, because when you still have 20 races to go, or 18 races to go, and you know that you won’t bring any aero development, it's quite tough to manage psychologically. But overall, we continued to push. We brought some mechanical upgrades, and we are trying to do a better job operationally, and this is the DNA of our sport. We have to accept this. It was a call, and I’m still confident with the call that we made.”

“It was a tough call”;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/vasseur-admits-he-underestimated-psychological-impact-of-switching-focus-to.3oyVRa483d9gfRKTXpv2ss


Damon Hill tells Lewis Hamilton he ‘overdid the workload’ during his first season at Ferrari
17 December 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Damon Hill has now provided Hamilton with some advice before he takes on the upcoming 2026 campaign. He believes that in an effort to get up to speed as quickly as possible at Maranello, Hamilton might have taken on too much, and it hurt his performance.

Hill was asked about Hamilton on the Drive to Wynn Podcast and said: “I think they’ve all done a great job. This season is gruelling. I mean, they get paid well, and they’re doing the job they love, but, at 24 races and different time zones all over the place, it takes its toll. They definitely will need a break after this one. And mentally, I think it’s exhausting. I think Lewis, particularly, never really recovered from 2021.”

“I mean, he went into the next few seasons, and the car wasn’t competitive, and he struggled there. And I think he was demotivated, and he went to Ferrari as a kind of way to give himself another chance. I think he maybe overdid the workload. He was everywhere promoting and working, and trying to get to know the team. I think he probably needs a rest. I definitely agree that out of all of them, he probably needs to go away and just enjoy life.”

‘Overdid the workload’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/damon-hill-tells-lewis-hamilton-he-overdid-the-workload-during-his-first-season-at-ferrari/


Hamilton's dismal debut season linked to 'miscommunication' struggles
17 December 2025
Olly Darcy
GPblog.com

Former F1 driver Karun Chandhok believes that "miscommunication" between Lewis Hamilton and race engineer Riccardo Adami added to the Brit's struggles at Ferrari. “I just think that is one of the points of the season. Rewind all the way back to Melbourne, and there were so many points of miscommunication," the 41-year-old explained on The Fast and Curious podcast.

“Don’t forget, Lewis has come off the back of an incredibly successful time with Bono, and that relationship between driver and engineer is massively important. They can almost read your mind. Mercedes are the gold standard. They’re concise, they’re precise, they give the drivers the right bits of information. Lewis has gone from that to Ferrari, where there are cultural and language differences, and he’s not been able to make it work."

A catalyst in the relationship between the pair is something that needs to happen quickly, according to Chadhok. “I think there’s a wider thing around how they all communicate. I do think, and maybe they are doing this, but if I were in Lewis’ position, I would go after every race and listen back to how George communicates with Marcus Dudley, for example," continued the former HRT driver.

'Miscommunication struggles’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/hamiltons-dismal-debut-season-linked-to-miscommunication-struggles


Why Lewis Hamilton isn’t worried by Charles Leclerc gap in 2025
17 Dec 2025
Taylor Powling
Motorsport Week

With new regulations on the horizon in 2026, the Lewis Hamilton isn’t worried about how he stacked up relative to Leclerc during their opening season at the Italian marque. “I’m not concerned about it,” Hamilton told media including Motorsport Week. “No. Of course, I’ve just been focusing on my side during this period. Obviously, Charles has done a great job. He’s been there for seven years. He’s got a team around him that he’s worked with for many years. So, it’s a well-oiled machine.”

“On my side, it’s a new group of people. For me, it’s a new environment that I’m still getting used to working with. Then I had another new member halfway through the year. So, we’re all working as hard as we can, but getting that to work as well as someone that’s had it for several years is not… you don’t just do it like that. It takes a bit of time.”

“I’m not concerned about it”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/12/17/why-lewis-hamilton-isnt-worried-by-charles-leclerc-gap-in-2025/

[Fortitude]

Honda announces unusual F1 reveal for 2026.
Honda will break with Formula 1 convention by unveiling its 2026 power unit at a standalone launch event in January, ahead of its full works return with Aston Martin.
17 Dec 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

In an official statement, Honda said: “This is the Japanese marque’s first power unit under the dramatically reformed regulations which sees 50 percent internal combustion power and 50 percent electric power. At this event, we will share the aspirations of Honda and Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team as we take on the challenge of competing in F1, the pinnacle of motorsport. “We will also explain the new regulations and reveal our new power unit for the upcoming season.”

Honda has framed the project as the start of a long-term push to return to the front of the grid. “2026 marks the start of Honda’s new era in F1, having first entered in 1964,” the company added. “Since then, Honda has established itself as one of the most successful power unit manufacturers in the sport’s history.”

Honda president Koji Watanabe has also emphasised the scale of the challenge and the ambition behind the partnership. “I’m confident we’re going to deal well with these challenges,” he said. “Honda has been accumulating experience in F1 since 1964, and we’re confident that, working together with Aston Martin Aramco as one team, we can be very competitive in F1’s new era.”

‘Unusual F1 reveal’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-honda-reveal-engine-launch-date-sound-2026-regulations-aston-martin-details/


Honda opens up on ‘intense’ discussions with Adrian Newey amid Aston Martin partnership
19 Dec 2025
Tiana Soans
Motorsport Week

Honda Racing Corporation president Koji Watanabe has opened up on the “intense” discussions he has had with Aston Martin Formula 1 boss Adrian Newey. “We laughed a lot in the first meeting after he joined Aston Martin Aramco – it was very much a case of: ‘Well, here we are again!’” Watanabe quipped to Aston Martin.

“It’s very exciting that he’s here and, of course, there is huge respect for him and his capabilities,” Watanabe added. “In terms of power unit development, we have our processes and timetable for making a power unit that is capable and competitive,” he explained. “Adrian has been working from day one on doing the same for the chassis – so we’re working very closely and communicating a great deal at the point where those two things meet.”

“Whenever we’re having a technical discussion about components or development, it’s always with the long-term focus on how we get the win,” he said. “And that can be about anything: it might be a very detailed design issue, but equally it might be about competitor analysis, or how to manage people to get the best out of them, or even finance and using the limitations of the cost cap most effectively.”

‘Intense discussions’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/12/19/honda-opens-up-on-intense-discussions-with-adrian-newey-as-aston-martin-partnership-ramps-up/


Newey. Honda. Alonso. And Stroll: Weak Link or Weapon?
December 17, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Aston Martin’s 2026 bet looks bulletproof on paper: Honda power returning with a pedigree of four drivers’ titles in the last five, Adrian Newey sketching the future in green, and a two-time world champion in the other car. Which leaves one variable that keeps getting dragged into the spotlight—Lance Stroll. The Canadian finished the 2025 season 16th with 33 points, while Fernando Alonso logged 56. That gap has fuelled the familiar Stroll discourse heading into F1’s next rules reset: is he the weak link, or just chronically underestimated?

Former F1 driver Christian Danner didn’t hold back in a recent German TV hit, arguing Stroll doesn’t project much enthusiasm for the job. In Danner’s view, the body language reads indifferent, even grumpy, and in a normal team that would’ve had consequences. Aston Martin, of course, is not a normal team environment. It’s family. And that’s always complicated. Strip the emotion out and Stroll’s record is what it is: 193 starts, three podiums, no wins. Not bad. Not career-defining, either. He’s hovered in that grey zone where his raw speed shows in flashes—especially on chaotic Sundays—but not often enough to tilt a team’s trajectory over a season.

Newey, however, isn’t buying the caricature. Aston Martin’s new design boss believes Stroll “has an unfairly bad rap,” pointing to a long run of heavyweight teammates—Sergio Perez, Nico Hülkenberg, Sebastian Vettel and now Alonso—against whom Stroll has, in Newey’s words, been right there more often than outsiders give him credit for. Coming from the man whose cars have taken 26 world titles (14 drivers’ and 12 constructors’), that’s not a throwaway defense. It’s a framing: if Newey thinks there’s a platform to work with, the team will treat it as such.

‘Weak Link or Weapon?’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/newey-honda-alonso-and-stroll-weak-link-or-weapon/


Ted Kravitz names the F1 driver Aston Martin will want if they can’t sign Max Verstappen
18 December 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Ted Kravitz gives his verdict on Charles Leclerc to Aston Martin. Kravitz was speaking about what’s happening at Ferrari on The F1 Show and said: “Let’s not forget about Charles Leclerc.”

“Something else that happened this year was that his manager, Nicolas Todt, said just after the summer break, started talking about, well, it’s time for Charles to be in a car that’s worthy of the championship and potentially looking elsewhere. Even though I think he signed for Ferrari to the end of 2028. So it could be Leclerc leaving Ferrari before [Lewis] Hamilton does.”

Karun Chandhok responded: “He’s at his peak, isn’t he? He’s at an age and a time of his career where he’s now got the experience. He’s always had the speed. And he’s in that category with a George Russell, a Lando Norris, and an Oscar Piastri. That next rung just below Max Verstappen, who could all win the world championship in the right car if they had the opportunity.”

“Let’s not forget about Charles Leclerc”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ted-kravitz-names-the-f1-driver-aston-martin-will-want-if-they-cant-sign-max-verstappen/


F1 paddock ‘spies’ say Andy Cowell tried to leave Aston Martin after Adrian Newey dispute
3 December 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Andy Cowell will become Aston Martin’s chief strategy officer in 2026 after just one year as the team principal. This follows a reported dispute with Adrian Newey. It’s widely claimed that Newey and Cowell were at odds over the ultimate hierarchy at Silverstone. The former started work as ‘managing technical partner’ in March. But from 2026, Newey will take over the role of team principal. It’s unclear if his remit will be quite as expansive as that of Cowell.

Meanwhile, the former Mercedes engine chief will work with new partners Honda as well as fuel suppliers Aramco. Newey told Sky Sports in Qatar that Cowell had ‘very magnanimously volunteered’ to focus on integrating the Honda power unit, which opened up the team principal vacancy. Joe Saward’s paddock ‘spies’ have painted a very different picture. They say that Cowell ‘actually resigned’ from the company altogether, but owner Lawrence Stroll convinced him to stay in a separate role.

Lawrence Stroll is seen as ruthless, but he gives his staff second chances. This isn’t the first time that Stroll has moved key staff around. Mike Krack was reassigned to lead Aston Martin’s trackside operation when Cowell became the boss.

‘Ruthless’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/f1-paddock-spies-say-andy-cowell-tried-to-leave-aston-martin-after-adrian-newey-dispute/


Matt Bishop: Why Newey's new F1 team principal title isn't the real story
December 2, 2025
Matt Bishop
Motor Sport Magazine

When Aston Martin announced that Adrian Newey, the most celebrated drawing-board sorcerer in F1 history, would henceforth be addressed as team principal, a sizeable tremor could be felt rolling through the F1 paddock. Why? Because, on the face of it, it was a crazy development, that is why. Or, to put it another way, why would Lawrence Stroll take his extremely highly paid 66-year-old car design genius and diffuse his focus by unnecessarily expanding his responsibilities in a direction in which he has never shown any skill hitherto?

Well, Stroll is cannier than that. So my guess is that Newey’s apparent elevation is less of a new role and more of a judicious repositioning: the marking out of new territory for and by a man who has spent 40 years demonstrating that you can, in fact, teach an old dog new tricks, providing, of course, that the old dog in question is a 66-year-old aero messiah whose tricks were better than everyone else’s to begin with. And that is the key: for all the chatter about Newey’s new role, no one who has watched the arc of his extraordinary career could believe for a moment that he will suddenly relax his devotion to his daily worship at the altar of aerodynamic innovation in favour of management speak, motivational huddles, media tartery, or the complex abstractions of corporate and commercial strategies.

‘Adrian Newey: Devotion to his daily worship at the altar of aerodynamic innovation’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/matt-bishop-why-neweys-new-f1-team-principal-title-isnt-the-real-story/?nowprocket=1

[Fortitude]

F1 bracing for 2026 engine controversy over ‘thermal loophole’.
Estimates suggest this exploit could yield a performance gain of up to 15 horsepower, which translates to roughly 0.3 seconds per lap—a massive margin in the context of modern F1.
20 Dec 2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

The Compression Conflict: The controversy centers on Article C5.4.3 of the 2026 technical regulations. For the upcoming era, the FIA has mandated a reduction in the maximum geometric compression ratio from 18.0:1 to 16.0:1. This change was intended to curb peak performance and promote more efficient combustion, yet it has inadvertently created a technical battlefield.

The loophole apparently resides in how the FIA measures this ratio. Under current guidelines, checks are conducted under static conditions at ambient temperatures. However, some engineers appear to have developed "clever designs" featuring complex internal components that expand significantly when the engine reaches its high operating temperatures on track.

By engineering parts to expand during running, a manufacturer could effectively push the piston closer to the cylinder head when hot than when cold. This would allow an engine to pass a "cold" inspection at 16.0:1 while potentially operating at a much higher, more powerful ratio during a race. Estimates suggest this exploit could yield a performance gain of up to 15 horsepower, which translates to roughly 0.3 seconds per lap—a massive margin in the context of modern F1.

‘Thermal loophole’;

https://f1i.com/news/556568-f1-bracing-for-2026-engine-controversy-over-thermal-loophole.html


Red Bull and Mercedes should be praised for potential engine innovation
20 Dec 2025
Luke-John Buckle
GPblog.com

Finding loopholes in the Formula 1 regulations isn't new and has been happening for decades. If Mercedes and Red Bull have found an advantage, this should be celebrated as Formula 1 is all about innovation. Both teams have a history of innovating with Mercedes' acing the hybrid engines in 2014. Their Austrian rivals waltzed to both titles in 2011, perfecting the blown diffuser.

It has become more difficult to innovate in recent years, as performance gains have become more marginal. Formula 1 also doesn't have a tyre war, and all 11 teams must use the same type of engine. This development should push the rest of the pit lane to find more performance, as they may already be playing catch-up behind Mercedes and Red Bull.

‘Should be praised for potential engine innovation’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/opinion/red-bull-and-mercedes-should-be-praised-for-potemtial-engine-innovation


Bernie Collins thinks Mercedes have a 2026 engine advantage none of their F1 rivals can replicate
18 December 2025
Shay Rogers
F1 Oversteer

Bernie Collins expects Mercedes to have sizeable engine data advantage over their F1 rivals Bernie Collins believes that Mercedes do have a big advantage over their rivals heading into the new season. It could be crucial.

“I think the status quo will change amongst the teams because I think it’ll be who – someone will get the engine right, and someone will get the engine wrong,” she told the F1 Show Podcast. “I think the perception is that Mercedes-engineered teams will rise to the top.

“But we don’t know. We’ve not compared them against each other. If nothing else, they’ve got three teams that they’re supplying, so they’re going to learn a lot faster than Honda, who only supply one team.”

‘Mercedes 2026 engine advantage’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/bernie-collins-thinks-mercedes-have-a-2026-engine-advantage-none-of-their-f1-rivals-can-replicate/


2026 Power Units: just the latest chapter in F1’s engine revolutions
20 Dec 2026
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

F1 power units will undergo a major overhaul from 2026, but over the years the sport’s engines have already been through a series of radical transformations.

The history of Formula 1 engines can broadly be divided into four major eras: the turbocharged V6 period, which dominated much of the 1980s before being progressively restricted and eventually banned outright from 1989; the golden age of naturally aspirated engines, led by the iconic V10s that reigned from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, followed by the V8 era from 2006 to 2013; and finally the hybrid age we know today, built around the current V6 power units.

Built around inline-four and V6 configurations with a tiny 1.5-litre displacement, these power units delivered roughly 850–1000 hp in race conditions and well over 1200 hp in qualifying, cementing their status as the most extreme and powerful engines Formula 1 has ever known in the 1980's.

‘F1’s engine revolutions’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/features/2026-power-units-just-the-latest-chapter-in-f1s-engine-revolutions


Imminent Audi F1 milestone with F1 2026 engine set to burst into life
13 Dec 2025
Thomas Maher
PlanetF1.com

Earlier this year, Sauber team boss Jonathan Wheatley revealed the intention to fire up the new Audi F1 engine in December, with that timeline still on schedule. The Sauber name disappears after 32 years this winter, with the Swiss squad morphing into the factory Audi F1 team following a full takeover by the German manufacturer.

Manufacturing its own chassis and power unit for the new regulations incoming for 2026, Wheatley said the fact that the winter testing programme is starting so early has brought all the teams and manufacturers’ schedules forward compared to most years. “We’re bringing together a brand new power unit with a chassis for the first time and we’re firing it up before Christmas. I can’t remember ever doing that,” Wheatley told media including PlanetF1.com after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

“So there’s a huge amount to do between now and then, and that’s why we talk about this project to be challenging at the end of the decade, because it takes time, and I’m hoping, certainly, I have a little bit more time in my life when I’ve just got to concentrate on being Audi and not being two teams at the same time!”

‘F1 2026 engine set to burst into life’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/audi-f1-engine-update-december-2025-fire-up


'Good things' surface from Red Bull 2026 engine, F1 teams warned over loopholes
21 Dec 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

After two decades powered first by Renault and then by Honda, the Milton Keynes-based outfit is entering a new era by producing its first fully in-house car, with technical backing from Ford on the power unit side. It is a bold gamble that Red Bull hopes will pay off, with Raymond Vermeulen, manager of Max Verstappen, revealing he has already heard “good things” about next season’s power unit.

The focus turned on Friday to Mercedes and Red Bull Powertrains, both of which were linked to questions surrounding a possible grey area in the compression-ratio rules, due to move from 18:1 to 16:1 next year. Speaking earlier this year, FIA single seater director Nikolas Tombazis underlined that any attempt by a team to bypass the regulations without first engaging with the governing body would be met with a swift response from the FIA, leaving no ambiguity.

'Good things'

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/f1-live-verstappens-manager-boosted-by-red-bull-2026-engine-as-fia-warns-f1-teams


Honda to launch F1 2026 engine in ‘kickstart’ of Aston Martin partnership
16 Dec 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Honda says the event will “share the aspirations of Honda and Aston Martin Aramco Formula One™ Team as we take on the challenge of competing in F1, the pinnacle of motorsport. “We will also explain the new regulations and reveal our new power unit for the upcoming season.”

Speakers will include Toshihiro Mibe, President and CEO of Honda, along with Aston’s Executive Chairman Lawrence Stroll and F1’s CEO Stefano Domenicali. Honda’s full-scale return to F1 has already been teased for fans, with an audio release of its 2026 engine that was posted on its social media channels last week.

‘Kickstart’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/12/16/honda-to-launch-f1-2026-engine-in-kickstart-of-aston-martin-partnership/


Report: Ferrari are now lobbying the FIA about Mercedes using a ‘loophole’ in the 2026 F1 engine regulations
19 December 2025
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

A huge storm is now brewing in the F1 world ahead of the 2026 regulations, as Ferrari are concerned that Mercedes have already found a ‘loophole’ in the new engine rules. Ferrari fear Mercedes have found a 2026 F1 engine rules ‘trick’ worth three-tenths of a second.

That is according to Motorsport-Magazin, which reports that a dispute between the engine manufacturers has been ‘raging for some time’ due to how some have interpreted the new rules. So, Ferrari, Honda and Audi are now lobbying the FIA to put an end to the ‘loophole’.

‘A huge storm is now brewing’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-are-now-lobbying-the-fia-about-mercedes-using-a-loophole-in-the-2026-f1-engine-regulations/

[Fortitude]

Red Bull boss has no doubts about Verstappen leaving after 2026.
“What is most important for any athlete is that he sees everyone in the team giving everything for him,” Mintzlaff stated.
21 Dec 2025
Sandy van Wijngaarden
GPblog.com

Oliver Mintzlaff is not worried about Max Verstappen leaving. According to the Red Bull boss, Red Bull Racing is doing everything to keep the Red Bull Racing driver satisfied. The Red Bull executive is convinced that Verstappen will be impressed by the turnaround Red Bull managed to achieve last F1 season.

As long as the team maintains this philosophy, Mintzlaff is not afraid Verstappen will leave: “Of course Max always wants to win and have the best possible car, but so do we. As long as Max feels that we are working towards that and doing everything we can, I think he will remain loyal to us,” said Mintzlaff.

“For me, there is no doubt that Max Verstappen will end his career at Red Bull,” the German emphatically reiterated. The story that the four-time world champion is the boss at Red Bull was dismissed by Mintzlaff as nonsense. The Red Bull executive hopes that after his F1 retirement, the Dutchman will remain connected to Red Bull in another role.

‘As long as the team maintains this philosophy’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/red-bull-boss-has-no-doubts-about-verstappen-leaving-after-2026


Max Verstappen: Red Bull ‘never had a chance’ against McLaren in 2025 despite narrow F1 title loss
21 Dec 2025
Anirban Aly Mandal
Motorsport Week

Max Verstappen has said he “didn’t really lose” the Formula 1 title because Red Bull “never really had a chance” to challenge McLaren in 2025. “Well, I see it like this… We didn’t really lose it, because we were never really in it,” he told Viaplay. The 28-year-old had sat a mammoth 104 points off the lead after the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August.

Naturally, the four-time champion could not overlook how fate had a strong hand in helping him take the title fight to the very final round against a dominant McLaren. “Because there were two of them, of course, [the McLaren drivers] took a lot of points away from each other. And because of that, if you’re on your own, and at some point, things start to go better, then of course you catch up a bit,” explained Verstappen.

“A few crashes or strategy mistakes, disqualifications, and then at some point you’re in it. I don’t really feel like we missed out on anything.” Verstappen has his own fair share of misfortune with the RB21. In Austria, for example, he was collected by rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s W16 on the opening lap. In Barcelona, however, his miseries were entirely of his own making.

“Look, I got knocked out in Austria. But then again, we had so many problems in so many races before that. Mistakes with pit stops, weekends where nothing went right at all. So, looking back, there are lots of things you could have done better. And ultimately, McLaren was disqualified in Las Vegas. If that doesn’t happen, then you’re not even in the race.”

‘Never had a chance’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/12/21/max-verstappen-red-bull-never-had-a-chance-to-compete-for-f1-title/


Sebastian Vettel: Max Verstappen's F1 improvement is 'scary'
Nov 26, 2025
Laurence Edmondson
espn.co.uk

Four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel has said the rate at which Max Verstappen is improving is "scary" and has praised the Red Bull driver's winning mentality ahead of this year's title showdown at the final two races.

"I think the scary thing is he's getting better," Vettel told the Beyond the Grid podcast. "We know he's good, but he's still improving. He's still hungry, he's still willing to learn. I think he's working very hard behind the scenes as well. And that's what makes him so strong.”

"And of course, he's, I think, blessed with a lot of talent on top of that. But even if he's one of the most talented drivers on the grid, I think ultimately what makes him so strong, it's always a combination, but the key ingredient is his head.”

'Scary';

https://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/47107680/sebastian-vettel-red-bull-max-verstappen-formula-1-improvement-scary


Why Red Bull and Audi’s engines should not be written off
20 Dec 2025
Last Word On Sports

Having narrowly missed out on the drivers title with Verstappen, Red Bull don’t have long to lick their wounds and recover for 2026. Like Jonathan Wheatley’s Audi, the Milton Keynes squad will introduce their first F1 engines next season. Unlike Audi, however, Red Bull have a rich history of winning titles in Formula 1. This means greater expectations for the Austrian team – despite the unlikelihood of making a winning engine at the first time of asking. Still, in positive news for these new engine manufacturers, there are some signs they could be competitive in 2026.

Both Max Verstappen’s manager and Helmut Marko have spoken positively about the 2026 Red Bull engine. Although this guarantees nothing in a sport where performance is relative, it should still be noted. Having signed dozens of engineers from other engine manufacturers, most notably Mercedes, Red Bull have assembled a strong group for their power unit development already.

It must be stressed that still Red Bull face an uphill battle be at the front. There are still more hurdles than advantages for their engine development heading into next year. With that said, they should not be written off. New reports about Mercedes and Red Bull finding a potential loophole in the 2026 engine regulations are further evidence that Red Bull’s learning curve could be shortened – thanks to their acquisition of top technicians.

‘Dozens of engineers from other engine manufacturers’;

https://lastwordonsports.com/motorsports/2025/12/20/why-red-bull-and-audis-engines-should-not-be-written-off/


Hadjar chooses ‘acceptance’ over illusion ahead of Red Bull debut
21/12/2025
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

History suggests Hadjar is right to be cautious. The Red Bull seat alongside Verstappen has become a graveyard for reputations, a high-pressure vacuum that has sucked the mettle out of some of the grid’s most capable drivers. Pierre Gasly’s tenure was cut short by a surplus of pressure, while Sergio Perez – a genuine Grand Prix winner – struggled over multiple seasons to stay relevant against Verstappen’s relentless speed, and lost.

Most recently, the revolving door spun through Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda, proving that at Red Bull, survival is just as difficult as arrival. Hadjar knows the stopwatch will not be kind at first, and he’s making peace with that before the season even begins.

“If anything, the goal is to accept that I'm going to be slower the first months,” Hadjar said, quoted by RACER. “I think that if you go into that mindset, you accept already that it's going to be very tough – looking at the data and seeing things you can't achieve yet, it's going to be very frustrating. But if you know, then you're more prepared.”

‘History suggests Hadjar is right to be cautious’;

https://f1i.com/news/556603-hadjar-chooses-acceptance-over-illusion-ahead-of-red-bull-debut.html

[Fortitude]

Red Bull rift laid bare as Mintzlaff breaks silence on explosive Marko–Horner row.
"Those words about Christian are for Helmut's account. I can't say anything negative about Christian" - Oliver Mintzlaff.
22 Dec 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Red Bull boss Oliver Mintzlaff has responded to the recent explosive comments made by Helmut Marko towards Christian Horner. When asked to comment on those remarks in an interview with De Telegraaf, Oliver Mintzlaff replied as follows: "Those words about Christian are for Helmut's account. I can't say anything negative about Christian, simply because he has meant a lot to Red Bull. But there always comes a time when things don't go well and then you have to make a decision as a company. Are you going to give someone more time, or is it time for a new leader? We thought it was time for a change."

"I don't agree with Helmut's statements. It is logical that things change in an organization. Perhaps Marko has also changed over the years. I think it's quite normal that not everything is the same as it was five years ago. Christian and Helmut have worked together wonderfully for many years, since the start in 2005. We are talking about more than twenty years.”

"Give me a few examples of other large sports organizations where the leadership team remains the same for so long. So you can look at it very negatively, that they are both gone now. But I would say that it is unique that they have been here together for so long and have achieved so much. Sometimes you just need a refresh to shake things up."

“I can't say anything negative about Christian, simply because he has meant a lot to Red Bull”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/red-bull-boss-draws-clear-line-after-markos-scathing-attack-on-horner


Montoya: Marko has realized ‘he has no power anymore’
17/12/2025
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya believes that outgoing Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko isn’t leaving Formula 1 because he has run out of passion – he’s leaving because he has run out of power.

To Montoya, Red Bull’s transformation from a racer-led outfit into a tightly managed corporate structure is where the friction begins. “You need one guy making decisions, whether it’s the right one or wrong one,” he added. “When you start involving big corporations, then all of a sudden every decision needs a meeting. And everybody has a different opinion, and they start looking at it from the budget point of view and the marketing point of view.”

For decades, Marko was untouchable – the gatekeeper of Red Bull’s driver programme and a central authority in team decisions. Montoya believes that autonomy evaporated under the new regime. “I think Helmut realized he had no power anymore,” the 50-year-old said. “He had full control of the drivers. He had full control of the decisions. And I think he realised now that anything he wants to do needs to be approved. He got to a point where he said to himself, ‘I’m not going to be anybody’s employee.’”

‘He has no power anymore’;

https://f1i.com/news/556459-montoya-marko-has-realized-he-has-no-power-anymore.html


Schumacher: Marko wrong to air Red Bull’s ‘dirty laundry’
17/12/2025
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher has little patience for post-exit score-settling – and he’s made that abundantly clear in his assessment of Helmut Marko’s final act at Red Bull. While acknowledging the truth behind many of Marko’s criticisms of Christian Horner, Schumacher believes the outgoing Red Bull motorsport advisor chose the wrong moment, and the wrong manner, to air grievances that could – and should – have been addressed years earlier.

Schumacher believes the balance of power shifted irrevocably after Mateschitz’s death, leaving Marko sidelined as Horner consolidated his position with the Thai ownership faction. "That's exactly why I have to say: he's right, but it's also a bit of hanging out dirty laundry that he himself could have prevented. That's just the situation now." That, Schumacher suggests, is the heart of the issue. Marko may be correct in his diagnosis of Red Bull’s internal decay — but by voicing it only after losing influence, he risks looking vindictive rather than principled.

The former Grand Prix driver also addressed Horner’s side of the fallout, noting the former team boss’ silence since receiving a reported £52 million payoff following his dismissal in July. "He obviously had great ambitions that reached deep into the top of the group, thanks in part to the strong position of the Thai side within the company," Schumacher said. "Those have now obviously been rewarded with a princely sum. That is also why I think Horner has basically entered into an obligation of silence."

“Risks looking vindictive rather than principled”;

https://f1i.com/news/556481-schumacher-marko-wrong-to-air-red-bulls-dirty-laundry.html


Juan Pablo Montoya says Helmut Marko is bitter about Christian Horner landing bigger Red Bull payout
20 December 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Helmut Marko launched a remarkable attack on Christian Horner after leaving his post at Red Bull. Horner was sacked in July, while Marko’s exit was painted as a mutual decision. Marko accused Horner of playing ‘dirty tricks’ during his ‘last few years’. Founding members of the team in 2005, they worked together for two decades. Marko went as far as to claim that Horner was ‘lying about everything and anything’ and planting ‘fabricated’ stories in the media to damage his reputation.

Christian Horner emerged from Red Bull in a ‘better’ position than Helmut Marko. Reacting to these comments on the AS Colombia YouTube channel, Juan Pablo Montoya called the situation ‘sad’. He says it has overshadowed the celebration of Marko’s achievements. Montoya suspects that the comments come from a place of envy. Marko received an £8.7m payoff from Red Bull, around ten times smaller than Horner’s enormous severance package. “There were certainly dramas, fights and manipulation by Christian, 100%,” Montoya, who raced for Marko in F3000, said. “But Helmut isn’t a saint. Neither of them are saints.”

“What surprises me is at this point is that it was unnecessary. Why close the Red Bull chapter, all the good they did, all the championships Helmut won, all the drivers he brought in… Nobody is talking about Helmut, what the great Helmut Marko did. He focused on the fight with Christian and didn’t focus on [that]. It’s sad, because the work he did was spectacular. People don’t agree with the way he did things, but he really did a very good job. Dirty games were played on both sides. You know what happened? They both got sacked – I shouldn’t say this – and one came out much better than the other.”

‘Bitter’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/juan-pablo-montoya-says-helmut-marko-is-bitter-about-christian-horner-landing-bigger-red-bull-payout/


Inside Red Bull’s Ruthless Horner Axe — Was It Too Late?
December 22, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Oliver Mintzlaff has defended Red Bull’s call to dismiss Christian Horner during the 2025 season, saying the company couldn’t afford to sit on its hands as results slid. And while Helmut Marko stirred the pot with claims the move should’ve come earlier, Mintzlaff politely parked that one. Speaking to De Telegraaf, Red Bull GmbH’s chief of corporate projects insisted the decision wasn’t reckless. “I wouldn’t call it a risk,” he said. “We were 100 per cent behind this measure. We knew we had to do something.”

The trigger came in the wake of the British Grand Prix, when Red Bull promoted Laurent Mekies from Racing Bulls to assume the dual role of CEO and team principal. The timing was brutal but, in Red Bull’s eyes, necessary. Verstappen’s year had stalled at two wins by then; the streak that followed said plenty about the jolt the organisation felt it needed. Max took six of the final nine, only to miss the title by two points to McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Marko — himself out the door this month — suggested Verstappen would’ve edged the championship had Red Bull pulled the plug on Horner sooner. Mintzlaff isn’t buying that narrative, nor is he eager to publicly dissect Horner’s final stretch. “I can’t say anything negative about Christian. He has meant a lot to Red Bull,” he said. “But you can’t keep relying on history. We felt it was time to turn the page and start a new chapter.”

‘Mintzlaff isn’t buying that narrative’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/inside-red-bulls-ruthless-horner-axe-was-it-too-late/

[Fortitude]

‘A vindication’: Sainz says 2025 results justify gamble with Williams.
…a statement season with Williams – one that explains, and justifies, why the Spaniard chose Grove as his home in F1.
23/12/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Reflecting on a whirlwind season, Sainz admitted how quickly it all unfolded. “It’s gone much quicker than I thought it would!” he told F1.com. “The fact that we are on the run so much in between races, non-stop… The sport is growing massively, so you do more marketing, more travelling, more races… By the end of the year, you cannot understand how it’s all flown by.”

“But, if you told me at the beginning of the year that there was going to be fifth position for Williams at the end of the championship, a good step forward, closing the gap to the top teams, and a couple of podiums, I would have taken it. It’s been a good year overall.” And with results in hand, Sainz feels his decision has finally been validated.

“Also, when I signed with Williams in the summer of 2024, if I would have told people that I’m joining them because these results are going to happen, they wouldn’t have fully believed me. I have the results now to back why I chose this team—a vindication,” the Spaniard maintained.

‘A vindication’;

https://f1i.com/news/556677-a-vindication-sainz-says-2025-results-justify-gamble-with-williams.html


The Sainz Effect: Red Bull’s Missed Masterstroke?
December 22, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Jacques Villeneuve certainly thinks so. The 1997 World Champion has been banging the drum all season: Sainz has a habit of lifting every team he steps into. And if there’s one thing Red Bull’s Verstappen-era juggernaut has intermittently lacked, it’s a true second spear to press both Max and the car. The history is well-trodden. Sainz and Verstappen came up together at Toro Rosso, and the atmosphere — drivers and fathers included — got tense enough that Red Bull’s then-powerbroker Helmut Marko kept the pair apart when the big seat opened. When Ferrari cut Sainz loose in favour of Lewis Hamilton, Red Bull again looked elsewhere.

Marko, never one to varnish, later called the Toro Rosso dynamic “toxic” and argued the choice at the time was obvious. Sainz didn’t share the view. He’s said repeatedly the rivalry was hard but healthy, and that today he and Max get along: if anything, he reckons they’d form the nastiest one-two punch on the grid. The irony? Sainz has spent 2025 proving his point. Williams jumped from ninth last year to a robust fifth in the Constructors’ standings, with Sainz banking two podiums — including a P3 in Baku, Williams’ first full-race podium since 2017. That’s not just a step forward; that’s a renovation.

‘Sainz has a habit of lifting every team he steps into’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/the-sainz-effect-red-bulls-missed-masterstroke/


How Carlos Sainz has elevated Alex Albon’s level at Williams
20 Dec 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Alex Albon has explained how the arrival of Carlos Sainz at Williams has helped transform the team and elevated his own Formula 1 performances. “I think the biggest thing I’ve learned from Carlos is more the non-driving side of things, the way that we conduct meetings and develop the car in the simulator and go about our free practice programmes,” said Albon. “Things like that which you can see the experience with Carlos in that way.”

“I could definitely say I had the majority of the preferential treatment in previous years,” he explained. “In terms of us two working together more backwards and forwards – we call it ‘feedback ping-pong’, where we’re just kind of having the same opinions about the car. We speak in a very similar language. Carlos is more experienced than I am, but in terms of our age and our approach, we handle things in a very similar way.”

“In terms of pushing me, it’s great to have someone with a different dataset to have a look at, different driving style to me. We want similar things in the car, we actually normally arrive to qualifying with a very similar set-up. When you have a team-mate who’s a step up, you learn more. There’s more to learn in terms of your driving style. There’s some corners that you were previously quick at, which you’re now the same as [your team-mate]. And there are some corners that you need to learn, adapt, drive differently.”

“Transform the team and elevated his own Formula 1 performances”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/12/20/how-carlos-sainz-has-elevated-alex-albons-level-at-williams/


Sainz pens heartfelt end-of-season letter to Williams staff
19/12/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Carlos Sainz didn’t just walk away from his first season at Williams with results on the board — he left behind something far more personal. Rather than letting those achievements speak for themselves, Sainz chose to address the people behind the scenes directly.

“As we close out a remarkable first season together, I want to express my sincere gratitude to each and every one of you for the incredible welcome I have received since day one at Grove,” the four-time Grand Prix winner wrote to his fellow team members. I knew I was joining a very special team, but our first year together has exceeded all my expectations. This specially designed print is a small gesture of appreciation, and I hope it serves as a reminder of what we accomplished together during 2025.”

“It is thanks to your dedication and commitment that we have been able to achieve our most ambitious goal this year: securing P5 in the constructors' championship, while also having a bit of fun along the way with the podiums in Baku and Qatar, and the sprint podium in Austin. Those highlights are not mine they are a direct result of your efforts and our teamwork, and I truly hope you feel as proud as I do of every point we have scored.”

“Sincere gratitude to each and every one of you”;

https://f1i.com/news/556545-sainz-pens-heartfelt-end-of-season-letter-to-williams-staff.html


The Sainz effect that would make him the perfect Verstappen teammate
22 Dec 2025
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Passed over by Red Bull because of yesteryear’s rivalry with Max Verstappen, Red Bull may have missed a trick as Jacques Villeneuve believes Carlos Sainz makes every team that he joins “better every time”. Quizzed on why Sainz is already to do that, Villeneuve replied: “He’s working on the car. That’s all. He actually understands what the car is doing, and he’s thinking about it, like Max, he’s always thinking about racing and about the car.”

“He knows what he needs. And it’s not a question of, there’s understeer, there’s oversteer. No, that’s useless. That is completely useless. There are times when you have to adapt your driving to understand what the problem with the car is, so you can fix it, so you can go back to your normal driving style and so on.” The 1997 World Champion reckons Sainz and Verstappen share characteristics that make set them apart from other racers.

“Most drivers get out of the car, look at the data, and then they have the answers, but they don’t actually have the question,” he revealed. “So the answer is to give them the questions, and oftentimes you’ll see them going in a completely wrong direction. But that’s the modern way of racing. Max is very old-fashioned in that, and I think Carlos is as well. He’ll use the data a lot, but he actually has a comprehension of what is happening to the car as he’s driving,” he added.

“He knows what he needs”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/the-carlos-sainz-effect-the-perfect-max-verstappen-red-bull-teammate


Sainz tipped as Alonso’s successor in potential Aston Martin move
18 Dec 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Guenther Steiner has tipped Carlos Sainz for a potential move to Aston Martin following an impressive debut season with Williams. “…Aston Martin presents Sainz’s best opportunities moving forward.” - Guenther Steiner.

“Some teams are keeping an eye on him now, even if they won’t admit it. It’s as if they questioned whether they wanted Carlos in a championship fight. Sometimes these decisions are made, and you can’t go back,” Steiner said via the Red Flag podcast. The former Haas F1 team boss, however, admitted that a move back to the current frontrunning outfit would be a tall order considering his age.

“I think it will be very difficult to move up unless you’re a rookie. There are opportunities out there. A return to Ferrari seems highly unlikely, as does a switch to Red Bull or Mercedes. But there’s always a chance with one of the other teams that are showing great promise,” he added. “I would say Williams or Aston Martin present Sainz’s best opportunities moving forward. Honestly, I don’t believe Fernando can race for another five years. He will likely have one more year, maybe two at best.”

‘Sainz tipped as Alonso’s successor’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/sainz-tipped-as-alonsos-successor-in-potential-aston-martin-move

[Fortitude]

Lawrence Stroll says “patience” necessary for Aston Martin project.
Aston Martin are one of the teams that could cause an upset in 2026. The British squad have the resources, facilities and quality of engineers required to become front-runners.
22 Dec 2025
Last Word On Sports

Since Lawrence Stroll bought Aston Martin, the team have been described as potential threats to the established order at the front. An electric start to the 2023 season, whilst being short-lived, was early evidence of Aston’s ambitions. That said, the team’s results in the last two years have been disappointing. Poor mid-season development in 2024 and a lacklustre package across 2025 triggered a series of changes at the Silverstone-based operation. Easily the most recognised was the acquisition of Adrian Newey.

“First was putting together the facilities, [the] most important was putting together the team of people. Obviously, getting Adrian Newey to join was monumental. He’s been with us since the beginning of March. We have Andy Cowell, Enrico Cardile, plus hundreds of other people. We have Honda being our power unit partner.”

“Being a works team for the first time in our life is a whole different experience. “The whole team’s forming into place, and we’re looking forward next year to a huge rule and regulation change. The biggest challenge now is putting everything together, making it all happen. I’m quite confident it will, but you have to have the patience.”

“Patience”;

https://lastwordonsports.com/motorsports/2025/12/22/lawrence-stroll-says-patience-necessary-for-aston-martin-project/


Honda reveals Aston Martin F1 goal ahead of 2026 partnership
23 Dec 2025
James Phillips
Motorsport Week

Honda Racing Corporation president Koji Watanabe outlined the goals for Honda in its first year with Aston Martin, with integration between UK and Japan at the forefront. “[The] definition of success for me [is that] 2026 is a year to ensure the partnership we have created between Aston Martin and Honda is functioning as planned, as one integrated team,” he said on Aston Martin’s Undercut web-series.

“We need to ensure we have the values we have aimed for and that we achieve our performance goals. The thing we can’t predict, and is beyond our control, is the status of our competitors,” he said. “Before we know that, we can’t talk about anything beyond meeting our own internal goals for the season. Of course, in the longer term, the ultimate goal of this partnership, and our definition of success, is winning the World Championship.”

“It’s very important to take a long-term view of this. Our relationship with Aston Martin is going beyond a technical collaboration – we are sharing a common vision. There is a lot of passion in the team at the AMR Technology Campus, but also a great deal of quality. Pair that with Honda’s development skills and ability to provide winning power units, and we have the potential to be successful in F1, not just in 2026, but also ’27, ’28 and beyond.”

“Functioning as planned, as one integrated team”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/12/23/honda-reveals-aston-martin-f1-goal-ahead-of-2026-partnership/


Alonso warns rivals of Aston Martin's future success, but warns timing is key
19 Dec 2025
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Fernando Alonso has no doubt that Aston Martin will succeed, but is cautious about the time frame. Speaking to GPblog, Alonso explained: "Yes, I think so. I mean, the factory is completed. The wind tunnel is brand new and completed and we are using it. We have Adrian Newey, Andy Cowell, Enrico Cardile. I mean, we have great people and great talent in the factory. We just need to put everything in place."

However, the Spaniard also underlined that it might take some time to figure out how to put everything together. He continued: "Facilities are new, people are just a few months into the system, [whether] it will be enough this few months or we need one full season to glue everything together, that's the thing, I don't know. Aston Martin will succeed, I think it's, for me, a guarantee. The biggest question is when and that's what we all try to make it [happen] as soon as possible."

‘Timing is key’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/alonso-warns-rivals-of-aston-martins-future-success-but-warns-timing-is-key


Watanabe: Honda, Aston Martin 'on the eve of something special'
17/12/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

A new chapter is quietly gathering momentum in Formula 1 – and if Honda Racing Corporation president Koji Watanabe is to be believed, it’s one filled with belief, patience and big ambition. As Honda prepares to return to the grid as a full works partner with Aston Martin in 2026, Watanabe says the project is approaching a defining moment.

Honda’s decision to align with Aston Martin was no accident. Watanabe says the Silverstone-based team stood out immediately, not just for its facilities but for the people driving the project. “We've always been careful in the partners we select,” said Watanabe. “In this instance, I was very impressed with the team's leadership and with the passion and vision of Executive Chairman Lawrence Stroll. He's very competitive – always with a view to winning. It's very impressive.”

“You can see the desire to succeed expressed in the new facilities at the AMR Technology Campus, but also in the way the organisation has been strengthened over the past few years with experienced personnel. The commitment and focus of the team are very strong, and this was very attractive to us. Exciting too.”

“He's very competitive – always with a view to winning”;

https://f1i.com/news/556468-watanabe-honda-aston-martin-on-the-eve-of-something-special.html


Lawrence Stroll's vital plea ahead of Aston Martin's F1 2026 key transition
23 DEC 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Lawrence Stroll, Aston Martin F1's owner, will oversee the outfit's transition into a full works team when its exclusive power unit deal with Japanese manufacturer Honda starts in 2026, and admits expectations couldn't be higher.

"We're really looking forward to next year with a huge rule change. It's going to be another big step forward; we have Honda as our power unit partner, we're going to be a works team for the first time ever, it's a completely different experience," Stroll told Motorsport.

"[Expectations] are very high, as high as they can be. Now we need to give everyone some time to come together and work to bring these exciting new rules and regulations coming next year up to our very high expectations—as high as they can possibly get," the Canadian team owner concluded.

“Another big step forward”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/lawrence-strolls-vital-plea-ahead-of-aston-martins-f1-2026-key-transition


Adrian Newey spots F1 'loophole' as 'frightening' Aston Martin results revealed
19 Dec 2025
Marcus Chan
SPORTbible

Ahead of 2026, it has been claimed that Newey may have found a loophole in the new regulations. According to News F1 Italy, Newey has ‘found a ‘grey zone’ in the interaction between the flexibility of the floor and the new mobile wing profiles’.

In 2026, F1 cars will have dynamically adjustable front and rear wings. It has been reported that while others are concentrating on the power units, Newey has focused on the mechanical sealing of the car’s floor.

‘F1 'loophole' as 'frightening' Aston Martin results revealed’;

https://www.sportbible.com/f1/adrian-newey-aston-martin-loophole-f1-2026-689799-20251219

[Fortitude]

How brutal Red Bull demotion saved Liam Lawson from F1 demise.
Liam Lawson endured a difficult start to the 2025 season, but in many ways, it saved his F1 career. …proof that, in Formula 1, survival often matters more than speed alone.
15 December 2025
RacingNews365 Staff
RacingNews365

Lawson’s brief stint at Red Bull bordered on the nightmarish. A crash in Australia was followed by a disastrous weekend in China, where he qualified last for both the sprint and the grand prix. The writing was on the wall. "Unfortunately, I don’t really have time," Lawson admitted at the time, a rare moment of candour that underlined the pressure of adapting to a car developed around Verstappen.

Helmut Marko was typically unsparing. "Liam qualified 20th twice. And that’s difficult to do worse than that," he said, later conceding the situation had become "a downward spiral" that needed to be stopped to protect Lawson’s future. That intervention came swiftly, with a return to Racing Bulls. The immediate results were underwhelming — five rounds without a point — but the underlying performances told a different story.

"The confidence came back once I could build things step by step," Lawson reflected later in the season. "That’s something you don’t get time for at the front." Laurent Mekies spoke repeatedly about Lawson’s technical feedback and resilience, qualities seen as vital alongside teenage sensation Lindblad. "Liam showed maturity in the hardest circumstances," Mekies noted. "That counts for a lot."

‘Survival often matters more than speed alone’;

https://racingnews365.com/how-brutal-red-bull-demotion-saved-liam-lawson-from-f1-demise


Lawson reveals moment that confirmed 2026 F1 seat
Liam Lawson has revealed the moment he was informed his Formula 1 future had been settled, confirming the decision came only after a post-race meeting following the Qatar Grand Prix.

19 Dec 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

Speaking on the latest episode of the KTM Summer Grill, Lawson explained that discussions around his future had been ongoing for several weeks, but clarity only arrived after Qatar when he sat down with Racing Bulls team boss Alan Permane. “I think the final sort of say was after the race in Qatar,” Lawson said.

“I sat down with Alan, which is cool for him to be able to tell me as well that we will be obviously working together next year.” Lawson said arriving at the final race of the year in Abu Dhabi with certainty over his position helped remove a layer of pressure after what he described as an “intense” season.

“It’s been a very busy year. A very intense year,” he said. “And to come to this weekend now with obviously that knowledge of next year as well makes it a bit nicer. I’m excited to get to work on the challenges of next year.”

“We will be obviously working together next year”;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-liam-lawson-racing-bulls-seat-confirmation-2026-career-update-exclusive-interview/


Liam Lawson explains 'big difference' after vital cost of Red Bull demotion
Liam Lawson endured a turbulent start to the 2025 F1 season, losing his Red Bull seat and returning to Racing Bulls. Speaking to RacingNews365, he explained why having off-season stability is so critical.
19 December 2025
Samuel Coop & Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

Upon securing his contract extension, Lawson spoke exclusively with RacingNews365, explaining how the early-season switch left him playing "catch-up" against his rivals. "What I'm looking forward to is that off-season to have time with the team and prepare properly," the 23-year-old says.

"Because I think this year, with the way it all started, I definitely felt like I missed a lot of the preseason development, building... because, especially in a season that's so close, this year, it was tiny margins; it's been tiny margins all through the year. So when I first came , it was very much: where are things that with the car, what's the direction we're going.”

"It was a new side of the garage for me; it was trying to almost play catch-up with everybody, especially with how rough the first couple of races were. Obviously, I have no idea how next year is going to go, but knowing that I have that time before the season — I have a set amount of days that I can basically make the most of and spend with the team — and that preparation, I'm actually excited for, to try and be as ready as possible for next year."

‘Why having off-season stability is so critical’;

https://racingnews365.com/liam-lawson-explains-big-difference-after-vital-cost-of-red-bull-demotion


[B]Liam Lawson is ‘excited’ to do something at Racing Bulls in 2026 that he could not do this year
20 December 2025
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Liam Lawson will also now start a season as a Racing Bulls driver for the first time in his F1 career in 2026. The Kiwi made five mid-season cameo appearances in 2023 and contested the final six rounds in 2024 for Racing Bulls. He started 2025 at Red Bull but only lasted two rounds. The Hastings, New Zealand native got his career back on track after re-joining Racing Bulls in March. The turning point came at the Austrian Grand Prix in round 11 out of 24, as Racing Bulls gave Lawson a front suspension upgrade that helped him extract the VCARB 02’s pace.

Liam Lawson feels he ‘missed a lot’ of development time returning to Racing Bulls mid-season. Lawson will miss the “very fast” speed of Racing Bulls’ 2025 F1 car, as F1’s 2026 regulations are set to make lap times around two to three seconds slower. With rookie Lindblad joining the team, as well, Lawson expects Racing Bulls will “lean on” him in 2026 to steer their ship.

‘Excited’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/liam-lawson-is-excited-to-do-something-at-racing-bulls-in-2026-that-he-could-not-do-this-year/


Liam Lawson Thrills Crowds At Highlands, Raises Funds For Breast Cancer Foundation NZ
24 December 2025
Press Release: Highlands
Scoop

In a heartwarming display of speed, community spirit, and remembrance, Formula 1 star Liam Lawson returned to his Kiwi roots yesterday at Highlands Motorsport Park, delivering an unforgettable day of hot laps and fan interactions that raised over $50,000 for Breast Cancer Foundation NZ. The event honoured the memory of Louise Scott-Gallagher, a cherished friend of Highlands CEO Josie Spillane, who tragically passed away from breast cancer in May 2025 at just 44 years of age.

"Yesterday was about more than just racing it was a powerful tribute to Louise, whose vibrant spirit and kindness touched so many lives," said Josie Spillane, CEO of Highlands. "Liam's generosity in giving us his time helped us raise crucial funds for Breast Cancer Foundation NZ, ensuring her legacy continues to drives real change. We're overwhelmed by the community's support and the joy on every face."

Lawson was blown away by the day “ I can’t believe how many people were here, and how much money was raised for Breast Cancer. I’ve known Josie and Tony a long time, and was so happy to come and help – and drive the Vulcan of course!! The day kicked off with Lawson greeting fans, signing autographs, and posing for photos, creating magical moments for young admirers and lifelong motorsport fans alike.

‘Liam Lawson was blown away by the day’;

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU2512/S00175/liam-lawson-thrills-crowds-at-highlands-raises-funds-for-breast-cancer-foundation-nz.htm

[Fortitude]

Toyota Power Play: Haas Transforms Into TGR Haas F1.
Haas is getting a new name — and a bigger ally. From 2026, the American squad will enter as TGR Haas F1, a rebrand that formalizes Toyota Gazoo Racing’s move to title partner and signals a deeper technical and operational tie-up after their first year working together.
4 Dec 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Haas to become TGR Haas F1 in 2026 as Toyota alliance steps up a gear. Haas is getting a new name — and a bigger ally. From 2026, the American squad will enter as TGR Haas F1, a rebrand that formalizes Toyota Gazoo Racing’s move to title partner and signals a deeper technical and operational tie-up after their first year working together. MoneyGram bows out after three seasons on the sidepods, with Toyota taking top billing and bringing its factory motorsport identity to the grid. It’s not a works team in the old-school sense, but the intent is clear: Toyota’s competition arm is invested, active and putting people and tools into Haas at a level that goes well beyond a logo.

The relationship was born in late 2024 as a “burgeoning technical partnership.” In 2025 it matured into something more structured: Toyota helped commission and develop a new simulator at Haas’ Banbury base, plugged into the team’s R&D projects, and — crucially — rolled out an aggressive Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) program that Haas had never run at this scale. That TPC effort did real work. Fourteen days across Silverstone, Paul Ricard, Imola, Mugello and Fuji gave Haas engineers mileage and data while opening the door for Toyota-backed talent to get a genuine feel for modern F1 machinery.

Ryo Hirakawa, Sho Tsuboi, Ritomo Miyata and Kamui Kobayashi all turned laps, an unmistakable sign of the pipeline Toyota wants to build and the kind of program Haas is happy to host. It’s no accident the initiative is being rebranded as the TGR Haas Driver Development Programme for 2026. The personnel component — not just drivers, but engineers and mechanics — is central to this partnership. Haas has long operated lean. Toyota can supply depth: more hands, more experience, more structure.

‘TGR Haas F1’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/toyota-power-play-haas-transforms-into-tgr-haas-f1/


Ocon: Haas’ expanded partnership with Toyota is ‘fantastic’ for 2026
14/12/2025
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Esteban Ocon is brimming with optimism about Haas’ future – and a big part of that excitement comes from Toyota stepping up its involvement with the US outfit. He revealed that Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu had already hinted at a deeper technical collaboration when discussions began. “Ayao [Komatsu, Haas Team Principal] told me that we were going to have TPC [running], and we were going to have some good stuff coming in,” the Frenchman added.

“When I signed, he didn’t tell me the reasons why, but everything was held.” That secrecy, Ocon admits, only added to the sense that something special was brewing behind the scenes. Ocon is adamant that Toyota’s involvement goes well beyond sponsorship optics. For him, the partnership resonates on a personal level, rooted in shared values and a genuine love of motorsport.

“Toyota is a brand that I really enjoy working with. I’m not saying that because they are working with us; I really mean it,” Ocon added. “They have great values, they have great respect, and they are passionate about racing. They are petrolheads, basically.” That passion, he says, has already translated into hands-on experiences well outside the traditional F1 environment — experiences he and team-mate Oliver Bearman have relished.

‘Brimming optimism’;

https://f1i.com/news/556375-ocon-haas-expanded-partnership-with-toyota-is-fantastic-for-2026.html


People, Not Paint: Inside Toyota’s Quiet Haas Revolution
17 Dec 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Komatsu cools the “works team” talk: Ayao Komatsu isn’t entertaining the easy narrative. “It’s easy for people to say ‘Toyota works team’ or ‘Toyota is going to make an engine,’” the Haas team principal said in Abu Dhabi. “Toyota’s objective is not really branding; Toyota’s objective is to make us competitive, grow people, and make this team competitive together.”

That’s the spine of the project. The Toyota relationship has already underwritten a busy Testing of Previous Cars programme through 2025 — notably putting Toyota-affiliated drivers into Haas machinery — and it’s funding a new simulator scheduled to come online at Banbury in 2026. Next year, the TPC effort hardens into a more structured Driver Development Programme. The headline changes are visible; the intent is internal. “Even the TPC, we’ve been doing it, but that was the first year,” Komatsu added. “Next year, it’s going to be a bit more structured… everything is going to be more developed.”

The title deal also means the Toyota name will appear in Haas’s official entry. Inevitably, that’s triggered the usual paddock whispers — is this the path to a full works return for Toyota, dormant in F1 since 2009? Is a shareholding next? The line from Komatsu has been steady all season: this is a long-term collaboration with a very specific purpose.

“More developed”;

https://fastestlap.com/news/people-not-paint-inside-toyotas-quiet-haas-revolution/


Haas deepens Toyota relationship with F1 title partnership deal
4 Dec 2025
Motorsport Week

Akio Toyoda, Toyota Motor Corporation Chairman, added his own sentiments about the increased partnership, focusing on the growth it has helped to give to its own staff. “Throughout our challenges in the 2025 season, I witnessed young TGR drivers and engineers begin to believe in their own potential and set their sights on even greater dreams,” he said.

“Seeing this transformation moved me deeply. And today, I can say this with confidence, Toyota has finally begun to move – really move. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Gene Haas and Ayao Komatsu for standing alongside our young members, believing in their potential, and facing the future with the same passion and perspective.”

“By taking our partnership with Haas another step forward next year, TGR’s ‘People, Product, Pipeline’ mantra – will accelerate in a way we have never seen before. The time has come for the next generation to take their first steps toward the world stage. Together with Gene Haas, Ayao, and everyone at TGR Haas F1 Team, we will build both a culture and a team for the future. Toyota is now truly on the move.” The team will unveil its new challenger – the VF-26 – on January 23, three days before F1’s first test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

“Toyota truly on the move”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/12/04/haas-deepens-toyota-relationship-with-f1-title-partnership-deal/


Toyota Gazoo Racing will be title sponsors of Haas F1 Team from 2026 following expanded partnership
5 Dec 2025
Gerard Lye
Paul Tan's Automotive News

Toyota is deepening its partnership with the Haas F1 Team by announcing it will be the team’s title sponsor for the 2026 season, replacing Moneygram. Both parties previously entered into a multi-year technical partnership in October 2024, which saw the execution of the team’s first fully-fledged TPC (Testing of Previous Car) programme through the 2025 season.

This year’s TPC programme spanned 14 days and utilised the Haas VF-23, with Japanese drivers Ryo Hirakawa, Ritomo Miyata, Sho Tsuboi and Kamui Kobayashi lapping notable circuits such as Silverstone, Paul Ricard, Fuji Speedway, Imola and Mugello. From 2026, the programme will be officially rebranded to the TGR Haas Driver Development Programme.

For now, there’s no word on whether Toyota will have any say in Haas’ future driver line-up – Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman have already been confirmed for 2026. The expanded deal will likely lead to speculation that Haas will serve as vessel for a possible fully-fledged F1 return for Toyota – the last time it competed in F1 was in the 2009 season with the TF109.

‘Multi-year technical partnership’;

https://paultan.org/2025/12/05/toyota-gazoo-racing-will-be-title-sponsors-of-haas-f1-team-from-2026-following-expanded-partnership/


Suzuka To Haas: Inside Doohan’s Toyota-Powered Comeback
8 Dec 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

After a stop-start 2025 that saw him dropped as Alpine’s race driver early and parked for the final stretch, the Australian is lining up a reset that keeps him in the F1 orbit while getting his elbows out again in Japan. He’s set to take part in this week’s Super Formula rookie test at Suzuka with an eye on a full campaign next season, and there’s more to it than just seat time. The move is expected to come with Toyota support—and that could be the hinge on a bigger door opening at Haas.

With Haas and Toyota drawing closer—title branding is due to arrive next season, and talk of a deeper tie-up isn’t going away—Doohan is being positioned for a 2026 reserve role with the American team to complement a Super Formula programme. The play is obvious: stay sharp, be visible, and be first in line if the 2027 grid shuffles.

The timing isn’t accidental. Haas is set with Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman for 2026, while Toyota’s World Endurance champion Ryo Hirakawa, 31, has been the team’s reserve. But both race seats are understood to be up at the end of that year. A strong Super Formula season—Toyota’s backyard, in cars that reward precision and aggression—plus regular F1 mileage would have Doohan right where he wants to be when the music stops.

‘Doohan’s Toyota-Powered Comeback’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/brundles-warning-piastri-blinked-he-wont-again/

[Fortitude]

Audi confirms F1 team name and launch date.
The German manufacturer will compete as the Audi Revolut F1 Team when it joins the grid for the new regulations era in 2026, with its race livery set to be revealed on January 20 at an immersive event in the German capital.
16 Dec 2025
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

Audi AG chairman Gernot Dollner described the announcement as another defining moment in the project’s evolution. “Unveiling the Audi Revolut F1 Team name and logo marks another major milestone on our journey into the pinnacle of motorsport,” Dollner said. “Both give our ambition a clear identity, reflecting a strong vision and innovative spirit.”

“We now look ahead to Berlin in January, where we will officially present this exciting new chapter for the Audi brand to the world.” Revolut CEO and co-founder Nik Storonsky highlighted the broader significance of the partnership, which Audi says will play a role in the fintech company’s global expansion and ambition to reach 100 million customers.

“Revolut and Audi are uniting in Formula 1 with a global ambition to challenge the status quo and a shared obsession with engineering excellence,” Storonsky said. “The Audi Revolut F1 team name and logo are the first symbols of a powerful alliance that will accelerate Revolut’s global growth.”

‘Audi Revolut F1 Team’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2025-audi-formula-one-launch-team-name-confirmation-livery-event-2026/


Audi issue plea to 'manage expectations' ahead of F1 2026 uncertainty
Audi is putting the final touches in place ahead of its F1 debut in 2026. Speaking exclusively to RacingNews365, project leader Mattia Binotto has tempered expectations.
21 December 2025
Fergal Walsh & Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

The scale of Audi's operation has not been understimated by the project's leader Mattia Binotto, who insisted it will be several years before the team is in a position to fight at the front of the field. “It’s more about managing expectations first and then about delivering in a way that for us, 2026 is day zero,” Binotto exclusively told RacingNews365.

“We should not forget we are newcomers, it’s really a different environment, specification and competencies. The knowledge is very specific. It will be a continuous learning process. I'm not expecting to be the best power train at the start. That's not the goal.”

“Instead, I'm happy to see how the team is developing, the way we are developing, but it will be for us, 2026 a day zero. It’s again a matter of speed, how long it will take for us to catch up, how long it will take for us to become the best power train.”

‘Tempered expectations’;

https://racingnews365.com/audi-issue-plea-to-manage-expectations-ahead-of-f1-2026-uncertainty


Round-up: Binotto ‘not expecting Audi to have best engine next year’, and more
19th December 2025
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

Binotto says Audi will have confidence and credibility for F1 debut (Reuters): 'I'm not expecting to have the best engine next year at all, but still it doesn't matter because we know that we have set our objectives for 2030.'

‘Not expecting’;

https://www.racefans.net/2025/12/19/round-up-19th-december-2025/


Binotto compares Red Bull and Audi's power unit approach ahead of 2026
26 Dec 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Mattia Binotto has shared his thoughts on the Red Bull engine compared to Audi’s for the 2026 season. The 56-year-old appeared cautiously optimistic, noting the challenges in directly comparing the engines of both teams. However, Binotto emphasised Audi’s extensive expertise in engine development, which he believes will pay off in the long term.

"I think they’ve got more specific skills. We have the background of Audi, the knowledge of Audi, which in the long term will certainly make the difference,” Binotto said via Reuters. "I think we need patience. We are still in the building phase. I’m not expecting to have the best engine next year at all, but that’s fine because we know our objectives are set for 2030. We don’t intend to be a surprise next year,” he concluded.

‘Cautiously optimistic’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/binotto-compares-red-bull-and-audi-power-units-ahead-of-2026


END OF YEAR REPORT: Kick Sauber’s best and worst moments from 2025 and driver head-to-heads
Kick Sauber finally found the momentum they’ve been searching for with Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto.
25 Dec 2025
Formula One - Official Site

Kick Sauber finally found the momentum they’ve been searching for with Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto. An overhaul of leadership and the driver line-up doesn’t always work out, but fortunately for Kick Sauber, they seemed to thrive off the back of the shake-up going into 2025. Their spot in the Teams' Championship standings might not entirely reflect what Team Principal Jonathan Wheatley called their “extraordinary” achievements, with Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto both experiencing incredible highs to wave a perfect farewell to the Sauber name. Here is the squad’s end of year report…

Hulkenberg – 3rd in Britain: Hulkenberg delivered a stellar drive at the action-packed British Grand Prix, where the changeable weather conditions caught many drivers out while the German fell back on his years of experience to charge from 19th place to the podium. Prior to his remarkable drive, he had the unwanted statistic of the most race starts in F1 without a top-three finish, finally bringing an end to it in his 239th Grand Prix.

‘Found momentum’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/end-of-year-report-kick-saubers-best-and-worst-moments-from-2025-and-driver.evakIi0WQJiM7Nxk20Ola


F1 uncovered: Exposing the details of Sauber’s last car
19 Dec 2025
Matthew Somerfield
PlanetF1.com

2025 could be considered a transitional year for Sauber which will become a full works entity next season, as they become Audi and will design both their own chassis and power train.

And, whilst you might have expected them to have focused most of their effort on the next campaign, they still exerted a significant amount of effort into improving the C45 throughout the course of the season…

‘Sauber’s last car’;

https://www.planetf1.com/f1-tech/f1-uncovered-exposing-the-details-of-sauber-last-car


Sauber F1 founder recalls greatest memories ahead of Audi arrival
After 33 seasons in F1, the Sauber name is no more. In this exclusive interview, founder Peter Sauber recalls some of his highlights.
26 December 2025
Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

Peter Sauber has highlighted three of the most significant moments of his staggering motorsports career after finally bowing out of F1 earlier this month. There were, though, particular memories - and "more than one" - he recalled in speaking exclusively with RacingNews365. "On one side, it's the double victory in Montreal, together with BMW - or BMW with us! Because it's important to win races," he said, referencing the one-two finish from Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld in the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix.

"But for me, the most important was the P4 [in the constructors' championship] in 2001 with more or less two rookies in Nick, after a bad year with Prost, and Kimi [Raikkonen]. With these two guys, to clinch P4 was fantastic." It proved to be the team's highest finish over its first 14 seasons in F1, which exceeded expectations.

"Of course, I was surprised," he said. "But Kimi was an excellent driver that season. Nick was the better driver, but this combination was very good, and, of course, the car was okay. You need a good car. And then I go back to my end. I stepped back in 2012. That season we had four podiums, twice finishing P2, including beating Ferrari at Monza [that year, the team was powered by the Scuderia]."

‘Peter Sauber has highlighted three of the most significant moments’;

https://racingnews365.com/sauber-f1-founder-recalls-greatest-memories-ahead-of-audi-arrival

[Fortitude]

Alpine’s 2026 Gamble: Revival Plan or Another False Dawn?
Alpine’s 2025 numbers don’t need much dressing up. Tenth in the Constructors’ standings, 22 points on the board, and one driver doing all the scoring.
December 26, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Alpine eyes 2026 reset after bruising 2025: “We’re on plan, on track”. The A525 never quite woke up, and when it did, Pierre Gasly’s sixth at Silverstone was the outlier, not the trend. Franco Colapinto and Jack Doohan left their rookie stints empty-handed. But the story inside Enstone was never really about 2025. It was about calling time early and pushing chips across the table on 2026. Renault’s works power unit project wound down, Alpine inked its Mercedes customer deal for next year, and the factory lived under new leadership in a turbulent season that saw team principal Oli Oakes resign after Miami.

In came long-time paddock operator Steve Nielsen as managing director, working alongside executive advisor Flavio Briatore — a structure that raised eyebrows but, by all accounts, tightened the focus. Now, with the new rules looming and an A526 due to break cover on January 23, Alpine insists the long game is paying off. “I think we’ve done all the right things,” Nielsen said in Abu Dhabi. “The chassis has passed its crash tests. It’s lighter, it’s stronger. Looks good — but every team says that before it hits the circuit. The stopwatch decides.”

There’s no pretending 2025 was anything but attritional. Development on the A525 slowed to a crawl as the team pivoted early to the new regs, leaning hard into the fresh aerodynamics, energy management demands and the much-talked-about straight-line mode. That trade-off only makes sense if the new car lands on its feet fast. Racing director Dave Greenwood sounds confident it will feel natural soon enough. “Next year looks a bit more complicated, but only at the start,” he said. “Three races in, it’ll feel like the norm. The job is to develop our tools and help the driver as much as we can.”

“The stopwatch decides”;

https://fastestlap.com/news/alpines-2026-gamble-revival-plan-or-another-false-dawn/


Alpine abandon F1 goal 'timelines' ahead of new era
Alpine has endured a difficult F1 campaign but is hoping to commence the sport's new era under fresh technical regulations in strong fashion.
20 December 2025
Fergal Walsh & Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

Alpine managing director Steve Nielsen has asserted he is not focusing on timelines to bring the team into a successful position in F1. Nielsen has declared he will not seek to impose a timeline on Alpine's latest quest to turn around its form.

“I’m not a person who believes in a '100 race plan' or a 'three-year plan' or a 'five-year plan',” Nielsen told select media including RacingNews365. “I believe you put the best people you can get in the right positions. You give a clear mission, get the army marching all in the same direction, and you just work as hard as you can and do the best job you can.”

“You mill away at it. It's a slow grinding process, and you hope eventually you do a better job than everybody else. I can tell you we're building a better car next year than we have this year. I can't tell you whether that will line-up on the grid in first or 10th for 20th - I don't know.”

“Get the army marching all in the same direction”;

https://racingnews365.com/alpine-abandon-f1-goal-timelines-ahead-of-new-era


Pierre Gasly: 2026 Mercedes engine “in a great place”
24 Dec 2025
Last Word On Sports

Roughly a year ago, Alpine made the controversial move to abandon Renault engines in favour of Mercedes for 2026 and beyond. The French squad determined that Renault’s power units were becoming a limiting factor to the team’s success. Despite having dedicated a few years to developing their 2026 engines, Alpine opted to relinquish their manufacturer status.

This decision was motivated by the belief Mercedes were the best option for the new regulations. Pierre Gasly’s recent comments have further validated this sentiment. Regardless, the belief at the factory in Enstone is that Mercedes power will pay off. Pierre Gasly shares this optimism, based on his own information: “We open a new chapter with Mercedes, and obviously, looking at their CV, how many times they’ve been Champions – I’m sure it’s going to be a great adventure.”

“I’m not going to lie, I’m very excited about it. From what I’m hearing, the [Mercedes] engine is in a great place. So I’m looking forward to that first test and feeling what it’s like to have Mercedes horsepower on my back. I have very high expectations for us as a team next year. We made tactical sacrifices on 2025 to reward all of us by starting on the right foot from 2026 onwards… Next year, I want to be fighting at the front of the grid. As it stands, I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be able to be right up there.”

“In a great place”;

https://lastwordonsports.com/motorsports/2025/12/24/pierre-gasly-2026-mercedes-engine-in-a-great-place/


Gasly backs Alpine’s long game: ‘Much brighter days are coming’
26/12/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

After a 2025 season defined by growing pains and technical pivots, Pierre Gasly is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. “I feel like we’ve been through the rough part of the journey, and much brighter days are coming,” Gasly said in an interview with F1.com. That sense of disruption has made time blur for the 28-year-old.

“It doesn’t quite feel like 3 years,” he said. “Maybe because I had to go through so many changes, whether it was the management point of view, the team structure, teammates… It almost feels like every time it’s been a fresh start, not the continuity of working with the same people.”

“There have been some clear highlights… but I think it’s fair to say that, overall, we’re quite far from our expectations,” he explained. “I expected a lot more, which unfortunately didn’t happen. If you ask me now, it’s the most confident I’ve been for the coming seasons, compared to the end of 2023 or the end of 2024,” he said. “I was the first one to say, ‘Just forget about this year. Even stop earlier and just start working on 2026,’” he revealed.

‘Much brighter days are coming’;

https://f1i.com/news/556789-gasly-backs-alpines-long-game-much-brighter-days-are-coming.html


Alpine Bet It All. Can Gasly Cash In 2026?
December 27, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

After a bruising campaign that left Alpine marooned at the wrong end of the order, the Frenchman says he’ll be one of the hardest-working drivers over the winter — and he’s not hiding the reason: the reset that arrives with F1’s new regulations in 2026. “You can be sure I’m going to be one of the drivers that’s going to put the most work in,” Gasly said, reflecting on a season he plainly didn’t enjoy. “After the season I’ve had, I’m more eager than ever to bounce back next year.”

Alpine’s year was defined less by upgrades and more by triage. The team effectively de-emphasised 2025 to pivot early toward 2026, banking on the sport’s wholesale technical overhaul and a fresh power-unit supply to pull them out of a rut. It was a blunt strategy in public view — and, at times, painful — but internally they’ve been consistent: short-term pain for a shot at a big step when the reset kicks in.

Gasly has doubled down on that bet. He signed fresh terms in the autumn, the kind of move that only makes sense if you believe the people back at Enstone are about to turn the corner. “We get to the bottom of these reasons, we know why,” he said of the current struggles. “We know the strategic reasons we’ve made this year, which are costly for the performance of this year, but I think from next year onwards, I fully believe the team will be able to give me a car to compete at the front.”

‘Alpine Bet It All’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/alpine-bet-it-all-can-gasly-cash-in-2026/


Alpine reveal name of 2026 challenger as Mercedes engine era looms
24 DEC 2026
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

The name chosen for the French team’s first-ever Mercedes-powered car will be A526, continuing the naming continuity seen with previous cars. Like the other ten teams, Alpine is now ready to unveil the shape of its first car for the new regulatory cycle, with the French outfit aiming to play a leading role after four years marked by few highs and many lows — capped off by last place in the Constructors’ Championship last season.

Adding to all of this is the fact — as briefly mentioned — that for the first time in its history Alpine will race without its long-standing Renault engines, in the hope that the switch to Mercedes power units will deliver the long-awaited step forward in performance. Alpine on track with 2026 car 'targets' as Gasly prepares for busy winter.

Like many others, Alpine chose to sacrifice development of its 2025 car in order to focus fully on next season, which is shaping up to be one of the biggest technical shake-ups in Formula 1’s recent history.
The Frenchman carried the team on his shoulders last year, scoring all 22 of Alpine’s points, although it was still not enough to avoid finishing last in the standings. More recently, Gasly has spoken about the current state of development of the 2026 car and what expectations are heading into the new season.

‘A526’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/alpine-reveal-name-of-2026-challenger-as-mercedes-engine-era-looms

[Fortitude]

Perez Reloaded: Cadillac’s 2026 F1 Upset Bid.
Cadillac’s arrival swells the field to 11 teams for 2026, the first expansion since Haas in 2016. It’s a big swing at a complicated moment: brand-new cars, revamped power units, sustainable fuels, reshaped tyres and electronics, and all the headaches that come with stitching together a fresh F1 operation.
Dec 28, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Inside the paddock, there’s quiet respect for the scale of the effort. “They’re obviously putting together a very professional team, and they have good finances behind them,” said Aston Martin sporting director Andy Stevenson, another of Perez’s former colleagues. “I’m a huge fan of Checo, and I’d love to see him relaunch his career. He is a fantastic talent, he’s a great race driver… I’m hoping that Cadillac don’t go too well — but they’re certainly someone we’re not going to dismiss.”

That last bit only half-joking. The blueprint looks serious from the outside. Simone Resta, now deputy technical director at Mercedes and once part of Haas’s own start-up journey, believes Cadillac’s approach can pay off under the 2026 reset. “First of all, let’s not forget Valtteri — who is going to be back in the business for Cadillac,” Resta said. “It is very exciting for him, and it’s a good opportunity to be back after one year of stop. And Cadillac, they are investing a lot, hiring a lot of people, they are approaching the problem in a nice way, as far as we can see from outside. It’s a lot of challenge, like we said, but also they count on a Ferrari power unit only. So they’ve got one problem less, let’s say, to look after. I think they can be in the mix.”

Where does Perez fit into all this? Perfectly, according to those who know him. He’s always been a racer first—clever in traffic, hard on the elbows, instinctive with tyre life. If Cadillac rolls out a car that’s somewhere near the midfield, those skills translate immediately. And if it takes longer, he’s shown he can carry a project through the grind. The sabbatical might just have cleared the fog.

‘Quiet respect for the scale of the effort’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/perez-reloaded-cadillacs-2026-f1-upset-bid/


Cadillac's virtual race weekends - how sim work got new F1 team up to speed
Dec 11, 2025
James Elson
Motor Sport Magazine

Cadillac is in a race against time to get its new F1 car ready for 2026 – sim driver Pietro Fittipaldi explains how it's running in the virtual world first

TV viewers saw 20 cars on track in Abu Dhabi last weekend but, from a darkened room in North Carolina, an 11th F1 team was joining the fray. Simulating the race weekend in real-time was Pietro Fittipaldi, development driver for the new Cadillac F1 team, to ensure engineers, mechanics and drivers will hit the ground running when it joins the grid in 2026.

Team radio crackled away, data was pored over by technical minds and those that will be working hands-on with the car were prepped to know exactly where they’re supposed to be, at exactly the right time. Having had just over a year to prepare for its F1 debut at the 2026 Australian GP, no current team is in a race against time for the new season like Cadillac.

‘New F1 team up to speed’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/cadillacs-virtual-race-weekends-how-sim-work-got-new-f1-team-up-to-speed/?nowprocket=1


Cadillac promotes ex-Charles Leclerc engineer to new F1 role
22 Dec 2025
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Cadillac has promoted Charles Leclerc’s former race engineer to a major role in its new Formula 1 team after a brief spell working in its endurance squads. Xavier Marcos Padros, who left Ferrari midway through 2024, will become the American outfit’s Chief Race Engineer for its debut season in the sport.

After being replaced by Bryan Bozzi in his role working for Leclerc after the 2024 Miami Grand Prix, Marcos Padros was shuffled into additional roles at Ferrari. But it transpired that in January of this year, he had joined Cadillac, becoming Technical Director of its V-Series.R programme, which spread across its WEC and IMSA teams.

It is believed that Marcos Padros was present at its first TPC test in Imola last month, in which Sergio Perez drove a blacked-out Ferrari SF-23 as part of its preparations for 2026. Perez will be supported by Carlo Pasetti as his race engineer, who moves across from Aston Martin, in the Mexican’s first season back in F1 after a year-long hiatus.

‘Ex-Charles Leclerc engineer’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/12/22/cadillac-promotes-ex-charles-leclerc-engineer-to-new-f1-role/


Ferrari Insider Becomes Cadillac’s F1 Secret Weapon
December 21, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Xavier Marcos Padros, the voice in Charles Leclerc’s ear for five seasons at Ferrari, has resurfaced in Formula 1 as chief race engineer for the Cadillac F1 project — another key brick laid as the American outfit builds toward its 2026 debut. Marcos Padros is a familiar name to anyone who’s followed Leclerc’s rise. After spells with HRT and Williams — including a stint as Felipe Massa’s performance engineer — he joined Ferrari in 2018 and became Leclerc’s race engineer from 2019. The partnership produced five grand prix wins and a calm, methodical radio tone that Ferrari fans came to recognise instantly.

His time on the pit wall in red ended abruptly after the 2024 Miami Grand Prix, when Ferrari reassigned him to other internal programmes. Bryan Bozzi stepped in and the Leclerc–Bozzi pairing hit the ground running, winning Monaco in emotional fashion and adding victories at Monza and Austin before Ferrari’s form nosedived into a winless 2025 campaign. Marcos Padros then popped up in January as technical director of Cadillac’s LMDh programme in WEC and IMSA. Now comes confirmation he’s moved across to the Cadillac F1 arm, taking on a leadership role that will shape the team’s trackside operation.

It’s a smart pickup: he’s worked inside modern Ferrari, navigated the politics and pressure, and understands how to guide an elite driver through the fog of a grand prix. Cadillac, preparing for a 2026 entry, has been quietly busy. After spending much of 2025 running through simulated race weekends, the team conducted its first real on-track exercise last month at Imola with Sergio Perez driving a black-liveried 2023 Ferrari. Marcos Padros was understood to be among the personnel on site — a useful shakedown for processes, people and nerves as much as for the car.

‘Cadillac’s F1 Secret Weapon’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/ferrari-insider-becomes-cadillacs-f1-secret-weapon/


Perez is happy that Cadillac doesn't have Red Bull's 'influence' problem
25 Dec 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Sergio Perez is coming back to F1 in 2026 as a driver for Cadillac, a night and day switch from his previous stint as a Red Bull Racing driver. After a troubled 2024 season Perez was ousted from Red Bull, a blessing in disguise says the Mexican as quoted by Autoracer.it. “I didn't feel it at the time, but I needed a break,” he says. “When you're in this sport, you're always thinking about next year, the next race, the next contract. It's like you're on autopilot. But when you're forced out, like I was, you realize a lot and see the sport differently.”

"I feel like I've fallen in love with F1 all over again," he said. "It's important to remember that my last six months at Red Bull were very difficult for me, in every way. I'd started to lose some motivation towards this sport, and I can't allow that because it's a sport that has given me everything.” Perez then praised the American outfit for their listening capabilities, which Perez suggests he did not have before, in yet another veiled dig at Red Bull.

“It was great to discuss things with the team," he continued. "I focused on some specific aspects, giving them guidance. It's fantastic to have a team you feel you can influence and ask for certain things. For me, it's a bit irrelevant where we start. What matters most is how quickly we can progress. I want to push the team forward from day one. I think we'll be able to surprise a lot of people. This is a goal for us, to be able to make a strong impact in Formula 1 from day one.”

‘Perez then praised the American outfit for their listening capabilities’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/perez-is-happy-that-cadillac-doesnt-have-red-bulls-hearing-problem


Red Bull figure makes Sergio Perez prediction ahead of F1 2026 return with Cadillac
28 Dec 2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan suspects that Sergio Perez will come back “fighting fit and fairly quick” with Cadillac in F1 2026. “He finished with us struggling a little bit to keep up with his teammate,” he said of Perez. “Perhaps a year off, a bit of sunshine, reset the brain, and he’ll come back — and he’ll be fighting fit and fairly quick, I feel.”

Another of Perez’s former colleagues, Aston Martin sporting director Andy Stevenson, called the Mexican a “fantastic talent”. “I’m a huge fan of Checo, and I’d love to see him relaunch his career,” said Stevenson. “He is a fantastic talent, he’s a great race driver, and I think it would be great to see him back on the circuit again. So I’m looking forward to that.”

Simone Resta, now Mercedes’ deputy technical director, was previously a part of Haas, the most recent new team to join the F1 grid before Cadillac. He believes that Cadillac can place themselves “in the mix” in 2026.

‘Cadillac can place themselves “in the mix” in 2026’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/paul-monaghan-sergio-perez-fairly-quick-cadillac

[Fortitude]

Where 'a large part of responsibility lies' in Hamilton's forgettable 2025.
“I’d say a large part of the responsibility lies with the team as well” - Luigi Mazzola, Former Michael Schumacher engineer.
27 Dec 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Former Michael Schumacher engineer Luigi Mazzola has placed much of the blame for Lewis Hamilton’s disappointing 2025 season at Ferrari on the team itself. “I don’t put all the blame on Hamilton — I don’t see it as a case of saying, ‘You, Hamilton, messed everything up.’ I’d say a large part of the responsibility lies with the team as well. Because over 24 races, you simply can’t still have failed to understand how this guy drives, or at the very least not be able to give him a car that works consistently for him.”

“Everything that’s been said is true — the cultural shift, the language, the food, the procedures, whatever you like. But a driver is like a machine when he’s in the car: you tell him what this thing is doing, and he isolates himself, gets on with it, and goes.”

“The real problem comes when there’s a car he simply can’t drive. That’s what leaves me a bit puzzled. And I don’t even blame the race engineer either, who’s been under fairly heavy scrutiny, because I don’t know how much freedom a race engineer actually has when it comes to deciding what can be done to the car.”

“The real problem comes when there’s a car he simply can’t drive”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/where-a-large-part-of-responsibility-lies-in-hamiltons-forgettable-2025


F1 uncovered: A final probe into the hidden details of the Ferrari SF-25
26 Dec 2025
Matthew Somerfield
PlanetF1.com

Ferrari being behind the eight ball from the get-go made this task all the more difficult but they did make some changes throughout the course of the season to tidy up some of their weaknesses. They also worked tirelessly to find the right balance at each Grand Prix that suited each of their drivers.

‘Hidden details of the Ferrari SF-25’;

https://www.planetf1.com/features/f1-uncovered-a-final-probe-into-the-hidden-details-of-the-ferrari-sf-25


From Red Dawn to Red Flags: Hamilton’s Ferrari Reckoning
December 30, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Lewis Hamilton’s first year in red ended with a thud, not a flourish. And Martin Brundle didn’t sugarcoat it. “Not on this year’s results, no,” the Sky Sports pundit said when asked if Hamilton still has the toolkit to beat Charles Leclerc in equal machinery. Hard to argue: Ferrari’s seven podiums in 2025 all belonged to Leclerc, who outscored his new teammate by 86 points. Hamilton’s lone piece of silverware? The China Sprint. The grand prix podiums never came.

For a signing that shook the sport, the stat line is stark. Leclerc looked at ease, relentless on Saturdays and tidy on Sundays. Hamilton, by contrast, closed the year with four straight Q1 exits across sprint and grand prix sessions. That’s the sort of run that earns a thousand think pieces in Maranello, and none of them are kind.

Brundle’s broader view is less fatalistic. He doesn’t see Hamilton walking away now. With 2026 bringing a full reset—new chassis rules, new power unit architecture—the seven-time champion has the perfect excuse to play the long game. “I’d be very surprised if he just switches it off this winter,” Brundle noted. Sensible. If you’ve come this far to wear Ferrari red, you don’t quit on the eve of a rulebook revolution.

‘Hamilton’s Ferrari Reckoning’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/from-red-dawn-to-red-flags-hamiltons-ferrari-reckoning/


Hamilton thinks Ferrari highlights are yet to come with lots of 'firsts ahead'
30 Dec 2025
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Lewis Hamilton thinks many of his best moments with Ferrari are yet to come. When asked about his best moments, Hamilton explained that his standout moments with the Scuderia did not only come on track this year. "Highlights were the first day at the factory. My family was just there with me, driving around Fiorano for the first time, meeting the whole team for the first time." - Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton cleared of blame for a challenging 2025 season. Former Michael Schumacher engineer Luigi Mazzola believes a large part of responsibility for the Briton's difficulties lies with Ferrari. According to the Italian, the team should have done more to help Hamilton get more comfortable.

‘Ferrari highlights are yet to come’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/hamilton-thinks-ferrari-highlights-are-yet-to-come-with-lots-of-firsts-ahead


Ralf Schumacher explains how Lewis Hamilton treats him differently to Charles Leclerc in F1 paddock
29 December 2025
Tyler Rowlinson
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari looked like they had hit the jackpot in 2025 with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc as their drivers, but their campaign was a complete disappointment. The Maranello outfit went without a win and finished P4 in the standings, with Hamilton going without a podium for the first time in his career. Leclerc managed to secure seven podiums and a pole position, but ultimately struggled to fight the top three teams.

His teammate’s season was utterly miserable. Hamilton ‘gave up’ at Ferrari as he does not feel integrated in the team, having constantly complained about the car and the team’s operational errors. The Brit’s upgrade requests were ignored and his feedback to the team via private documents was not taken on board. Hamilton described his season as a ‘nightmare’ and his worst in F1 to date, and his body language paints a very telling picture.

Asked if he talks to Hamilton in the paddock, Schumacher told F1-Insider: “No, Lewis ignores me in the paddock. But that’s OK. The thing is, we’re different types of people. I met him for the first time back then, and he had just started Formula 1. We were still at the evening party at Lawrence Stroll’s private home. So Michael had us, yours truly, and Lewis was there too, and it was a very nice dinner. At that time, Lewis was new to Formula 1, of course, and everything was still very different, and Formula 1 does something to people. That’s just how it is.”

“Lewis ignores me in the paddock. But that’s OK”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ralf-schumacher-explains-how-lewis-hamilton-treats-him-differently-to-charles-leclerc-in-f1-paddock/


Alain Prost’s 1991 sacking is starting to closely mirror Lewis Hamilton’s first season with Ferrari
26 December 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Why Alain Prost got sacked by Ferrari in 1991 after calling their Formula 1 car a ‘truck’. Prost went from winning five races in 1990 to failing to stand on the top step of the podium the following year. The relationship between Prost and Ferrari started to break down, and a disagreement over strategy at the Spanish Grand Prix saw the Frenchman come out publicly and say, “If I’d had them, I could have won,” when asked about not starting on slick tyres.

At the penultimate race in Japan, Prost’s shock absorbers failed, and he said the car had been “like a horrible truck to drive,” after finishing fourth more than 80 seconds behind race winner Gerhard Berger. On top of this, Prost suggested that no one was listening to him about the issues he had with the car, and the atmosphere was ‘strictly negative’. This is despite being in negotiations with Ferrari just weeks before getting sacked about becoming the team’s sporting director in 1992, alongside his position as one of their two drivers. However, Prost was replaced for the final race in Australia by Minardi driver Gianni Morbidelli, with their relationship coming to an end.

How Alain Prost’s struggles relate to Lewis Hamilton’s first season at Ferrari. Hamilton will know exactly what Prost is talking about when it comes to the criticism of the Italian media. While Fred Vasseur and Ferrari’s poor development of the SF-25 have been targeted, Hamilton’s inability to match Leclerc for much of the season has also been a key talking point. Hamilton has been negative about his own ability rather than criticising Ferrari directly like Prost did, and has left much of the critique of the car to Leclerc, who has more credit with the team and the tifosi. Hamilton is quickly learning why Sebastian Vettel and other champions struggled at Ferrari, but he will hope that his time in Maranello ends more positively than Prost’s did.

‘Hamilton will know exactly what Prost is talking about’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/features/alain-prosts-1991-sacking-is-starting-to-closely-mirror-lewis-hamiltons-first-season-with-ferrari/

[Fortitude]

All you need to know about every F1 team’s 2026 launch plans.
All the dates for 2026 car, livery, and team reveals ahead of the new F1 season. F1 is braced to enter a new era with arguably the biggest regulation overhaul in the world championship’s history upon us.
1 Jan 2026
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

The 2026 season will feature much-changed cars and engines as part of a rules reset that could shake-up the competitive order. With F1 poised to enter the unknown, there is extra excitement and intrigue surrounding each team team as they show-off their new designs ahead of the season.

There will be an air of secrecy this year given the first pre-season test at the end of January in Barcelona will take place behind-closed-doors, further fuelling the anticipation. Here is a full breakdown of every F1 team’s 2026 launch plans…

‘F1 team’s 2026 launch plans’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1088232/1/all-you-need-know-about-every-f1-teams-2026-launch-plans


Everything you need to know about the 2026 Formula 1 calendar
1 Jan 2026
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

The long-awaited 2026 season is behind the corner: here’s everything you need to know about the F1 calendar for the upcoming campaign. The full breakdown of the F1 2026 calendar.

Round Date Grand Prix Location
1 Mar 06–08 Australian GP Melbourne
2 Mar 13–15 Chinese GP Shanghai
3 Mar 27–29 Japanese GP Suzuka
4 Apr 10–12 Bahrain GP Sakhir
5 Apr 17–19 Saudi Arabian GP Jeddah
6 May 01–03 Miami GP Miami
7 May 22–24 Canadian GP Montreal
8 Jun 05–07 Monaco GP Monaco
9 Jun 12–14 Spanish GP Barcelona
10 Jun 26–28 Austrian GP Spielberg
11 Jul 03–05 British GP Silverstone
12 Jul 17–19 Belgian GP Spa-Francorchamps
13 Jul 24–26 Hungarian GP Budapest
14 Aug 21–23 Dutch GP Zandvoort
15 Sep 04–06 Italian GP Monza
16 Sep 11–13 Spanish GP Madrid
17 Sep 25–27 Azerbaijan GP Baku
18 Oct 09–11 Singapore GP Singapore
19 Oct 23–25 United States GP Austin
20 Oct 30 – Nov 01 Mexican GP Mexico City
21 Nov 06–08 São Paulo GP Sao Paulo
22 Nov 19–21 Las Vegas GP Las Vegas
23 Nov 27–29 Qatar GP Lusail
24 Dec 04–06 Abu Dhabi GP Yas Marina

‘2026 Formula 1 calendar’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-2026-formula-1-calendar


Every F1 track on the 2026 calendar ranked from worst to best
January 1, 2026
Callum McAvoy
Metro.co.uk

1. Interlagos, Brazil: The Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, better known as Interlagos, has everything Silverstone has – plus huge elevation changes, undulating corners and the best atmosphere from the grandstands. If there’s one thing all F1 fans can agree on, it’s that Brazil not Abu Dhabi should be the venue for the season finale. But for now, it can celebrate taking the No.1 spot on this list.

2. Silverstone, UK: Variable weather, huge crowds, high-speeds, countless overtaking opportunities and iconic corners with even more iconic names like Copse, Stowe, Maggots and Becketts.

3. Red Bull Ring, Austria: Sneaking onto the podium is this the former Osterreichring, which was saved by Red Bull and has not disappointed since returning to the calendar a decade ago. Located in the picturesque Styrian mountains, drivers not only battle each other but also fight to stay within track limits on the twisty, fast tarmac.

‘Every F1 track ranked’;

https://metro.co.uk/2026/01/01/every-f1-track-2026-calendar-ranked-worst-best-25763798/?ito=newsnow-feed


Four ridiculously early bold predictions for the F1 2026 season
1 Jan 2026
Editor
PlanetF1.com

Watch out for Audi as a dark horse: By Henry Valantine. In both team and power unit terms, Audi F1 will arrive on the grid as the great unknown heading into 2026, but the team’s long run-up makes me think it might hit the ground running.

Pierre Gasly will win a race: By Oliver Harden. Call me crazy, but I have a good feeling about Alpine this year. The team’s disastrous 2025 belied the quiet confidence with which the team, now with a Mercedes power unit at its disposal, is approaching 2026.

Red Bull Powertrains-Ford engine delivers: By Jamie Woodhouse. F1 2026 should serve up a treat. Major chassis regulation changes are already enough to shake-up the pecking order. Add in new, 50/50 electric and biofuel engines, and that really is throwing a hand grenade into things. Mercedes is the popular pick to develop the top engine. I’m backing the Red Bull Powertrains-Ford creation to be a match for it.

Neither of the McLaren drivers will be in the top three. By Sam Cooper: As the reigning prediction champion – I will be saying this until it is no longer factually accurate – I have looked deep into my crystal ball and foresaw that neither McLaren driver will be in the top three of standings come the end of the year.

‘Bold predictions’;

https://www.planetf1.com/features/ridiculously-early-bold-predictions-f1-2026-season


Lawrence Barretto’s 5 bold predictions for the 2026 season – which of these could materialise?
Ahead of the 2026 campaign, F1.com's Lawrence Barretto shares his five bold predictions for what might unfold.
1 Jan 2026
F1 Correspondent & PresenterLawrence Barretto
Formula One - Official Site

1. Mercedes will reclaim the Teams’ Championship
The ground-effect era has not been a fun time for Mercedes. The Silver Arrows entered the period in 2022 as eight-time defending World Champions, and leave it having failed to ever get on top of the rules and subsequently never contending for either title.

‘5 bold predictions’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/lawrence-barrettos-5-bold-predictions-for-the-2026-season-which-of-these.5DSJaLKdfvk7JLC3hO8kvT


The game-changer in F1's 2026 fuel revolution
Jan 1, 2026
Edd Straw
The Race

History of Race Fuels from 1950 to today: So what exactly are Advanced Sustainable race fuels and how big a challenge is their development? Nobody is better placed to explain that than Shell’s Principal Scientist for Motorsports, Valeria Loreti.

History of Race Fuels from 1950 to today: So what exactly are Advanced Sustainable race fuels and how big a challenge is their development? Nobody is better placed to explain that than Shell’s Principal Scientist for Motorsports, Valeria Loreti.

Shell and Ferrari: How the innovation partnership comes to life from factory to track: While the key change to the fuels is in the origin of the components and sustainability of the entire process, with the supply chain certified by the FIA, the fuel itself will ideally be similar to what is currently used.

‘The game-changer’;

https://www.the-race.com/promoted/game-changer-f1-fuel-revolution/

[Fortitude]

Gary Anderson fears F1’s 2026 rules may destroy years of progress.
"I am not optimistic that these regulations will work as intended or at all,” Gary Anderson warned in a column published in The Telegraph. “In fact, the teams could be faced with a series of difficult problems to solve throughout the season.”
30/12/2025
Phillip van Osten
Crash.Net

Formula 1 is bracing itself for one of the most dramatic rule changes in its history, but not everyone is convinced the sport is heading in the right direction. Gary Anderson’s biggest fear is the competitive spread. The tightly packed grid F1 just enjoyed may be a distant memory.

Gary Anderson warned in a column published in The Telegraph “I would not be surprised to see some teams at least three or four seconds off the pace at the first Grand Prix next year because the new regulations are so complicated and overly technical.” That kind of gap would be a seismic step backwards for a sport that finished 2025 with just 1.6 seconds separating the slowest car in Q1 from the fastest in Q3. “Even now we see cars ‘clipping’ at the end of the straight,” Anderson explained.

“That means there is not enough power in the battery to deploy extra grunt at high speed – and that is with only 20 per cent electrical power. What will it be like with 50 per cent?” For drivers, this could be deeply frustrating. “It is always crucial to give the driver the power when he needs it,” he added. “When he puts his foot down to the floor he wants full power, on average this is between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of the lap. I think this has the potential to be the biggest issue in 2026.”

‘Not optimistic that these regulations will work’;

https://f1i.com/news/556903-gary-anderson-fears-f1s-2026-rules-may-destroy-years-of-progress.html


Which F1 team is under the most pressure heading into the 2026 season?
All teams will have to endure the weight of expectation in F1 2026, but which is under the most pressure to perform?
1 January 2026
RacingNews365 Staff

McLaren’s return to the front has raised expectations considerably. After proving it can win races again, the pressure is on to show that success is sustainable through a regulation reset. A step backwards in 2026 would cast doubt over its long-term trajectory. Mercedes cannot afford another slow start to a new regulatory era. Its reputation as an engine powerhouse sets high expectations for 2026, but rivals are better prepared than ever. A misstep could see Mercedes lose its position as a reference point in Formula 1.

Red Bull faces one of its biggest technical challenges yet as it introduces its first in-house power unit, developed with Ford. The risk is significant: success would underline its operational excellence, while early struggles would invite questions over timing and ambition. By contrast, its second team, Racing Bulls, could be considered under the least pressure, with expectations naturally lower.

Ferrari enters 2026 with the weight of history firmly on its shoulders. Armed with vast resources and full works status, it is expected to fight for championships. Failure to capitalise on a fresh start under new power unit rules would intensify scrutiny from all sides.

‘The weight of expectation’;

https://racingnews365.com/which-f1-team-is-under-the-most-pressure-heading-into-the-2026-season


The F1 drivers who need a big season in 2026
January 1, 2026
Pablo Elizalde
Motor Sport Magazine

As Formula 1 resets for 2026, it’s a moment of reckoning for some drivers whose racing career has reached a crunch point.

Lewis Hamilton: Perhaps no driver arrives at the 2026 reset with more to prove, or more to lose, than Lewis Hamilton.
Oscar Piastri: Oscar Piastri’s 2025 season was strong enough to confirm his status as a genuine championship-level driver, yet awkward enough to raise the stakes heading into 2026.
Isack Hadjar: Few drivers will face a steeper learning curve in 2026 than Isack Hadjar.

Charles Leclerc: Charles Leclerc doesn’t enter 2026 under pressure because of anything he failed to do.
Kimi Antonelli: Kimi Antonelli’s rookie season in 2025 was always going to be uneven, and it largely unfolded that way: flashes of speed and composure offset by errors that underlined just how steep the step into F1 remains.
Franco Colapinto; Franco Colapinto enters 2026 with less margin for error than almost anyone else on the grid.

‘Moment of reckoning’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/the-f1-drivers-who-need-a-big-season-in-2026/?nowprocket=1


The one area Ferrari is exercising caution on for 2026 F1 reset
January 1, 2026
Fleur Rogerson
Motorsport Week

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur has already been open about how car development will play a significant role in the pecking order under the new regulations. With that, he specifies that the cost cap will be a key player in the title contenders. “I think the driver of the introduction of upgrades won’t be the capacity to develop into the wind tunnel,” Vasseur told media including Motorsport Week. “The driver of the introduction of upgrades will be the cost cap.”

“It means we will have to be clever to make good use of the budget that we have for development, and to cope with this budget to introduce upgrades. For sure, the sooner the better and the more important the better on this. But it’s not a given that if you start to introduce four or five upgrades in the first couple of races… if you have to send a floor to Japan or to China, you are burning half of your budget on development,” he said.

“It means we will need to be clever in the plan, perhaps to develop sometimes more in the wind tunnel and to introduce in race three or four, when we are going back to Bahrain. It’s a question we’ll have to deal with; we’ll have to deal with it in the future, on a day-to-day basis, seeing on one end what we are getting from the wind tunnel and what the cost of the development is.”

'Car development ';

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/12/31/the-one-area-ferrari-is-exercising-caution-on-for-2026-f1-reset/


Two F1 teams kickstart year with new logos for the 2026 season
1 Jan 2026
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Mercedes: The classic Mercedes three-pointed star remains the main feature of the German team's logo, but it is now completely white. The team of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli does not yet have an announced launch date for the 2026 campaign.

Haas F1: Starting with the 2026 season, Haas will have Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) as the team's title sponsor, replacing MoneyGram. The duo's partnership began in 2024, and together they carried out the team's first TPC programmes in the 2025 season. Now, the 'TGR' abbreviation has a more prominent position in the team's logo as well.

‘Kickstart year’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/two-f1-teams-kickstart-year-with-new-logos-for-the-2026-season


F1: Aston Martin and Honda’s secret weapon for 2026
1 Jan 2026
Last Word On Sports

After flying high in the first eight rounds of 2023, Aston Martin have spent two seasons in the midfield. For a team with title aspirations, these results have been unsatisfactory. To change Aston Martin’s fortunes, team owner Lawrence Stroll has facilitated a series of key acquisitions. Adrian Newey, Enrico Cardile and Andy Cowell are among the heavy-hitters at the Silverstone outfit.

Looking ahead to 2026, one of the team’s biggest challenges will be operating as a manufacturer for the first time. Aston’s partnership with Honda is integral, and has already prompted structural adjustments for 2026. However, an often overlooked but nonetheless crucial player is Aston’s fuel supplier – Aramco.

Newey, Cardile and Cowell hard at work. Evidently, power unit development is just one aspect of the upcoming 2026 season. Aston Martin must deliver a pioneering aerodynamic package if they are to reach their objectives. This is where Adrian Newey is expected to make a difference. The 66-year-old works with Enrico Cardile, who was previously Ferrari’s Technical Director.

‘Secret weapon’;

https://lastwordonsports.com/motorsports/2026/01/01/f1-aston-martin-and-hondas-secret-weapon-for-2026/


Aston Martin passes essential hurdle in 2026 F1 preparations
1 Jan 2026
Motorsport Week

Aston Martin‘s preparations for the upcoming Formula 1 campaign are continuing at pace as the team has fired up its 2026 car. Along with Newey, Fernando Alonso will be hoping that his own second spell with Honda will give him the chance to return to the top step in 2026. “I’m optimistic, because it’s a reset of things. You know, everyone has the chance to do a better job than the others,” Alonso told media including Motorsport Week.

“We start from scratch, so that’s one thing that offers always hope. We have our new facilities completed now, we have our own wind tunnel. We have Honda as engine supplier – and only for us. Aramco, Adrian Newey… so we have some good things to be optimistic [about], but this is a very competitive sport, and everyone is doing a very good job. So we’ll see.”

“I’m relaxed. You know, it’s a long championship ahead. I think a lot of things will happen in the first three or four months of the year, when you discover the cars and which direction and philosophy everyone took, you learn a lot of things in the first two or three races. So, you know, I think we have the right people and the right facilities and environment to have a good season. So it’s up to us.”

“I’m optimistic… … I’m relaxed”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/01/01/aston-martin-passes-essential-hurdle-in-2026-f1-preparations/

[Fortitude]

Former F1 team boss warns of “outliers” at start of 2026 car era.
“In the beginning, there will be some outliers — some very fast cars, and maybe somebody will get it completely wrong and be slow for a year or two.” Guenther Steiner.
25 Dec 2025
Lewis Duncan
Crash.Net

Former Haas Formula 1 team boss Guenther Steiner believes there will be “outliers” at the beginning of the new car era in 2026, which someone “will get completely wrong”. “The aerodynamic rules, the chassis rules are changing, the cars get smaller and get completely different new power units,” he told Lottoland. “There is changeable aerodynamics — on the straight, you can take downforce away, so you reduce drag and go faster.”

“I have no idea who will be good, who will be bad. It’s a completely new game — nobody knows, not even the teams, because the teams only know their own car. Some people will get it right, and some people will not get it so right. The people not getting it right will need to catch up. Formula 1 always needs a change in regulations, because otherwise all the cars end up the same and you stop developing technology.”

“With the next generation of cars, sustainable fuels are being developed for the combustion engine. That could be huge for normal people on the road. Combustion engines will change, but with better, sustainable fuels, they can still have a future. Change is good. People reinvent themselves, put a lot of effort in it, and it keeps it interesting.”

“Outliers”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1088223/1/former-f1-team-boss-warns-outliers-start-2026-car-era


F1’s 2026 Reset: Ocon Predicts Rally-Car Mayhem
January 1, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Esteban Ocon isn’t dressing up what’s coming. With Formula 1’s next rulebook set to rip up the playbook in 2026, the Haas driver says the new cars will feel so different it’ll be like “jumping from an F1 car to a rally car.” That’s more than a line for effect. The 2026 chassis and power unit overhaul will dial back ground-effect dependence, layer in moveable aerodynamics, and lean harder on electrical energy deployment. Expect higher straight-line speeds and a hit to mid-corner performance, with energy management pushed right to the heart of racecraft. It’s a new game, not just a new level.

“It’s like if you jump from an F1 car to a rally car next year, pretty much, it’s that different,” Ocon told media, underlining just how far the pendulum is swinging. The move away from floor-driven downforce should soften the brutal ride that’s defined this ground-effect era, but it’s also likely to reshape how drivers approach every phase of a lap. The honest answer, though, is that nobody truly knows yet what the racing will look like. Teams are deep in their simulations, each working in isolation.

Those single-team models can’t replicate how a whole grid of rival concepts interacts once the lights go out. That uncertainty is a breeding ground for bold design bets—and early gaps. History says a fresh ruleset can scatter the pack. While the last cycle eventually compressed the midfield, 2026 opens the door for someone to nail a concept first and bank points while everyone else reverse-engineers the idea. Equally, the field has never been quicker at spotting and copying what works. Expect winners and losers early; expect convergence later.

‘Rally-Car Mayhem’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/f1s-2026-reset-ocon-predicts-rally-car-mayhem/


Major F1 2026 design change prompts rally car comparison
1 Jan 2026
Mat Coch
PlanetF1.com

Esteban Ocon likened the difference between the ground effect generation of cars and those set to be introduced for F1 2026 to like jumping into a rally car. That will be complemented by a different style of racing, with energy management predicted to play a far more significant role.

Such a significant change in the shape of the on-track action has generated strong opinions from the drivers. “It’s like if you jump from an F1 car to a rally car next year, pretty much, it’s that different,” he told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media.

However, it’s also likely any such discoveries will quickly be made by their rivals, while the pack will take time understanding the nuances of their new machines. “There are going to be much bigger issues than that, I think, to tackle initially,” said Ocon, referencing a braking issue he struggled with in the latter stages of F1 2025.

‘F1 2026… …jumping into a rally car’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/major-f1-2026-design-change-prompts-rally-car-comparison


Mercedes are ‘bothered’ by one emerging doubt about George Russell’s 2026 F1 car in the simulator
2 January 2026
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

According to FunoAnalisiTecnica, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is striving to lower the expectations about their car for the new rules. Despite the widely held belief that Mercedes will create the best engine for the 2026 F1 regulations, questions remain about their chassis. In particular, Mercedes’ simulator tests with their 2026 F1 regulations car have revealed one question about the handling of their new challenger that is now ‘bothering’ the team.

Their simulator cannot sufficiently replicate the physical sensations when their car begins to slide. Mercedes hope George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli can start to give them ‘important’ answers about the handling of their 2026 car when pre-season testing begins behind closed doors in Barcelona on January 26-30, before testing in Bahrain on February 11-13 and 18-20.

Mercedes’ questions about their 2026 F1 rules car could encourage McLaren. Mercedes are in the final stages of designing their car for the 2026 F1 regulations, which the Brackley crew will only truly know whether it is a title-challenging package when the season starts in Australia on March 6-8. Qualifying in Melbourne will see the first real pecking order.

‘Simulator cannot sufficiently replicate the physical sensations when their car begins to slide’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/mercedes-are-bothered-by-one-emerging-doubt-about-george-russells-2026-f1-car-in-the-simulator/


Ferrari set for radical multi-version 2026 F1 car approach
RacingNews365's technical analyst Paolo Filisetti takes a look at the two versions of car Ferrari will introduce at the start of the 2026 F1 regulations.
29 December 2025
Paolo Filisetti
RacingNews365

Ferrari has confirmed that its 2026 Formula 1 car will be unveiled on 23 January, as the Scuderia aims to leave behind the limitations that plagued the SF-25 last season. Across the paddock, teams have committed substantial resources to interpreting the revised regulations, with each constructor seeking to exploit every available performance opportunity from the outset.

However, this aggressive development approach carries inherent risks given the fundamental nature of the changes. The regulatory overhaul effectively requires teams to start with a near-blank canvas, with limited carry-over knowledge from the current generation of machinery.

This challenge is compounded by reduced development time, particularly affecting the implementation of unconventional solutions across multiple car systems, from internal fluid dynamics to comprehensive aerodynamic packages. Fred Vasseur has confirmed that Ferrari's launch-spec car will differ substantially from the machine that takes to the grid in Melbourne.

‘Radical multi-version 2026 F1 car’;

https://racingnews365.com/ferrari-set-for-radical-multi-version-2026-f1-car-approach


Toto Wolff makes a ‘fascinating’ prediction after seeing Mercedes’ 2026 F1 rules car in the simulator
21 December 2025
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

During the Mercedes team principal’s end-of-year review on the team’s official YouTube channel, Wolff was asked for his expectations on the new season of racing… He said, “We had a very successful spell over those years. We won eight championships, but we had difficult years that followed. One era ends, an era that we will be looking back on with a lot of positive memories. But now we are starting in the real hybrid era. We are driving 50% electric engines with sustainable fuel. And that almost gives it one notch of innovation more.”

“And I just came out of the simulator watching the car drive. It’s going to be fascinating.” Then asked to elaborate, Wolff added, “It adds a completely new dimension, of which you don’t lose that real racing. But energy deployment will be playing a massive part, and the intelligence of a driver, the driver who puts a lot of work into the preparation for the weekend. Just talk to them, they like it.” In response to a statement that says Mercedes will be strong, he replied, “Well, I would very much hope so, but I’m a notorious pessimist. The glass is always half empty, rather than half full.”

“And we’ve set ourselves targets on the power unit and the same on the chassis. Whether those targets were ambitious enough, whether we have missed the trick, whether our execution is going to be as faultless as it should be. I don’t know. We’re going to see some glimpses of performance balance in testing late in January and then in Bahrain, obviously. But I think the name of the game is going to be the constant development of the tools throughout the season.”

“Energy deployment will be playing a massive part, and the intelligence of a driver”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/toto-wolff-makes-a-fascinating-prediction-after-seeing-mercedes-2026-f1-rules-car-in-the-simulator/

[Fortitude]

McLaren have found a 2026 secret weapon that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will both benefit from.
Mercedes are being touted as having the best power unit next year, but whether that’s actually the case will only be known once all 11 teams take to the track.
31 December 2025
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

If the Mercedes-powered teams do have an advantage, then McLaren will need to find an extra edge over Mercedes, Williams and Alpine. A piece of business they did at the end of the season could prove to be the difference after signing Formula 2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli. Fornaroli has been tipped for an F1 seat, and while that’s not going to arrive immediately with McLaren, he could be essential to Andrea Stella’s team returning to the top of the standings.

Why Leonardo Fornaroli could be so important to McLaren next season. The Italian has proven to be incredibly consistent, and if his feedback is as impressive as believed, then he could be crucial to the development war that’s set to play out in 2026. Many teams believe that the rate of improvement next season is going to be rapid, with all 11 teams quickly learning from each other. Having someone as detail-focused as Fornaroli in the simulator, constantly testing new parts and configurations, could end up being the secret weapon that McLaren need to win a third consecutive championship.

‘Find an extra edge’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/mclaren-have-found-a-2026-secret-weapon-that-lando-norris-and-oscar-piastri-will-both-benefit-from/


F1 world champion Lando Norris has shockingly been snubbed by King Charles as tradition broken
31 Dec 2026
Christopher Durning
Give Me Sport

The dust has settled on a historic Formula 1 season for Lando Norris after victory at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix saw the British driver crowned world champion following a dramatic win in the final race of the campaign. Following victory in Abu Dhabi, however, Norris hasn't had a great deal else to celebrate after missing out on BBC Sports Personality of the Year, which ended up being won by golfer Rory McIlroy after securing the elusive fifth Major of his career at Augusta in The Masters. Norris would end up placing third in the public vote behind second-placed England Women's rugby star Ellie Kildunne.

It wasn't just SPOTY where Norris was snubbed, though, as a tradition has seemingly been broken by none other than King Charles. Now, the 2025 New Year's Honours List has been revealed with one notable absentee from those in line for a gong from Buckingham Palace. Norris has sensationally been left off the list following his dramatic victory in the hotly-contested final race of the season that saw the British driver secure the title by the finest of margins.

‘Tradition broken’;

https://www.givemesport.com/f1-world-champion-lando-norris-snubbed-king-charles-tradition-broken/


Norris 'Royally' snubbed as British crown keeps him out of prestigious list
30 Dec 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

It is customary for British F1 champions to appear on the Royal New Years Honours list. However, Britain's most recent Formula One champion, McLaren driver Lando Norris' name was absent. It was customary that after a British driver won their first Formula One championship they would be awarded an MBE or an OBE, as marked more recently by Damon Hill in 1996, Hamilton in 2008 and Jenson Button in 2009, with Hamilton being knighted in 2020 after services in diversity and motorsport.

‘Norris 'Royally' snubbed’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/norris-royally-snubbed-as-british-crown-keeps-him-out-of-prestigious-list


Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri told the simple reason McLaren could be ‘a step ahead’ in 2026
2 January 2026
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

McLaren’s ‘good group of people’ will put them ‘a step ahead’ under F1’s 2026 regulations. Mercedes are widely expected to develop the best 2026 F1 rules engine, which could be key for the new era owing to the increase in electrical power from a 20/80 split with combustion up to 50/50. F1 is even introducing active aero for the first time to aid the new engine rules.

Mike Hezemans also feels McLaren will “especially” be a “step ahead” of their rivals like Red Bull and Ferrari in 2026, as the Woking natives showed in 2025 that they have built a strong team. So, Hezemans is already backing Norris or Piastri to win the first Grand Prix in 2026. Hezemans told RacingNews365: “I think McLaren will win the Grand Prix in Australia. I think Mercedes can also reach the podium with Russell, or even with Antonelli.”

“After that, I think Ferrari and Red Bull are a bit behind… I think Mercedes and McLaren are simply a step ahead of the rest. McLaren, especially, because they currently have such a good group of people who work so well together. They built such a good car that I think they can continue that into next year.”

‘A step ahead’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/lando-norris-and-oscar-piastri-told-the-simple-reason-mclaren-could-be-a-step-ahead-in-2026/


Norris assesses F1 future: ‘It’s all downhill from here!’
30/12/2025
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Three weeks after the champagne dried in Abu Dhabi and the reality of a first Formula 1 world title began to sink in, Lando Norris has had time to reflect on a 2025 season that delivered everything at once. And with the perspective that only hindsight (and a gold trophy) can provide, the newly crowned champion has reached a typically Norris conclusion: it’s all “downhill from here.”

Looking back in an interview with BBC Sport on a season that delivered just about everything at once, Norris summed it up with a grin: “They're really the best runs,” Norris said of his British Grand Prix, Monaco Grand Prix and championship wins. “Just downhill from here,” he added with a smile. The man waited years for this moment – and immediately joked himself into retirement.

“I would have loved to make my life a bit easier, winning earlier next time. But it's always more exciting when it goes down to the final race, final few laps. It's more exciting for everyone, for you guys, most of all. But I won ones that people have dreamt of winning. They are some of the most incredible ones.” Among those dream victories, Monaco stood out—not just for the prestige, but for what it unlocked emotionally. “The lap I did in Monaco in quali was the only other time probably in the last 10 years that I cried a little bit over something. Because there I proved myself wrong.”

‘Typically Norris conclusion’;

https://f1i.com/news/556934-norris-assesses-f1-future-its-all-downhill-from-here.html

[Fortitude]

Mercedes “on track” to meet 2026 targets – Toto Wolff.
Mercedes pleased with 2026 trajectory, downplay chances of dominance. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has spent the last few weeks doing expectation management.
02 Jan 2026
Last Word On Sports

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has spent the last few weeks doing expectation management. Not for the first time, Wolff’s Silver Arrows are viewed as the team to watch heading into a new set of regulations. Primarily, the anticipation for Mercedes in F1 2026 stems from their power unit development. The overwhelming consensus is that the Mercedes engine will be superior to its rivals. This includes new manufacturers like Audi and established ones like Ferrari or Honda.

When discussing the team’s 2026 development, Wolff admits key objectives are being hit. Still, he denies that Mercedes are in a position to dominate. Speaking to the media at the end of 2025, Toto Wolff outlined his outlook on the upcoming season: “It is super difficult to predict, because we set ourselves targets that we are on track to meet. But whether those targets we set were ambitious enough, and whether those targets have been set in the right place in terms of priorities, only the future will show…”

“In 2014, I had the feeling already in the winter. When we were the first ones running a full car dyno, the engine was more reliable than with others. And on day 1 of testing, nobody did the laps we did – and it was the same on day 2. So it is not comparable, I would say that the grid is just much more competitive than it was in previous years.”

‘Expectation management’;

https://lastwordonsports.com/motorsports/2026/01/02/mercedes-on-track-to-meet-2026-targets-toto-wolff/


Why Mercedes went from F1 dominator to four years of failure
Jan 3, 2026
Edd Straw
The Race

Mercedes is tipped by many to be back on top in Formula 1 for the start of the new regulations era in 2026… However, there are also doubts. That’s because Mercedes failed to conquer the ground-effect regulations of 2022 to 2025. It will only be by avoiding the mistakes that blighted the past four years, when it was only the fourth-most-successful team in terms of results, that it can live up to its prodigious potential.

And everyone in the team knows that, as the difficulties of the past four years leave no room for complacency. “I’m never confident,” said team principal Toto Wolff. “I’m a glass-half-empty person, so we’ll just do everything we can that is in our power to come out with a car, with a power unit that is competitive enough to fight for a world championship.”

“We got off to a wrong start,” said Wolff of Mercedes' problems under the 2022-25 rules. “We tried to solve it problem by problem and while peeling off and sorting these problems, new problems occurred and we were never able to correlate and understand.”
Mistake 1 - Making a bad start
Mistake 2 - Tricked by false dawns
Mistake 3 - Development errors
Mistake 4 - Not copying others

“I’m never confident,” said team principal Toto Wolff. “I’m a glass-half-empty person…”;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/why-mercedes-went-from-f1-dominator-to-four-years-of-failure/


Antonelli reveals dream scenario amid promising Mercedes verdict
2 Jan 2026
Henry Valantine
PlanetF1.com

Kimi Antonelli has revealed his hopes for a 2014-style introduction to the new Formula 1 regulations, which would be the “dream” scenario for him. Testing will provide the first indicator of how the field may stack up heading into the Australian Grand Prix, but Antonelli, heading into his sophomore season in Formula 1, admitted his team getting the jump on the rest of the field would be the ideal scenario for him.

“I mean, hopefully it would be like 2014 – will be the dream,” Antonelli told PlanetF1.com and others. “But you never know. I think these are even bigger regulation changes than 2014 because, also on the chassis side, aerodynamic side, everything is changing – but I have full trust in Mercedes, in the work they’ve been doing.”

“I’ve been spending quite a lot of time at the factory, seeing the progress in the wind tunnel, also going to HPP [High Performance Powertrains], seeing the progress on the dyno. So definitely, it looks promising, but we don’t know what the others are doing, and I think the most important [thing], when we go for the first test in Barcelona, [is] having a reliable car, being able to put the laps in, and then make the most learning.”

‘The “dream” scenario’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/kimi-antonelli-mercedes-dream-scenario


The FIA have accidentally given one F1 team a ‘head start’ over Mercedes for the 2026 season
3 January 2026
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

Aston Martin were given a ‘head start’ on the new regulations through their fuel supplier, Aramco. According to a report from Grada3, Aramco provided data from initial tests that were commissioned by the FIA regarding the new synthetic fuel that will power Formula 1 engines in the new era of regulations.

Aramco is the sole supplier of Aston Martin and has been providing their fuel in F1’s junior categories, Formula 2 and Formula 3, since 2023. In one example given in the report, the boost could compensate for ‘the advantage’ that Mercedes and Red Bull have gained through their compression ratio tweak. Ferrari have already brought this ‘loophole’ to the attention of the FIA.

Given Honda’s recent experience of being the benchmark for F1 engine manufacturers through their success with Max Verstappen and Red Bull, they reportedly have ‘many areas’ in which they can make up for the deficit that is posed by the Silver Arrows’ ‘trick’. The report concludes by saying Aramco’s fuel is Aston Martin and Honda’s ‘ace up their sleeve’, which bodes well for the title hopes of the British constructor and the man who has been eluded by a third world title since 2006, Fernando Alonso.

‘Ace up their sleeve’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/the-fia-have-accidentally-given-one-f1-team-a-head-start-over-mercedes-for-the-2026-season/


Mercedes hasn’t missed Hamilton in the car since his move to Ferrari
31 Dec 2025
Tim Kraaij
GPblog.com

Mercedes has shown little sign of suffering following Lewis Hamilton’s departure in 2025. Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin explained why the team believes Kimi Antonelli is a worthy successor to the seven-time world champion.

Mercedes absorbed losing Hamilton. However, Shovlin explained that Mercedes’ development process is far less dependent on driver feedback than many might assume. "I mean to be honest, with George, it’s fine," the Briton said in response to GPblog’s question. “The bigger point is we don't really develop a car predominantly on what the driver is telling us. Most of it will come from simulations, you're searching for downforce, you're searching for certain balance characteristics that you know will deliver lap time, you're trying to reduce drag.”

"You're developing suspension characteristics that can put the car in a better aerodynamic window. So the vast majority of it isn't the driver saying ‘I need this’ and us rushing off and trying to find it. It's very, very helpful that you have the consistent element of George in the car. He's known these cars through this regulation set. So there was never really any worry of would we lose our way from a development point of view. And as I said, Kimi's great at telling you what the car's doing. So there's no bit there that needed work on.”

‘Mercedes absorbed losing Hamilton’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/features/mercedes-hasnt-missed-hamilton-since-his-move-to-ferrari


Juan Pablo Montoya explains why Toto Wolff may lose interest in bringing Max Verstappen to Mercedes
2 January 2026
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

During the height of Red Bull’s turmoil in 2025, it looked like Max Verstappen would potentially leave Milton Keynes for greener pastures at the Austrian constructor’s fierce rivals, Mercedes. Rumours of Max Verstappen holidaying in the vicinity of Mercedes boss Toto Wolff sent the links into overdrive, which was later debunked by Red Bull sources.

However, speculation of a potential partnership between the two parties is ever-present, but former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya believes the Austrian executive may start to lose interest in a move in the coming months. On a recent episode of the MontoyAS podcast, he said, “I think so, but the complicated thing is that George and Antonelli are both starting to do a very good job. If they both do a good job, they won’t need Max.”

Now, it does beg the question of whether Verstappen’s talents deserve more than what an in-form driver can offer. On the other hand, Antonelli is still only 19 years old, and it is all still possible for his talents to potentially usurp those of Verstappen in future years, albeit being very unlikely. Aston Martin is also a potential option for Max Verstappen if he opts to depart Red Bull.

‘Toto Wolff may lose interest’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/juan-pablo-montoya-explains-why-toto-wolff-may-lose-interest-in-bringing-max-verstappen-to-mercedes/

[Matthew]

Former Red Bull Head of Race Strategy, Will Courtenay, has completed his long-awaited switch to Formula 1 rivals McLaren as Sporting Director.

Courtenay, who has held various roles at the Milton Keynes-based squad since its inception, was announced to be moving as far back as September 2024.

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/01/04/ex-red-bull-strategist-completes-major-f1-switch-to-mclaren/

[Fortitude]

Ford issues response to Toto Wolff’s ‘Mount Everest’ Red Bull engine claim.
Wolff described it as a “Mount Everest” project for the new engine manufacturer, and while Rushbrook does not argue that, he believes that Red Bull-Ford is “in a good place” ahead of the hotly-anticipated new season.
30 Dec 2025
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Red Bull takes the plunge in becoming an engine manufacturer for the first time, working alongside Ford, Toto Wolff spoke of the enormity of the challenge. “This project is like climbing Mount Everest,” said Wolff about Red Bull Powertrains-Ford, when speaking with De Telegraaf. “They are taking on manufacturers with decades of experience. But everyone joked when Red Bull entered the sport too. It was like an energy drink manufacturer taking on Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren. Well, they’ve won quite a lot. But given the complexity of the engines, I do think it will be a huge challenge for them.”

Rushbrook responded to Wolff’s comments when speaking with Motorsport.com. “What Toto said is true, right?” Rushbrook stated. “It’s true in the sense that this is new a start-up. But, it’s a combination of people coming in from different programs. We think we’re in a good place, but we will only see the full picture once we’re on track.” Should Red Bull-Ford see any deficit on the internal combustion engine compared to rivals, Rushbrook believes “it would only be slight.

“Because yes, existing engine manufacturers have all those years of experience, but it’s still a bit different again with these rules for 2026. And we’ve got a lot of experienced people that came in from other programs to find it together. So even if we’re a little bit behind with the combustion engine, we don’t think it’s going to be by much, and we’ll make up for it in everything else.”

“This project is like climbing Mount Everest”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/ford-toto-wolff-mount-everest-red-bull-engine-true


Ford reveal additional contribution to Max Verstappen's new Red Bull.
The expanded partnership represents the natural result of two technical organisations working closely together rather than any admission of deficiency from Red Bull's side.
2 January 2026
RacingNews365 Staff

Initially, the American manufacturer was expected to focus primarily on the electrical components that will become increasingly crucial under the new hybrid regulations. "The initial list focused on the electrical part of the engine: the battery, inverter, software, calibration, et cetera," Ford performance director Mark Rushbrook told Motorsport.com. "That was on our initial list, and we certainly delivered in that area.”

"But what we didn't expect at first, and what wasn't a priority for us at the beginning, was about the internal combustion engine. That has changed as the program has gone along, as our schedule with the road cars has also changed. In terms of the plans with our road cars, we are still going ahead with internal combustion engines now, in addition to hybrids and all-electric cars," Rushbrook added. "As a result, it has gradually become more and more important to be involved in the internal combustion engine in Formula 1 as well."

"While we were working on the electric side and seeing what was happening with the internal combustion engine, we also saw opportunities on the internal combustion engine side to contribute," he said. "From then on, parts for that internal combustion engine were actually made in Dearborn. Those parts are even made and shipped daily."

‘The expanded partnership’;

https://racingnews365.com/ford-reveal-additional-contribution-to-max-verstappen-new-red-bull


Red Bull’s Quiet Rebrand Hints at Ford-Powered Reckoning
January 2, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Red Bull’s new bull: subtle logo tweak hints at bigger shifts for the Ford era. Red Bull has quietly rolled out a refreshed team logo ahead of F1’s 2026 reset, a small visual nudge that carries a lot of meaning as the team prepares to build and race its own power units with Ford. The update won’t knock your socks off at first glance. The charging bulls and the core wordmark stay put, but the “Red Bull” lettering now wears a crisp white outline for the first time since the mid-2010s. It’s a knowing wink to an era of glossy, deep-blue cars and silverware by the truckload — and a departure from the matte navy aesthetic that’s defined the team since 2016.

Online, the tweak set off the usual livery guessing game. Nostalgia-heavy fans are already lobbying for a full throwback: darker, shinier, angrier. They may have an ally in the cockpit. Max Verstappen, a four-time World Champion, has previously pushed for a return to the “shiny” finish on the team’s own podcast, making the case that after so many matte iterations, it’s time to spice things up.

There’s timing to all of this. Red Bull heads into 2026 with a brand-new heartbeat. After ending its title-winning spell with Honda at the conclusion of 2025, the team flips the switch to Red Bull Powertrains in collaboration with Ford — the first full works engine project in its history. The logo refresh is the first public breadcrumb of that new identity, with a more comprehensive reveal to follow at Ford’s season-launch event in Detroit on January 15, where Red Bull and Racing Bulls are expected to lift the covers on their 2026 liveries.

‘Quiet Rebrand’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/red-bulls-quiet-rebrand-hints-at-ford-powered-reckoning/


Red Bull receives additional help from Ford on a crucial '26 engine component
3 Jan 2026
Nicole Mulder
GPblog.com

The collaboration between Red Bull Powertrains and Ford is proving to be more extensive than originally planned. Ford was originally meant to focus on the electric side of the F1 power unit, including the battery and software. “That was primarily the list, and that has certainly been delivered. But what we didn't expect, and what wasn't a priority for us initially, was the combustion engine,” he explains to Motorsport.com.

“As we were working on the electric part of it, and we saw what was going on with the combustion engine, we saw an opportunity to participate and contribute,” he explains. Rushbrook says that Ford's additional involvement did not happen because Red Bull had issues. He explains that collaboration between the two engineering teams can move the project forward.

“It wasn't necessarily that things were lacking, but as you have the technical minds together, and they're working on certain things, they overhear or get asked questions. What would Ford do in this situation? And that's where we were able to say, we can actually help, and we have been able to contribute to that part.” Later this month, the new Formula 1 power units will be tested on track for the first time at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The test, which will take place behind closed doors, should reveal where the Red Bull Ford power unit stands compared to its rivals.

‘Additional help’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/red-bull-receives-additional-help-from-ford-on-a-crucial-component-of-the-2026-engine


‘We don’t see it as a landing point’ – Mekies sets out expectations for Hadjar at Red Bull in 2026
With Isack Hadjar confirmed as Max Verstappen's Red Bull team mate in 2026, Team Principal Laurent Mekies has revealed what the squad will be hoping to see from the Frenchman.
1 Jan 2026
Formula One - Official Site

Laurent Mekies has shared an insight into Red Bull’s expectations for Isack Hadjar as the French driver prepares to make the step up from Racing Bulls to partner Max Verstappen at the squad in 2026. Reflecting back on how Hadjar performed in 2025, Mekies explained: “Isack has had an unbelievable first season. There is no doubt that in terms of starting point – so where he started in January – the starting point was outstanding.

“Then we are strong believers not only in the raw talent, but also the ability of the drivers to develop. We have seen so many champions developing through the years, doing things that they had not done in the car a few races before. We've seen that with Isack this year too. We’ve seen him making stuff in the car that he was not doing three races before.”

“We see it as another start for him to continue to develop, to continue to impress us, to continue to surprise us. And you will expect that in the second year. You will expect that in the third year, perhaps in the fourth year. So that's a little bit the journey for us together.”

‘Expectations’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/we-dont-see-it-as-a-landing-point-mekies-sets-out-expectations-for-hadjar-at.2MMQI2GCXqW8JiBvZ5PFQc


Verstappen delivers on 2025 promise with helmet gift for Sergio Perez
1 Jan 2026
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Max Verstappen delivered on his word to give Sergio Perez a helmet, completing their swap. "Thank you for being a great teammate and friend." - Max Verstappen to Sergio Perez

During the press conference at this year’s Austrian Grand Prix, the four-time Formula 1 world champion was asked a question about an interview Perez gave regarding the 2022 season. Verstappen explained that the Mexican's words were misinterpreted. He said at the time: "I have a lot of respect for him, he has a lot of respect for me. That’s it from my side.”

"I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing him again soon in the paddock. I still need to give him a helmet of mine – I promised him that, because he gave me one of his with a very nice message on it.”

‘completing their swap’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/verstappen-delivers-on-2025-promise-with-gift-for-sergio-perez

[Fortitude]

Ferrari stirs engine ruckus over Mercedes and Red Bull at FIA.
Ferrari is continuing efforts to have a Mercedes and Red Bull engine solution banned ahead of the 2026 Formula 1 season, despite repeated attempts failing so far.
31 Dec 2025
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Mercedes, and reportedly Red Bull Ford, are understood to be using a design that increases the cylinder compression ratio beyond the stated 16.0:1 limit once the engine reaches operating temperature.

While the regulations set the limit, the measurement is taken when the engine is cold, allowing components to expand when warm and increase compression within the rules. The solution is reported to deliver up to four tenths of a second per lap, placing Ferrari, Audi and Honda at a disadvantage.

The FIA has so far approved the engines, having been involved throughout development and homologation. Ferrari is said to be lobbying for regulatory intervention after several races, with speculation that a protest could be lodged at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

‘Ferrari stirs engine ruckus’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/general/ferrari-stirs-engine-ruckus-over-mercedes-and-red-bull-at-fia


Ferrari are now lobbying the FIA about Mercedes using a ‘loophole’ in the 2026 F1 engine regulations
19 December 2025
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

A huge storm is now brewing in the F1 world ahead of the 2026 regulations, as Ferrari are concerned that Mercedes have already found a ‘loophole’ in the new engine rules. Mercedes are widely expected to have the best 2026 F1 regulations engine and return to the front of the field, after struggling throughout the ground-effect era from 2022-2025. But how Mercedes have designed their 2026 engine has triggered the alarm at Ferrari.

Ferrari fear Mercedes have found a 2026 F1 engine rules ‘trick’ worth three-tenths of a second. That is according to Motorsport-Magazin, which reports that a dispute between the engine manufacturers has been ‘raging for some time’ due to how some have interpreted the new rules. So, Ferrari, Honda and Audi are now lobbying the FIA to put an end to the ‘loophole’. Mercedes have widely been expected to be the F1 team that adapts to the new engine rules the best for some time.

In contrast, there have often been concerns that Ferrari’s engine for the 2026 F1 regulations will be behind the eight ball when the new power unit rules arrive. Additionally, it is now being reported that there are concerns about the reliability of Ferrari’s 2026 rules engine, with the Maranello squad frantically working to avoid starting the year at a disadvantage. Also, Red Bull’s 2026 engine is expected to be off the pace by two-tenths. If Mercedes have, indeed, found a loophole that will give them as much of an advantage as three-tenths of a second a lap, then the Silver Arrows and engine customer teams McLaren and Williams will expect to dominate when the 2026 season starts in Australia on March 8.

‘Concerns about the reliability of Ferrari’s 2026 rules engine’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-are-now-lobbying-the-fia-about-mercedes-using-a-loophole-in-the-2026-f1-engine-regulations/


Williams boss accuses ‘one team and PU manufacturer’ of creating F1 2026 engine ‘narrative’
1 Jan 2026
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Williams boss James Vowles said no manufacturer knows where they really stand, and that one rival created a “narrative to push some changes” regarding the engines. Vowles added: “No one knows, no one of any engine manufacturer, where they’re going to fall out. And part of the speculation that appeared, I think, was one team and PU manufacturer trying to create a narrative to push some changes, to be completely clear.”

“But no one really knows. I strongly doubt that Ferrari have done a poor job. They’re very good at getting this right year on year as well. Honda this year have produced a benchmark engine as well. So, I don’t think it’s going to be like 2014 where you have such a runaway that you can have all the teams carried with it.”

“I think Mercedes, we’ve been working specifically on 2026 with them since early 2024 when we signed the agreement. And what I can say is they’ve done good preparation. Let’s see what that translates to. In terms of our aspirations, I think top three, again, would be above what we’re expecting. Stepping forward year on year is a sensible goal for us. Top three would be aspirational.”

“Ferrari”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/james-vowles-f1-2026-engine-manufacturer-creating-narrative


Ferrari already ‘up in arms’ and planning protest against F1 rivals at the 2026 Australian GP
4 January 2026
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has played down expectations going into the first race of the 2026 Formula 1 season, but the tifosi are under no illusions about how important the upcoming campaign is going to be. After a disappointing 2025, Ferrari know that F1’s upcoming rule changes need to represent a change in their fortunes. The Scuderia haven’t won a championship since 2008, and in Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari have two drivers more than capable of winning a title.

Ferrari planning ‘protest’ against Mercedes and Red Bull after the 2026 Australian Grand Prix. Formula 1’s new regulations are stricter than ever, with the rulebook stretching over more than 100 pages. However, it’s believed that a loophole surrounding the compression ratio of the combustion engine has been found. The report from Blick has suggested that a ‘frustrated’ Ferrari team are already ‘up in arms’ about the discovery.

It’s been suggested that Ferrari, and their fellow manufacturers who have not exploited the loophole, are already planning to ‘lodge a protest’ as soon as the race in Melbourne ends. This wouldn’t be the first time something like this has happened, with Brawn GP in 2009 discovering a workaround in the sport’s ruleset that year.

‘Up in arms’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-already-up-in-arms-and-planning-protest-against-f1-rivals-at-the-2026-australian-gp/


Hamilton 'hugely disadvantaged' by Ferrari's first crucial F1 2026 decision
4 Jan 2026
Norberto Mujica
GPblog.com

Ferrari's first crucial decision regarding Lewis Hamilton's side of the garage ahead of the F1 2026 season has been interpreted as a setback by former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher, who outlines further obstacles for the British driver's upcoming Formula One campaign. “The car will be more nervous. Leclerc can handle that. Hamilton needs stability at the rear.” - Ralf Schumacher

The Scuderia, according to reports, seems to have confirmed Adami will continue to serve as Hamilton's race engineer going into F1 2026, a vital year in the seven-time world champion's F1 career - which could potentially be his last in the team and in the series as well -, and one Schumacher believes could be hampered by the way the cars will behave, where he tips Hamilton's teammate Charles Leclerc to have the edge on the seasoned British driver.

“The chemistry isn’t right. That’s a huge disadvantage,” Schumacher said. "They should go on holiday together." Regarding the way Schumacher thinks cars will handle next year, and what he believes Hamilton's preferred driving style is, the German former F1 driver turned pundit backs Leclerc over Hamilton to come to grips with the 2026 regulation cars. “The car will be more nervous,” he said. “Leclerc can handle that. Hamilton needs stability at the rear.”

'Hugely disadvantaged';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/hamilton-hugely-disadvantaged-by-ferraris-first-crucial-f1-2026-decision


Vasseur reveals how Hamilton "is putting a positive energy into the team"
3 Jan 2026
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

On the back of Lewis Hamilton's tough maiden season with Ferrari, the Scuderia's team boss Fred Vasseur revealed how the seven-time world champion "is putting a positive energy into the team." The Briton described the constant cycle of commitments — photoshoots, media duties, sponsor obligations — as exhausting, and said he wanted to step away from the “matrix” for a period of genuine rest. Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur offered strong public support for Hamilton, particularly during the difficult final stretch of the season.

Speaking to Autosport.com, Vasseur said he expected a driver to be “mega upset” after suffering three consecutive Q1 exits, and he dismissed the idea that a calm, media friendly façade would be preferable. “When you are out in Q1, I hope the driver is mega upset with himself and with the team. I'm not sure that you, journalist, you prefer to have someone going to the TV pen saying, ‘no, everything is normal, blah, blah, blah’ — all the usual bullshit.” He stressed that what mattered most was Hamilton’s commitment to returning to the debriefs, engaging with the engineers, and working constructively to find solutions.

“I respect perfectly the position of the drivers when they have this attitude. Then the most important for me is also to have someone collaborating with the team.” Vasseur praised Hamilton for maintaining that approach even during the toughest moments of the season. “It's much better to have someone not speaking in the TV pen and coming back to the debriefing, speaking with the engineers, trying to find solutions and it's the attitude that Lewis had even when he had a tough moment in the last part of the season and this is putting a positive energy into the team.”

“When you are out in Q1, I hope the driver is mega upset with himself and with the team”;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/28106

[Fortitude]

Ferrari are failing to silence ‘fears’ about one ‘important’ part on Lewis Hamilton’s 2026 F1 car.
Ferrari suffered a setback with the exits of ‘several’ key engineers to rival F1 teams. Corriere Della Sera now reports that while Ferrari should be in full swing with their 2026 regulations car, the pride of Italy are failing to silence the ‘fears’ that their new engine is not on track.
9 December 2025
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari are failing to silence the fears that their 2026 F1 regulations engine is not on track. Team principal Fred Vasseur stopping the development of Ferrari’s 2025 car in April to focus on the 2026 F1 regulations was decisive in the outcome of the Scuderia’s season. Ferrari did not want to use any wind tunnel time on aerodynamic upgrades at the expense of next year.

The Scuderia are now striving to get their engine project back running smoothly. Ferrari plan to unveil their car for 2026 at Fiorano in the week of January 20 and also immediately hold a shakedown at their test track before the behind-closed-doors pre-season test in Barcelona. Audi are among the rival F1 outfits who have raided Maranello ahead of the German brand’s debut in 2026, having taken over Sauber. Wolf Zimmermann was one of the central figures in Ferrari’s engine department since his arrival from Mercedes in 2014, but he has joined Audi.

There have been whispers in the paddock over recent months that Audi’s 2026 engine could be ahead of Ferrari’s power unit for the new regulations era. Zimmermann and Lars Schmidt both leaving Ferrari to join Audi also played a part in their engine producing a lack of results. Ferrari have hired several new faces to help get their engine project back on track, with a lot joining from Renault after the French automotive giant closed Alpine’s works engine division. But Ferrari’s new engine staff from Renault instantly shared concerns that the unit is lacking.

‘Audi are among the rival F1 outfits who have raided Maranello’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-are-failing-to-silence-fears-about-one-important-part-on-lewis-hamiltons-2026-f1-car/


Fred Vasseur sends Ferrari 'other issues' warning as new F1 era looms
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has pointed out that whilst the problems of the SF-25 are now gone, the Italian team will face "other issues" in 2026.
6 January 2026
Samuel Coop
RacingNews365

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur has cautioned that the Italian team will undoubtedly face "other issues" in 2026 after a campaign dogged by the underperforming SF-25. And although the season ahead is an entirely new proposition, with all-new chassis and power unit regulations, Vasseur is certain his team will encounter fresh issues.

"I think the philosophy of the car [in 2026] will be completely different," the Frenchman told media, including RacingNews365. "Mainly because half of the car won't be the same. And the issue that we had all of last season won't be there, but we'll have other issues, for sure." So when it was put to Vasseur that the new car will be his "first", he playfully deflected, highlighting Loic Serra, who is his new chassis technical director.

"It's more the Loic Serra car," the 57-year-old joked. "I don't want to escape any responsibility, but if you speak about Cardile, you have to speak about Loic. No, Enrico left the team in June '24, and Loic joined in October '24. It means that the car was almost designed. It's why I was a bit upset when [the media] put the name of Loic under the bus at one stage of last season. I think it was a bit unfair, but, at the end of the day, next year's car is the first — not the first baby, he had a baby before — but the first product of Loic."

"Other issues";

https://racingnews365.com/fred-vasseur-sends-ferrari-other-issues-warning-as-new-f1-era-looms


Ferrari reveals its 'spec A' plan for 2026 F1 car's debut
Dec 18, 2025
Jon Noble, Edd Straw
The Race

Ferrari has revealed plans to launch with a basic "spec A" version of its 2026 Formula 1 car to help prove out reliability in early testing. The team will launch its new design on January 23 – most likely at its own Fiorano test track where it will then be able to get some first mileage done as part of a filming day. This running can be completed either under the rules relating to demonstration events (limited to 15km) or a promotional event (limited to 200km).

The new Ferrari will then be shipped directly to Barcelona over the following weekend, prior to taking part in the private test that teams are allowed to join from January 26. But the specification of car that Ferrari runs in that first test looks like it will be nothing like what it starts the season with – because the final race one parts are only set to appear much later.

Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur has revealed that his squad will join many others – and potentially the entire grid – in starting testing with a very simple concept that will allow it to focus on getting as many laps under its belt as possible with the all-new cars. "I think everybody will do it," he said, speaking at Maranello this week. "In this situation, the most important [thing] is to get mileage. It's not to chase performance, it's to get mileage to validate the technical choice of the car in terms of reliability. Then [after that is] to get performance.”

"Spec A";

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/ferrari-reveals-its-spec-a-plan-for-2026-f1-cars-debut/


Ferrari facing a ‘critical issue’ with their 2026 F1 car that could impact every team on the grid
30 December 2025
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

The upcoming new regulations are undoubtedly throwing a few curveballs for F1 engineers as they ready their cars for pre-season testing, and Ferrari are already facing a ‘critical issue’ with one aspect of the new ruleset… …the development of their 2026 front wing. A report by La Gazzetta dello Sport outlined Ferrari’s plan during pre-season testing for the upcoming season, stating that the iconic racing outfit will be verifying the ‘functionality’ of their package in Barcelona before it adopts a more ‘definitive structure’ in certain areas in Bahrain.

One of those areas is the front wing, which is understood to be a ‘critical issue’ for them, as well as every other team on the grid, due to the new active aerodynamic systems that will be in place. In contrast to the new system’s predecessor, DRS, the active aerodynamics will feature movable flaps on the front wing, which requires ‘a complete redesign’ of the area in order for the optimisation of floor-directed airflow.

This development is also understood to be the leading factor behind Ferrari’s decision to develop the car alongside the data that will be collected during the early testing sessions. Technical director Loic Serra will be given the necessary amount of time to evaluate the areas for improvement of the implemented solutions, and hopefully arrive at the first round of the season with confidence in the new F1 car.

‘Critical issue’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-facing-a-critical-issue-with-their-2026-f1-car-that-could-impact-every-team-on-the-grid/


Ferrari’s Steel-Head Revolution: Win Big or Burn Out?
January 5, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Ferrari’s big 2026 bet: steel heads, bold packaging, and a two spec launch plan. Ferrari is pushing ahead with steel alloy cylinder heads for its 2026 power unit, doubling down on a concept that was once parked over durability worries and now looks central to Maranello’s reset. Multiple Italian reports indicate the breakthrough came in recent months, with Ferrari enlisting Austrian engine specialists AVL to lift the mileage and reliability of the steel solution. It’s a significant pivot from the autumn chatter that had Ferrari shelving steel for aluminum at launch, fearing the heads wouldn’t survive the 24-race grind with just four internal combustion units permitted per driver next season.

The timing fits the moment. Ferrari just trudged through a winless 2025 and slipped to fourth in the Constructors’ standings, with Charles Leclerc banking seven podiums and new signing Lewis Hamilton enduring the first podium-less season of his career. The 2026 overhaul—chassis and power unit in one hit—offers a hard reset. Ferrari appears determined to make theirs count. Why steel now? Two reasons, chiefly. First, the minimum weight of the power unit jumps from 120 to 150 kilograms in 2026, blunting aluminum’s long-standing trump card. Shedding a handful of grams matters less when the rulebook sets a heavier floor.

Second, steel’s strength opens the door to higher peak pressures and combustion temperatures—“never seen before,” as the whispers go—which, if you can keep it alive over thousands of kilometers, yields efficiency and performance in an era where every drop of energy matters. Ferrari’s engine program—internally dubbed Project 678—has been described as “revolutionary” for months, complete with a closely guarded intake concept. The steel heads would be the headline, but not the only card in the hand. Maranello has also developed a new, compact battery and reduced radiator size, improvements that feed directly into car packaging. Less cooling drag and tighter bodywork are gold dust when you’re chasing lap time under fresh aero regs.

‘Ferrari’s Steel-Head Revolution’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/ferraris-steel-head-revolution-win-big-or-burn-out/

[Fortitude]

Mark Hughes: Ferrari too flawed to answer the Hamilton question.
Hamilton has fallen foul of reruns of what they (Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel) endured there, but with two added horrible complications: 1) His own personal performance is in question… 2) The incumbent driver…
5 Jan 2026
Mark Hughes
The Race

If Lewis Hamilton had been able to join Ferrari with, say, Adrian Newey (in the Rory Byrne role), Andrea Stella (in the Ross Brawn role) and Christian Horner (as Jean Todt), and as a four-headed force they had been able to demand just a budget and a totally hands-off approach from corporate management, then Hamilton may - just may - have had a chance of achieving what Michael Schumacher did at Ferrari in Formula 1…

The potential of Ferrari is only ever fully accessed when a brilliant, strong-headed, dominant character is both the lead driver and the inspiration for the team. Whatever they demand happens. In super-quick time. That's how it was with Schumacher and Lauda before him. In the 1960s another brilliant driver with a strong personality, John Surtees, had understood the sort of changes required at Maranello and had gone about getting them made.

"But in doing that I fell foul of certain people," as he recalled when I interviewed him in 1998, "which led to me leaving in protest. Which in hindsight was a mistake. But in an Italian team - and I found this in motorcycles as well as cars - you need to be sure of yourself and behave as if you are sure of yourself and then prove it by performance. Otherwise you're finished."

‘Ferrari too flawed’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/ferrari-f1-flaws-lewis-hamilton-question-mark-hughes/


Is Ferrari Listening? Hamilton’s Red Revolution Meets Resistance
24 Dec 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Bernie Collins sees a familiar story playing out at Ferrari: a world champion walks through the door with a bulging notebook, a clear view on how to sharpen the team, and the patience to push until people listen. The twist, of course, is that this time it’s Lewis Hamilton.

Over the radio, Hamilton’s exchanges with race engineer Riccardo Adami were sharper than anything we grew used to in the Mercedes era. Elsewhere, Ferrari chairman John Elkann made headlines with a blunt “focus on driving, talk less” message to his drivers after São Paulo. Those aren’t the sort of optics that say “perfectly aligned.”

None of this is simple. Ferrari is, as ever, Ferrari — the closest thing F1 has to a national team — and Hamilton turned up largely without his old guard. There’s history with team principal Fred Vasseur from Hamilton’s junior days, and chassis chief Loïc Serra knows him well from Mercedes. But Peter Bonnington, the trusted voice in his ear for a decade of title fights, stayed put. As Collins pointed out, “Bono” was never likely to uproot his family to Italy. The upshot for Hamilton has been a new voice on the radio, a new garage rhythm, and a new culture to sync with, 24 weekends a year.

‘Ferrari, the closest thing F1 has to a national team’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/is-ferrari-listening-hamiltons-red-revolution-meets-resistance/


Ferrari can’t afford to underestimate Lewis Hamilton issue again after 2025 ‘wake-up call’
7 Jan 2026
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari ‘underestimated’ the impact of giving up 2025 on Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. Journalist Chris Medland was speaking on the RACER Debrief about Ferrari’s 2025 season and what they need to do this year. He explained: “I think it’s been a wake-up call for Ferrari and Lewis about how tough this will be and whether actually he’ll get to a level he wants next year too. But I think for the team, they had to write off last year, as painful as it was."

“If they are at least one of the leading challenges to any team, if it’s not a Ferrari engine that’s the best one, let’s again theoretically say it’s a Mercedes engine, then Ferrari engines need to be one of the leading challenges to Mercedes-powered teams. They don’t have to be winning. That’s obviously what they want to be doing. But it’s far harder to say that’s what you’re going to do at the start of a new ruleset. So they just need to be competitive and have good foundations to build from.”

‘Ferrari wake-up call';

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-cant-afford-to-underestimate-lewis-hamilton-issue-again-after-2025-wake-up-call/


Ferrari’s Gamble: Adami Set To Stay With Hamilton in 2026
28 Dec 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Report: Ferrari leaning toward keeping Riccardo Adami as Hamilton’s race engineer for 2026 Lewis Hamilton’s first season in red never really settled. The radio snippets were awkward, the results thin, and every Sunday felt like an exercise in recalibration. Now, with 2026 looming and Ferrari’s own leadership publicly “evaluating all options,” the noise around his pit wall looks set to quieten down — for now. Multiple Italian reports suggest Riccardo Adami is likely to remain on Hamilton’s side of the Ferrari garage next season after what’s been described as a constructive off track reset between the pair. That tracks with the pragmatic mood at Maranello: change for change’s sake is out; continuity ahead of the biggest rules overhaul in a decade is in.

Adami, of course, isn’t new to the high-wire act. He’s worked with Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz at Ferrari, and his engineering lineage at the team runs deep. But engineer-driver relationships aren’t plug-and-play. Styles clash, language shifts matter, and when a season tilts away early, the radio becomes a billboard for the strain. In 2025, it too often did. Ferrari insists the outside view is harsher than the reality. Matteo Togninalli, the team’s head of track engineering, was bullish late last year about the foundations being laid with Hamilton despite the rough optics.

‘Constructive off track reset between the pair’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/ferraris-gamble-adami-set-to-stay-with-hamilton-in-2026/


Think Lewis Hamilton regrets his move to Ferrari? Just wait until 2026
25 Dec 2025
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

Lewis Hamilton’s dream move to Ferrari turned into a nightmare over the course of the F1 2025 season. The really worrying thing? It could get even worse if the Mercedes team he left behind ends up dominating in F1 2026… The great irony that the main problem he encountered at Mercedes – a badly born, fundamentally flawed car with its biggest weakness baked in for the season – is identical to the one he has found at Ferrari. Put simply, there were a variety of reasons – not all related to competitiveness – behind Hamilton’s decision to sign on the dotted line with Ferrari in the winter of 2023/24.

To judge it purely through the prism of results on track – even if that, of course, should always be considered the ultimate metric – is to overlook his motive for becoming a Ferrari driver. Looking for a way out of Mercedes in response to two consecutive winless seasons in 2022/23 seems more than a touch hasty – an emotional spasm of a decision – now that 2026, and the promise offered by the new regulations, is on the horizon. Who knows?

Ferrari might just ace the new rules from the start of next season. Maybe. Possibly. Perhaps. The worst-case scenario for him now? Watching the car he walked away from, the car that could so easily have been his, storming to the title in George Russell’s hands next season. Now that would be the final insult. Think Hamilton regrets his Ferrari move now? Just wait until 2026.

‘Maybe Possibly Perhaps’;

https://www.planetf1.com/features/lewis-hamilton-ferrari-mercedes-f1-2026-regret


From Drained to Dangerous: Hamilton Rewrites Ferrari’s 2026
8 Jan 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Lewis Hamilton draws a line under ‘draining’ 2025, tightens the screws on Ferrari workload for 2026. Lewis Hamilton has set out a firmer plan to protect his time and energy at Ferrari after a bruising first season in red, saying he’ll lean on his personal team to build a “more efficient” way of working in 2026. Hamilton made clear at the season finale in Abu Dhabi that 2026 needs a smarter cadence, not just at the factory but away from it too.

“We just need to analyse where we’ve been, what’s been good, areas that we can improve on,” he said. “I’ll look internally with my personal team away from the track and see what we can do to make things more efficient with timing and travelling and all these different things, and I’ll do the same with the team.” That personal team has been visibly present again. Longtime performance coach Angela Cullen — a familiar constant through his Mercedes peak years… The social post read like a reset. “I’m incredibly grateful for this break. Time to disconnect, recharge and find a bit of inner peace… after a very draining year,” he wrote, urging fans to “let go of things that don’t serve you,” before adding: “The time for change is now.

Starting new routines, leaving behind unwanted patterns and working on growth.” Hamilton also nodded to the Chinese zodiac — “leaving behind the Year of the Snake” and “entering the Year of the Horse” — a poetic flourish, sure, but also a neat metaphor for a driver who’s decided it’s time to stop treading water and start galloping again. Inside Ferrari, one of the off-season questions hung over radio dynamics... The latest indication, however, is that Hamilton and Adami will stay paired after a constructive off-track meeting. A change would’ve been drastic; Ferrari appears to be betting on continuity and calmer communication to smooth the edges.

‘More efficient way of working in 2026’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/from-drained-to-dangerous-hamilton-rewrites-ferraris-2026/

[Fortitude]

The concerns emerging for Newey’s Aston-Honda F1 superteam already.
Behind the scenes, though, Honda's F1 programme had been gutted… …which meant when the 2026 programme started… …starting up again almost from scratch.
Jan 8, 2026
Scott Mitchell-Malm
The Race

Honda technically withdrew from F1 at the end of 2021, even though its engines continued to be used by Red Bull through to the end of last season. It was a convoluted and peculiar arrangement that was a consequence of a poorly justified original decision to quit. Honda U-turned on that call in early 2023 when its 2026 project with Aston Martin was announced but the damage had already been done.

From 2022 to 2025, Honda continued to maintain and assemble engines for Red Bull's two F1 teams based off the frozen specification from the title-winning 2021 season. Honda's name disappeared entirely at first, then came back slightly apologetically on the engine itself and with branding on Red Bull's cars. Behind the scenes, though, Honda's F1 programme had been gutted. Resources were diverted to other R&D projects within Honda as that was the whole point of quitting F1 - which meant when the 2026 programme started in earnest, Honda was starting up again almost from scratch.

The Sakura engine facility that Honda has is raved about by anyone that goes there: even ex-Aston Martin CEO and team principal Andy Cowell, who oversaw Mercedes' initial domination at the beginning of the V6 turbo-hybrid era. And he knows a thing or two about proper engine programmes. But that same engine facility colossally underachieved in 2015, when Honda made its first hybrid F1 engine, then again in 2017 when it rolled out a brand new design - which nobody needs to remind Aston Martin's lead driver Fernando Alonso about, given his past grievances with Honda from that time.

‘The concerns’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/worries-already-emerging-newey-f1-superteam-aston-martin-honda/


Aston Martin warned of ‘really difficult year’ by former strategist despite ‘hype’
6 Jan 2026
Sam Cooper
PlanetF1.com

Former Aston Martin strategist Bernie Collins has warned her old team it is in for a “really difficult” season despite “hype” surrounding it. Collins, who worked for Aston in the 2021 and 2022 seasons, though said it would be “really difficult” for all the moving parts to come together. “I actually think, although there’s a lot of hype around the new project, the new factory, I think it’s going to be a really difficult year for them next year,” she told Sky Sports.

“I think to do any of the little things they’ve done, to change the engine, to change the gearbox, to change the chief designer, change the wind tunnel, have a new factory – any of those individual components would worry me for the performance of the team for the next year, because they’re big changes. To change all of them together, I think I’m not sure how phenomenal it’s going to go year one, even though we all know Adrian Newey, he’s a fantastic designer.”

‘“Really difficult” for all the moving parts to come together’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/aston-martin-warned-really-difficult-year-2026


Newey’s Aston Coup: The 2026 War Starts Now
Jan 1, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Adrian Newey has stepped into the team principal role at Aston Martin, a move that turns the sport’s most storied designer into the man with the final word on Sunday nights.

Step back and the Newey move says plenty about Aston’s 2026 intent. With the ruleset flipping to 50 percent electrical power, fully sustainable fuels and active aero, the competitive order is ripe for a shuffle. And Newey—now with a boardroom remit—has the latitude to align the whole project around that pivot. Technical directors manage philosophy. Team principals set culture. If he stitches both together, that’s a powerful combination.

‘Newey move says plenty about Aston’s 2026 intent’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/neweys-aston-coup-the-2026-war-starts-now/


Aston Martin’s ‘best secrets’ will be hidden by Adrian Newey ahead of 2026 car launch
8 Jan 2026
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

The upcoming regulations changes in 2026 give Aston Martin and new team principal Adrian Newey a blank canvas to work on. Journalist Jon Noble has been speaking about the upcoming launch event and has taken a particular interest in what the Silverstone-based team are doing. His suggestion is that out of all 11 teams in the paddock, Aston Martin will give the least away because of Newey’s expertise. Noble was speaking on The Race F1 Podcast ahead of the start of pre-season and said: “I am most intrigued to see what Adrian Newey’s first kind of interpretation of the 2026 cars is like.”

“I’m sure that car that we get to see, I think the launch is in Saudi Arabia after the Barcelona test, so I’m sure images will have leaked out because there’s no way nobody’s going to get photos of any of those cars over the Barcelona test. Whether that’s come from marshals with their iPhones out or team members or things leaking out from teams, so the images are going to get out. But I am intrigued to see what Newey’s done and the interpretation of it and how that compares to other people. Although Newey is the absolute master of making sure that nothing that will be displayed on that car will be performance critical.”

“That all the best secrets will be either hidden away so out of view or won’t feature on the car, and will be replaced with fake parts to divert attention. Even though teams do play games, and I quite like the games they play when you kind of see what they’ve done and how they’ve done it and what they’re keeping secret, you still get a sense of the design and the concept and what’s really going on. Even if I think launch spec cars this year are going to be perhaps the most different that they can be between what actually appears in race one.”

“Best secrets will be either hidden away so out of view or won’t feature on the car”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/aston-martins-best-secrets-will-be-hidden-by-adrian-newey-ahead-of-2026-car-launch/


Aston’s Secret Map: Where 2026 AMR Bites Hardest
Jan 8, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Aston Martin quietly confident it knows where the 2026 AMR will bite hardest. Adrian Newey in green still takes a second to process. The most decorated designer of the modern era now fronting Aston Martin’s F1 effort is a visual that does a lot of heavy lifting for the team’s 2026 narrative: big brains, big hires, big promises. But there’s also a hint of steel behind the smile. The group in Silverstone doesn’t want to overplay its hand.

That much was clear as Aston’s chief trackside officer Mike Krack laid out, in guarded terms, how the team views the first year of F1’s new ruleset. No grand predictions, no chest-beating—just a quietly confident assertion that Aston already has a pretty solid map of where the AMR’s strengths will show up. “We’ve got a good handle on which circuits should suit us and which might not,” Krack said. The subtext: they’ve built an aerodynamic platform with a specific character, and they know how it will couple with the 2026 ecosystem—more electrical deployment, active aero doing the heavy lifting, and stricter limits on what you can spend and when you can spend it.”

Aston’s build-up has been years in the making. The investment run-up at Silverstone—new wind tunnel, new campus, new toys—wasn’t just vanity. It’s already enabled Newey, now steering the project from the team principal’s chair, and Enrico Cardile, the incoming chief technical officer, to shape a car around the toolkit rather than fight it. Add the factory Honda power unit arriving in 2026 and you’ve got a package that at least looks coherent on paper. That’s why the paddock keeps reaching for the “dark horse” label. But the better-informed voices are a touch cooler.

‘Aston’s build-up has been years in the making’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/astons-secret-map-where-2026-amr-bites-hardest/


New Aston Martin AMR26 performance clue as ‘good understanding’ emerges
8 Jan 2026
Mat Coch
PlanetF1.com

While it may not know exactly where in the pecking order it might sit, Mike Krack believes the squad already knows the tracks that will suit it. “I think we have a good understanding in general,” said Krack, Aston Martin’s chief trackside officer, when asked if the team had any concept of what 2026 looks like.

“We know, for example, which circuits should be better suited to our car and which circuit may be less good for us. There are circuits where you will be strong, and circuits you will be less strong, and you have to manage to get the maximum out of it. You can see there is some cars in some circuits that are super quick, and then in others they are not.”

“This comes from the characteristic that you have developed your aerodynamic platform. It is important that in circuits where you are maybe a bit a bit less performing, that you still get the maximum out of it,” Krack noted. “And because the gaps are so small, and we must not forget, when we say a bit worse or a bit better, it is a lot of positions; it’s not a lot of lap time.”

‘Good understanding’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/aston-martin-amr26-clue-understanding

[Fortitude]

Audi teases first images of real 2026 F1 car after fakes.
Some video and photographs taken from a distance outside the circuit grounds did seem more legitimate but none gave a clear view of the car.
Jan 9, 2026
Scott Mitchell-Malm
The Race

Audi did run its 2026 car in the test, though, and even showed it - in obfuscated form - in two pictures from a batch of images shared from Barcelona. Both were pitlane shots. One is from the front, in colour but from a distance and with the car mostly a silhouette, while the other is a black-and-white photo from the rear of the car in its pitbox.

A third image shows a glimpse of the corner of the new-look rear wings in this ruleset, but no more. The other pictures are atmospheric and team photos, which only show members including team principal Mattia Binotto wearing simple Audi Revolut F1 Team gear - black with white stripes, by new partner Adidas.

‘Audi teases first images’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/audi-teases-first-images-of-real-2026-f1-car-after-fakes/


Audi run 2026 car on track for the first time
With the countdown now on to the start of the 2026 season, Audi’s new car has hit the track as part of a filming day.
9 Jan 2026
Formula One - Official Site

Both Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto got behind the wheel, with the filming day marking the latest milestone in Audi’s progression to the start of the season.

The team confirmed on January 7 that they had successfully completed the first fire-up of their new challenger, while it was announced last month that the outfit – who will be known as the Audi Revolut F1 Team – will host their official launch in Berlin on January 20.

This will see the squad present their full race livery before holding a public opening on the following day, allowing fans to experience the unique occasion after they revealed an early concept livery in November that featured titanium, carbon black and Audi red as the predominant colours.

‘Both Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto got behind the wheel’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/audi-run-2026-car-on-track-for-the-first-time.5BupuIOz9y8cJnxdLtqPy5


What ‘Spanish spies’ noticed when watching Audi’s first-ever F1 lap in Barcelona
9 January 2026
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Audi became the first F1 team to run their 2026 car on track at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Friday. Auto Motor und Sport believe that German driver Nico Hulkenberg had the honour of inaugurating the car at the long-standing F1 venue, which will also host the first pre-season test later this month.

At the time of writing, Audi have not issued any comment on the test. It took place with the ‘highest security level’ possible, though ‘Spanish spies’ did notice that the car was running in an unpainted, all-black livery, aside from the ‘Four Rings’ logo on the rear wing.

Because Audi don’t want to give anything until the competition – for as long as it can be avoided – they aren’t expected to publicise many details. On a warm and dry day in Barcelona, they were able to log some representative initial data.

‘Spanish spies’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/what-spanish-spies-noticed-when-watching-audis-first-ever-f1-lap-in-barcelona/


First 2026 F1 car spotted on track in Barcelona as Audi begins shakedown
9 Jan 2026
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

The very first images of the R26 on track in Barcelona have emerged — the car that will mark Audi’s debut in Formula 1 in 2026. Today’s on-track running at Barcelona’s Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya — which will also host pre-season testing later this month — represented a significant milestone for the project spearheaded by Mattia Binotto and Jonathan Wheatley.

In line with filming day regulations, running was limited to a maximum of 200 kilometres, with the car fitted with special Pirelli demonstration tyres rather than the compounds due to be used during the 2026 campaign. For now, no details have emerged on how the shakedown unfolded — whether the team encountered any early teething issues or if everything ran smoothly according to plan.

‘RobertoF1 @robertofunoat: La prima monoposto 2026 e’ Audi che sta girando al Montmelo’. #F1 #AudiF1 #ShakeDown VIDEO’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/first-2026-f1-car-spotted-on-track-in-barcelona-as-audi-begins-shakedown


Audi release first official images of 2026 F1 car shakedown
Audi completed a successful shakedown of its 2026 F1 car on Friday in Barcelona.
10 January 2026
Nick Golding
RacingNews365

Throughout the test on Friday, images and videos of Audi's R26 were leaked on social media, with a black livery having been run. A series of photos of team personnel and some of the car were posted by Audi, who also wrote: "We’re officially rolling.”

"A milestone moment in Barcelona as the R26 hit a racetrack for the very first time. First day. First laps. First chance for our drivers to experience the car. The road ahead starts right here."

"We’re officially rolling”;

https://racingnews365.com/audi-release-first-official-images-of-2026-f1-car-shakedown


Audi’s Shadow Laps Ignite F1’s 2026 Power Shuffle
January 9, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Night Shift: Audi’s stealth R26 stretches its legs, Honda hums for 2026, Ferrari names its next act, Lawson resets, Norris relives Abu Dhabi. Audi finally let the R26 breathe on a cool Montmeló afternoon, a blacked-out, camera-shy concept car rolling into the light for its first public laps at Barcelona. Call it a filming day if you want. In reality, it was a slick shakedown of the first true 2026-spec machine we’ve seen turn a wheel.

The Ingolstadt squad split the mileage between Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto, with both expected to cover around 100 km each on demo tyres — the standard allowance for a filming day, and just enough to surface gremlins before they become headaches. What they didn’t share was much aero detail: the car ran in full stealth livery, every contour effectively buried under matte black.

The proper look will come with the Berlin launch on January 20, and Audi seems determined not to give anyone a head start on deciphering its concept. For all the cloak-and-dagger treatment, the takeaway was simple: the R26 ran cleanly, and it sounded like a fully sorted power unit mated to a very modern chassis philosophy. With 2026’s powertrain split and aero reset looming, that’s the kind of first impression you want.

‘R26 ran cleanly’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/audis-shadow-laps-ignite-f1s-2026-power-shuffle/


Audi become first F1 team to complete laps in new-look 2026 car
The German team, who have taken over the Sauber outfit, had a filming day in Barcelona on Friday
9 January 2026
Kieran Jackson Formula 1 Correspondent
The Independent

Audi have become the first team to drive their 2026 car after the new outfit completed a filming day in Barcelona on Friday.

The German manufacturer, who will also use their own power unit, have taken over the now-defunct Sauber team as the sport enters a new phase of rules and regulations this year.

Drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto were at the wheel of the new Audi car at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya- as the team utilised one of two 100km filming days permitted under the regulations.

‘First F1 team to complete laps in new-look 2026 car’;

https://www.independent.co.uk/f1/audi-f1-2026-season-car-barcelona-testing-b2897717.html

[Fortitude]

Be Selfish, Oscar: Hill’s Brutal Title Blueprint.
“Next year, if I were him, I’d be coming back saying, ‘Listen, I love the team, and it’s been great, but I have to think of myself. It’s my career…”
Jan 10, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Damon Hill to Piastri: stop being the nice guy if you want that title. Oscar Piastri doesn’t need many lessons in racecraft. Speaking on the Drive to Wynn podcast, the 1996 world champion laid out a simple message for the McLaren driver heading into 2026: be selfish. “I think he probably felt the worst he was going to feel after Qatar,” Hill said, reflecting on McLaren’s strategic misstep under the lights that handed the upper hand to Verstappen at Losail. “He had some misfortune… and he’s lost out because of some decisions with McLaren, trying to be fair.”

The example that still stings? Monza. Piastri, then leading the standings after a commanding win in Zandvoort, was set for second behind Verstappen when a slow stop for Lando Norris shuffled the order. McLaren asked Piastri to hand the place back, citing team error. He did it. Verstappen chuckled about it on the radio. And the air went out of Piastri’s title run. From there the tide turned. A crash in Baku and a flat patch that followed left the Australian scrambling to rediscover the form that had carried him to a 34-point advantage over Norris with nine rounds left. He found it again late — strong drives in Qatar and Abu Dhabi — but not in time. Third in the championship wasn’t the script he’d been writing through the European summer. For Hill, those weekends should sharpen Piastri’s edges, not dull them.

“Wow,that’s quite a big thing to do, isn’t it, to give points away to a guy you could be fighting for the world championship?” Hill said of Monza. “He will probably look at that and go, ‘Well, maybe I won’t do that again.’” Hill’s advice for 2026 is blunt: put your own campaign first. “Next year, if I were him, I’d be coming back saying, ‘Listen, I love the team, and it’s been great, but I have to think of myself. It’s my career… If the situation arises and you ask me to return points to my teammate… I can’t afford to do that. I did it last year. That could have cost me the World Championship.’”

‘Stop being the nice guy’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/be-selfish-oscar-hills-brutal-title-blueprint/


Piastri put on the spot by Australian TV with Lando Norris question
28 Dec 2025
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

During the off-season, Piastri travelled home to Australia for the holidays. In an interview with Channel 7, Piastri was asked by the reporter: "Now, it’s just you and me. Is Lando a mate of yours? Good bloke?" Piastri answered with a smile: "No, he’s good, he’s good. We get on well. We work together well. But yeah, I think we’re going to be battling each other hopefully for championships for many years to come," he concluded.

Australian media’s past jabs at McLaren. Local media showed continuous support for their home hero Piastri throughout the season. In reports, they also took jabs at McLaren beginning with the Italian Grand Prix. In one segment, for example, the presenter concluded: "Let’s hope Oscar can do it next year… if McLaren don’t work against him."

‘Australian media’s past jabs at McLaren’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/piastri-put-on-the-spot-by-australian-tv-with-lando-norris-question


Oscar Piastri “Hungry and Ready” After Title Miss Sets Sights on 2026
Dec 29, 2025
James Rees
F1 Chronicle

McLaren attributed much of Oscar Piastri’s downturn to struggles on low-grip circuits, while higher-grip tracks consistently played to his strengths. Despite the setback, Piastri believes the experience gained from fighting Norris and Max Verstappen has strengthened him heading into 2026.

“Just hungry and ready for it. I’m obviously looking forward to a couple of weeks just to chill out and not think about racing. But when we get back into it, there’s, there’s a lot of things to learn for next year, a lot of differences with the cars and the engines. So, you never quite know how you’re going to come out of the gate when there’s such a big change, but I think we’re confident in the people around us.”

“And yeah, for myself, I’ve really gained a lot of confidence from some of the things from this season that I can take forward to next year, regardless of whatever car we’ve got.” Piastri now turns his focus to applying those lessons as McLaren prepares for a new technical era and another title push.

“Hungry and Ready”;

https://f1chronicle.com/oscar-piastri-hungry-and-ready-after-title-miss-sets-sights-on-2026/?nowprocket=1


Did McLaren unconsciously favour Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri?
There was little to separate Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri throughout the 2025 F1 campaign.
8 Jan 2026
RacingNews365 Staff

McLaren asserted throughout the entire year that it was treating both drivers equally and providing identical chances to their pairing.

But former Alpine executive director Marcin Budkowski has suggested that McLaren may have unconscious bias within the team, which may have played against Piastri.

Certain decisions, including a controversial team order swap at the Italian Grand Prix, drew a lot of discussion from fans and pundits alike

‘McLaren may have unconscious bias within the team’;

https://racingnews365.com/did-mclaren-unconsciously-favour-lando-norris-over-oscar-piastri


Ferrari 'plotting shock McLaren swoop' as Lewis Hamilton succession plan emerges
Fred Vasseur is reportedly monitoring the McLaren driver situation as Ferrari consider their 2027 options with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc's futures uncertain
9 Jan 2026
Harry Smith
The Mirror

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur is reportedly monitoring the driver dynamics at McLaren to assess whether Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri might become available for the 2027 season. Zak Brown's gifted pair are being considered as potential replacements for Lewis Hamilton or Charles Leclerc. Both Hamilton and Leclerc's long-term prospects are under scrutiny as the sport prepares for the inaugural season under fresh technical regulations in 2026, albeit for different reasons. The British driver has sparked retirement speculation amongst experts, though it's understood he possesses contractual options that could extend his Maranello stay through 2027.

Leclerc, meanwhile, is approaching his peak years and remains secured by a lengthy deal. Nevertheless, the Monaco native has been rumoured to be considering a move to Mercedes, and worryingly branded the 2026 campaign as "now or never" for his Ferrari team. According to Autosport Web Japan, Vasseur is closely watching developments at McLaren. Whilst both Norris and Piastri are bound by extended contracts, the Australian's circumstances could shift in 2026 following his failure to clinch the 2025 Drivers' Championship ahead of his teammate.

‘Fred Vasseur is reportedly monitoring the McLaren driver situation’;

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1/ferrari-norris-piastri-mclaren-hamilton-36526532


Piastri reveals what he’ll ‘take forever’ from 2025 F1 season
02/01/2026
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Oscar Piastri doesn’t talk like a driver licking his wounds. He talks like one who has been sharpened by them. “The amount of confidence that I found throughout the year, in myself and my own abilities, is something I can take forever.”

That self-belief was forged through pressure – through leading a championship, through expectation, and through the inevitable corrections that followed. Piastri is clear-eyed about where it went wrong, and just as clear about why it mattered.

“Definitely some things to work on, and [there were] a few moments that I probably wish I had again, and I'm sure the team think the same. But it's all going to make me stronger for the future, and we've got plenty more years of success to come, hopefully.”

‘Sharpened’;

https://f1i.com/news/557024-piastri-reveals-what-hell-take-forever-from-2025-f1-season.html


Piastri: 2026 F1 Will Be Chess at 200mph
Dec 27, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Oscar Piastri spent part of the winter back in Melbourne, swapping pit walls for picket fences at the cricket, but his mind is already on 2026. And the McLaren driver thinks the next rules shake-up will hand drivers a bigger role in how races are won. Speaking to Fox Sports while home in Australia, Piastri said the incoming power unit era will ask different questions of the driver.

The cars will still look like Formula 1, he said, but the balance under the skin will shift. “It’ll still be an F1 car,” he noted, “but the engines are going to be very different — a lot more electrical power compared to the combustion engine. There’ll be a lot for us to get used to, things we’ve never had to do before in terms of managing that battery power.” That’s the heart of his point: energy management goes from a background task to something that can swing a fight. “There’ll be lots of places where you can make a difference as a driver, which should be exciting for the fans.”

Piastri has made a habit of thriving when the brief gets more complex. His racecraft’s neat, his decision-making’s tidy, and McLaren’s playbook has become progressively sharper. But he’s not sugarcoating what a full regulation reset does to pecking orders. “With a new ruleset, you never really know who nails it and who doesn’t,” he said. “Hopefully we’re one of the ones who nail it.”

‘Chess at 200mph’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/piastri-2026-f1-will-be-chess-at-200mph/

[Fortitude]

Aston Martin bends knee to Adrian Newey F1 demand.
Last year, he dubbed the team’s driver-in-the-loop simulator “weak” and one that “needs a lot of work.”
11 Jan 2026
Anirban Aly Mandal
Motorsport Week

The combination of Adrian Newey and Honda was critical to Red Bull’s success in the ground-effect era. Stroll Sr. hopes to make it work for his team, too. Stroll Sr. has been quick to accede to his Team Principal’s demands, by hiring his former partner-in-crime Giles Wood, a highly-rated simulation technician.

To round this off, Aston Martin have also secured services of Marco Fainello – who has worked with Ferrari on its simulator. Heading into the private test at Barcelona, later this month, and the first race of the season in Melbourne, Stroll Sr. kept his cards close to his chest in terms of the expectations within the team and back at the factory.

“No one knows at this time of the year how everyone’s going to look in Melbourne,” he said. “For sure, we don’t have all the tools to be a top team, so there’s no hiding behind that, but time will tell how good we look. I think, for us, it’s exciting, going forward to the new regulations, with everyone coming on board, the new structure and all the people. We’re looking forward to it as a team.”

“Time will tell how good we look”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/01/11/aston-martin-bends-knee-to-adrian-newey-f1-demand/


Honda have ‘growing concerns’ over 2026 engine as Lawrence Stroll personally bankrolls development
11 January 2026
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

The partnership between Aston Martin and Honda should be incredibly exciting for both parties, but before a wheel has even turned during pre-season testing, concerns are already emerging. After being a Mercedes customer engine team for some time, Aston Martin acquired exclusive rights to use Honda power units from 2026 onwards. There might be mixed feelings for star driver Fernando Alonso about linking up with Honda again after a disastrous partnership during his time at McLaren.

Alonso previously called Honda’s power unit an F2 engine, but the Japanese manufacturer went on to help Red Bull and Max Verstappen dominate the sport. Honda initially looked like they were going to pull out of Formula 1, with Red Bull seeking a partnership with Porsche before eventually teaming up with Ford going into 2026. Aston Martin convinced Honda to continue in the sport, but that U-turn might have set them back heading into F1’s new regulation set, despite chairman Lawrence Stroll throwing money at the problem.

“Honda can’t throw unlimited resources at the 2026 project. There’s an engine cost cap now, and this Honda arrangement is a bit more, shall we say, sensible than the success at any cost project that led to the Red Bull championship wins. It’s also been rumoured that the Lawrence Stroll Aston Martin side is bankrolling development, and Honda itself is more reluctant to spend excessively on F1.”

‘Lawrence Stroll personally bankrolls development’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/honda-have-growing-concerns-over-2026-engine-as-lawrence-stroll-personally-bankrolls-development/


First look: New Honda power unit for the F1 2026 season
9 Jan 2026
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

Aston Martin engine partner Honda has released the first images of its new power unit for the F1 2026 season. As reported by PlanetF1.com, Honda became the first 2026 engine manufacturer to publish audio footage of its 2026 power unit last month. And the marque has followed that up by revealing the first images of its new powertrain.

The first look at the new Honda power unit comes ahead of the Japanese marque officially launching its new engine later this month. As reported by PlanetF1.com last month, Honda will hold a rare engine-launch event in Tokyo on January 20. The event will fall six days before the start of F1’s first pre-season test in Barcelona, which is to be held behind closed doors.

The Aston Martin AMR26, driven by Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, is set to make its on-track debut at the Barcelona test, where teams will be permitted to take to the track on any three days between January 26 and January 30. Aston Martin will then hold an official launch for the AMR26 on February 9 ahead of the final two tests in Bahrain.

‘Honda has released the first images of its new power unit’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/honda-aston-martin-f1-2026-engine-images


Adrian Newey is copying one of Christian Horner’s ideas to create a ‘purge list’ at Aston Martin
8 January 2026
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Adrian Newey has copied Christian Horner by hiring an internal mole at Aston Martin. A number of staff members have also been relieved of their duties at Aston Martin over the last few months, as Newey strives to weed out any weak links. That is according to Fanpage, which reports that Aston Martin have laid off several top-level figures and various engineers.

Newey is keen to streamline Aston Martin’s operation to concentrate their resources on the areas he feels need them most. The Briton has also copied one of the tactics that his former boss at Red Bull, Christian Horner, favoured by hiring an internal ‘mole’ to review their staff. The insider is producing detailed reviews about every aspect of Aston Martin’s setup, from their processes to team dynamics. Newey is using the reports to create a ‘purge list’, which now-former aerodynamics director Eric Baldin is the most high-profile casualty of thus far.

Stroll recognises that Aston Martin need more than just his fortune to become a successful F1 team. So, he has given Newey complete freedom to make any changes that can take the Silverstone natives from the middle of the pack to the very top in search of their first titles.

‘Purge list’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/adrian-newey-is-copying-one-of-christian-horners-ideas-to-create-a-purge-list-at-aston-martin/


New Aston Martin clue as Adrian Newey finds agreement over F1 2026 ‘tools’
11 Jan 2026
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

Lance Stroll has conceded that Aston Martin does not yet have “all the tools to be a top team” ahead of the launch of the new ARM26 car for the F1 2026 season. Asked about his gut feeling over where Aston Martin will be in the 2026 pecking order, he told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets: “It’s a big question mark for everybody.”

“No one knows at this time of the year how everyone’s going to look in Melbourne. For sure, we don’t have all the tools to be a top team, so there’s no hiding behind that, but time will tell how good we look. I think, for us, it’s exciting, going forward to the new regulations, with everyone coming on board, the new structure and all the people. We’re looking forward to it as a team.”
Asked directly by PlanetF1.com if Newey’s promotion to a senior role has applied more pressure on the team to perform, he added: “I think it’s just good for everyone because Adrian is just all about performance and winning. That’s what we’re here for, to be fast and competitive, and that’s what Adrian’s pushing everyone to be better at. Having Adrian around is only positive for everyone to push, everyone to be better and to make the car faster.”

“It’s a big question mark for everybody”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/aston-martin-adrian-newey-f1-2026-clue-agreement


Lance Stroll dubbed ‘even sharper’ than Fernando Alonso in Aston Martin feedback analysis
8 Jan 2026
Lena Ferle
Motorsport Week

Aston Martin believes it has two drivers in Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso who are offering different but complementary strengths as the team prepares for Formula 1’s major reset in 2026. While the 2026 rules will introduce an entirely new generation of cars, Cardile said Alonso’s experience remains useful for Aston Martin when comparing similar concepts or behaviours.

“Among same generation of cars, he can help,” Cardile said. “He can help for being even more clear, so, ‘Guys, look back when I drove that car in that specific corner, with memory, that car I felt was better’. Then it’s up to us to understand what better is, which characteristic he liked the most. He has a very good memory. He’s a smart guy.”

According to Cardile, Lance Stroll speaks less, but his feedback is highly focused. “He’s a very talented guy,” Cardile said. “He talks less than Fernando, perhaps he is even sharper than Fernando, or [what] Fernando says. The nice thing for us is they are pretty much aligned, which is, I would say simplifying, but simplifying our life, because we are receiving comments which are along the same side. They have a different sensibility on different aspects of the driving, but they are just the details.”

‘Offering different but complementary strengths’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/01/08/lance-stroll-dubbed-even-sharper-than-fernando-alonso-in-aston-martin-feedback-analysis/

[Fortitude]

Red Bull have now strengthened in one area that could make Max Verstappen a title favourite in 2026.
Red Bull understand where part of their success has come from, and a recruitment drive to bring key staff from previous engine suppliers Honda, could be the difference between Verstappen winning and losing the title.
12 January 2026
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Red Bull hiring Honda engineers could be the key to Max Verstappen winning the 2026 title. Red Bull Powertrains have left Martin Brundle impressed in the past, but it will only be when Verstappen’s new car takes to the track in Barcelona, Bahrain and then Melbourne that anyone will know how their hybrid engine stacks up against the competition.

A report from Motorsport has shared more details about the work going on behind the scenes at Red Bull to compete with their rivals. The reports state that Red Bull have ‘recruited’ from Honda and Mercedes to try and bring together as much knowledge as possible from their rivals.

This might have already had an impact, with Mercedes and Red Bull accused of finding an engine loophole that could give them an advantage over the competition. Verstappen has previously been extremely complimentary about Honda, as they have powered all four of his world championships, and he paid tribute to them after his win at the Japanese Grand Prix last year.

‘A recruitment drive’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/features/red-bull-have-now-strengthened-in-one-area-that-could-make-max-verstappen-a-title-favourite-in-2026/


Damon Hill explains why his ‘guts’ are telling him Max Verstappen is in no rush to leave Red Bull
12 January 2026
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Red Bull Racing know that producing a competitive car is incredibly important for the short and long-term future of the team. For the first time since 2021, Max Verstappen will go into an F1 campaign without the number one on his car. Damon Hill’s ‘guts’ tell him Max Verstappen is very happy staying at Red Bull. Hill was speaking about Verstappen’s situation on the Stay on Track Podcast, and he explained: “So I suppose a big question then is, Max, can he win? Our Red Bull up for it?”

“Have they been decimated by the loss of so many key personnel over the last 18 months or so? Adrian [Newey], Christian Horner. I mean, you’ve got Jonathan Wheatley who’s gone off to Audi. Helmut Marko is gone as well. And they’ve lost one or two other key people as well. The team has been stripped of some fairly major personalities, but the ball kept rolling.”

“I mean, they kept the fight up to the end. So something is still there that is making Red Bull a very effective fighting force. So I think, my guts are telling me, that team has still got what it takes. And I think Max would be making more noise. He would be unhappy. And he doesn’t seem to me to be unhappy. No, he didn’t finish 2025 unhappy. And what he said was, at the end, I think we should be proud of ourselves. I know he came second, but we fought brilliantly. He was lifting the team up.”

“The ball kept rolling”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/damon-hill-explains-why-his-guts-are-telling-him-max-verstappen-is-in-no-rush-to-leave-red-bull/


Max Verstappen future pressure addressed by senior Ford figure
Ford has returned to Formula 1 after over two decades away, in the form of a technical partnership with Red Bull for the new power unit regulations.
13 January 2026
Nick Golding
RacingNews365

Ford Performance director Mark Rushbrook has addressed the uncertain future of Max Verstappen and whether it adds pressure to the American manufacturer’s partnership with Red Bull getting off to a strong start. For the first time in its history, Red Bull — with technical support from Ford — is producing its own power unit, placing it in direct engine competition with Mercedes, Ferrari, Honda and Audi.

"As racers, we always want to win, right?" Rushbrook told Motorsport Italy. "So it’s important to get out there and perform. We know 2026 will be a challenging year for everyone in the paddock due to the new rules. And regardless of the driver, it’s crucial that the team delivers."

Red Bull and Ford cannot afford a poor start to the new regulations if they are to challenge for the drivers’ and constructors’ titles, placing immediate pressure on performance. That is without even taking Verstappen’s uncertain future into account — something Rushbrook is keen to distance himself from. "My comments are independent of Max," he said. "We want to go out there with the intention of winning."

“It’s crucial that the team delivers";

https://racingnews365.com/max-verstappen-future-pressure-addressed-by-senior-ford-figure


Max Verstappen suggests Oscar Piastri sold his ‘soul’ by listening to McLaren team orders
13 January 2026
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen has weighed in on the McLaren team orders that dominated the front of the grid during the 2025 Formula 1 season. When Piastri won the Dutch Grand Prix from Red Bull star Max Verstappen, he was 34 points clear of Lando Norris and had a three-figure advantage over the Dutchman.

Piastri’s camp was left upset in Monza, when a slow pit stop for Norris saw him asked to give a position back that created a six-point swing in the British driver’s favour. Norris then received no instructions to hand a place back to Piastri in Singapore despite making contact with his teammate to complete an overtake on the opening lap. McLaren then decided not to split their strategies in Qatar, costing the 24-year-old the victory he needed to keep his faint championship hopes alive.

In an interview with Blick, Verstappen was asked if he would have let Norris go if he was asked to by McLaren in Piastri’s situation and said: “Certainly not. If you do that even once without a clear reason, you’ve sold your soul. The team can then do whatever they want with you. And let’s not forget: Piastri was right in the middle of the title fight.” On top of this, he was asked about comments where he suggested he would have won the championship far earlier if he were in a McLaren in 2025, and continued: “That’s true. But I never actually interfere in my opponents’ internal problems. I can always give them a fighting answer on the track.”

“You’ve sold your soul”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/max-verstappen-suggests-oscar-piastri-sold-his-soul-by-listening-to-mclaren-team-orders/


Isack Hadjar reveals what he’s desperate to learn from Max Verstappen at Red Bull in 2026
12 January 2026
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Isack Hadjar says being Max Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate is a ‘huge privilege’. Hadjar was asked on the Talking Bull podcast how it feels to be driving alongside Verstappen in 2026, and he simply replied: “So cool! I’m just 21 years old, I started in single-seaters in 2019, and I get to be teammates with the best driver on the grid.”

“It’s a huge privilege. Ahead of 2026, [I’ve] not really [spoken to him]. But I think the driver’s parade is the right time to go and have good chats with him, but he’s a very nice dude.” The Frenchman was then asked if there was anything he looked at in Verstappen that he needed to work on, and Hadjar continued: “Why did he finish so close to being world champion without the best car? “There’s been races where there’s very tricky conditions, and he’s always going to be here.”

“When conditions are a bit difficult, he’s there, and also his ability to just… he always turns up in Q3, he always goes and finds more lap time. If there’s like a single opportunity, if there’s a scenario out of 10 million, there’s only one where he’s going to win the race, he’ll win the race. You can really feel that once he goes in the car, you can tell there’s a mix of his natural ability, and you can tell that his 11 years of F1 are paying off. He goes in, and I just feel like he drives this F1 car like a go-kart, that’s the difference.”

‘Huge privilege’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/isack-hadjar-reveals-what-hes-desperate-to-learn-from-max-verstappen-at-red-bull-in-2026/


Why Isack Hadjar’s mum was first to know about his Red Bull F1 drive
Isack Hadjar's mum knew that her son would be a Red Bull F1 driver before he did.
13 Jan 2026
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Speaking in his first interview as a Red Bull driver, Hadjar explained how he found out the news and revealed that his mother Randa, an HR director who also acts as his manager, was informed before him. "I just called my mum," he told Red Bull’s in-house Talking Bull podcast. "She said that she actually got the phone call before I had it. She knew. Because she's my manager and she knows more than I do.”

Hadjar admitted he still has moments of disbelief as he prepares to contest his first F1 season at the Red Bull senior team. "There are moments where I do realise what's happening and I'm up for the challenge and sometimes like, 'What the hell am I doing here?’” Hadjar said. "It's so far away from my go-kart days. I'm like, 'Why me? How did I get chosen?’”

‘Moments of disbelief’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1088414/1/why-isack-hadjars-mum-found-out-he-would-be-max-verstappens-f1-teammate-he-did

[Fortitude]

Fred Vasseur ‘went berserk’ when he was told about a ‘disturbing’ problem with Ferrari’s 2026 car.
Delaying the launch would be a PR nightmare for the Scuderia, but more importantly, it would confirm that they are at a competitive disadvantage heading into the new season.
13 January 2026
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Italian outlet Top Speed relays rumours that the Ferrari SF-26 is ‘seriously behind schedule’. There are concerns that it won’t be ready for the 23 January launch, a ‘disturbing’ development. When this was communicated to Vasseur, he ‘went berserk’. Some within the team are even worried about making it to the Barcelona test on 26 January, but Ferrari are still expected to be there.

Delaying the launch would be a PR nightmare for the Scuderia, but more importantly, it would confirm that they are at a competitive disadvantage heading into the new season. It sounds as if it will be tight. Is this the reason Ferrari’s 2026 car build has been delayed? One journalist who has written a book about the team says nobody ever leaves Ferrari. But perhaps that is starting to change.

Technical director Enrico Cardile was poached by Aston Martin ahead of the 2025 season, while engine bosses Wolf Zimmermann and Lars Schmidt moved to Audi last year. Some at Ferrari blamed Cardile for the SF-25’s problems. Perhaps the untimely exits of Zimmermann and Schmidt are taking their toll too.

‘Went berserk’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/fred-vasseur-went-berserk-when-he-was-told-about-a-disturbing-problem-with-ferraris-2026-car/


Only one F1 team have convinced their staff that they should ‘never leave’
6 January 2026
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

F1 journalist Nate Saunders explained on Nailing The Apex last year, the Cardile case is an exception. ‘90%’ of Ferrari’s staff have been there for at least a decade. For the most part, staff ‘never leave’ Maranello. Ferrari are the oldest, most successful and most prestigious F1 team on the grid. “When people work at Ferrari, when they get a job there, whether it’s at 21, 28, 31, 35, once they join Ferrari, unlike any other team in Formula 1, they never leave,” Saunders, who has written a book about the Italian marque, said.

Ferrari already have a scapegoat if the 2026 season is a failure. Ferrari privately blamed Cardile for the problems with their 2025 car. He formulated the concept but left before the design process was complete. A year later, engine chief Wolf Zimmermann left Ferrari to join Audi, along with his assistant, Lars Schmidt.

While he has been replaced, one can see how his untimely exit may have destabilised 2026 development. Ferrari fans will have to wait until the season gets underway to see if it has a perceptible impact. There’s a school of thought that engines will be more significant than aerodynamics in determining the pecking order.

‘Ferrari already have a scapegoat’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/features/only-one-f1-team-have-convinced-their-staff-that-they-should-never-leave/


F1: Vasseur outlines Ferrari’s 2026 development strategy
January 10, 2026
Jaden Diaz-Ndisang
Last Word On Sports

The noise around Ferrari can be particularly noticeable in pre-season, when speculation about development for the upcoming season often runs wild. Ferrari will keep their cards close to their chest.

The Ferrari team principal insists that even when the Championship commences, it would be unwise to draw conclusions: “Next year it won’t be about the first picture of the season,” he told Autosport.

“It won’t be all about the classification of Australia. It will be a lot about the capacity for quick development. The season won’t be over in Australia for sure, it doesn’t matter if we are P1 or P10 – but it will be a long way until the end, it will be a long way for everybody.”

“Next year it won’t be about the first picture of the season”;

https://lastwordonsports.com/motorsports/2026/01/10/f1-vasseur-outlines-ferraris-2026-development-strategy/


Ferrari already plan to throw away two parts on Lewis Hamilton’s 2026 F1 car before the first race
13 January 2026
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari will also unveil the livery for the SF-26 that Hamilton and Leclerc will race in 2026 on January 23, with no team expected to reveal any technical details before their car goes on a track. Yet Ferrari also plan to use sidepods in Bahrain that they will not then use in Australia. That is according to FunoAnalisiTecnica, which reports that Ferrari intend to throw away the sidepod designs that they use in Bahrain come the first race of the 2026 season in Australia. Ferrari already have two specifications of sidepod concepts ready for the two Bahrain tests.

The Scuderia intend to use a ‘basic’ aerodynamic package in Barcelona, as they feel it will be more beneficial to record the most miles possible. Ferrari have also designed a sidepod with a ‘more generous’ entry section to be used in Bahrain, but they do not plan to race the part. Ferrari foresee the pre-season tests posing a ‘daunting challenge’, as they must correlate the data that their CFD simulations and wind tunnel have generated prior to the first round. The Maranello squad have also encountered regular issues correlating their data in recent years.

‘Throw away the sidepod designs’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-already-plan-to-throw-away-two-parts-on-lewis-hamiltons-2026-f1-car-before-the-first-race/


Lewis Hamilton handed unwanted verdict on eighth F1 drivers' title chances
Lewis Hamilton continues to dream of an eighth F1 drivers' title, but the majority of fans believe it is not on the cards.
11 January 2026
RacingNews365 Staff
RacingNews365

A large portion of Formula 1 fans do not believe Lewis Hamilton will ever claim an unprecedented eighth drivers' title and will retire as a seven-time champion. According to a recent RacingNews365 poll, 57.1% believe the Ferrari driver will retire with his current tally of seven titles.

Hamilton failed to secure a single podium finish in a grand prix, marking the first podium-less season of his 22-year career. His 86-point deficit to Leclerc highlighted significant adaptation issues during his transition from Mercedes, where he spent 12 seasons. However, the substantial minority backing Hamilton reflects optimism surrounding the 2026 regulatory overhaul.

‘Unwanted verdict’;

https://racingnews365.com/lewis-hamilton-handed-unwanted-verdict-on-eighth-f1-drivers-title-chances


Ferrari are already ‘freezing’ development of one part on their 2026 F1 car before testing
13 January 2026
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari ‘freezing’ development of mobile wing system for the 2026 Formula 1 season. A report from Formula Uno Analisi Tecnica has shared more details about Ferrari’s plans for pre-season testing. The Scuderia have different plans for each stage of testing, with the three days they get in Barcelona dedicated to ‘identifying and resolving any systemic anomalies or bugs’ with their electronics system.

Ferrari’s new power unit will need calibration to avoid turbo lag created by the new hybrid engine. On top of this, Ferrari want to understand the energy regeneration better that comes from the brakes, and this calibration will be vital as the season goes on. The more mileage Ferrari can complete, the better, and it will also help them understand their aerodynamic package better, with Vasseur’s team expected to bring several different variations in order to find the car’s optimum balance.

Ferrari are also said to be ‘freezing’ the mobile wing system that debuted at the post-season test in Abu Dhabi last year. It will be used for the initial stages of the season due to the fact that Ferrari don’t want to repeat the crash tests already completed.

‘Ferrari are already ‘freezing’ development’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-are-already-freezing-development-of-one-part-on-their-2026-f1-car-before-testing/

[Fortitude]

McLaren doubt their one ‘excellent’ advantage is enough for Lando Norris to defend his F1 title.
According to FunoAnalisiTecnica, McLaren do not view themselves as the favourite to win the 2026 constructors’ title or that Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri start the year as the favourites to fight for the drivers’ championship under the 2026 ruleset.
13 January 2026
Kyle Archer


McLaren believe they have one advantage in their quiver due to their established ‘excellent’ data correlation in recent years. The Woking team have proven to be superior to their rivals, which also helped the papaya crew win back-to-back constructors’ titles in 2024 and 2025.

Team principal Andrea Stella hopes that McLaren’s technical framework continues to pay off in 2026, as teams need to learn how the new engine and aero rules will affect racing. F1 has removed the expensive MGU-H from the engine, which will also have more electrical power.

McLaren’s strength in data correlation and having a superior technical framework to some, if not all, of their rival teams could benefit Norris and Piastri, as the papaya outfit learn how to best optimise F1’s 2026 regulations and utilise Mercedes’ new engine to battle for the title.

‘McLaren doubts’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/mclaren-doubt-their-one-excellent-advantage-is-enough-for-lando-norris-to-defend-his-f1-title/


McLaren finalises F1 2026 launch plans with Bahrain reveal
9 Jan 2026
Thomas Maher
PlanetF1.com

McLaren is the 11th and final team to confirm its launch date for the F1 2026 season.

Alpine 23 January 2026
Aston Martin 9 February 2026
Audi 20 January 2026
Cadillac 8 February 2026
Ferrari 23 January 2026
Haas 19 January 2026
McLaren 9 February 2026
Mercedes 22 January 2026
Racing Bulls 15 January 2026
Red Bull 15 January 2026
Williams 3 February 2026

‘F1 2026 launch plans’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/mclaren-launch-date-2026-confirmed


McLaren’s Bahrain Gambit: Last To Launch, First To Strike
January 9, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

McLaren closes the book on F1’s 2026 launch calendar with Bahrain reveal on Feb 9. McLaren took its time, but the reigning champions have set their date. The Woking team will unveil its 2026 challenger at the Bahrain International Circuit on Monday, February 9, becoming the 11th and final outfit to lock in launch plans for the new rules era. The car’s official name is still under wraps. Logic says MCL40. Then again, this is the team that went off-script with the MCL60 in 2023, so don’t be shocked if marketing gets a say.

What’s clear is the setting: Bahrain, and not just for the photos. The reveal drops right before the first of two three-day pre-season tests at Sakhir, putting McLaren straight into the meat of its 2026 program the moment the covers come off. The timing also lines up neatly — and rather entertainingly — with Aston Martin’s big moment on the same day, the first launch of an Adrian Newey-penned Aston. If you like a bit of theatre with your tech, that Monday has you covered.

McLaren’s announcement capped a busy week in which the first 2026-spec machinery finally touched tarmac. Audi — the rebranded Sauber operation — conducted a hush-hush filming day in Barcelona, a low-key shakedown that still managed to crank the volume on anticipation for what’s coming. There’s also a nice bit of symmetry to McLaren’s Bahrain pick. The island kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, Mumtalakat, owns 100 percent of the McLaren Group, and the team has built a strong rhythm around starting its year in Sakhir. It keeps logistics simple, and given the scope of the 2026 regulation reset, simple is a gift.

‘Last To Launch, First To Strike’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/mclarens-bahrain-gambit-last-to-launch-first-to-strike/


Oscar Piastri backed for ‘continuing rise’ in F1 by McLaren
14 Jan 2026
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

McLaren CEO Zak Brown, in an open letter to McLaren fans, set aside a chunk of praise for Piastri, noting his ability to “blossom into a title challenger” despite his relative lack of experience. “He drove an unbelievable season,” the American wrote.

“It’s easy to forget that he has contested only three Formula 1 seasons to date. He drives with experience and skill that belies his years and conducts himself with the utmost professionalism and respect. We knew we had a star on our hands from the moment he arrived, and it has been a pleasure to watch him blossom into a title challenger in such short order.”

“I have no doubt his star will continue to rise in the years to come, and I want to thank him for playing such a crucial role in delivering our second consecutive constructors’ championship under the Singapore floodlights, with six rounds to go.”

‘Chunk of praise for Piastri’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/01/14/oscar-piastri-backed-for-continuing-rise-in-f1-by-mclaren/


Oscar Piastri sets date to decide his McLaren future amid links with Ferrari and Red Bull
14 January 2026
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

McLaren are fully aware of the threat that Piastri could use a release clause in his contract to leave the team at the end of the 2026 season. So, it is said that McLaren are particularly interested in Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, should Piastri decide he does not want to stay there.

Leclerc and Piastri could even swap seats or become teammates in 2027, as the latter is also said to be on the Scuderia’s radar. Team principal Fred Vasseur sees Piastri as an option for Ferrari to replace Lewis Hamilton, with uncertainty surrounding the Briton’s future, as well.

There have also been suggestions that Piastri is looking to join Red Bull in 2027, which could gain further traction if Verstappen decides to end his contract early. Verstappen can activate his release clause if he is not ranked in the top two in the F1 drivers’ standings this summer.

‘Release clause in his contract to leave the team at the end of the 2026 season’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/oscar-piastri-sets-date-to-decide-his-mclaren-future-amid-links-with-ferrari-and-red-bull/


Confirmed: Nyck de Vries will remain in F1 in 2026 after a standout season
13 Jan 2026
Co-author:Kada Sárközi
Ludo van Denderen
GPblog.com

Nyck de Vries will remain active in Formula 1 in 2026. The Dutchman has once again been appointed by McLaren as one of the permanent simulator drivers, GPblog can confirm. Former Formula E world champion De Vries returned to McLaren in 2025, having previously been one of the team’s junior drivers. That appointment happened quietly, as McLaren initially did not announce that the Dutchman had been brought in.

At the team led by CEO Zak Brown, the former AlphaTauri Formula 1 driver was under contract as a Test and Simulator Driver, as the official title stated. Among other times during race weekends, De Vries was active at the McLaren factory in Woking, working in the simulator to refine the setup of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s cars.

The collaboration has proven so successful that McLaren and De Vries will continue working together in 2026. After a season in which McLaren captured both the drivers’ and constructors’ world titles, the Dutchman is again part of a pool with multiple drivers who are called up on a rotating basis to run the simulator. De Vries cannot be present at the factory for every Grand Prix for McLaren in any case, because he has a busy schedule.

‘Standout season’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/breaking-news/confirmed-nyck-de-vries-will-remain-in-formula-1-in-2026-after-a-standout-season

[Fortitude]

First Headaches, Then History: Red Bull’s RB22 Gamble.
… message from inside Milton Keynes is clear: strap in, it might get scruffy before it gets sensational.
Jan 16, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Headline: “Headaches, sleepless nights” — Red Bull braces fans for a bumpy RB22 debut, promises the payoff. Red Bull’s first true works-era leap is finally here, and the message from inside Milton Keynes is clear: strap in, it might get scruffy before it gets sensational. Unveiling the RB22’s colors ahead of 2026’s rule reset, Laurent Mekies set expectations with refreshing bluntness.

Red Bull’s in-house power unit — designed by Red Bull Powertrains with technical input from Ford — will define the car and, in all likelihood, the team’s early-season storyline. Mekies didn’t sugarcoat it. “It’s a historical moment for all of us,” he said. “It’s a crazy challenge… and going into the first year thinking we’ll be straight away at the level of competitors who’ve been doing it for perhaps 90 years would be naive. We are not naive.”

The scale of what’s coming in 2026 is hard to overstate. New chassis, new aero, new power. Active aerodynamics arrive for the first time, and the power units move to a 50/50 split between electrical and combustion energy. For Red Bull, that template becomes even more daring: ditching customer engines and backing themselves with a homegrown PU, the first carrying Ford branding since the Blue Oval’s last stretch in F1 ended in 2004.

“Headaches, sleepless nights”;

https://fastestlap.com/news/first-headaches-then-history-red-bulls-rb22-gamble/


Red Bull expecting months of ‘struggles’ with new F1 engine
16 Jan 2026
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies, “It’s a crazy challenge – perhaps it’s a challenge that only a company like Red Bull and Ford can decide to do, but that’s what we are here for. It’s going to be a year full of challenges, but it’s fundamentally what brings us together.
“We are not naïve. We know it’s going to be a fair amount of struggles, a fair amount of headaches and sleepless nights, but that’s exactly what we are here for.”

“We have the confidence of having put together an amazing group of people, an amazing group of partners, and we will go through the struggles. We will eventually come out on top. Bear with us in the first few months, and I think these initial difficulties will be a good reminder of how much we went through to eventually get on top.” Ford CEO Jim Farley described the task as a “mountain to climb” but insisted the company are fully prepared to support Red Bull.

“Ford knows exactly what we need to do to support the Red Bull team,” he stressed. “That’s the most important thing, that we know exactly how we can help, and make the first race and first part of the season a success. That’s what we’re looking for, the clarity of our work.”

“We will eventually come out on top”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1088508/1/struggles-and-sleepless-nights-what-red-bull-expects-2026-f1-engine


What we learned from a surprising Red Bull-Ford launch
Jan 16, 2026
Scott Mitchell-Malm, Edd Straw, Josh Suttill
The Race

Red Bull Racing's participation alongside sister team Racing Bulls at new engine partner Ford's season launch was a pleasingly revealing way to start Formula 1's pre-season. We never expected Red Bull to show off a real car at this event and what we were all looking at in Detroit was just a standard show car based on the generic interpretation of the new 2026 rules.

Despite the caution over power unit performance, Ford executive chairman Bill Ford, the great grandson of the legendary Henry Ford, wasn't backward in coming forward. He produced the kind of quote that will be referenced endlessly should the alliance with Red Bull not ultimately succeed. "Together, we're going to be unstoppable," he declared.

Red Bull's second team also put in appearance at the launch... Team principal Alan Permane, "The first car I worked on had a Ford engine, the first car I won a race with had a Ford engine, the first car I won a world championship with had a Ford engine. So to have Ford partnering with Red Bull Powertrains is a real full circle moment for me, and I can't wait to get started."

‘What we learned’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/red-bull-ford-f1-2026-launch-what-we-learned/


Internet full of praise after the launch of Red Bull and Racing Bulls in Detroit
16 Jan 2026
Olly Darcy
GPblog.com

Red Bull and Racing Bulls became the first two teams to unveil their 2026 cars to the world in Detroit. But how did the internet react? GPblog takes a look! A glossy finish to the livery also harks back to previous iterations of Red Bull, which led to widespread praise online for the Austrian team’s design.

Red Bull Racing you might have cooked here.
Red Bull cooked with the glossy livery again
A fresh coat of paint for a brand-new era ��
Okay, these are cool! �� Red Bull reveal a striking livery update, and Racing Bulls retain their popular white design, but tweaked for 2026

RedBull have absolutely killed it with this livery. Simple change but so affective! Meanwhile, VCARB have tried to do a simple change themselves, but for me its a miss. Not as clean as last years and I think the white wheels will split opinions.

‘Internet full of praise’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/internet-full-of-praise-after-the-launch-of-red-bull-and-racing-bulls-in-detroit


Red Bull shrugs off legality fears over new F1 power unit
16/01/2026
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Red Bull Powertrains boss Ben Hodgkinson dropped in via satellite at Red Bull's livery launch in Detroit on Thursday. “I think there’s some nervousness from various power unit manufacturers that there might be some clever engineering going on in some teams,” he said. “I’m not quite sure how much of it to listen to, to be honest. I’ve been doing this a very long time and it’s almost just noise. You just have to play your own race really.”

Confidence Forged at the Limit. Speaking ahead of Red Bull’s livery launch in Detroit, Hodgkinson made it clear that pushing boundaries is not the same as crossing them—and that Red Bull has done its homework. “I know what we’re doing, and I’m confident that what we’re doing is legal. Of course, we’ve taken it right to the very limit of what the regulations allow. I’d be surprised if everyone hasn’t done that.”

“It’s almost just noise”;

https://f1i.com/news/557504-red-bull-shrugs-off-legality-fears-over-new-f1-power-unit.html


Red Bull finally grant Max Verstappen F1 request he has long wanted
16 Jan 2026
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

The refreshed colour scheme marks a departure from years of very similar liveries, and Red Bull's decision went down well with four-time world champion Verstappen, who had been requesting a change for some time.

“I think it’s much better,” Verstappen said of Red Bull’s new-look. “Yeah, I’ve been asking for this for a while, so this is great. “I like the shine. I like the blue, it’s my favourite colour. I like the outline of the Red Bull logo as well. It’s much more fresh.”

‘Max Verstappen F1 request granted’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1088509/1/red-bull-finally-grant-max-verstappen-f1-request-he-has-long-wanted


Verstappen motivated as Red Bull braces for F1 changes
16/01/2026
France 24

Detroit (AFP) – Four-time world champion Max Verstappen said he's keen to get to grips with the new car Red Bull unveiled on Thursday for a 2026 Formula One season of massive change.

"There is a lot of unknown, there are big changes in the engine, in the car," Verstappen said. "Initially I'll take time to adjust during test days. The motivation is very high. It always takes a bit of time to get used to things," he added.

"You need to understand where the most performance is to be found, get comfortable in the car. Also with the new engine now as well, that will take a bit of time."

"Lot of unknown(s)”;

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20260116-verstappen-motivated-as-red-bull-braces-for-f1-changes


Red Bull have 'mountain to climb', but watch this space - engineer
Jan 16, 2026
ESPN.co.uk

Max Verstappen's world championship hopes depend on how fast Red Bull have caught up to their competitors as they produce their own power units for the first time, their engine boss admits. Red Bull Ford Powertrains technical director Ben Hodgkinson believes the work has been done to enable them to compete at the front of the grid. "I've been doing this for 27 years so everything I do has got to be backed up by the belief I can do it," Hodgkinson, who has spent three-and-a-half years leading the project, said.

"I don't think you belong in this industry if you don't believe that. I also, it's almost part of my own personal ethos, but I think that if you show me a confident engineer I'll show you one that's about to lose. So you can never underestimate where everybody is. You always have to assume you're behind so that you always push the absolute maximum.”

"What am I confident about? I'm confident that the team I've built is incredible. I'm confident the facilities we put together are going to be benchmark. But we're a newcomer. We had to build factories while people started developing engines so I think we started behind. But I think the people and the facilities we've got are better than everybody else. So watch this space. Will I overtake them by race one? I don't know. We'll have to wait and see."

‘Watch this space – engineer’;

https://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/47628012/red-bull-mountain-climb-watch-space-says-team-engineer

[Fortitude]

Cadillac hits the track: F1’s first new team for 10 years debuts at Silverstone.
The new Cadillac Formula 1 team has achieved a major milestone as its first Formula 1 car made its debut on track.
16th January 2026
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

The team issued footage of its Ferrari-powered chassis lapping at Silverstone. The American team is based partly at a facility near the track which hosts the British Grand Prix. Earlier this week Cadillac revealed the first images of the special livery it will use for pre-season testing.

Cadillac are the second team to run a 2026 car so far this year. Fellow newcomers Audi ran their car at the Circuit de Catalunya last week. But while Audi purchased the Sauber team and has developed its own power unit, Cadillac is the first all-new entrant into F1 since Haas arrived in 2016. As well as debuting its chassis, Cadillac is also the first team to run a 2026-specification Ferrari power unit.

‘F1’s first new team for 10 years’;

https://www.racefans.net/2026/01/16/cadillac-hits-the-track-f1s-first-new-team-for-10-years-debuts-at-silverstone/


First look: Cadillac holds F1 2026 shakedown at Silverstone
16 Jan 2026
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

Zhou Guanyu, the team’s newly signed reserve driver, confirmed the outing with a short clip on Cadillac’s social media channels. Zhou said: “We are here in Silverstone for the new season shakedown together with Cadillac F1 Team. Excitement.”

“Shakedown is all about making sure the car is running and all the engineers are ticking all the boxes with the gearbox, engine, and also the setup work. For the driver, it’s all about are we happy, comfortable [with] the seat, the new seat, steering wheel, all the feedback and communication. So, looking forward to it and then more excitement for the season when it’s all starting.”

Cadillac posted footage of the car heading down the pit straight a short time later, making the on-track debut for a Cadillac Formula 1 car. The clip was accompanied by the caption: “The first lap of something bigger.”

‘Shakedown at Silverstone’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/cadillac-f1-2026-car-silverstone-shakedown


Customer Cadillac beats Ferrari to revealing special 2026 milestone
16 Jan 2026
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Ferrari has successfully fired up its 2026 engine ahead of the upcoming F1 season. However, this is not the first time fans could hear the Ferrari engine today. That is because Cadillac, powered by a Ferrari engine, has already posted what the Italian team's PU will sound like this year.

As the American team completed its shakedown at the Silverstone Circuit, they also shared a video of their car flying past the pit lane, also revealing the sound of the Ferrari engine…

‘Special 2026 milestone’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/customer-cadillac-beats-ferrari-to-revealing-special-2026-milestone


Sergio Perez 'emotional' as motorsport history made on seismic day for Cadillac
The Mexican driver completed the first laps in the team's maiden car for the upcoming F1 season.
16 January 2026
Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

Sergio Perez described himself as "emotional to be part of motorsport history" as Cadillac completed its first laps on track ahead of its F1 debut this year. "Today was really an amazing day," said Perez, who returns to the F1 grid this year after a season on the sidelines following his release from Red Bull at the end of 2024.

"Everyone should feel incredibly proud to complete our first laps as a team. Each and every person has worked so hard to get to this moment, and it was emotional to be part of motorsport history. We can, and should, all enjoy, but it’s absolutely fired me up for more. I just want to get back in and get mileage – this is just the start."

'Emotional';

https://racingnews365.com/sergio-perez-emotional-as-motorsport-history-made-on-seismic-day-for-cadillac


Drivers react as Perez breaks the ice with historic Cadillac F1 feat
17 Jan 2026
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas have detailed their excitement after the Cadillac F1 team completed its first-ever on-track outing ahead of the 2026 season. “We can, and should, all enjoy this, but it absolutely fired me up for more. I just want to get back in and get mileage – this is just the start,” the 35-year-old concluded.

Despite not taking to the track, Bottas also shared his thoughts on the monumental achievement of the Cadillac team. “As a team, we made history today with the Cadillac Formula 1 car taking to the track for the first time. Checo put in the first laps with the car running smoothly. I’m proud of the whole team for getting to this point, which is really impressive,” the Finnish driver said.

‘Perez breaks the ice’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/perez-bottas-hails-emotional-first-on-track-milestone-for-cadillac-f1


Cadillac completes ’emotional’ shakedown at Silverstone
16 Jan 2026
James Phillips
Motorsport Week

Cadillac Team Principal Graeme Lowdon highlighted the milestone, noting the move from a simulated environment to a live garage. “Today represents countless hours of hard work, commitment and belief from everyone involved in the team. It shows the progress we’re continuing to make in a short space of time,” he said.

“It’s been a great opportunity for the team to gel in a live garage environment, verify car systems and resolve any initial issues. But it’s just the beginning of the road; we now turn our attention to pre-season testing in just a few weeks’ time, which will provide even more opportunity to learn.”

‘Milestone’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/01/16/cadillac-completes-emotional-shakedown-at-silverstone/


First Cadillac F1 reaction as Perez and Bottas break silence on Silverstone shakedown
17 Jan 2026
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

Dan Towriss, the chief executive of Cadillac Formula 1 Team Holdings, added: “Today’s shakedown is a significant step for the Cadillac Formula 1 Team. “Watching the car roll out of the garage is a moment of pride. The first laps on track mark a historic milestone; the culmination of thousands of hours of work, driven by pure passion.”

“Graeme has done an outstanding job of assembling a team of absolute racers that have given everything to get to this moment. This is just the beginning, as our work continues at pace towards Melbourne and beyond.”

‘First Cadillac F1 reaction’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/cadillac-f1-2026-shakedown-sergio-perez-valtteri-bottas-reaction


Perez gives Cadillac historic first run in Silverstone shakedown
JANUARY 16, 2026
Adam Cooper's F1 Blog

Sergio Perez had the honour of giving the new Cadillac F1 its first lap in a promotional day shakedown run at Silverstone on Friday afternoon.

The US-owned team issued only a few indistinct images of the car and a brief video snippet ahead of its first proper appearance in a launch livery at the Barcelona test, which will be followed by the official unveil of the car’s new colours on SuperBowl day.

‘Silverstone shakedown’;

https://adamcooperf1.com/2026/01/16/perez-gives-cadillac-historic-first-run-in-silverstone-shakedown/

[Fortitude]

Ralf Schumacher already hearing about 2026 Ferrari ‘disaster’ as worrying testing theory emerges.
“There’s a wonderful statistic about how many team bosses there have been and how many drivers have been replaced. So, that’s just pure Ferrari emotion in every respect.” Ralf Schumacher.
18 January 2026
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Ralf Schumacher: “And disaster, as we’re already hearing between the numbers, seems to be Ferrari again. That’s what stands out the most. They’re developing two cars, and I can almost imagine why, because Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton have completely different opinions about the car. “If that’s the case, then it’s a disaster from the outset. I’ve always said that because you can’t develop two cars. Yes, and Fred Vasseur has also said that it seems to be anything but good.”

Ferrari have acted to replace Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer ahead of the new campaign, with Riccardo Adami moved onto the team’s driver academy. Communication between driver and race engineer is going to be even more important next year, with information on when to deploy different aerodynamic modes and boosts set to be vital. Internally, Ferrari are under more pressure than any other team, with fans and senior executives expecting success from an outfit that haven’t won a championship since 2008.

Schumacher was speaking about Ferrari’s issues going into 2026 and continued: “Yes, of course, everything depends on the team’s performance. That’s why we have to wait and see how the tests go, and I would say the first two races, but of course, if that doesn’t happen, because everything was focused on that, we were told that nothing more was being done from China onwards, only the new car, so you expect to be more in contention for the world championship, and if that doesn’t happen again, then obviously there will be decisions to be made. I’m pretty sure of that. But everyone knows that. It’s nothing new at Ferrari.”

“Pure Ferrari emotion”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ralf-schumacher-already-hearing-about-2026-ferrari-disaster-as-worrying-testing-theory-emerges/


Schumacher warns of drastic Ferrari changes if F1 title challenge won't happen
17 JAN 2026
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

The German said on the Backstage Boxengasse podcast: "Yes, everything is at stake with the performance that the team brings. "That's why we have to wait for the tests now. And I would say the first two races. Everything was focused on it, we were told last year that nothing had been done since China, only the new car, only the new car." According to the German, if Ferrari is not in the battle for the title, there will be consequences.

Schumacher therefore explains that team boss Frederic Vasseur is perfectly aware of the potential outcomes. "I think he is aware of that. He knows he has the chance to set it up exactly like that. He has also set up the people in the background. He always said, 2026 is our year." He concluded: "And accordingly, of course, if that doesn't work, then he will understand this and have to bear the consequences. That's quite logical."

‘Drastic Ferrari changes’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/schumacher-warns-of-drastic-ferrari-changes-if-f1-title-challenge-wont-happen


Ferrari’s Next Call: Who Speaks To Hamilton Now?
January 18, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Ferrari reshuffles Riccardo Adami as Hamilton gets a new voice for 2026. Ferrari has moved Riccardo Adami into a fresh role ahead of 2026, clearing the decks for Lewis Hamilton to work with a new race engineer in his second season at Maranello. Adami, who partnered Hamilton through a scratchy 2025 campaign, will now split his time between Ferrari’s junior driver programme and overseeing Testing of Previous Cars. The team says Hamilton’s new race engineer will be named in due course, and pointedly hasn’t ruled out either an internal step-up or an external hire.

It’s a change that feels both unsurprising and significant. Hamilton’s first year in red was peppered with awkward radio moments that suggested driver and engineer never quite found the same wavelength. Miami was the most pointed, Hamilton bristling at the pit wall over team orders and quipping about taking a “tea break” while the calls came late. In Monaco, the seven-time champion crossed the line and asked if Adami was “upset with me.” Not exactly Rosso harmony.

The timing also puts Martin Brundle’s mid-season read back under the spotlight. The Sky F1 pundit said Hamilton “missed terribly” the steady hand he had for years at Mercedes, a subtle nod to the deep, almost telepathic rapport between Hamilton and Peter Bonnington. That partnership was the gold standard in the hybrid era; they didn’t just swap information, they finished each other’s sentences at 300 km/h.

‘Ferrari’s Next Call’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/ferraris-next-call-who-speaks-to-hamilton-now/


Martin Brundle’s 2025 Hamilton critique resurfaces amid Ferrari race engineer changes
18 Jan 2026
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

Ferrari confirmed on Friday that Hamilton’s 2025 race engineer, Riccardo Adami, is to take on a new role within the organisation ahead of the new campaign. Adami is to work with the team’s junior driver scheme as well as managing the team’s TPC [Testing of Previous Car] efforts. Ferrari confirmed that Hamilton’s new race engineer for 2026 will be decided “in due course” with the team unable to confirm whether Adami’s successor will be an internal promotion or an external hire.

Hamilton and Adami struggled to gel over the course of last season with the pair heard having a number of tense and awkward exchanges over team radio. Hamilton lost his cool with the pit wall when Ferrari imposed team orders during the Miami Grand Prix, suggesting sarcastically that the team should have a “tea break” as it dithered on a decision.

He was also heard asking if Adami was “upset with me” after the chequered flag in Monaco just weeks later. Hamilton seemingly left the door open to potential changes to his inner circle at the final round of the F1 2025 season in Abu Dhabi.

‘Martin Brundle’s 2025 Hamilton critique resurfaces’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/martin-brundle-lewis-hamilton-ferrari-riccardo-adami-announcement


Riccardo Adami never understood one thing about Lewis Hamilton as his Ferrari F1 race engineer
17 January 2026
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari confirmed that Hamilton will receive a new race engineer in 2026 this Friday, with an announcement on who will replace Adami expected soon. The move had been on the cards, as Hamilton notably clashed with Adami in Miami, Monaco, Canada and Abu Dhabi in 2025. The cause of Hamilton and Adami’s problems at Ferrari were due to a lack of understanding between them. According to Autosport Web, Adami never understood Hamilton’s need for emotional support compared to the thoughtful approach he embraced for Vettel and Sainz.

Adami struggled to read between the lines of what Hamilton wanted from him, which led to several instances of mixed messaging last term. Hamilton also struggled to understand what Adami wanted from him after 12 seasons with Peter Bonnington as his engineer at Mercedes. A report by Top Speed also notes that ‘no one’ at Ferrari considered that Hamilton may have needed to build a rapport with Adami following his move from Mercedes. The Scuderia also did not consider that Bonnington was more than just an engineer for Hamilton at Mercedes.

‘Hamilton notably clashed with Adami in Miami, Monaco, Canada and Abu Dhabi’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/riccardo-adami-never-understood-one-thing-about-lewis-hamilton-as-his-ferrari-f1-race-engineer/


One Lewis Hamilton radio message confirmed that Ferrari simply had to replace Riccardo Adami
17 January 2026
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

During his debut at the Australian GP, Hamilton said Adami wasn’t providing him with the right information. This proved to be a precursor for the year ahead. In Miami, Hamilton even told Adami to take a ‘tea break’. while Ferrari debated whether to swap their cars. But there was another message that confirmed that the partnership was doomed.

Perhaps moments of tension were to be expected during that adaptation process. But it was concerning that there was still a disconnect between the driver and the engineer at the season finale in Abu Dhabi. When Adami told Hamilton that he was racing Sauber driver Gabriel Bortoleto for position, the Briton replied: “Stop telling me I’m racing people, I know I’m racing them, man. Just leave me to it. I’m racing everyone ahead of me.”

But an even more alarming message came later when Hamilton was reporting track limits breaches ahead.
“I don’t need you to… just don’t confirm please,” Hamilton said. “Just telling you.”
When Adami replied ‘understood’, Hamilton snapped back: “Stop confirming!”
Damon Hill on Lewis Hamilton: “Whereas I wonder whether Lewis has had a belly full. You know, the post-race interviews, he doesn’t want to be there.”

‘Take a tea break’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/one-lewis-hamilton-radio-message-confirmed-that-ferrari-simply-had-to-replace-riccardo-adami/

[Fortitude]

Ferrari, Honda, Audi want answers on Mercedes and Red Bull engine trick.
The other engine manufacturers – Ferrari, Honda and Audi – are naturally unhappy with this news. All eyes are now on the FIA to see how they respond.
23/12/2025
Last Word On Sports

LWOS only recently reported on the likelihood of teams hiding their true performance during pre-season testing. In short, those who believe they have a significant advantage will try to maintain a low profile. If any team is seen to have a major edge, rivals will inevitably look to protest any potentially dubious components.

With that said, despite testing being weeks away, this dynamic is already taking shape. Mercedes and Red Bull understood to be exploiting a grey area with their 2026 engine development. Red Bull and Mercedes work to achieve engine advantage.

As mentioned previously on LWOS, Red Bull’s engine department should not be underestimated. The Milton Keynes outfit have assembled a group 600-strong for their powertrains unit, a very sizable workforce. Perhaps most notably, Red Bull have signed dozens of engineers from Mercedes. Because of this, it makes sense that both teams are currently capitalising on the same idea for their 2026 power units.

‘Hiding their true performance’;

https://lastwordonsports.com/motorsports/2025/12/23/ferrari-honda-audi-want-answers-on-mercedes-and-red-bull-engine-trick/


Ferrari have formed ‘political alliance’ with two rival F1 teams to combat Mercedes’ engine ‘tricks’
17 January 2026
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari are leading an ‘alliance’ with Honda and Audi against Mercedes and Red Bull. According to a report by a leading Italian F1 journalist, Leo Turrini, for Sky Italia, Ferrari have entered into a ‘political alliance’ with Audi and Honda.

The union of the three F1 teams, led by Ferrari’s Enrico Gualtieri, came about through the ‘alleged tricks’ that Mercedes and Red Bull have utilised during the development of their respective engines for the upcoming season. The basis of Ferrari’s argument references an alleged exploitation of a loophole regarding geometric compression ratios in the new power units.

Regulations mandate a 16:1 limit measured at ambient temperatures. However, once the engines are turned on and temperatures within the power unit begin to rise, the engines potentially reach a ratio of 18:1. The counterargument from Mercedes and Red Bull is that the technical regulations do not specify an allowed compression ratio after thermal expansion. It only outlines that the ratio must be met under static conditions at ambient temperatures.

‘Political alliance’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-have-formed-political-alliance-with-two-rival-f1-teams-to-combat-mercedes-engine-tricks/


Ferrari friction, Honda truth, Audi charge: F1’s 2026 faultline
January 10, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

The FIA, meanwhile, is set to bring “technical experts” into the room this month as it sifts through the 2026 power unit regulations again. Rumors have swirled that some players—names whispered include Mercedes and Red Bull Powertrains—have found clever interpretations in the draft rules. Whether it’s a loophole or just smart reading of the fine print depends on where you sit, but the governing body’s intent is obvious: tighten the bolts before the next era begins. It launched the ADUO scheme last October to help lagging manufacturers catch up; now comes the house-keeping to keep the field inside the intended performance envelope.

And while most are still pushing clay in the wind tunnel, Audi has already drawn first tracks in Barcelona. The R26—an all-black, stealthy statement piece—completed a shakedown with Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto offering their first impressions. It’s symbolic as much as it is technical: Audi wants everyone to know it’ll be ready on time, and it’s happy to show its homework early. The team will strip the covers off the car in Berlin on January 20 before heading straight back to Barcelona for the first 2026 test days. In a sport where optics are currency, running before the rest of the class can look like confidence. Or, at the very least, a clean project plan.

‘Ferrari friction’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/ferrari-friction-honda-truth-audi-charge-f1s-2026-faultline/


Red Bull engine loophole raises ‘widely accepted’ theory in F1 paddock amid chief’s legality claim
16 January 2026
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Red Bull Powertrains chief Ben Hodgkinson is adamant that his team have not done anything wrong, as their engine design satisfies the “super clear” wording of the 2026 F1 regulations. Hodgkinson also feels any rival engineers who did not spot the loophole do not belong in F1. “It’s frustrating, really, some of this stuff,” Hodgkinson said, via The Telegraph. “For me as an engineer, it’s frustrating that the press has got hold of this.”

“I think any engineer worth their salt who doesn’t understand about thermal expansion doesn’t belong in this sport. Doesn’t deserve to be an engineer, really. Almost every material changes with temperature. So, it’s understanding how materials behave in different temperatures, pressures, stresses [and] loads. That’s literally our job. The regulations are super, super clear about compression ratio. You’ve got a 16-to-1 limit. The regulations say that 16-to-1 is measured in a very specific way.”

“There’s a document that describes exactly how you measure it. And it has to be measured at ambient temperature. So, it’s super clear.” Hodgkinson has also been quoted by F1i noting that Red Bull’s power unit department have taken their interpretation of the 2026 F1 regulations “to the very limit”. But he is “confident that what we’re doing is legal”, as the specific rule is about conditions outside of operation.

“Rival engineers who did not spot the loophole do not belong in F1”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/red-bull-engine-loophole-raises-widely-accepted-theory-in-f1-paddock-amid-chiefs-legality-claim/


Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton lead applause as 2026 Ferrari engine fires up
17th Jan 2026
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Leclerc and Hamilton, along with Team Principal Fred Vasseur, are seen listening to the engine, and once fallen silent, are amongst the personnel applauding what presumably was the first – or at least one of the earliest – public firings of the power unit.
The video was posted hours after the team announced that Hamilton’s race engineer, Riccardo Adami, would be shuffled into a new role as head of its Driver Academy and TPC programme.
The engine will be fired in anger for the first time in less than two weeks, when Ferrari and its rivals begin the first of three pre-season testing schedules, commencing in Barcelona on January 26.

‘Lead applause’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/01/17/charles-leclerc-and-lewis-hamilton-lead-applause-as-2026-ferrari-engine-fires-up/


Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc watch as Ferrari fire up F1 engine
Ferrari has gone live with the noise of its 2026 Formula 1 engine.
16 January 2026
Nick Golding
RacingNews365

Ferrari have released footage of the first fire-up of their 2026 Formula 1 engine, watched by Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, and team principal Fred Vasseur. The footage from the Maranello-based outfit is the first clip and audio the Scuderia have shared on social media related to their new car, the SF-26.

It follows the successful completion of customer outfit Cadillac’s shakedown at Silverstone, with the American squad having released a short clip of its car in which the sound of the Ferrari engine is clearly audible.

In addition, Ferrari going public with their first engine fire-up followed a dramatic announcement on Friday evening that Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer would no longer be Riccardo Adami. The Scuderia announced that Adami has changed roles to become manager of Ferrari’s driver academy and TPC (Testing of Previous Cars) programme.

‘Ferrari has gone live with the noise’;

https://racingnews365.com/lewis-hamilton-and-charles-leclerc-watch-as-ferrari-fire-up-f1-engine

[Fortitude]

Has Mercedes Just Lost Its 2026 Secret Weapon?
…a senior exit on the eve of a new era always invites one question: how well is the machine really humming behind the scenes?
January 20, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Mercedes is heading into the 2026 season with a notable name missing from the Brackley roll call. John Owen, the team’s long-serving Director of Car Design and one of the quieter constants of the operation through its various identities, has left the squad and stepped away from Formula 1. Owen’s career path reads like that of a modern F1 engineer who’s grown up in the aero age. He started in 2001 as an aerodynamicist at Reynard Motorsport, then moved to Sauber in 2002. His return to Brackley came as Principal Aerodynamicist under Honda, and he held that role through the Brawn GP transformation — one of the sport’s most famous pivots, and a period where adaptability wasn’t a nice-to-have but a survival skill.

Mercedes, for its part, struck an appreciative tone in its message, thanking Owen for “the considerable role he has played in the team’s success” and wishing him “all the very best for the future”. It’s the sort of statement teams keep measured, but it’s also a reminder that in the era of complex cars and even more complex organisations, the people who stay for the long haul are increasingly rare. What happens next will be watched closely. Not because Mercedes is suddenly short of technical muscle — Tortora and Resta are serious operators — but because 2026 is a year when every department’s interfaces get stress-tested.

Car design leadership is as much about stitching groups together as it is about drawing lines on a screen, and Owen’s value to Mercedes was built over time in precisely that space between the org chart boxes. If Owen’s departure is simply what the team says it is — a personal choice to step away — Mercedes will back itself to manage the transition quietly and efficiently. But in a paddock where timing is never ignored, a senior exit on the eve of a new era always invites one question: how well is the machine really humming behind the scenes? For now, Mercedes is presenting this as evolution, not disruption. The next few months will reveal how true that is.

‘How well is the machine really humming behind the scenes?’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/has-mercedes-just-lost-its-2026-secret-weapon/


Leading Mercedes F1 designer to step down
Jan 20, 2026
Jon Noble
The Race

As part of a reshuffle that was instigated soon after when current technical director James Allison took over from Mike Elliot, Owen was given responsibilities that helped him focus on car design rather than wasting time on budget administration. Some of his previous duties were shared with engineering director Giacomo Tortora, whose key roles were looking after the design office and organisational development.

Since then both have worked closely with Allison and deputy technical director Simone Resta. Following the sign off of Mercedes' 2026 car, which will be the 17th design that Owen has overseen for the German manufacturer, he has decided that is now the right time to take a break and step down from his role.

Mercedes has duly elected to promote Tortora to become its new director of car design, and Owen will remain on board until the middle of the season to help ensure a smooth transition process. Tortora will report directly into Resta. After the handover phase is complete, it is understood that Owen is set to take a career break and move onto 'gardening leave' before deciding his next career step.

‘Following the sign off of Mercedes' 2026 car, which will be the 17th design that Owen has overseen… … the right time to take a break’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/leading-mercedes-f1-designer-to-step-down/


F1: Fears of Mercedes engine dominance grow ahead of 2026
January 20, 2026
Last Word On Sports

Mercedes are understood to be at the forefront of a crucial innovation regarding engine compression ratio. The factory in Brixworth has been developing a trick to increase compression ratio (limited to 16:1 in static tests) when the car is circulating on track – likely thanks to a clever use of thermal expansion. Only Red Bull Powertrains are known to have caught wind of this idea early enough to implement it in 2026. Even then, having only learned of this solution through an engineer they signed from Mercedes, it will take some time for Red Bull to replicate.

Although rival teams have protested against this interpretation of the regulations (and will raise the issue again with the FIA this week), the FIA are not likely to dish out a punishment. After all, Mercedes were transparent with the FIA from the very beginning, approaching them to ensure their compression ratio idea was within the bounds of the regulations. This means it would take a dramatic turn of events for corrective action – at least in the short term.

Putting aside this specific area, the Silver Arrows are understood to have enjoyed the smoothest journey in developing their 2026 engines. Unlike other manufacturers, who have encountered various difficulties and obstacles, the direction of travel at Mercedes has been clear and unwavering. Speaking of the other manufacturers, their limitations have become clearer in the build-up to 2026…

‘Only Red Bull Powertrains are known to have caught wind of this idea early enough to implement it in 2026’;

https://lastwordonsports.com/motorsports/2026/01/20/f1-fears-of-mercedes-engine-dominance-grow-ahead-of-2026/


Red Bull Skewers Mercedes’ 2026 Engine Hype: ‘Empty Cans’
January 18, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

‘Empty cans’ and engine whispers: Red Bull’s Hodgkinson pokes the Mercedes 2026 hype. Red Bull Powertrains technical director Ben Hodgkinson has poured a cool bucket of water over winter whispers that Mercedes will arrive in 2026 with the class-leading power unit — and he’s not ruling out the idea that the noise started in Brackley. As Formula 1 heads for its hybrid reset next year — same 1.6-litre V6 architecture, but with a far beefier electrical load and an ICE/ERS split closer to 50/50 — the paddock’s favourite game is ranking dynos we can’t see. The consensus rumor? Mercedes is the benchmark. Hodgkinson, who spent two decades at Mercedes HPP (stretching back to the Ilmor days) before joining Red Bull Powertrains in 2022, isn’t buying it.

“I think a lot of that talk originated from Mercedes themselves,” he told reporters around Red Bull’s launch in Detroit. “My gran used to say, ‘An empty can rattles the loudest.’” He half-smiled his way through the rest, but the implication was clear: in a tight driver and talent market, talking up your next engine isn’t the worst recruiting tool when the current car isn’t doing the selling for you. If you repeat a line often enough, it starts to sound like fact. Hodgkinson has seen that movie before.

“You’ve got to layer it on with the politics. Say it enough and people start searching for reasons it must be true,” he said, stopping just short of naming names. For Red Bull Powertrains, 2026 is the first true yardstick of the in-house project. Hodgkinson describes the Milton Keynes setup as built with the benefit of hindsight — a chance to better the processes he helped create at Brixworth. “Mercedes is a very competent manufacturer — I know that as well as anyone,” he said. “But we’ve been able to design our approach to be stronger than what came before. I just want to go racing again and let the stopwatch do the talking.”

‘A chance to better the processes he helped create at Brixworth’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/red-bull-skewers-mercedes-2026-engine-hype-empty-cans/


Red Bull challenges Mercedes 2026 F1 engine advantage claim
18 Jan 2026
Thomas Maher
PlanetF1.com

Red Bull Powertrains chief Ben Hodgkinson believes the rumours of Mercedes’ supposed engine superiority may have been started by themselves. Red Bull Powertrains’ technical director Ben Hodgkinson has first-hand insight into how Mercedes HPP operated in the past, having worked for the company since its days as Ilmor.

With the 2026 RBPT engine being the first Hodgkinson will have had a contribution to in half a decade, he’s excited to see how Red Bull’s first attempt as a fully autonomous manufacturer plays out. “I just want to get my head down and get on with it, and we’ll let the results do the talking, I think,” he said, offering some insight into how RBPT’s facility and organisation compares to HPP.

“Mercedes is a very competent power unit manufacturer. I spent 20 years there, so I know it very, very well. I was able to make sure that everything that we did here was better than what was done previously. I can benchmark myself to history quite well, so I know where that is. I’m just looking forward to getting started. I feel like I’ve not been racing for four years. I just want to get racing again, and we’ll see.”

‘Mercedes’ supposed engine superiority may have been started by themselves’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/red-bull-ben-hodgkinson-mercedes-favourites-tag-rumour-started-themselves

[Fortitude]

Max Verstappen’s prediction has already come true after Racing Bulls’ first lap with Red Bull engine.
Verstappen predicted at the Red Bull launch in Detroit just last week, suggesting that testing will be about spending more time in the garage than on track.
20 January 2026
Shay Rogers
F1 Oversteer

Max Verstappen’s ‘more time in the garages’ prediction has already come true at Racing Bulls. “I think that during the first tests in Barcelona starting on 26 January, we’ll be spending more time in the garages than out on the track,” Max Verstappen said. “None of us have any idea about the new car or the engine. Hopefully, we’ll all be a bit wiser after the two tests in Bahrain in February.”

Racing Bulls’ very first day of running with the new engine hasn’t quite been as successful as it could have been. After completing just one lap, they were stuck in the garage for a while, trying to fix gremlins with their car before completing the rest of their 15km shakedown.

‘Max Verstappen’s prediction has already come true’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/max-verstappens-prediction-has-already-come-true-after-racing-bulls-first-lap-with-red-bull-engine/


Racing Bulls immediately hit problems with Red Bull’s 2026 engine at Liam Lawson’s Imola shakedown
20 January 2026
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Racing Bulls immediately hit problems with Red Bull’s 2026 F1 regulations engine amid their shakedown with Lawson at Imola. According to Motorsport.com, Racing Bulls’ faced a delayed start to the track action as they had ‘some start-up problems’ with the RBPT DMO1.

Racing Bulls hired Imola for the day to put the VCARB 03 through its initial paces ahead of a filming day at the now-former home of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on Wednesday. The session eventually started at 12:26 in Italy, with Lawson completing three installation laps.

‘Delayed start’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/racing-bulls-immediately-hit-problems-with-red-bulls-2026-engine-at-liam-lawsons-imola-shakedown/


Round-up: Racing Bulls’ new F1 car for 2026 runs at Imola, and more
21st January 2026
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

Racing Bulls 03 first shakedown with Lawson and Lindblad (YouTube)

‘Racing Bulls’ new F1 car’;

https://www.racefans.net/2026/01/21/round-up-21st-january-2026/


Gary Anderson's verdict on the real 2026 Racing Bulls
Jan 20, 2026
Gary Anderson
The Race

Tuesday’s running at Imola is the first time the DM01 power unit, designed and built in-house by Red Bull Powertrains, has run on track. We can see a very small Ford logo (red ellipse) on the nose and the sidepod just above the body stay. I’m pretty sure that is, in reality, about the size of Ford’s technical involvement in this project!

Starting with a look at the front suspension, it’s pushrod operated (red highlight above). The top wishbone (forward leg dark blue, rearward leg light blue) has a lot less anti-dive than used last year.
The rear suspension is also pushrod-operated (red highlight) inboard suspension. The rear top wishbone (front leg highlighted in dark blue, rearward leg in light blue) and lower wishbone (rear leg highlighted in dark green, rearward leg highlighted in light green) have retained a reasonable if not increased amount of rear anti-lift.

Around the middle of the car, we can see a fair amount of change with a body stay (highlighted in red below) supporting that large flat area of underfloor. I expect this flat floor area will be one of the first areas where we will see developments flooding in. The final question is whether, as Racing Bulls is the junior team, this car we’ve now seen for real is close to what Red Bull Racing will actually hit the track with?

‘Gary Anderson's verdict’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/gary-andersons-verdict-on-the-real-2026-racing-bulls/


First images of 2026 Racing Bulls revealed from Imola shakedown
Jan 20, 2026
Jack Cozens
The Race

The Race can reveal images from Racing Bulls' 2026 Formula 1 car's first on-track running during a shakedown at Imola. Alongside sister team Red Bull, Racing Bulls took part in the first launch of 2026 last week when its livery was revealed at an event with Red Bull Powertrains' new partner Ford in Detroit.

But as this was displayed on a showcar - different from the FIA and F1's models, and the one used by Red Bull - Tuesday's shakedown images offer the first representative sight of the 2026 Racing Bulls car, which has a particularly distinctive airbox.

What will be known as the VCARB 03 - the chassis name derived from its Visa Cash App sponsorship - completed its first laps just before lunchtime local time on Tuesday at a cold and wet Imola. It's understood Racing Bulls plans to do just its 15km 'demonstration' day running allowance today then the longer 'promotional' running on Wednesday. Liam Lawson was at the wheel for the car's track debut.

‘Distinctive airbox’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/racing-bulls-2026-f1-car-vcarb-03-revealed-imola-shakedown/


Rookie Lindblad spins during Racing Bulls shakedown
Racing Bulls gave its 2026 Formula 1 car a first taste of the track at Imola, with a brief shakedown interrupted by a spin for rookie Arvid Lindblad.
21 Jan 2026
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

During his run, the F1 newcomer lost control at the Villeneuve chicane and slid into the gravel, bringing the shakedown to an early halt.
#ArvidLindblad’s car after he spun at Variante Villeneuve earlier today.#F1 #VCARB #test #Imola pic.twitter.com/RBpD78r5VH
— Jacopo Rava (@JacopoRava04) January 20, 2026

The car appeared to avoid significant damage and was recovered back to the garage, with Racing Bulls still able to complete its remaining laps from the demo allowance. The VCARB 03 was sporting the livery unveiled last week and featured several design elements in line with the new regulations, including a distinctive airbox, narrow sidepod inlets and pushrod suspension at both ends.
lo lindo que suena el motor del racing bulls pic.twitter.com/hJffaFv4e1
— Tino (@TinoCLeclerc) January 20, 2026

Racing Bulls will remain at Imola on Wednesday for a 200km filming day, where Lawson and Lindblad are set to complete up to 40 laps on demonstration rubber. The running will allow the team to gather further data and mileage before the car heads to Barcelona for the private pre-season test from January 26–30.

‘Spin for rookie Arvid Lindblad’;

https://speedcafe.com/rookie-lindblad-spins-during-racing-bulls-shakedown/

[Fortitude]

Ferrari insiders worried Lewis Hamilton is still ‘chasing’ what he had at Mercedes.
It’s believed that Lewis Hamilton still seeking what made him so successful while racing for the Silver Arrows, rather than trying to adapt to what’s already going on in Maranello.
20 January 2026
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Ralf Schumacher told Lewis Hamilton is not ready to change his driving style at Ferrari. Schumacher was speaking about how the most experienced drivers on the grid will adapt to the upcoming regulation changes on the Backstage Boxengasse Podcast.

Hamilton and Fernando Alonso are going to be two of the most interesting case studies, and Schumacher explained: “It’s impossible to say in general terms, as every driver deals with it differently. “Based on my gut feeling, I would say that Fernando Alonso, even though he is getting on in years, has proven that he can handle the situation quite well. I would trust him more at this point. When I look at Lewis Hamilton, I would say that it has to work out.”

“If not, then he has a bigger problem changing his driving style. You can hear from the team that he is always chasing after things he used to know and is somehow not really ready to change his style. If not, then he has a bigger problem changing his driving style. You hear that from the team, too, that he’s always chasing things he used to know and somehow isn’t really ready to change his style. So I’m curious to see how that plays out.”

‘Lewis Hamilton is not ready to change his driving style at Ferrari’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-insiders-worried-lewis-hamilton-is-still-chasing-what-he-had-at-mercedes/


Has Lewis Hamilton spearheaded Riccardo Adami’s demotion at Ferrari?
19 Jan 2026
James Phillips
Motorsport Week

Given its surprise yet complete inevitability, is the demotion of Riccardo Adami at Ferrari the first step towards change at Formula 1‘s most historic team, spearheaded by Lewis Hamilton? An unusual failure for Adami and Ferrari. Demotion from race engineer to one of the most successful drivers in F1 history to manager of both its Driver Academy and Testing Previous Cars programme is similar to switching your car from a Mercedes E Class to a Dacia Sandero. It’s going to get noticed.

Announced just weeks from pre-season testing, Ferrari has, once again, chosen to act and make changes in the face of criticism and adversity. While Adami’s demotion is not as dramatic, it is still significant. It indicates a team that is beginning to listen to a driver it paid a blockbuster sum to secure, vital given Adami’s poor season. Whether Hamilton was involved is debatable, but this decision felt as inevitable as a harsh British winter extending into spring.

Listening to radio exchanges between the two, the issues are laid bare. Hamilton asks a specific question, while Adami either gives the wrong information back or ignores it entirely. One could almost see the script he has to studiously follow on the Ferrari pit wall, unable and or unwilling to deviate from it.

‘An unusual failure for Adami and Ferrari’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/01/19/has-lewis-hamilton-spearheaded-riccardo-adamis-demotion-at-ferrari/


Ferrari have just dealt Lewis Hamilton yet another challenge that could set him up to fail
20 January 2026
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari risk setting Lewis Hamilton up to fail by not naming his new race engineer ‘anytime soon’. But while Ferrari will give Hamilton a new race engineer, Corriere della Sera reports that the Scuderia will not name Adami’s replacement ‘anytime soon’. Instead, Ferrari are set to make Bryan Bozzi pull double duty during the first pre-season test in Barcelona on January 26-30.

Corriere della Sera adds that Hamilton and Adami met for dinner before Christmas to try to improve their understanding of one another. FunoAnalisiTecnica also claims Ferrari ‘worked hard’ through the winter in the hope of keeping Adami as Hamilton’s race engineer in 2026. But it became clear that they could not continue working together, so Adami stepped down and he will now manage the Ferrari Driver Academy and their testing of previous cars (TPC) programme. Yet Ferrari are leaving Hamilton even further on the back foot entering 2026.

Hamilton is set to go into the new season facing an additional hurdle compared to his rivals by not having a permanent race engineer in place to replace Adami. Although it is thought that performance engineer Luca Diella is the favourite to be Hamilton’s new race engineer. There have been widespread fears since the 2026 F1 regulations started to take shape that drivers could run out of energy on high-speed tracks or long straights due to the increase in electrical power. F1 has increased the electrical share of power from a 20/80 split to 50/50.

‘Not naming his new race engineer anytime soon’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-have-just-dealt-lewis-hamilton-yet-another-challenge-that-could-set-him-up-to-fail/


Gary Anderson thinks ‘confused’ Ferrari might already have a ‘problem’ with their 2026 F1 car
20 January 2026
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Gary Anderson has now been speaking about a fundamental part of the car that can often be overlooked by fans: the suspension. According to MARCA, Ferrari are rumoured to have switched from a pull-rod front suspension to a push-rod system. Gary Anderson concerned about Ferrari’s suspension ahead of the 2026 F1 season. Anderson was speaking about the situation on The Race F1 Podcast and explained: “It’s a difficult decision, really, to make.

“I personally, if I were making it, would be going for the pull-rod because I think it’s more complicated to package, being that it’s down in the bottom of the chassis. But you can package it in such a way that it’s sort of forward of the pedals, I suppose you might call it, or down the side of where the pedal pivots are. I think the initial decision of a lot of them going to push-rod at the front would be packaging and ease of setup.”

‘Ferrari might already have a problem’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/gary-anderson-thinks-confused-ferrari-might-already-have-a-problem-with-their-2026-f1-car/


Mattia Binotto just told Ferrari why they are already doomed in 2026 battle with Mercedes
21 January 2026
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

It has been reported that Ferrari could protest the results of the Australian Grand Prix, the first round of the season. They feel Mercedes are breaking the spirit of the rules. However, speaking to The Race, Audi boss Mattia Binotto questioned whether this approach is viable, because they can’t pinpoint exactly which feature of the car is illegal. “You can protest if you know what you’re protesting,” Binotto, the former Ferrari team principal, said.

F1 teams will meet to discuss the issue on Thursday, but Binotto says this won’t lead to a ban. Instead, Audi are pushing for the introduction of a real-time measuring device, but this would take time. “I don’t think there will be clarity or compromise,” he said. “The meeting, which has been set for the 22nd of January, is more to continue to discuss how can we improve or develop a methodology for the future to measure the compression ratios in operating conditions.”

‘Can’t pinpoint exactly which feature of the car is illegal’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/mattia-binotto-just-told-ferrari-why-they-are-already-doomed-in-2026-battle-with-mercedes/


Ferrari are ‘in danger’ of missing Q3 at the Australian Grand Prix due to horsepower issue
20 January 2026
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari could be F1’s fifth-fastest team at the Australian Grand Prix. F1 pundit Ralf Schumacher believes the 2026 Ferrari will be a ‘disaster’ based on the early rumblings, but that theory will only be put to the test during the first public testing in Bahrain next month.

Mercedes finding a ‘loophole’ in F1’s new engine rules. Rivals say they will exceed the maximum fuel compression ratio on track, but comply with FIA checks when the car is stationary. It’s believed that Red Bull are also using the trick, but not to the same extent. As newcomers to the engine scene, they aren’t expecting to be on the level of established manufacturers straight away.

Mercedes, and the three teams they supply (McLaren, Williams and Alpine), could conceivably gain up to 13 horsepower through the higher ratio, equivalent to around four-tenths per lap. According to Top Speed columnist Umberto Zapelloni, this puts Ferrari at risk of being F1’s fifth-fastest team when the season begins in Australia. If so, the drivers will have to nail their laps to even reach Q3, with P9 and P10 potentially their ceiling.

‘Ferrari could be F1’s fifth-fastest team at the Australian Grand Prix’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-are-in-danger-of-missing-q3-at-the-australian-grand-prix-due-to-horsepower-issue/

[Fortitude]

Toto Wolff makes vow following new Mercedes W17 reveal.
Crucially, Wolff stated: "We will continue to push hard in the months ahead."
22 Jan 2026
Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

The W17 has been revealed to the world to a minimum of fuss, with Toto Wolff making clear the team's ambition in the coming months. Assessing the car and campaign to come, Wolff said: "Formula 1 will undergo significant change in 2026, and we are prepared for that transition.

"The new regulations demand innovation and absolute focus across every area of performance. Our work on the new car, and the long-term development of the power unit and advanced sustainable fuels with Petronas, reflects that approach. Releasing the first images of the W17 is simply the next step in that process. It represents the collective, sustained effort of our teams in Brixworth and Brackley."

‘Revealed to the world to a minimum of fuss’;

https://racingnews365.com/toto-wolff-makes-vow-following-new-mercedes-w17-reveal


Mercedes Unveil Brand New Look For 2026 F1 Season; Toto Wolff Provides Warning
Jan 22, 2026
Agence France-Presse
NDTV.com

The W17 is smaller, narrower, and lighter than its predecessor. "Formula One will undergo significant change in 2026, and we are prepared for that transition," said team principal Wolff. "The new regulations demand innovation and absolute focus across every area of performance."

The new era starts here. Introducing our W17 pic.twitter.com/ld0Zu6vjTv
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) January 22, 2026
The team released digital images of their new W17 car on Thursday, describing the 2026 season as "the biggest technical shake-up in the sport's history".

"The new regulations demand innovation and absolute focus”;

https://sports.ndtv.com/formula-1/mercedes-unveil-brand-new-look-for-2026-f1-season-toto-wolff-provides-warning-10830190


Did Mercedes Just Unleash F1’s 2026 Secret Weapon?
Jan 23, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Mercedes’ first public run with the W17 at Silverstone was always going to be heavy on optics and light on hard answers. A filming day in January, on a cold, wet track, tells you almost nothing about lap time and plenty about whether the basics work. Still, there were a couple of tells worth clocking — not least from George Russell, who sounded quietly energised by what’s going on at Brixworth. With filming-day limits capping Mercedes at 200 kilometres, Russell and Kimi Antonelli split the work and logged 67 laps between them.

Mercedes’ head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin described it as a “sensible first day of running”, the kind of line you get when the priority is to get to the end of the day without the laptop screens turning red. The aim, he said, was simply to make sure everything “operates safely and reliably”, with both drivers getting their first feel of the new-generation machinery.

“It’s mega to see the new car, new engine on track,” Russell said. “It sounds amazing. It really sounds different to what I was expecting. It’s a really special day, getting to drive it for the first time, because this engine and power unit has been years in the works… and then finally getting the chance to drive today is always a really nice time of year. So yeah, great to be out. Great to see it on the track, and can’t wait to drive it full gas.”

‘George Russell, who sounded quietly energised by what’s going on at Brixworth’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/did-mercedes-just-unleash-f1s-2026-secret-weapon/


Encouraging signs? Gary Anderson's verdict on the 2026 Mercedes
Jan 22, 2026
Gary Anderson
The Race

The 2026 Formula 1 season represents a big opportunity for Mercedes to recover from its relatively disastrous ground effect era, one in which it never really got on top of the situation and where inconsistency was its dominant trait. Being untouchable at one event then fighting to get into Q3 at the next one is not a good place to be; it just ebbs away your confidence.

So, will the problem continue in 2026? If Mercedes hasn't recognised where it was coming from - which is either the windtunnel and/or the simulation tools, or the way the team combines the data from those two - and rectified it, then yes it will. However, as this set of regulations is less critically dependent on what is happening between the ground and the undersurface of the car, the problem shouldn't be quite as bad.

As an overall package it looks good; nothing startling anywhere but good, clean lines with everything looking like it is working as one. As I have said before, sometimes it is better to optimise what you have experience of and Mercedes has stuck with the pushrod operated front suspension. That's no bad thing as I don't believe there is much to choose between a pullrod or pushrod, so packaging is the prime consideration in that area. Will it be back to the domination seen before 2022? Rumour has it that the new Mercedes power unit is a rocketship and with McLaren, Williams and Alpine using it too, that's eight drivers who are all very competent that could take big points.

‘As an overall package it looks good’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/mercedes-f1-2026-car-w17-gary-anderson-verdict/


Mercedes W17 Unveiled With Active Aero for F1 2026
Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS debuts a downsized hybrid W17 with refreshed black-and-silver livery and bold new Microsoft partnership.
23 Jan 2026
HYPEBEAST

Mercedes is treating 2026 as a hard reboot. The W17 is the team’s first response to the sport’s sweeping chassis, power unit and fuel regulations, arriving as the “biggest technical shake-up in the sport’s history”. The car is shorter, narrower and lighter than its predecessors, built around active aero with moveable front and rear wings and a power unit delivering a near 50/50 split between electric and combustion power on advanced sustainable fuels.

On track, the intent is just as aggressive. Russell and Antonelli have already logged nearly 200km at a wet Silverstone filming day to validate systems before the behind-closed-doors Barcelona shakedown and dual Bahrain tests. After four years without a title, Mercedes is leaning on its historic record of nailing major rule resets, its Brixworth power-unit brain trust and now its Microsoft-backed data stack to try and own F1’s next era rather than chase it.

‘Active Aero’;

https://hypebeast.com/2026/1/mercedes-w17-unveiled-with-active-aero-for-f1-2026


F1: Mercedes engine solution deemed legal ahead of 2026 season
22 Jan 2026
Last Word On Sports

Since the German manufacturer began developing this solution, the federation have deemed their interpretation of the regulations as valid. Because the engine still complies with the mandated 16:1 limit during standard checks, it is technically compliant with the rules. Mercedes’ success in increasing their compression ratio when the engines are on track and at racing temperature does not directly violate the rules or result in a failure of the FIA’s scrutineering.

Of course, this technicality is something that other teams have disputed. A stricter interpretation of the regulations would always make the use of this design controversial. Regardless, it would have taken a surprise twist for the FIA to change their stance on a solution they have known about for some time. In any case, the other engine suppliers were hopeful to receive some clarification in today’s meeting. To some extent, they did gain a better understanding of the situation.

The headline is that Mercedes’ unique design has been deemed as legal by the FIA. By extension, Red Bull (who are also working on this idea) will also be able to utilise it later in 2026. With the start of the season inching ever closer, alterations to the regulations were always going to be unlikely. Doing so would not only contradict the federation’s previous stance, but also create a nightmare scenario for the four Mercedes-powered and two Red Bull-powered teams ahead of round one in Australia.

‘Mercedes engine solution deemed legal’;

https://lastwordonsports.com/motorsports/2026/01/22/f1-mercedes-engine-solution-deemed-legal-ahead-of-2026-season/


First Mercedes reaction emerges as Russell and Antonelli break silence on shakedown
23 Jan 2026
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Mercedes’ head of trackside engineering, Andrew Shovlin, called it a “sensible first day of running” with the focus on “ensuring everything operates safely and reliably. “We were able to get through our allotted mileage, with both George and Kimi getting to experience the 2026 car on track for the first time.”

George Russell, tipped by many pundits to be amongst the favourites for this year’s title amidst reports Mercedes may have gained a march on its rivals, gave a nod to the Mercedes power unit. “It’s mega to see the new car, new engine on track,” he said on Mercedes’ social media feed. “It sounds amazing. It really sounds different to what I was expecting. It’s a really special day, getting to drive it for the first time, because this engine and power unit has been years in the works.”

Kimi Antonelli: “First day in the new car, super big day for the team, for everyone involved in the project,” he said. “And I have to say it was a good day. I’m super happy. And, you know, a massive thanks to all the people back in in Brackley and Brixworth because they’ve done an incredible job on putting the car together and allowing us to do some laps today.”

“Sensible first day of running”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/first-mercedes-reaction-emerges-george-russell-kimi-antonelli-shakedown

[Fortitude]

Alpine’s Quiet Barcelona Laps Hint at a 2026 Reckoning.
Alpine completed a TPC (Testing of Previous Car) day with its 2025 machine… …teams don’t book track time in January for nostalgia. These days are about sharpening process — and Alpine needs that edge as much as anyone going into 2026.
21 Jan 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Gasly has been pretty clear about what 2026 represents for him personally, and his comments in recent days sounded less like marketing and more like a driver who’s done enough seasons of compromise. “I just care about being fast,” he said, adding that if Alpine has a good car in 2026, it could be “the first time” he gets machinery that truly lets him show “my talent and my skills”.

There’s a directness to that which will resonate inside the paddock. Drivers say plenty of things in January. But Gasly’s point is hard to argue with: in Formula 1, your ceiling is often defined by what you’re given. He’s not asking for patience; he’s saying give me the tools and judge me properly.

He also didn’t pretend to have a crystal ball on what the new rules will do to the quality of racing. “Whether [the new rules for 2026 are] going to be good or better or not for racing, I don’t know,” he admitted. But the closing thought landed with the bluntness of someone who’s reached the stage of his career where the margins don’t interest him unless they lead to trophies: “I just want to win and I’ll do anything I can do to make it happen.”

‘2026 Reckoning’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/alpines-quiet-barcelona-laps-hint-at-a-2026-reckoning/


Briatore cast verdict on Alpine 2026 prospects with daring prediction
23 Jan 2026
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Flavio Briatore has voiced strong confidence in Alpine’s prospects following the unveiling of the team’s 2026 challenger. Speaking during the launch of the Alpine A526 car, the 75-year-old motorsport executive, who serves as de facto team principal, detailed his optimism about the squad’s direction heading into the new campaign. Briatore further added that the blame should fall squarely on team leadership if the car fails to deliver on performance.

"I believe Alpine will really come back in performance this year,” he began. "If the car is bad, it is our fault. We did not have any problems building this car. We had the budget,” he concluded. The Alpine outfit endured a challenging 2025 season, finishing bottom of the Constructors’ standings after opting against further developments on its car and shifting its resources to its 2026 machinery.

"I believe Alpine will really come back in performance this year”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/briatore-cast-verdict-on-alpine-2026-prospects-with-daring-prediction


TEAM PREVIEW: Alpine – All you need to know about the team ahead of the 2026 F1 season
After ending 2025 at the bottom of the Teams’ Championship, can Alpine bounce back in 2026?
22 Jan 2026
Anna Francis
Formula One Official Site

Needless to say, Alpine will be aiming not to repeat their last-place finish in 2026. The team are entering the new campaign with an increased sense of stability; Steve Nielsen joined as Managing Director in September – reporting to Briatore – while the incumbent driver pairing of Gasly and Colapinto adds to the continuity. With Gasly continuing to lead the charge and Colapinto experiencing something of an upturn in form during the latter stages of 2025 – leaving Briatore “impressed” – the target will be to provide the drivers with a car that they can fight with.

Indeed, this has been set out as a goal for 2026 by Briatore, while the Italian also voiced his belief that the increased stability at Alpine – along with the arrival of experienced new recruits – can help the squad to climb back up to P6 in the standings. “We are setting the team for next season,” Briatore explained. “We will have a great Mercedes engine and gearbox. I'm sure next season will be good for the team and we give our drivers the right car to compete. We are doing the best possible and my target is to be in P6 [next year]."

‘P6’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/team-preview-alpine-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-team-ahead-of-the-2026-f1.5FmcKhczVt6tTLVrzxL7lH


Can Alpine produce a 2026 F1 car worthy of its engine?
23 Jan 2026
Pablo Elizalde
Motor Sport Magazine

Alpine enters the 2026 F1 era with a new engine and renewed purpose, hoping a reset can succeed where recent seasons have fallen short. Alpine ’s 2026 Formula 1 car launch will be one of the least celebratory of the new era, not because expectations are low, but because the stakes are unusually clear.

The 2026 car will be the first Alpine to be conceived entirely around a customer power unit, and Enstone’s first time running a modern-style customer engine rather than being aligned to a manufacturer’s own works project. The question that will frame everything Alpine unveils is whether the team has built a car worthy of what it has been given after a disastrous 2025.

‘Renewed purpose’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/can-alpine-produce-a-2026-f1-car-worthy-of-its-engine/?nowprocket=1


Alpine’s Mercedes-Powered Gamble: Glory or Reckoning?
23 Jan 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Alpine has finally put proper eyes on its 2026 car, unveiling the A526 in front of sponsors and guests aboard an MSC cruise ship in Barcelona on Friday. It’s the kind of glossy launch setting the team has leaned into in recent years, but this time the car it rolled out carries a different kind of significance: it’s the first Alpine of the new rules cycle, and the first to arrive with the team no longer making its own power unit.

The timing made it feel like a coordinated bit of launch-day theatre across the sport. Ferrari had shown its SF-26 earlier on Friday, and Alpine followed with a reveal that was as much about signalling intent as it was about bodywork and paint. The A526 had already turned a wheel in public, too — it ran during a filming day at Silverstone earlier this week, a low-key shakedown that did its job: systems check, early correlation, no drama.

It’s also hard to ignore how much Alpine has been reshaped on the management side in the past 12 months. Another leadership upheaval marked 2025, with team principal Oli Oakes resigning after the Miami Grand Prix. That sort of mid-season disruption always leaves scar tissue: projects get paused, technical direction gets challenged, and the factory ends up spending energy on org charts instead of lap time. For 2026, the public-facing structure is clearer. Flavio Briatore continues as executive advisor to Renault CEO Francois Provost, and he’s now supported by the new managing director, Steve Nielsen, as Alpine tries to hit the reset button ahead of the regulation change.

‘Glory or Reckoning?’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/alpines-mercedes-powered-gamble-glory-or-reckoning/


F1 car on a cruise ship! Alpine launch new challenger after dismal 2025
23 Jan 2026
ESPN

Alpine has launched its 2026 Formula 1 car at an event aboard a cruise ship in Barcelona. The team's new car, the A526, made its track debut at a filming day at Silverstone on Wednesday before the livery reveal took place on Friday. "It has been a relentless few months at the Enstone factory in preparation for the season, designing and creating the A526, together with Mercedes-AMG who will supply the new power unit and gearbox from this season; a partnership we are very much excited about," team boss Flavio Briatore said.

"It is quite rare to see such changes in our sport and ones which have the potential to shake up the competitive order. We are taking it step by step. We do not know where we will rank at race one let alone the final race. Development will be crucial and learning and understanding how best to maximise the package at each circuit will make a big difference to our success.”

“We know this is a long journey and one we look forward to taking on. Pierre and Franco have a real hunger in their eyes. Last year was not easy for anyone, not least for them, and it is our duty to provide them the car which will allow them to showcase their talent in the most competitive positions."

'Relentless months at Enstone';

https://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/47703290/alpine-new-chapter-launch-f1-2026-car-last-2025


Horner in talks over Alpine buy-in - Briatore
23 Jan 2026
Valentin Khorounzhiy, Jon Noble
The Race

Former Red Bull Formula 1 boss Christian Horner is in active negotiations to buy into Alpine's F1 team, according to its boss Flavio Briatore. Briatore didn't exactly refute the possibility when asked about it during Alpine's 2026 livery launch, effectively confirming talks were in progress.

"In this moment, this is a lot of confusion," he said. "A few groups - I don't know how many, six, seven; every day is a new group - every day people call me about Otro. I don't care. So [suppose] Otro want to sell their participation in Alpine. The moment somebody buys 24% of Otro, we still have 75% [the rest] and we discuss it. But for the moment, this is the situation.”

"I've known Christian for many years, I talk with Christian anyway, but this has nothing to do with me. First you need to buy [the] Otro [share], and after Renault need to accept the buyer, and after we see what's happening. But there's no link with me, because he's negotiating with Otro, he's not negotiating with us."

‘Christian Horner is in active negotiations to buy into Alpine's F1 team’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/horner-in-talks-over-alpine-buy-in-briatore/

[Fortitude]

Williams Misses Barcelona: Crash-Test Woes Stir 2019 Ghosts.
The team has been here before, most painfully in 2019 when it missed the first two days of pre-season testing and began the year on the back foot.
January 23, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

The Grove squad confirmed in a short statement that the FW48 won’t take to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as planned, with the hold-up understood to centre on getting the new chassis through FIA crash tests. Williams has already completed the car’s first fire-up, but the build hasn’t reached the point where it can be wheeled out for running. Crucially, those close to the situation insist the issue is contained to the chassis programme rather than the power unit package or its installation. In other words, this isn’t a late integration panic that’s forced the team to repackage the back end; it’s a fundamental timing problem with the survival cell and the approvals that have to be signed off before anyone can even think about mileage.

There was also an internal all-staff address at the Grove factory, with team members briefed on what’s happened and what the recovery plan looks like. That sort of meeting, this early, tends to be as much about keeping a lid on the narrative as it is about logistics: pre-season is when momentum is built inside a factory, and nothing punctures it quite like watching rival cars do laps while yours is still stuck behind a compliance hurdle. Barcelona’s five-day running this year is set up more as an extended shakedown than the traditional two-test sprint, particularly for teams that haven’t yet banked mileage on a filming or demonstration day. But missing the opening window still bites.

‘Crash-Test Woes’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/williams-misses-barcelona-crash-test-woes-stir-2019-ghosts/


What we know about major Williams setback with 2026 car
Jan 23, 2026
Scott Mitchell-Malm
The Race

The key detail missing from Williams's short statement about its test absence is the exact cause but its car build programme has been interrupted. Though there was speculation that Williams's chassis is not ready, The Race understands this is not the case and it has passed everything required.

That does not preclude that process taking longer than expected, though, either because of a failed crash test or a problem identified by Williams itself. Either will potentially have added weeks of development and manufacturing work to rectify the situation. Williams switched its design focus to 2026 extremely early and had intended to sign off the first version of the car early too, to make sure it avoided exactly this situation.

With that in mind it cannot just be poor planning or improper tools, and it's understood to not be a result of a supplier or production issue. It must relate to a core architecture design - like the monocoque or suspension - needing reinforcement in some way and Williams wanting to find a way to make its intended designs work as it chases performance with the car.

‘Williams switched its design focus to 2026 extremely early’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/williams-missing-first-f1-2026-test-setback-what-we-know/


How Williams staff reacted in the factory to real reason they’re missing Barcelona shakedown test
24 January 2026
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Williams staff are not surprised they’ll miss the Barcelona shakedown as their nose cone failed the FIA’s crash test. While Williams’ new chassis is ‘well above’ the minimum 768kg weight, the Brazilian edition of Motorsport.com reports that the Grove squad will miss the Barcelona shakedown as their nose cone has failed the FIA’s mandatory crash tests – not their chassis, as initially feared.

Williams’ nose cone designed for F1’s new regulations that require a two-stage design to try to reduce the risk of detachment during initial impacts is understood to have failed the FIA’s frontal crash test. Therefore, Williams have not been approved to run their nose on a circuit. The news that Williams will miss the Barcelona shakedown ‘did not generate much surprise’ among staff inside their factory in Grove. Team members were already well aware that their FW48 project has been behind schedule ‘for quite some time’ before Friday’s confirmation.

The 2026 F1 regulations stipulate that a nose cone must maintain at least 150 millimetres of intact structure after contact, which the FIA tests at 17 metres per second (38mph) and then at 14m/s (31mph). The FIA’s frontal test that Williams have failed generates a peak of 40G. Williams will now conduct a series of tests in their factory next week, rather than joining the other 10 teams in Barcelona for the official shakedown. The Grove crew will also need their nose cone to pass the FIA’s crash test in time for Albon and Sainz to run in the Bahrain tests.

‘Did not generate much surprise’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/how-williams-staff-reacted-in-the-factory-to-real-reason-theyre-missing-barcelona-shakedown-test/


Williams Snubs Barcelona: Genius Gambit or Looming Disaster?
January 24, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

“A series of tests, including a VTT programme (virtual test track) next week with the 2026 car” will replace the Spain running, Williams said, with the focus shifting to the first official test in Bahrain and the season-opening race in Melbourne. The message to fans was upbeat — “there is a lot to look forward to together in 2026” — but the subtext is unavoidable. When a team chooses to miss the only guaranteed real-world mileage on offer before Bahrain, it’s because there isn’t a car ready to run, or there isn’t a car they believe is worth running yet.

Alex Albon, at least publicly, is keeping it simple. “It’s not how we wanted to start the year, but these things can happen when you are pushing the limits!” he wrote on Instagram. “Full focus ahead!”

‘Genius Gambit or Looming Disaster?’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/williams-snubs-barcelona-genius-gambit-or-looming-disaster/


How missing Barcelona testing will compromise Williams in 2026
24 Jan 2026
Last Word On Sports

Before it was announced Williams would entirely miss Barcelona testing, they were seen as dark horses for the 2026 season. After all, team principal James Vowles has spent the last twelve months speaking about his decision to start work on the 2026 cars as early as possible. In fairness to Williams, they still managed to finish 5th last season (their best result since 2017) despite prioritising the new regulations. This is partly why, with full focus on 2026, they were expected to make an impact.

However, failed FIA crash tests have forced the British squad to abandon the first week of pre-season in Barcelona. This automatically puts Williams at a disadvantage to other teams, who will accumulate three days of data to analyse and use to refine their 2026 packages. More concerningly, Williams could pay a greater long-term price for their mismanagement.

Although pre-season mishaps are never ideal, the conditions surrounding this Williams blunder make their failure especially unforgivable. Their strategy for the last eighteen months has been to put all available resources into the 2026 cars. This time last year, Williams were already dedicating the majority of their wind tunnel hours to the new regulations. With all this context in mind, the British team are understandably being questioned for how they reached this stage. The most likely reason for Williams being in this position is a severe oversight in the design of the FW48’s architecture. Making corrections will take time, although arriving to Bahrain testing is still the plan.

‘Conditions surrounding this Williams blunder make their failure especially unforgivable’;

https://lastwordonsports.com/motorsports/2026/01/24/how-missing-barcelona-testing-will-compromise-williams-in-2026/


Why missing the first F1 test has major consequences for Williams
23 Jan 2026
Ludo van Denderen
GPblog.com

For Williams, being unable to take part in the first test days likely has major consequences that will be felt throughout the rest of the season. It’s a paradox. The very team that was first to halt development of the 2025 car to focus early on this year’s machine wasn’t ready with its F1 car in time for the first test in Barcelona.

GPblog understands that there is significant dismay within Williams, as 2026 was supposed to be the year the team would consistently fight for podiums — and perhaps more? Yet before a single meter has been driven, Williams is already on the back foot. Can they make up the deficit over the course of the year? That will simply be difficult. As is well known, there are entirely new technical regulations starting this season, which will drive constant development throughout the long campaign.

For Williams, the discovery phase won’t begin until Bahrain, much later than the rest of the field. An added drawback is that if something in the car isn’t right — such as having questionable reliability — there’s hardly any time left to address it. In a sense, the Australian Grand Prix then becomes a test session rather than the first opportunity to perform. It should also be noted: if the Williams is even ready to race in Bahrain and then Australia. Reportedly — though not confirmed — the car has not passed the mandatory crash test. Solving that issue may require drastic design changes.

‘The very team that was first to halt development of the 2025 car to focus early on this year’s machine wasn’t ready with its F1 car in time for the first test in Barcelona’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/analysis/why-missing-the-first-f1-test-has-major-consequences-for-williams

[Fortitude]

Fred Vasseur reveals Ferrari F1 testing plans after successful 2026 launch.
Fred Vasseur has revealed when Ferrari will first be on-track during F1's first pre-season test in Barcelona next (now this) week.
23 January 2026
Jake Nichol
RacingNews365

After its successful shakedowna at Fiorano, Ferrari will be heading to Barcelona for the shakedown pre-season test. "It's quite an emotional day for us today, the launch of a new project is always an important milestone," Vasseur told select invited media, including RacingNews365.

"But I would say that it is even more true this year with the completely new regulations for 2026. It was a long way to go until today, and I think it went pretty well. It was a good start, so let's be positive and enjoy the journey, and now we have to be focused on Barcelona. We will start the test on Tuesday, and then with the regulation, we will decide which date to run with Thursday, we will [also] be on track on Thursday.”

"It has been a huge amount of work in the last weeks, month and probably also years on the engine side, but we are more than happy with the setup today, and it is not the end of the story, but the beginning of the season."

‘Ferrari F1 testing plans’;

https://racingnews365.com/fred-vasseur-reveals-ferrari-f1-testing-plans-after-successful-2026-launch


Gary Anderson's take on Ferrari's basic 2026 F1 launch car
Jan 23, 2026
Gary Anderson
The Race

And then there was Ferrari! We have heard so much through the Italian tifosi during the winter that it sort of feels like we have seen the team’s 2026 Formula 1 design already, but here is the real thing. It’s a mixture of renders and the actual car that did Ferrari’s first few shakedown laps at Fiarano.

The team has already stated this first version of the 2026 car - which Ferrari calls its ‘spec A’ - is to allow it to build up data and reliability mileage, giving it time for more research and development, so this is not the final Australian Grand Prix race version of the car. But anyway let’s see if Lewis Hamilton’s memos to Ferrari about what it needed to do to improve have been taken on board.

Overall I’m glad Ferrari itself said this was simply a test and reliability version of the car that was being released first. I’m not seeing that much that makes me wide eyed. That said, it’s neat and tidy so perhaps a decent base to start from - but developments will count and Ferrari will ultimately be judged on the success (or not) of those.

‘Ferrari's basic 2026 F1 launch car’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/gary-andersons-take-on-ferraris-basic-2026-f1-launch-car/


2026 F1 Car Reveal | Scuderia Ferrari SF-26
Jan 23, 2026
Ferrari

The covers are off! Meet our F1 2026 Challenger, the SF-26!
@BizzleDizzle33: I’ve never been more worried about a car
@PuskaPoju21: ”New rules same spirit” the spirit being depressed
@GTR-NismoGT: “same spirit” D.N.F
@dagandaje: "New Rules, same tractor"
@tuklonsane: please dont be a tractor

@kyxlseo: can't believe my mental health depends on a metal box on wheels
@DharshithGirikumarDhanya: 1:16 "New Rules, SAME SPIRIT". Same spirit of ruining WDC's
@st_urch: We’ve suffered so much , please give us happiness this year
@Priasurabaya-bukansolo: Certified landmower
@varunvkamath1500: I’ve never seen such a beautiful advertisement for a tractor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkSrX2rM8jk


INSIDE Lewis Hamilton & Charles Leclerc's first day on track in 2026 for Ferrari ��
Jan 23, 2026
Sky Sports F1

Sky Sports F1's Ted Kravitz reflects on Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc taking to the wheel of the SF-26 for the first time as they look to beat the likes of Lando Norris, George Russell and Max Verstappen and bring a world championship back to Italy for the first time since 2008.

@benm1988: Ted’s Launchbook!
@tonymcgo: incredible access
@samukelisiwesithole3795: Looks so good here wow!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ6iy7B-V04


Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton & Charles Leclerc REACT to first day in the SF-26 ��
Jan 23, 2026
Sky Sports F1

@amcavallaro: I wish Lewis a great season! He is always very humble and considerate of those who work hard for the team and those who support the team at the race! I also wish Charles the best! He is a great driver and has given us fans a lot of joy, through this drought of no championships. Good luck to Fred, as imo he is on borrowed time after the teams performance last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xya23kWvf0s


Ferrari SF-26 On-Track at Fiorano: Lewis Hamilton & Charles Leclerc's 2026 F1 Challenger Revealed!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BLvTozt_xPU


Ferrari hit by launch blunder and shakedown scare ahead of F1 season
23 Jan 2026
Ben Hunt
GPblog.com

Ferrari have suffered another false start ahead of the new Formula 1 season with the team’s latest PR blunder, raising fresh questions about the Scuderia’s operational sharpness. The team published its much-anticipated media release with details and images of this year’s challenger. However, the images used were those of the 2025 car that delivered zero victories last season, an error that immediately caught the attention of fans and media alike.

Furthermore, the accompanying text said: “The 72nd (sic) Formula 1 car for Scuderia Ferrari HP is the first designed under the new regulations.” Hardly a revelation, and one that did little to inspire confidence during a crucial moment of the launch cycle. Ferrari eventually corrected the online error and added the correct photos, but the damage was already done, adding to a growing list of questionable PR decisions in recent weeks.

The team announced last Friday that they would replace Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer, Riccardo Adami – despite confirming to GPblog that he would remain in his position. Elsewhere, Ferrari were upstaged by engine customers Cadillac, who posted on social media the sound of their power unit firing up before the manufacturer itself.

‘Questionable PR decisions’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/opinion/ferrari-hit-by-launch-blunder-and-shakedown-scare-ahead-of-f1-season


Vintage Hamilton or Bust: Ferrari’s 2026 Chemistry Test
January 24, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Ross Brawn has seen enough driver-team marriages up close to know when the chemistry matters more than the headlines. And as Formula 1 heads into its 2026 reset, he’s convinced Lewis Hamilton can still deliver the sort of season that reminds everyone why he’s been the sport’s reference point for so long — if Ferrari gets the basics right around him.

Speaking at the Autosport Awards, Brawn framed Hamilton’s prospects less as a question of raw speed and more as one of alignment. The move to Maranello last year ended a 12-year stretch at Mercedes and, crucially, the long-running partnership with race engineer Peter “Bono” Bonnington. Ferrari paired Hamilton with Riccardo Adami, a change that was always going to be more than swapping a voice in his ear. It didn’t work. From early on, the radio exchanges had an edge to them: Hamilton seeking clarity and control, Adami sounding increasingly resistant to the way those requests were delivered.

Ferrari has already acted. Adami has been moved into a different role ahead of the new season, and Hamilton will have a new race engineer for 2026. Brawn, who spent a decade at Ferrari and understands the peculiar pressure that comes with that job, put it in the simplest terms: it has to gel. “I think we’d all love for him to be successful,” he said. “I’ve got a special place for Ferrari; I’ve been there 10 years. I know how tough it is there. But it’s always a fine line between a team gelling and not quite gelling, and it didn’t quite gel last year.”

‘Vintage Hamilton or Bust’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/vintage-hamilton-or-bust-ferraris-2026-chemistry-test/


Ferrari set to lure ex-McLaren engineer for key Lewis Hamilton role
January 26, 2026
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Ferrari is set to poach McLaren for one of its senior Formula 1 personnel for the key role of being the new race engineer for Lewis Hamilton, it has been claimed. Hamilton is without a race engineer since the recent axing of Riccardo Adami, who has been shuffled to the role of its Academy and TPC testing head. The seven-time World Champion appeared to have little to no rapport with the Italian, and apparent concerns about a potential continuation of this led to the Scuderia’s decision.

Firstly, the team is set to re-hire, on a part-time basis, the services of Carlo Santi, a former race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen, and the man perhaps best known for his infamous “You will not have the drink” radio message to the Finn. But Italian publication Corriere dello Sport has reported that Ferrari is “waiting for a new figure to come, it seems, from McLaren.”

The McLaren figure is thought to be Cedric-Michel Grosjean, most recently the Woking-based squad’s Lead Trackside Performance Engineer. The Frenchman left McLaren at the end of last season, and, according to his LinkedIn page, is on a “career break”, but recently liked a post referring to this year’s car. Grosjean has not worked anywhere else, thereforer would provide him with a real step into the unknown should he be hired for the role. Bryan Bozzi, the race engineer of Hamilton’s team-mate Charles Leclerc, will reportedly be assisting as Hamilton’s interim over the course of pre-teasting testing.

“You will not have the drink”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/01/26/ferrari-set-to-lure-ex-mclaren-engineer-for-key-lewis-hamilton-role/

[Fortitude]

Barcelona testing timings are online — and no one knows how's that possible.
The intention had been to keep all lap times strictly confidential, yet the moment the pit lane went green, timings began circulating online. So how did that happen?
26 Jan 2026
Ludo van Denderen
GPblog.com

There was widespread surprise in the Formula 1 paddock on the opening day of testing in Barcelona. A live YouTube stream quickly emerged showing real-time lap times — along with a wealth of additional data. That raised eyebrows, given that the test was deliberately held behind closed doors to avoid exactly this kind of exposure. Teams were keen to conduct their programmes away from the spotlight, without scrutiny or speculation based on headline lap times.

That hope has proven futile. Teams and Formula 1 alike are surprised to see a YouTube channel covering the test, complete with an accurate timing page. Since Formula One Management (FOM) is not tracking times and laps in Barcelona, everyone is wondering who is leaking this and how it’s happening. Given that FOM is extremely protective of its rights, it’s highly likely they are seeking answers to those two questions. For now, fans can at least view the timing; we’ll have to wait and see if that remains possible for the rest of the week.

‘Widespread surprise in the Formula 1 paddock on the opening day of testing’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/verstappen-can-be-followed-by-everyone-and-no-one-knows-how-thats-possible


What it’s like being locked out of F1’s first 2026 test
Jan 26, 2026
Jon Noble, Edd Straw
The Race

Having earned itself the nickname of "The Hill", it is the location where photographers will often get shots of cars testing, or fans without tickets will come to get a glimpse of the F1 and MotoGP races. It took just 18 minutes of testing to get under way before the first security car turned up and ordered a handful of assembled journalists and photographers away - including The Race's Jon Noble.

And while local journalists with better knowledge of the area tried to argue that this was public land as a hiking trail, the insistence from security was that everywhere that has a view of the track was off limits because it is owned by the track. As soon as a group of onlookers were told to disperse, they would decamp to another area - continuing the chase.

One group was spotted in a gravel car park that overlooks Turn 13. Several individuals were seen behind some trees further down the hiking ridge that offers a clear sight of Turn 10. One photographer was even spotted in the distance, atop some concrete barriers, capturing more of the final sequence of corners. Efforts were then made to try to ban anyone from all of the roads around the circuit, but that was more difficult to implement with so many access points from the outside.

‘Locked out’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what-its-like-being-at-closed-first-f1-2026-test/


Why is the Barcelona Shakedown being held in private?
With the Barcelona Shakedown underway, F1.com explains why the event is being held in private, how much running the teams are permitted and more...
26 Jan 2026
Formula One - Official Site

What is the Barcelona Shakedown? The Barcelona Shakedown is an opportunity for the teams to run their new cars on track, without the limitations posed by filming days where running is generally restricted to 200km. The event allows each squad to check that everything works as expected on their 2026 machines and to see how various aspects correlate with the data from their simulations.

Why is the Barcelona Shakedown being held in private? A shakedown differs to a test in that it is the first time that a team runs its car. As such, the event is not about chasing performance – instead the teams will be focused on getting mileage on their cars and ensuring that all of the various parts work as expected amid the introduction of new regulations for the 2026 season. From the data they gather, each outfit will then be able to focus on where they need to improve going forward.

How much running will teams have at the Barcelona Shakedown? While the event spans five days, each team will be permitted to run for a total of three days. This allows them flexibility in deciding when it is convenient for their car to hit the track – for example, some may opt to run later in the week in order to work on their machine during the opening days. This approach also means that teams can adapt to any changing weather conditions and avoid running on days where the forecast predicts rain or snow.

‘The Barcelona Shakedown’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/why-is-the-barcelona-shakedown-being-held-in-private.7MYVwrnUzf6k6LcjQywspA


Unofficial F1 testing times: Day 1, Session 1
26 Jan 2026
Mat Coch
PlanetF1.com

Unofficial F1 Pre-season testing days, Day 1, Morning
Pos Driver Team Laps Best Gap
1 Isack Hadjar Red Bull 44 1:18.835
2 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 56 1:20.700 1.865
3 Franco Colapinto Alpine 28 1:21.348 2.513
4 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 42 1:21.864 3.029
5 Esteban Ocon Haas 67 1:24.520 5.685
6 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac 33 1:24.651 5.816
7 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 27 1:25.296 6.461

While no official timing is being provided from the opening five days of running, information received by PlanetF1.com has offered an unofficial glimpse into the pecking order.

Unofficial timing from the test has indicated that Hadjar has set a best lap of 1:18.835, a lap that came in the minutes approaching the lunch interval. The five days of running in Barcelona all commence at 9am local time and run through until 6pm, with a one-hour break from 1pm.

‘Hadjar has set a best lap of 1:18.835’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/f1-results-2026-pre-season-testing-barcelona


Isack Hadjar has just shown why Red Bull made the perfect choice to pair him with Max Verstappen
26 January 2026
Shay Rogers
F1 Oversteer

Hadjar is among the ‘very best’ according to team principal Laurent Mekies, who has worked quite closely with the 21-year-old at two different teams. Asked at the Autosport Awards about 2026, Hadjar made a ‘bold’ prediction, backing himself to be in championship contention. It sounds optimistic, but it might be realistic.

On the first morning of pre-season testing in Barcelona – a private outing for all 11 teams, Hadjar topped the timesheets by a long way. With a time of 1.18:835, he was 1.865 seconds faster than Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli in second place. He also racked up 41 laps, third most of the seven teams running.

So speed and reliability seem to be in order, and Hadjar, with the added pressure of being Verstappen’s teammate now, has started well. He’s already proving to Red Bull that he was the perfect choice to be their second driver in 2026 and is wasting no time in making a strong impression.

‘Hadjar topped the timesheets by a long way’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/isack-hadjar-has-just-shown-why-red-bull-made-the-perfect-choice-to-pair-him-with-max-verstappen/


Mercedes Or Bust: Briatore’s High-Stakes Alpine Reset
January 26, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Flavio Briatore has never been a man for half-measures, and he’s now made it clear his return to Enstone came with a single non-negotiable: Mercedes power. Briatore, back inside the Alpine set-up since mid-2024 as an “executive advisor” and now effectively running the operation day-to-day, says he told Renault CEO Luca de Meo there was only one way he was signing up again. Not a reshuffle. Not another internal “reset”. Not a promise that the next in-house engine would finally land. A Mercedes engine deal for 2026. Full stop.

“The moment when Luca de Meo was talking about joining the team, [there was] only one condition for me to join the team, which was to have a Mercedes-Benz engine. There was no plan B, it was only one plan,” Briatore said, in comments carried by Motorsport.com. “I wanted a Mercedes-Benz engine completely. There was only one way to come back, because in this moment, you need to be with the best people… I wanted to have the discussion with the best. With the second best, no interest.” That bluntness will either be applauded inside Alpine as the kind of clarity the organisation has too often lacked, or it’ll be seen as Briatore steamrolling a manufacturer identity that was central to the team’s modern branding.

In reality it’s probably both. Alpine, after all, has spent years trying to fight its way out of the midfield while carrying a power-unit deficit that became part of the team’s weekly vocabulary. “At every race, I asked [how much our deficit would be],” he said. “This race? Four tenths. This race? 3.5 tenths, This race? Five tenths. And last year in three tenths we had 14 cars. At least when I arrive to the race, I will not ask anymore how many tenths we have in disadvantage. Nobody is talking about engine anymore. Nobody is talking about gearbox anymore. At least we have two issues we don’t need to care about.” It’s classic Briatore: a little theatrical, but rooted in a truth anyone around Enstone would recognise.

‘A Mercedes engine deal for 2026. Full stop’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/mercedes-or-bust-briatores-high-stakes-alpine-reset/

[Fortitude]

What we learned from Day 1 of private F1 shakedown.
With seven teams gathering early mileage as new cars and power units took to the track for the first time, at Formula 1’s 2026 shakedown began behind closed doors at Barcelona on Monday.
27 Jan 2026
Ben Waterworth
Crash.Net

Mercedes were first out, Andrea Kimi Antonelli leading the running in the W17 on a cool but dry morning before George Russell took over in the afternoon. Audi, Alpine, Racing Bulls, Red Bull, Cadillac and Haas also ran across the opening day, while McLaren, Ferrari, Aston Martin and Williams remained absent. Red Bull newcomer Isack Hadjar ultimately set the quickest unofficial time of the day, a 1m18.159s, as the RB22 emerged as one of the most consistent packages in circulation.

Mercedes was also prominent on the timing screens, with Antonelli closest to Hadjar in the morning and Russell ending the day second overall. Despite the lack of official live timing, leaked data suggested the day was defined less by outright pace than by mileage. Haas topped that metric comfortably, Esteban Ocon completing 154 laps in the Ferrari-powered car as the American squad logged the most extensive programme of the seven teams in attendance.

Results: Formula 1 pre-season testing Day 1 (unofficial)
Pos Driver Team Lap/Diff Laps
1 Isack Hadjar Red Bull 1:18.159s 107
2 George Russell Mercedes +0.537s 95
3 Franco Colapinto Alpine +2.030s 60
4 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +2.541s 56
5 Esteban Ocon Haas +3.142s 154
6 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +3.354s 88
7 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac +6.492s 33
8 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +7.137s 27
9 Sergio Perez Cadillac +7.815s 11

‘Seven teams gathering early mileage’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2026-barcelona-test-shakedown-results-what-happened-mercedes-haas-red-bull-alpine-cadillac-audi-racing-bulls/


The Hills Have Eyes: F1’s 2026 Secrets Leak
Jan 26, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Formula 1 has always liked to pretend winter testing is a polite, controlled environment. Barcelona on Monday morning was the reminder that it never really is — and that 2026, with its wholesale technical reset, has only sharpened the sport’s paranoia. With the first official on-track running of the new era beginning at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, a significant security presence has been deployed around the venue to deter fans from watching. The trigger was predictable: “spy shots” of the new cars began circulating on social media within hours of the session starting, snapped from the familiar public vantage points outside the circuit.

F1 made an unusual call with this opening test, opting to run it behind closed doors as teams start the steep learning curve of brand-new machinery after major regulation changes over the winter. Five days are scheduled in Barcelona, and while the grandstands might be empty, the surrounding hills certainly aren’t. The circuit’s geography has always made it leaky — sections of track are visible from nearby high ground and public footpaths — and it didn’t take long for photographers with long lenses and fans with phones to find the gaps. The response, according to reports from the venue, has been firm. Security have been moving people on from well-known hotspots and access to a number of perimeter roads has reportedly been closed off.

For fans, though, it’s another step away from what testing used to be: a rare chance to watch new cars run without the theatre of a race weekend, to spot details in the metal, to see who looks comfortable and who looks hurried. F1 has chosen, at least initially, to prioritise a clean information environment for the paddock over that tradition. Whether it works is another matter. If Monday showed anything, it’s that the appetite to see the 2026 cars is too strong to be contained by a closed gate and a few extra marshals at the perimeter. The pictures will keep coming. The only question is how hard F1 and the teams want to fight the inevitable — and how much of that fight they’re willing to conduct in public.

‘The Hills Have Eyes’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/the-hills-have-eyes-f1s-2026-secrets-leak/


Nine things we learned from the first day of F1 2026 testing
Jan 26, 2026
Scott Mitchell-Malm, Edd Straw, Jon Noble
The Race

The start of Formula 1's behind-closed-doors test at Barcelona made for one of the most unusual days of testing in recent memory. A grand commitment to secrecy, unintentionally available live timing being discovered (and then closed off), and most importantly actual running from several cars made for a weird but fascinating first proper day of 2026. Here is what we learned as a glorified 'shakedown week' began.

Early laptime hints: Not to be guilty of reading into laptimes from testing, but Isack Hadjar and Red Bull’s new in-house engine are off to great starts.
Who did the most running (2026 day one lap totals): Haas: 154, Mercedes: 151, Red Bull: 107, Racing Bulls: 88, Alpine: 60, Cadillac: 44, Audi: 27
Security games: 20 minutes in, security turned up and told us to move on, claiming that even though this is public land, because it offered an eyesight of the track, we weren't allowed to stand there. This triggered some cat-and-mouse games…
Something we could actually see: While finding a good vantage point to watch the cars up close was not easy, there was still plenty to learn from places we eventually got to see and hear them in action.

What we could hear: One other notable aspect from early running too was how the sound of the cars is not as alien as some had perhaps feared.
Unnecessarily controversial: It came across as teams and stakeholders going out of their way to shut people out even if that wasn't the intention and - admittedly with the benefit of hindsight - it was all unnecessary given how well most of the cars ran.
New team is up against it: Cadillac was 6.5s off the pace on Monday and had a stuttering afternoon of running once Sergio Perez took over from Valtteri Bottas is proof of that.
Some gaps will be filled in: One of the big debates within the F1 community around this test was who was really responsible for it being private and who was being difficult about how much could be shared from it.

‘Nine things we learned’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/f1-2026-barcelona-test-day-one-what-we-learned/


What happened on ‘debugging’ first day of F1 2026 testing
A rundown of everything that happened on the first day of F1 2026 pre-season testing.
26 Jan 2026
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Valtteri Bottas, who drove his new Cadillac for the first time: "We had some issues throughout the day but it's de-bugging, that's why we're here, and it seems like every team had some issues,” Bottas told F1.TV in one of the few approved interviews that took place. "It's just now really figuring about those and getting more and more running each day. But great to be here and in the car. The priority list now is to get more laps each day. I got a bit more than 30 laps today, some of them just installs and stuff, but we need to get some proper running in, get the mileage in and get a reliable package for race one.”

It is believed there were at least three red flags that disrupted the morning session, with stoppages for Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, and Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto. Esteban Ocon: “Now that we are running, we are discovering issues, problems we need to solve, every lap, every run. But that’s what we are here for, right?” Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu told F1 TV: "At least we are running, that means we are gathering data, we are identifying issues that we need to solve. Still, obviously we just got started, but I’m very, very happy how we started.”

‘Debugging’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1088657/1/what-happened-debugging-first-day-f1-2026-testing


Ted Kravitz saw something ‘eye-catching’ from Red Bull during first day of F1’s Barcelona shakedown
27 Jan 2026
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

Pitlane reporter Ted Kravitz highlighted what he found ‘eye-catching’ in Red Bull’s data: “Lots of teams, when they did push their cars out of the garage, completed a lot of laps. And just to underline how many laps were done today, I mean, this is incredible. For a major rule change, the biggest in living memory, since the hybrid engines came in 2014, certainly. We’re not going to look at the lap times.”

“These are unofficial times, I have to say, but we have cross-referenced them with the teams who have confirmed their individual times. So Hadjar was quickest for whatever that’s worth, with a 1:18.1. Half a tenth further back was George Russell. We believe that Russell’s time was on a C1, the hardest tyre, whereas Hadjar was not on the C1. With Colapinto, it was a good effort from him on a 1:20.1 with the times going down. But, 108 laps from Red Bull, that is eye-catching. And then 154 for Haas. And if you combine Antonelli and Russell, that’s 151. It’s incredible the way they’ve managed to get that running so reliably.”

Bernie Collins highlighted: “There was quite a lot of talk that people were going to delay it later in the week. Let the track improve, give a little bit more build time. But when you look at the forecast for Barcelona, I think that’s a real reason people have got out on track today. The next three days carry quite a high risk of rain. So people are trying to get the very important first day in, get some niggles out of the way, which allows them some leeway to play with over the next few days and choose the best opportunities on track.”

‘Eye-catching’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ted-kravitz-saw-something-eye-catching-from-red-bull-during-first-day-of-f1s-barcelona-shakedown/

[Fortitude]

F1 teams missing en masse in Barcelona as Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc handed free track.
The second day of testing in Barcelona has been particularly quiet. For Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, it's rightfully a 'private test'.
27 January 2026
RacingNews365 Staff
RacingNews365

Given the forecast for the day, Mercedes confirmed 20 minutes before the start that it would not run. Haas announced 14 minutes after that it would not be on track, although adding that this was planned as it was "focusing on all the data gathered yesterday". There was also no sign of Audi, Racing Bulls, Alpine and Cadillac emerging from the garage, whilst it was already known that Aston Martin and Williams are not in attendance, with the former hoping to take part on Thursday.

The biggest question mark hangs over reigning constructors' champions McLaren. The team had expressed its intention to take to the track for the first time today, but it looks set to be stymied by the weather, which is poised to continue into tomorrow. As for the only two drivers who did take to the circuit, Verstappen and Leclerc posted times in the 1:20s, good enough for a spot in the midfield on Monday.

'Private test';

https://racingnews365.com/f1-teams-missing-en-masse-in-barcelona-as-max-verstappen-and-charles-leclerc-handed-free-track


Verstappen sets the pace in weather-disrupted Barcelona morning session
27 Jan 2026
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Max Verstappen topped the times in a rain-affected morning session in Barcelona that saw very little on-track action. As expected on a day heavily shaped by the weather, rain set in right on cue midway through the morning, disrupting team programmes and forcing most outfits to remain in the garages.

The only two teams to run during the morning — both in dry conditions and for a handful of laps on a damp track — were Red Bull and Ferrari, with Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc at the wheel respectively. Both drivers made their first-ever outings in their new cars, with the four-time world champion reportedly setting a 1:20.0 lap. Leclerc was understood to be around eight tenths slower, although the times remain unofficial and the tyre compounds used are unknown.

Once the rain set in, the circuit fell quiet until around an hour from the end of the session, when Leclerc and Verstappen ventured out for a handful of laps in wet conditions to get a first feel for Pirelli’s new 2026 intermediate tyres. Gleaning any further information proved a near-impossible task, given the heavy security around the circuit and the fact that live timing was unavailable today, unlike yesterday.

‘Verstappen sets the pace’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/verstappen-sets-the-pace-in-weather-disrupted-barcelona-morning-session


The Most Terrifying Thing: Red Bull’s Engine Just Works
January 27, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Red Bull’s new era began in the least dramatic way possible: a car rolling out at Barcelona, clicking through its programme, and coming back in one piece. In the paddock, the first day of a new cycle is rarely about chasing the perfect lap time. It’s about confirming the basics: temperatures under control, systems behaving, no mysterious gremlins that chew up half a session. On that front, Hadjar’s description reads like the kind of report engineers love — not because it’s glamorous, but because it gives them permission to move on to the next layer of work.

That last word is doing a lot of work. No driver comes out of day one declaring the car “perfect” — and anyone who does is either lying or hasn’t found the problem yet. But “solid” is the kind of status that lets a team spend the next days chasing performance rather than firefighting reliability or calibration headaches. For a first outing with a home-built engine, it’s the kind of start that builds confidence internally, even if nobody at Milton Keynes will say it too loudly in public.

The grid has been reset, everyone is learning, and the early winners are often the teams that simply rack up clean mileage while others lose hours to preventable problems. Red Bull has started on that side of the ledger — and, for once, the big talking point wasn’t a lap time or a bold claim. It was the quiet relief of a new engine doing what it’s meant to do: run.

‘Red Bull’s Engine Just Works’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/the-most-terrifying-thing-red-bulls-engine-just-works/


Red Bull have ‘baffled’ their F1 rivals with one part on Max Verstappen’s 2026 car in Barcelona
27 January 2026
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Red Bull’s small sidepods in Barcelona have ‘baffled’ their rival F1 teams. That is according to SPEEDWEEK, which reports that rival teams are ‘baffled’ by the sidepod concept that Red Bull revealed on Day 1 of the Barcelona shakedown test this Monday. The RB22 that Hadjar set the pace in looked considerably different to the team’s initial renders.

While lap times are essentially meaningless during testing, the sidepods on the RB22 caught the attention of Red Bull’s rivals as they are ‘significantly’ smaller than the renders the team used to launch the car in Detroit. The narrow design is most striking at the rear of the RB22. Red Bull appear to have found a way to arrange their radiators and heat exchanges to allow their designs the most aerodynamic freedom to generate additional downforce in the ‘coke bottle’ area. This area refers to the lower bodywork between the floor and the engine cover. Red Bull’s sidepods on the RB22 that Hadjar drove this Monday have drawn comparisons to the zero-pod concept that Mercedes created for the start of the ground-effect era in 2022. The Silver Arrows ultimately abandoned the concept in 2023, as they failed to get it to work.

Former Jordan technical director Gary Anderson does not think Red Bull’s sidepod concept for the start of the 2026 F1 rules is as extreme as a zero-pod concept. But it is clear that Red Bull did not reveal the real version of Verstappen and Hadjar’s car with their launch renders. Anderson told The Race: “Comparing Red Bull’s initial ‘concept’ renders to the studio shots, we can see a marked difference in the sidepod size and upper surface detail. “Could we call this a ‘zero sidepod’ solution? Well, it’s certainly smaller than most. But ‘zero’? Not really. The radiator intake is similar in size and concept to the other cars we have seen.”

‘Red Bull have ‘baffled’ their F1 rivals’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/red-bull-have-baffled-their-f1-rivals-with-one-part-on-max-verstappens-2026-car-in-barcelona/


Hamilton takes wheel of Ferrari SF-26 as Barcelona shakedown continues
27 Jan 2026
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Lewis Hamilton took to the track in Ferrari’s SF-26 for his first run of the ongoing shakedown at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The Scuderia Ferrari team again participated in the afternoon session on the second day of running at the Montmelo circuit, with the seven-time world champion stepping back into the car after previously testing it during the team’s initial shakedown at Fiorano.

Hamilton replaced teammate Charles Leclerc, who had completed Ferrari’s earlier running on Tuesday morning. Red Bull Racing, who are the other team on track, also made a driver switch for the afternoon, as Isack Hadjar took over from Max Verstappen, who had driven in the wet morning session. Hamilton reportedly completed several installation laps before returning to the pits, after which he began his planned on-track programme.

‘Lewis Hamilton took to the track’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/hamilton-takes-wheel-of-ferrari-sf-26-as-barcelona-shakedown-continues


Mercedes and Haas sit out Tuesday’s running in Barcelona
27/01/2026
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

For Mercedes, the call was straightforward. With rain forecast to worsen through the afternoon, the team opted to protect both mileage plans and hardware rather than circulate in conditions unlikely to produce representative data from its new W17.

“With rain forecast for this afternoon, we've opted to postpone our second day of running and therefore won't be on track today,” the team said in a brief statement. The decision followed an encouraging Monday for the Brackley-based outfit. George Russell and Kimi Antonelli completed a combined 149 laps, with the W17 emerging as one of the most reliable cars of the opening day – a significant early statement in the first week of the new regulations.

Haas’ absence, by contrast, had little to do with the weather. The American squad revealed that Tuesday had always been earmarked as a non-running day, allowing engineers time to pore over the substantial haul of data gathered on Monday. Esteban Ocon’s long stints helped the team rack up 154 laps, leaving plenty to analyse before returning to the track later in the week.

‘Mercedes and Haas sit out Tuesday’s running’;

https://f1i.com/news/558036-mercedes-and-haas-sit-out-tuesdays-running-in-barcelona.html

[Fortitude]

What you need to know about 2026 F1 testing day two.
The second day of Formula 1 testing at Barcelona was book-ended by red flags caused by Red Bull, though one incident was more severe than the other.
27 Jan 2026
Scott Mitchell-Malm
The Race

Day two testing times
1 Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m19.578s - 27 laps
2 Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m20.844s - 66 laps
3 Hadjar (Red Bull) 1m31.891s - 42 laps
4 Hamilton (Ferrari) 1m32.872s - 57 laps
Team lap totals
Ferrari - 123 laps
Red Bull - 69 laps

Ferrari hits the ground running: After a 15km shakedown at Fiorano last week, Ferrari always intended to get stuck into this test on day two. The rain was not ideal but it didn’t deter Ferrari from running. A very productive day, with both drivers getting behind the wheel, meant the team cleared 100 laps despite the conditions. It wasn’t nearly as eye-catching as customer team Haas’s 154-lap effort on day one but it underlined Ferrari’s good early reliability with its new engine.

Red Bull’s dream start sours: Monday could not have gone better for Red Bull. Tuesday was a bump back down to earth. Verstappen’s curtailed running in the morning meant the four-time world champion barely scratched the surface of learning the car and engine. And it deprived Red Bull important mileage in understanding both. But Hadjar’s shunt was (literally) more damaging.

‘2026 F1 testing day two’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what-you-need-to-know-about-2026-f1-testing-day-two/


Laurent Mekies on 'unfortunate' Isack Hadjar crash – ‘It’s part of the game’
27 Jan 2026
Sky Sports

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies reflects on Isack Hadjar crashing the RB22 in wet conditions on the second day of pre-season testing in Barcelona.

‘It’s part of the game’;

https://www.skysports.com/f1/video/12870/13499867/laurent-mekies-on-unfortunate-isack-hadjar-crash-it-s-part-of-the-game


Primeros incidentes en un segundo día de test protagonizado por la lluvia. ➡️ Sólo Red Bull y Ferrari han rodado hoy. Por la mañana, Verstappen y Leclerc. Por la tarde
27 Jan 2026
SoyMotor.com

Henry Gonzalez: Toda esa falta de rodaje le va pasar factura a aston ,

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=916866504356313


Red Bull assessing F1 test programme 'carefully' after Isack Hadjar crash
28 Jan 2026
Fergal Walsh
RacingNews365

As the second day of the pre-season test reached its closing stages, Hadjar slipped off the road at Turn 14 and sustained damage against the barrier. “[There was] no chance for dry tyres, but some, some good learning on the wet,” team principal Laurent Mekies said. “Unfortunately it didn't end up in the right way. But what is important that Isack is okay. We will try our best to repair the car and to see what's coming next. It was very tricky conditions this afternoon, so very unfortunate that it finished that way, but it's part of the game.”

Red Bull ran the car on Monday and Tuesday, meaning it has just one more day in hand to run the car this week. With more unwelcome weather forecasted, Mekies stated Red Bull must choose its final day carefully to ensure it leaves the test in the best possible shape.

“The checklist is too long to be completed in just a few days in Barcelona,” Laurent Mekies said. “So it's always going to be a matter of priority, and trying to be flexible and adapt your programme as difficulties come out or in terms of when you find an interesting direction that you should pursue. We only have one day left, so we have to make sure we play that card carefully.”

“Some good learning on the wet”;

https://racingnews365.com/red-bull-assessing-f1-test-programme-carefully-after-isack-hadjar-crash


Karun Chandhok already ‘alarmed’ by what he’s seeing from Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari in F1 testing
28 Jan 2026
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Karun Chandhok questions why Lewis Hamilton isn’t working with new Ferrari engineer already. Hamilton is working with Bryan Bozzi, Charles Leclerc’s race engineer, on an interim basis. This comes after Ferrari reassigned his 2025 partner Riccardo Adami. Chandhok is ‘confused’ by this temporary solution, suggesting that Ferrari are missing a perfect opportunity for Hamilton to ‘build a relationship’ with his new engineer.

“The other thing that’s ringing alarm bells for me is his engineer situation,” Chandhok said on Sky’s Shakedown recap show. “As far as we understand, Bryan Bozzi was running the car today, including for Lewis. That confuses me, if I’m perfectly honest. That relationship between driver and race engineer is so, so important. They haven’t created a situation where Lewis is building that relationship over the winter. I would have loved to see him doing simulator days, go and get a TPC car.”

“You need to integrate that person into the engineering set up of the race team. The public hear the driver-engineer discussion, but that’s just a microcosm of the bigger conversations happening in that engineering office. To me, I’m slightly confused that as we sit here, we’ve already started testing, that bonding and relationship-building hasn’t started, off the back of a season which was not good.”

‘Alarmed’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/karun-chandhok-already-alarmed-by-what-hes-seeing-from-lewis-hamilton-and-ferrari-in-f1-testing/


Barcelona’s Ghost Test: F1’s New Era in Shadows
28 Jan 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Barcelona was meant to be the first proper glimpse of Formula 1’s 2026 revolution: new chassis, a wholesale rethink of the power unit philosophy, and the sport’s biggest manufacturers rolling out hardware they’ve spent years modelling, simulating and arguing over. And that is exactly why the hush-hush approach feels like a slightly missed opportunity. F1 sells itself on engineering. The 2026 cycle is not just a fresh aero rulebook; it’s a philosophical shift in how performance is produced and managed. Teams and manufacturers have, by the sound of it, delivered cars that work, run, and complete substantial programmes without turning the week into a comedy of delays.

In another era, the sport would have been eager to show that off, because it speaks directly to competence — not just speed. Instead, the achievements are trapped in the fog of “trust us, it’s going fine”, drip-fed through controlled imagery and the occasional unofficial detail that escapes anyway. That’s not merely about fan service. It’s about confidence. If the sport wants the 2026 rules to land as a bold step forward, the first on-track evidence should feel like a statement, not something you have to piece together from lap counts and half-glimpsed photos.

There’s also a practical irony to all this. The curtain doesn’t prevent people in the paddock from tracking what matters — who’s running, who isn’t, and roughly how much. It mostly prevents everyone else from seeing a new generation of cars in anger at a circuit that’s perfect for it. By the time the second Bahrain test arrives — the first with full media access and live timing — Barcelona will already be old news. The narrative will reset to lap times, short runs, sandbag accusations and the usual febrile pre-season guesswork.

‘Ghost Test’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/barcelonas-ghost-test-f1s-new-era-in-shadows/


F1 results: Unofficial testing times from Day 2 (Barcelona)
27 Jan 2026
Thomas Maher
PlanetF1.com

Only Red Bull and Ferrari opted to use up one of their three days on Tuesday, with Verstappen joined on track by Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque driver completed a race distance, with a fastest time just over a second off the pace set by Verstappen. In the afternoon, Hadjar was slotted back into the RB22 as the rain fell and, in the late afternoon, images emerged on social media of the Red Bull driver having reportedly crashed at Turn 14.

The images suggested the car had picked up damage to the rear of the car, and there has yet to be any confirmation from the team as to the cause of the alleged incident or the extent of the damage. With Red Bull having used up two of its three permitted days, it can now choose which of the remaining three days to use for its final outing.

With no official live timing available to media and journalists, times and lap counts have been collated and vetted across multiple sources; however, these times are completely unofficial.
Testing results from Day 2 (Barcelona)
1. 1. Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:19.578 25 laps
2. 2. Charles Leclerc Ferrari +1.266 65 laps
3. 3. Isack Hadjar Red Bull +12.313 43 laps
4. 4. Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +13.294 53 laps

‘Unofficial’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/f1-results-2026-pre-season-testing-barcelona-day-2


Revealed: F1 teams are playing a dangerous game by restricting pre-season testing coverage
]27 Jan 2025
James Phillips
Motorsport Week

Motorsport Week can reveal, Formula One Management, (FOM) has not facilitated this test. The teams have, quietly, organised the test with the Circuit de Catalunya and left FOM to pick up the PR flack, opting not to correct those insinuating otherwise. The immense security at the track to keep out prying eyes has also been paid for by the teams.

Teams now suffering convenient PTSD from 2014: The teams have clearly taken the view that a loss in commercial holdings from test coverage is a price worth paying vs the potential embarrassment of its much vaunted new cars breaking down. It is an act of self-preservation worthy of a movie villain sacrificing a fellow character to save themselves.

‘PTSD from 2014’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/01/27/f1-is-playing-a-dangerous-game-by-restricting-pre-season-testing-coverage/

[Fortitude]

2026 F1 Barcelona Pre-Season Test - Day 3 Morning Results.
George Russell held the fastest lap time halfway through the third day of running in Barcelona, setting a 1:17.580.
28 Jan 2026
RacingNews365 Staff
RacingNews365

George Russell held the fastest lap time… Perhaps even more impressive, however, is the Briton's lap count as he clocked up 92 tours of the circuit.

It was a difficult morning for Nico Hulkenberg and Audi as another mechanical issue forced the German driver to pull over after just four laps. Lando Norris and McLaren made their first appearance of the test week, with the reigning champion sitting in third place.

2026 F1 Barcelona Pre-Season Test - Day 3 Morning Results
Pos. Driver Team Lap time Laps
1. George Russell Mercedes 1:17.580 92
2. Franco Colapinto Alpine +1.570 56
3. Lando Norris McLaren +2.092 34
4. Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls +3.314 61
5. Oliver Bearman Haas +3.260 21
6. Nico Hulkenberg Audi No time 4

‘George Russell fastest’;

https://racingnews365.com/2026-f1-barcelona-pre-season-test-day-3-morning-results


Russell delivers standout display as Mercedes turn heads in Barcelona
28 Jan 2026
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

George Russell topped the timesheets during the morning of day three in Barcelona and also completed the highest number of laps. Clearer conditions greeted the start of day three after a rain-soaked morning previously disrupted running, finally allowing teams to head back out on track in dry weather.

After only Red Bull and Ferrari took part yesterday, the field expanded significantly today, with several teams joining the action — most notably McLaren, which made its long-awaited on-track debut with the MCL40, driven by Lando Norris.

The session was not without interruptions, however, as two red flags halted running. Audi suffered another problem when Nico Hulkenberg was forced to stop his RS26 on circuit, while Oliver Bearman also came to a standstill at Turn 2, with the cause of his stoppage still unclear.

‘Standout display’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/russell-delivers-standout-display-as-mercedes-turn-heads-in-barcelona


Russell sets fastest lap of Barcelona F1 test so far
Jan 28, 2026
Scott Mitchell-Malm
The Race

Mercedes driver George Russell’s 1m17.580s eclipsed the Monday benchmark by Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar by 0.6s as Mercedes began another extremely productive day on-track. After racking up nearly 100 laps in just half a day on Monday, when he took over from team-mate Kimi Antonelli in the morning, Russell is understood to have come close to 100 laps again on Wednesday.

This was achieved through various long runs and was significantly more than anybody else before lunch. Antonelli will be back in the W17 for the second half of Wednesday’s running. Russell’s best time was 1.6s quicker than Franco Colapinto managed in the Mercedes-powered Alpine in the first half of the day.

Laptimes midway through Day 3
1 George Russell (Mercedes) 1m17.580s
2 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) 1m19.150s
3 Lando Norris (McLaren) 1m19.672s
4 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) 1m20.714s
5 Ollie Bearman (Haas) 1m20.840s
6 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) No time

‘Close to 100 laps again’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/george-russell-sets-fastest-lap-of-barcelona-f1-test/


McLaren hit the track as Norris rolls out long-awaited MCL40 in Barcelona
13:59, 28 Jan
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

McLaren MCL40 finally made its official on-track debut on the third day of testing in Barcelona. The reigning world champions had already planned to skip the opening day and were then forced to sit out day two due to rain, with Lando Norris finally getting his first taste of the new car.

The Briton ran throughout the morning, and it remained unclear whether he would hand over to teammate Oscar Piastri later in the day or stay in the car for the full session. The MCL40 is running a special full-black livery for the Barcelona tests, with the final design set to be unveiled at a dedicated launch event on 9 February.

‘McLaren hit the track’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/mclaren-hit-the-track-as-norris-rolls-out-long-awaited-mcl40-in-barcelona


Several ‘insiders’ are ‘suspicious’ about what they’ve noticed on Ferrari’s 2026 car at F1 testing
28 January 2026
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari raises ‘suspicions’ that they have an S-Duct on their 2026 F1 car. A number of paddock ‘insiders’ are understood to be questioning whether Ferrari have tried to incorporate an S-Duct into the design of their first car for the 2026 F1 regulations. F1 has overhauled the regulations, with new engine, aero, chassis and tyre rules coming into force.

Images of the Ferrari SF-26 on track in Barcelona have sparked ‘suspicions’ that their head of aerodynamics Diego Tondi has added a channel to direct clean air from below the radiator inlets to the top of the sidepods. The channel can also extract hot air away from the engine.

The main purpose with the S-Duct is to accelerate the airflow towards the rear diffuser and improve Ferrari’s aerodynamic efficiency. Tondi and his team are said to have achieved their goal by adding a slot in the Halo on the SF-26 to firstly manage the airflow out of the S-Duct.

‘The S-Duct’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/several-insiders-are-suspicious-about-what-theyve-noticed-on-ferraris-2026-car-at-f1-testing/


Leclerc’s All-New Ferrari SF-26 Has Him Eyeing 2026 Title
28 January 2026
Jack Banneron
F1Chronicle

Charles Leclerc climbed out of Ferrari’s SF-26 sounding like a guy who’s finally been handed a clean sheet of paper. Leclerc is “very excited” for 2026, and he’s openly talking about dragging Ferrari back to the top. After years where Ferrari’s promise has often arrived with an asterisk, this reset feels like the kind you can actually build a title run on, and that’s why everyone’s leaning in.

Ferrari skipped Day 1 of the five-day Barcelona event and rolled out on Day 2, right on schedule, with Leclerc first to hit the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. If you’ve ever shown up late to something stressful to avoid the opening chaos, you get the vibe, and Ferrari essentially admitted as much by choosing their moment. Leclerc described getting back in the car as returning to something “very, very all-new,” and he wasn’t doing PR poetry.

2026 brings a double reset, new chassis philosophy and new power unit rules, so even the basic instincts drivers rely on, braking references, corner commitment, energy deployment habits, get a hard reboot. He also pointed out the conditions were messy, with rain in the morning, which makes those first laps feel like trying new shoes on an ice rink. Still, Ferrari ran their programme anyway, because this stage is about whether the thing works, not whether it’s fast, and anyone who’s watched a new-spec car cough through its first week knows how valuable that sentence is.

‘Eyeing 2026 Title’;

https://f1chronicle.com/leclercs-all-new-ferrari-sf-26-has-him-eyeing-2026-title/?nowprocket=1

[Fortitude]

F1 results: Unofficial testing times from Day 3 (Barcelona).
Mercedes, Haas, Audi, Racing Bulls, and Alpine all took part on Wednesday, with short red flag stoppages brought about due to technical issues for Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg – its second red flag of the Barcelona test – and Haas’ Oliver Bearman.
28 Jan 2026
Thomas Maher
PlanetF1.com

The day ended with the W17 on top as Kimi Antonelli logged an unofficial 1:17.362 to finish just over two-tenths of a second clear of George Russell, with the Italian taking over for the afternoon session as Mercedes split its drivers’ time. In total, Mercedes completed 183 laps on Wednesday, accumulating just over 850km of track time, bringing it to a total of 334 laps for the week.

Behind Mercedes, Lando Norris’ first appearance in F1 2026 saw the new world champion resplendent in an all-black MCL40 adorned with a payaya number one on the new machine, and he duly set about accumulating a little over a race distance over the course of the day. Alpine also split its running between Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto, with the Argentine driver finishing fourth on the timing sheets with 58 laps complete, and Pierre Gasly managing 67 laps in the new A526.

With no official live timing available to media and journalists, times and lap counts have been collated and vetted across multiple sources; however, these times are completely unofficial.
Testing results from Day 3 (Barcelona)
1. 1. Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:17.362 91 Laps
2. 2. George Russell Mercedes +0.218 92 laps
3. 3. Lando Norris McLaren +0.945 76 laps
4. 4. Franco Colapinto Alpine +1.788 58 Laps
5. 5. Pierre Gasly Alpine +1.835 67 Laps
6. 6. Oliver Bearman Haas +1.948 42 Laps
7. 7. Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls +2.058 120 Laps
8. 8. Nico Hulkenberg Audi +3.648 68 Laps

‘Unofficial testing times’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/f1-results-2026-pre-season-testing-barcelona-day-3


DEBRIEF: What happened on Day 3 of the Barcelona Shakedown?
28 Jan 2026
Formula One - Official Site

It was a busy start when Wednesday’s morning session began, with George Russell the first to head out in the Mercedes – returning to action following his running on Monday – while Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindbald was next, the rookie getting his debut mileage of the Barcelona Shakedown. Franco Colapinto joined the fray for Alpine, along with Ollie Bearman in the Haas and Nico Hulkenberg at the wheel of the Audi, the latter two drivers also making their first appearance at the event.

McLaren, meanwhile, initially spent time carrying out their final preparations in the garage before new World Champion Lando Norris emerged in the middle of the morning, sporting the #1 on his car. After plenty of laps went on the board in the opening portion of the day – with Russell, Lindblad and Colapinto getting some particularly extensive mileage in – the action continued following a lunch break. Kimi Antonelli took over at the Silver Arrows, while Pierre Gasly gained his first laps of the shakedown for Alpine.

The afternoon session continued to be busy as a number of cars lapped the circuit in increasingly sunny conditions, before darkness fell as the end of the day neared and the chequered flag came down on Day 3. The only team yet to start their programme at the Barcelona Shakedown are Aston Martin, having stated earlier in the week that they intend to run on Thursday and Friday.

‘DEBRIEF’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/debrief-what-happened-on-day-3-of-the-barcelona-shakedown.4RgItzKjqpwxqRdzV9CbZZ


Impressive Mercedes thunder on in Barcelona as Lando Norris shows off new McLaren
28 Jan 2026
Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

Mercedes maintained its sterling reliability at the start of 2026 F1 pre-season testing as George Russell clocked up the laps on a day when McLaren finally made its first appearance. In terms of reliability, Mercedes again made a particular impression. George Russell had completed 92 laps by 1 pm local time.

After the car completed 154 laps on Monday, between Russell and team-mate Kimi Antonelli, the Silver Arrows is currently amassing the data on its W17. Russell also ended the morning session with the fastest lap, 1:17.580s, set late on. For some time, Alpine's Franco Colapinto had led the way with a 1:19.150s.

After sitting out the first two days of the five-day private test at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya, all eyes were naturally on the McLaren garage to see if the MCL40 would make an appearance. Finally, bearing the No.1 on his car, F1 champion Lando Norris took to the track to complete systems checks, clocking 34 laps, seemingly without any issues. The car is expected to run more productively over the final two days.

‘Impressive Mercedes thunder on’;

https://racingnews365.com/impressive-mercedes-thunder-on-in-barcelona-as-lando-norris-shows-off-new-mclaren


Norris hails 'decent day' after first laps in new McLaren
28 Jan 2026
The Straits Times

Jan 28 - Formula One champion Lando Norris said he'd enjoyed a "decent day" in his new McLaren after completing 77 laps at the Barcelona shakedown test on Wednesday.

The Briton will hand over the MCL40 to Australian teammate Oscar Piastri for Thursday's session before getting back in on Friday for the team's third and final day at the Circuit de Catalunya. "It was just nice to be back, nice to see a number one on my car, pretty cool and pretty surreal still. It's a good feeling," said the 26-year-old after lapping in cold temperatures at the Spanish Grand Prix track.

"Our first day on track, first time everyone gets to see the car in one piece. It's literally not been built until this morning... nice to see it all come together. And then I go and have some fun driving it which turned out to be a decent day. Today was really just a first understanding of the whole car, understanding just how it works really, going through the manual."

'Decent day';

https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/formula-one/norris-hails-decent-day-after-first-laps-in-new-mclaren


Red Bull extreme design reveals radical 2026 F1 approach
Red Bull did not return to action at Barcelona on Wednesday following Isack Hadjar's crash the day before. This allowed RacingNews365's technical expert, Paolo Filisetti, the opportunity to notice some striking aspects of the RB22.
28 Jan 2026
Paolo Filisetti
RacingNews365

Red Bull's absence from Wednesday's pre-season test running provided a rare opportunity to scrutinise the RB22's aerodynamic philosophy, highlighting that the Milton Keynes-based squad has again pushed boundaries with its unconventional approach. Two standout features demonstrate just how aggressively Red Bull has interpreted the 2026 regulations. The crash structures flanking the cockpit sit prominently atop the sidepods, with their extremities extending well beyond the bodywork profile.

This radical positioning allows Red Bull to maintain remarkably compact sidepods, maximising airflow towards the car's rear sections where crucial downforce is generated. It's classic Red Bull engineering: finding performance gains where others see regulatory constraints. The second notable element mirrors Mercedes' approach: a pronounced slot carved into the diffuser's lateral section.

This wide aperture in the vertical sidewall directs airflow through a critical aerodynamic zone, suggesting both teams have identified similar performance opportunities. That Red Bull and Mercedes have converged on comparable solutions isn't surprising. Advanced computational fluid dynamics and wind tunnel correlation now allow teams to optimise every millimetre of bodywork, often leading to similar conclusions despite different starting philosophies.

‘Pushed boundaries with its unconventional approach’;

https://racingnews365.com/red-bull-extreme-design-reveals-radical-2026-f1-approach


Aston Martin issues notable update on participation in Barcelona test
28 Jan 2026
Ludo van Denderen
GPblog.com

Aston Martin is still to confirm whether the team will definitely start testing in Barcelona on Thursday. When asked by GPblog, the Silverstone-based team would only say that it still has the ‘intention’ of making it out on track.

The team missed the first three days of testing for unspecified reasons, but stated on Monday that the plan was to conduct their first runs with the new AMR26 on Thursday and Friday. GPblog understands that plans have not changed, with Sky Sports F1 reporting on Wednesday that the new car still needed to be assembled overnight at the track in Spain.

‘Notable update’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/exclusive-news/aston-martin-issues-notable-update-on-participation-in-barcelona-test


Williams boss defends ‘incredibly painful’ F1 shakedown decision
James Vowles insists Williams will be fully prepared for pre-season testing in Bahrain despite making the “incredibly painful” call to miss the private Barcelona shakedown.
29 Jan 2026
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

The Williams team principal confirmed the team’s 2026 car has now passed all mandatory crash tests and will be ready to run when official testing begins on February 11, after opting not to use any of its permitted days in Spain. Speaking during the Barcelona week, Vowles admitted the absence was far from ideal. “[It] clearly wasn’t our plan, and it’s incredibly painful,” he said.

‘Vowles admitted the absence was far from ideal’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2026-barcelona-shakedown-james-vowles-comments-williams-testing-absence-update-bahrain-debut-new-car/

[Fortitude]

2026 F1 Barcelona Pre-Season Test - Day 4 morning results.
Mercedes has produced another productive morning of running in Barcelona, with Kimi Antonelli tallying almost 90 laps so far.
29 January 2026
RacingNews365 Staff
RacingNews365

Kimi Antonelli has also set the fastest lap time of the test with a 1:17.081. Lewis Hamilton was back in action for Ferrari and clocked up almost 90 laps across the opening hours.

He trailed Oscar Piastri in the McLaren, but was ahead of Liam Lawson and Sergio Perez. Just five cars ventured onto the track during the session. Aston Martin is expected to join the action later today with Lance Stroll.

2026 F1 Barcelona Pre-Season Test - Day 4 Morning Results
Pos. Driver Team Lap time Laps
1. Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:17.081 90
2. Oscar Piastri McLaren +1.338 48
3. Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +1.573 87
4. Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +1.782 64
5. Sergio Perez Cadillac +4.268 38

‘Day 4 morning results’;

https://racingnews365.com/2026-f1-barcelona-pre-season-test-day-4-morning-results


Barcelona Day 4: Mercedes stamps its authority on shakedown as Hamilton spins
29 Jan 2026
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Mercedes’ numbers during the Barcelona shakedown continued to signal a warning to its rivals with Kimi Antonelli not only topping the lap count, but also the timesheet on the morning of Day Four. The Italian clocked an unofficial 1:17.081, the fastest time of the week so far.

While Haas confirmed that it would not run on Thursday, opting to cover its third and final day on Friday after Wednesday’s reliability gremlins, reports emerged claiming Red Bull too would not be on track as the Milton Keynes squad waits for parts for the RB22 after Isack Hadjar crashed on Tuesday. The components are expected to be flown out today, so the team can get them fitted and get back in action on Friday.

Mercedes, meanwhile, was one of the first on track as the team began its final day with a fair amount of extra hard wear in the form of aero rakes on the car. Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin revealed that Thursday’s programme would involve working on the set-up of the W17, having racked up better than expected mileage on its first two days.

‘Mercedes stamps its authority’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/f1-shakedown-test-day-4-barcelona-midday-report


Red Bull sitting out Barcelona F1 test until new parts arrive
Red Bull are sitting out of Thursday's F1 test action.
29 Jan 2026
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Red Bull’s F1 test programme has been put on hold while the team waits for spare parts to arrive. It comes after Isack Hadjar’s heavy crash on the second day of Barcelona’s private shakedown left Red Bull with insufficient parts to repair their new RB22 challenger, according to respected Dutch journalist Erik van Haren.

The 21-year-old Frenchman, who was promoted from sister team Racing Bulls to become Max Verstappen’s latest Red Bull teammate, lost control in slippery conditions at the fast final corner and spun backwards into the barriers. Hadjar was unhurt in the shunt but the impact caused substantial damage to the rear of his RB22 and cut-short Red Bull’s second day of running.

On Tuesday evening, Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies said his side would need to assess the damage before deciding when they can conclude their test programme for the first week of pre-season testing. Red Bull now face a race against time to receive the new parts and fit them to their 2026 car so that they can complete their third permitted test day on the final day of running on Friday.

‘Red Bull’s F1 test programme has been put on hold’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1088703/1/red-bull-sitting-out-barcelona-f1-test-until-new-parts-arrive-after-isack-hadjar


Barcelona Blackout: Hamilton’s Spin Teases Ferrari’s 2026 Monster
29 Jan 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Lewis Hamilton’s second taste of Ferrari’s SF-26 programme in Barcelona came with an early reminder of what 2026 is going to demand from everyone: a moment of over-rotation at the exit of Turn 10, a neat 360, and then straight back on with no obvious damage done.

The clip, which surfaced on social media on the morning of Day 4, showed Hamilton losing the rear as he fed the car out of the right-hander. The car behind had plenty of time to slow as Hamilton gathered it up and trundled on. In the grand scheme of a private shakedown, it’s the sort of incident teams barely bother to log beyond a line on the run sheet — but it’s also a small window into the learning curve this new ruleset is about to impose.

Ferrari, for its part, has had a relatively clean shakedown so far. Day 4 is the team’s second permitted day of running in this five-day Barcelona test, with a third appearance scheduled for the final day. There are limits on how many days teams can run, which only sharpens the focus: every stint is a chance to understand a brand-new car concept and, just as importantly, to decide what not to waste time on.

‘A neat 360’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/barcelona-blackout-hamiltons-spin-teases-ferraris-2026-monster/


Mercedes’ ominous mileage claim as W17 runs ‘faultlessly’
29 Jan 2026
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Ahead of Mercedes’ final day on track at the Barcelona shakedown, Andrew Shovlin admitted the Brackley team covered more laps on its first two days than expected. In fact, it is rivals breaking down and causing red flags that is costing Mercedes most when it comes to lost time time on track.

Asked if Mercedes expected that level of mileage given the all-new cars and power units, the trackside engineering director told the official F1 website: “Mileage, we’re a bit ahead of where we hoped to be. So that’s good. You normally expect to have a few teething problems, the odd reliability thing that costs you track time. Today [Wednesday], the car worked faultlessly. We’re actually losing more track time from other people breaking down and causing red flags than for anything on our side. So that’s good.”

Mercedes’ lap count over the course of its opening two days, unofficially recorded at 333 in total, has given the team the opportunity to gather much-needed data on its all-new W17 and its power unit. “In terms of data gathered,” Shovlin continued, “we’re getting there, but as all the electrical systems are new, there’s still quite a few issues that we’re bottoming out with collecting the data and making sure everything’s as accurate as we normally have it.”

‘Unofficially recorded at 333 in total’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/mercedes-ominous-mileage-claim-as-w17-runs-faultlessly


Mercedes sets new benchmark laptime at F1's Barcelona test
Jan 29, 2026
Jon Noble
The Race

Kimi Antonelli lowered the benchmark for this week’s Formula 1 pre-season test at Barcelona on Thursday while the new Aston Martin hasn't made its on-track debut yet. With the pace and reliability of the new W17 having impressed rivals, Antonelli set a new quickest time of the week with a 1m17.081s as he continued to rack up the miles.

His best time beat the previous fastest lap of the week, set by Antonelli himself on Wednesday, by three tenths of a second. It also means Mercedes has gone faster this week than its best race lap from last year’s Spanish Grand Prix – highlighting that the 2026 cars appear to be a similar ballpark to the previous generation of cars.

‘Benchmark lap time’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/mercedes-sets-new-benchmark-laptime-at-f1-barcelona-test/

[Fortitude]

F1 results: Unofficial testing times from Day 4 (Barcelona).
Mercedes claimed another 1-2 on the timing sheets on the fourth day of F1 testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
29 Jan 2026
Thomas Maher
PlanetF1.com

Russell lodged the fastest lap of the week so far with a 1:16.445 in the afternoon session, as he circulated 78 times. This was just over six-tenths faster than what Antonelli managed during the morning session as he wrapped up his Barcelona programme with a 1:17.081 to eclipse his Wednesday best by almost three-tenths.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished with the third-quickest time, 1.7 seconds off Russell’s pace as he racked up 83 laps, while Oscar Piastri was fourth in the Mercedes-powered McLaren as the MCL40 encountered a fuel supply issue that compromised the Australian’s day. He did 48 laps, adding to Lando Norris’ 76-lap total from Wednesday.

With no official live timing available to media and journalists, times and lap counts have been collated and vetted across multiple sources; however, these times are completely unofficial.
Testing results from Day 4 (Barcelona)
1. 1. George Russell Mercedes 1:16.445 (78 Laps)
2. 2. Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.636 (90 Laps)
3. 3. ⁠Charles Leclerc Ferrari +1.778 (83 laps)
4. 4. ⁠Oscar Piastri McLaren +1.974 (48 Laps)
5. 5. ⁠Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls +2.006 (47 Laps)
6. 6. Lewis Hamilton Ferrari⁠ +2.209 (87 Laps)
7. 7. ⁠Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +2.395 (64 Laps)
8. 8. Sergio Perez Cadillac ⁠+4.579 (66 Laps)
9. 9. ⁠Lance Stroll Aston Martin +29.959 (5 Laps)

‘Unofficial testing times’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/f1-results-2026-pre-season-testing-barcelona-day-4


Best times and total mileage for every F1 team and driver at Barcelona
Jan 29, 2026
Scott Mitchell-Malm
The Race

Mercedes’ prolific running means it has concluded its Formula 1 testing at Barcelona already having completed considerably more mileage than any other team. The next-busiest team, Racing Bulls, ran the same schedule and has also ended its test with 319 laps completed. But Ferrari is likely to have the second most productive test after Mercedes as its two days of testing, having only started on Tuesday, have already yielded 297 laps.

Laps completed by team
Team Laps Km
Mercedes 500 2,328.50
Racing Bulls 319 1,485.58
Ferrari 297 1,383.13
Haas 196 912.77
Red Bull 185 861.55
Alpine 185 861.55
McLaren 121 563.50
Cadillac 110 512.27
Audi 95 442.42
Aston Martin 4 18.63

Laps completed by engine manufacturer
Laps Kilometres
Mercedes 806 3,753.54
Ferrari 603 2,808.17
RBPT 504 2,347.13
Audi 95 442.42
Honda 4 18.63

‘Best times and total mileage’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/best-times-and-total-mileage-for-every-f1-team-and-driver-at-barcelona/


Five winners and six losers from secret F1 testing sessions
A week of running in Barcelona was conducted behind closed doors - with one team failing to travel out there at all
30 January 2026
James Gray
i News

Losers: Williams team principal James Vowles tried to put a brave face on the fact that his crew didn’t run on any days at all in Barcelona. But the British team are the biggest losers of this week for their inability even to rock up in Spain amid reports of the car being overweight and having failed pre-season crash tests, which Vowles denied.

Williams are not the only ones hoping to climb to the top; Aston Martin declared that intent with the signing of Adrian Newey as their new technical guru and then team principal. But the AMR26 only made a first appearance in the last hour of the penultimate day and initially looked good before the car came to a halt in the hands of Lance Stroll and the session was red flagged.

Grid newcomers Cadillac ended day one a whopping six-and-a-half seconds off the pace with Sergio Perez admitting there were “a lot of issues”. But team boss Graeme Lowdon declared it more a shakedown than a proper test for the sport’s rookies.

‘Five winners and six losers’;

https://inews.co.uk/sport/formula-one/five-winners-six-losers-secret-f1-testing-sessions-4188900?ITO=newsnow


How Oscar Piastri’s first lap times in McLaren’s 2026 F1 car compares with Lando Norris
29 Jan 2026
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

Oscar Piastri was just three-tenths short of Lando Norris after his first day of testing McLaren’s 2026 F1 car. Oscar Piastri’s fastest time of his first run out in the McLaren MCL40 was a 1:18.419, just over two tenths slower than Norris’ personal benchmark of a 1:18.189 on the day prior, according to SoyMotor.

Oscar Piastri’s afternoon session was scuppered by a fuel systems issue on day four. Following the conclusion of the allotted testing times, McLaren revealed that they had been suffering from a fuel system issue, which explained Piastri’s absence in the afternoon. Of course, it’s not desirable, but finding an issue like this is also one of the many reasons why testing is so crucial to each team.

In a press release provided by the Woking-based outfit, they said that the issue ‘required extensive investigation’, and assured that their team of engineers are now hard at work to ensure a full day of running on Friday. They also detailed that both Norris and Piastri will share the driving duties for the final day of testing, while noting that they have found some ‘performance opportunities to exploit’ upon their return to HQ next week.

‘Oscar Piastri: 1:18.419’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/how-oscar-piastris-first-lap-times-in-mclarens-2026-f1-car-compares-with-lando-norris/


False start for Cadillac: Perez sees 'more problems than surprises'
29 Jan 2026
Ludo van Denderen
GPblog.com

Cadillac are ironing-out their “problems” with their new F1 car according to Sergio Perez as F1’s newest team faces a number of challenges during preseason testing in Spain. After the day of testing in Barcelona, Perez was asked whether he encountered many surprises with the new car. “More than surprises, problems,” said the former Red Bull Racing driver. “Problems on all kinds of fronts; with the engine, with the car, with a few electronic issues.”

“But I’m glad it’s happening now, and of course we still have a lot of work ahead of us, especially as a new team. So yes, these are exciting times.” Perez continued: “We were able to do a lot of running and gathered a lot of data. But I think we’re making progress in virtually every lap. So yes, it was a positive day. Hopefully we’ll have another positive day tomorrow with Valtteri .”

After a year away, Perez already feels quite at home back in the sport. “A little bit, yes, but in a way it still felt a bit strange to come back and see some people, some drivers, again. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen them, so yes, I’m happy to be back.”

'More problems than surprises';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/false-start-for-cadillac-perez-sees-more-problems-than-surprises


[B]Bearman praises Ferrari power unit despite small issue during testing
29 Jan
Savannah Lenz
GPblog.com

During Haas’s second day of preseason testing, Oliver Bearman praised Ferrari’s ‘impressive’ power unit - despite being hamstrung by a red flag. Speaking to F1.com, Bearman revealed he had a first taste of the new power unit in Italy and said,

“First of all, really happy to be back on track. It was a short winter break, but, in typical racing driver form, after a few days, I was ready to feel some speed again. Fiorano was a good warm-up. It was wet all day, but we got through the plan that we had allocated, and now coming here doing a bit more laps in the dry as well, it's really nice to feel the car underneath me.”

Wednesday was Haas’s second day running after Esteban Ocon completed 151 laps on Monday. Bearman said that the run plan was also what he intended to do. He added, “A lot of mileage is the plan. It's very early stages in this cycle of regulations, and we've had, so far up until now, very clean laps and very clean running. It was impressive to come from Fiorano, straight away do our 200km limit, and arrive and be out at 9 am two days later.”

‘Bearman praises Ferrari power unit’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/bearman-praises-ferrari-power-unit-despite-small-issue-during-testing


Aston Martin enciende Barcelona con el estreno del AMR26 y Mercedes sigue a lo suyo
29 Ene 2026
SoyMotor.

https://soymotor.com/f1/noticias/cronica-dia-4-test-barcelona-f1-2026

[Fortitude]

Aston Martin 'emotional' over F1 2026 debut after Barcelona delay.
“Each time when you have a new car, it's always emotional. It's a very, very, very exciting moment. A lot of hard work went into it over the last days.” Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack.
30 Jan 2026
Fergal Walsh
RacingNews365

Aston Martin gave its 2026 car its first on-track experience at the Barcelona shakedown on Thursday. Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack has labelled the team's on-track debut as “emotional”.

“There's still a lot of work to come, but I think we can take a breath and be happy that we rolled out the car. It was really emotional and a nice moment for the team and a tribute to the hard work that everybody put in.” The AMR26 managed just four laps before it stuttered to a halt on the track, equipped with the new Honda power unit.

Aston Martin now has one final day of running to get through in Barcelona before it heads to Bahrain for the second test. “F1 is relentless,” Krack added. “You always have to look forward, and there will be much more hard work to come, but we're looking forward to that.”

“F1 is relentless”;

https://racingnews365.com/aston-martin-emotional-over-f1-2026-debut-after-barcelona-delay


Martin Brundle suspects Adrian Newey may have been responsible for Aston Martin car delays
30 Jan 2026
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Martin Brundle says Adrian Newey pushes development ‘to the absolute limit’. Reports last week suggested that Aston Martin engine suppliers Honda weren’t completely ready for the new season. Newey confirmed to Martin Brundle that they were ‘playing catch-up’. But Brundle also suspects that Newey has been pushing back deadlines to maximise development time. He has apparently been notorious for waiting until ‘the last moment’ to sign off parts.

Martin Brundle: “Adrian was saying to me that Honda are having to play catch-up because they were leaving and then they came back in. There’s some question marks there. You just know that Adrian will have a vision of how to maximise these new regulations. Let’s hope he’s done it. Let’s hope that car just flies.”

“He’s also legendary for not wanting to sign things off! When the car was late, it didn’t surprise me at all to be honest, because the long lead times, chassis, gearboxes, radiators and the sort of thing, Adrian will push that, and he always has done, to the absolute limit, because he wants the maximum amount of development on those pieces. If it absolutely takes off, then as ever, you can say, he got it absolutely right. He’s waited until the last moment before having to commit. I’m going to assume that that car will be pretty handy through the year.”

“To the absolute limit”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/martin-brundle-suspects-adrian-newey-may-have-been-responsible-for-aston-martin-car-delays/


Newey’s Aston Gamble: Radical Pushrods, Red Flagged Debut
30 Jan 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Aston Martin’s first proper glimpse of the Adrian Newey era arrived in Barcelona with equal parts intrigue and aggravation: a car that looks like it’s been drawn with a different ruler to much of the pitlane, and a shakedown debut that ended with the sort of precautionary stoppage you can live without when you’re already short on mileage. Lance Stroll finally rolled the AMR26 out in the final hour of Thursday’s running, the car wearing an all-black test livery ahead of its scheduled official launch on February 9. It didn’t run for long. Trackside marshals signalled for Stroll to pull over after spotting what was described as a potential electrical issue, triggering a late red flag and cutting short the first public outing of the team’s 2026 challenger.

Aston Martin is expected back on track on Friday, but the bigger picture is already awkward: the team’s Barcelona plan amounts to only two of its permitted three days, having missed the start of the test. That’s not a crisis in itself, but it does strip away the comfort blanket teams like to have in the first week of a new regulation cycle. When everything is new — cars, tyres, aero philosophies, operating windows — you want boring laps, not unresolved question marks. Still, within minutes of the AMR26 turning a wheel, the technical spotters had their reward. The car is running pushrod suspension at both ends — and not just pushrod, but the double-pushrod layout that’s quickly shaping up as the default answer to the first big mechanical choice of 2026.

The irony is that the moment the AMR26 finally appeared, the storyline shifted from “what did Newey decide?” to “how quickly can they get through their programme?” The stoppage may yet prove to be nothing more than a sensible early shut-down, the kind teams prefer to do rather than risk turning a minor gremlin into a headline.

‘Newey’s Aston Gamble’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/neweys-aston-gamble-radical-pushrods-red-flagged-debut/


Newey's 'extreme' Aston Martin - Gary Anderson's first reaction
29 Jan 2026
Gary Anderson
The Race

Having just seen the first images of the 2026 Aston Martin, there’s no question it’s an Adrian Newey Formula 1 car! Even without seeing the detail, you can tell it’s extreme, aggressive and all of those other words you can use for a car that pushes to extremes. Concept-wise, it looks like it’s on the limit. The front and rear suspension appears to be pushrod, and the front top wishbone is very high and has a very wide base for its inboard pick-up points.

You could also say it has a ‘zero’ sidepod concept, and then some. That’s not so much in terms of width, but in terms of depth, it’s so slim I’m even surprised there is room for a radiator in there. The intake is high and letterbox shaped and the exit is fairly well forward in the engine cover sides and I would say ‘brutal’. However, some of that is because the engine cover behind that opening is undercut to the extreme.

There is also a larger-than-most undercut between the bottom of that intake and the top of the driver’s headrest. I suppose that could be the reason for the ‘horns’, but it’s difficult to see how big those horns and fins are. It does look like it might be ‘different’, to say the least, and that’s from front to rear. But then again what else would you expect from the ‘pencil’ of Adrian Newey? The first sight of the car has whetted everyone’s appetite and I’m looking forward to going over the detail when we see it.

‘An Adrian Newey Formula 1 car!’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/gary-anderson-on-neweys-extreme-first-aston-martin/


Aston Martin Unveils Adrian Newey–Designed AMR26 in Late Pre-Season Test Debut
30 Jan 2026
James Rees
F1 Chronicle

The car only arrived in Spain on Wednesday, with the team spending much of the day completing final preparations before running. “It was a long day for all the mechanics and everyone in the team pushing flat out to get the car ready,” Stroll said. “We managed to get a few laps in at the end, and it felt good. Now it’s about learning the car and understanding where its strengths and weaknesses are.”

“Everyone in the team pushing flat out to get the car ready”;

https://f1chronicle.com/aston-martin-unveils-adrian-newey-designed-amr26-in-late-pre-season-test-debut/?nowprocket=1


Key Adrian Newey design decision emerges as Aston Martin AMR26 hits track
30 Jan 2026
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

PlanetF1.com technical editor Matt Somerfield has confirmed that the design – strikingly different to most other 2026 cars in areas like the nose, sidepods and engine cover – includes a pushrod suspension at the front and rear of the car.

A double-pushrod suspension has emerged as the early tech trend of the F1 2026 season with all but two teams taking this development route so far. Only Alpine and Cadillac have opted for a pullrod suspension to date, with Williams the only team yet to take to the track in 2026.

‘The design – strikingly different to most other 2026 cars’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/adrian-newey-aston-martin-amr26-f1-2026-design-details


Revealed! Adrian Newey's first F1 car for Aston Martin
29 Jan 2026
Ludo van Denderen
GPblog.com

It took a few days later than perhaps planned, but on the fourth day of testing, Aston Martin introduced the AMR26 — the first car Adrian Newey has designed for the British team. Here are the first images.

‘On the fourth day of testing’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/revealed-adrian-neweys-first-f1-car-for-aston-martin


Aston Martin’s AMR26 Debut: Five Laps, A Thousand Questions
29 Jan 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Lance Stroll managed just five laps before pulling over in the third sector, bringing the team’s long-awaited 2026 debut to an early stop. From the outside it looked like a textbook first-day breakdown, but the word in the paddock was that this was a precautionary halt rather than anything catastrophically letting go.

The context matters. Aston Martin arrived at this shakedown week having already admitted it would be late to the party, with Adrian Newey pushing development right up to the deadline. Barcelona became the first time the chassis and power unit had actually been bolted together and run as a complete package. That sort of late integration can be survivable if everything talks to everything first time. If it doesn’t, you stop early, you don’t take risks, and you take your data home.

‘A Thousand Questions’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/aston-martins-amr26-debut-five-laps-a-thousand-questions/

[Fortitude]

Leclerc tops times, but Newey’s Aston steals the show.
Leclerc might have ended the morning quickest, but the first proper public glimpse of Fernando Alonso in Aston Martin’s AMR26 — the latest Adrian Newey design — was the moment that actually made people look up from the timing app.
January 30, 2026
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

And then there was Aston Martin. Aston didn’t rush into the session; Alonso waited a few minutes longer than most before heading out within the opening 20. What followed was very clearly not a “go set a time” plan. Alonso’s early work was almost entirely installation laps, with unconfirmed reports suggesting Aston Martin was enforcing a speed limit in the 230–275 km/h range while it tested systems and ran through checks on its new Honda power unit. That sort of programme is hardly glamorous, but it’s the kind of foundation-laying that can save a team later when the mileage really starts to matter.

Once Aston did begin to open the taps, Alonso’s times tumbled quickly — albeit from a long way back and still well off the front-running pace. He improved to 1:21.728, then 1:20.795 on soft Pirellis, ending seventh with 49 laps. No-one in the paddock will treat that as a performance headline. The more interesting takeaway is simply that the AMR26 is now a living thing on track, not a studio render or a whispered rumour, and that Alonso is already leaning into it.

Unofficial or not, the timing screen at lunch read:
Leclerc 1:16.653 (79 laps)
Piastri 1:17.446 (79 laps)
Verstappen 1:18.285 (69 laps)
Bearman 1:18.423 (105 laps)
Gasly 1:19.754 (78 laps)
Bortoleto 1:20.179 (64 laps)
Alonso 1:20.795 (49 laps)
Bottas 1:22.790 (33 laps)
Plenty will change once the real testing — and then the real racing — begins. But on a morning when Ferrari needed a cleaner narrative and Aston needed its first proper footprint, both got something they can build on.

‘And then there was Aston Martin’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/leclerc-tops-times-but-neweys-aston-steals-the-show/


Leclerc makes the Ferrari power unit roar to top morning session on Friday
30 Jan 2026
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Charles Leclerc set the pace on Friday morning of the final day of the 2026 Barcelona pre-season test. A total of eight teams are on track today at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Williams is not present, while Mercedes and Racing Bulls have already completed the maximum three permitted days on track. Leclerc was reportedly the fastest, setting an unofficial lap time of 1:16.653. The Ferrari driver completed 79 laps.

Max Verstappen could also return to action. GPblog understands that the team could not be on track yesterday as additional parts also had to be flown in from Milton Keynes. The RB22 is now ready for Verstappen, who reportedly clocked the third fastest time this morning.

‘Ferrari power unit roar to top’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/breaking-news/leclerc-makes-the-ferrari-power-unit-roar-to-top-morning-session-on-friday


Lando Norris gives ominous six-word verdict after first 2026 F1 test
World champion Lando Norris has driven the new McLaren MCL40 for the first time at Barcelona testing
30 Jan 2026
Harry Smith and Daniel Clark
Somerset Live

Lando Norris expressed that 'it still feels like a McLaren' after taking the MCL40 for its inaugural spin at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Wednesday. The reigning world champion's comments may raise eyebrows among rivals such as Max Verstappen and George Russell, considering the Woking-based team's commanding performance in the 2025 season.

"This is still going to take a while," the Bristol-born driver commented when questioned about the team's new contender. "The conditions here are quite different to what they're going to be in Bahrain, what they're going to be in Melbourne.”

"It's just trying to gather as much information, in every condition possible, whether it's going to rain in the next couple of days or be dry or whatever, the more laps we can do, the better. So yeah, nice to be back. Different feelings, of course. It still feels like a McLaren, it still feels powerful, it still feels like a Formula 1 car, which is the most important thing.", reports the Express.

‘Ominous six-word verdict’;

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/sport/other-sport/lando-norris-gives-ominous-six-10786924


Gary Anderson's in-depth analysis of 2026 Aston Martin F1 car
Jan 30, 2026
Gary Anderson
The Race

And now for the more interesting part: the front suspension. Yes, it's similar to most in that it is a double-wishbone system with a pushrod-operated inboard springing and damping mechanism. But Aston Martin has pushed the limits just that little bit further on the overall packaging… …Ride-height reduction with speed will happen depending on the vertical stiffness of the car. There will also be a slight movement with roll, but with this amount of anti-dive there won't be much, if any, movement under braking. It's only when you come off the brakes that the car will get back to its proper ride height for the aerodynamic load at the speed it is traveling at.

In effect, this suspension layout will increase the caster with speed, which can give more straightline stability and/or decrease caster as the speed reduces. This will reduce the steering load for slower-speed corners, giving the driver more steering feedback. Moving to the middle of the car, the side view is where you start to see the aerodynamic differences mount up. The sidepods are reduced in cross-section. I wouldn't say they are narrow or 'zero' sidepods, but their volume runs more or less in line with what the airflow structure around them would want to do.

It's great to see a car that is a bit different, but that doesn't mean it's better than the others. However, it shows some lateral thinking and demonstrates that there are quite a few ways to achieve the same end result. Adrian has been very good at that in the past, but today's cars are not the work of one person, so there will be many very intelligent brains who have contributed to what we are looking at. But the reality is that you still need one captain to decide in which direction the ship is travelling in, and that person at Aston Martin is Adrian Newey.

‘Gary Anderson's in-depth analysis’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/gary-anderson-verdict-aston-martin-2026-f1-car-adrian-newey/


Gary Anderson hails Adrian Newey for Aston Martin’s ‘extreme’ idea that no rival F1 team has used
30 January 2026
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Gary Anderson thinks Adrian Newey created an ‘extreme double floor’ with Aston Martin’s 2026 car. Gary Anderson is “surprised” that Aston Martin have left enough room for a radiator in their sidepods, as they are so small. He also praises Newey for Aston Martin’s sidepods, as the design creates almost a “double floor” that should reduce drag and can prove huge in 2026.

“You could say it has a ‘zero’ sidepod concept, and then some,” Anderson has told The Race. “That’s not so much in terms of width, but in terms of depth. It’s so slim, I’m even surprised there is room for a radiator in there. The intake is high and letterbox-shaped, and the exit is fairly well forward in the engine cover sides, and I would say ‘brutal’. However, some of that is because the engine cover behind that opening is undercut to the extreme.”

“As for the sidepod itself, it’s effectively an extreme double floor. This means the cross-sectional area between the wheels going from front to back will be smaller than the others that I have seen. That will mean a lot less airflow displacement as the car passes through it, which in turn should reduce the drag level. This could be very beneficial under these regulations.”

‘Aston Martin’s ‘extreme’ idea’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/gary-anderson-hails-adrian-newey-for-aston-martins-extreme-idea-that-no-rival-f1-team-has-used/


How Aston Martin rushed the AMR26 to Barcelona on a 50-year-old Antonov plane
30 Jan 2026
Roberto Chinchero
Motorsport.com

Finding an aircraft capable of carrying the large crate containing the brand new 2026 F1 car. A 1972 Antonov An-12BP, a four engine turboprop built more than half a century ago.

‘50-year-old Antonov plane’;

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/aston-martin-the-amr26-arrived-in-barcelona-on-an-antonov/10794106/

[Fortitude]

F1 rivals have noticed a change in ‘body language’ of Mercedes staff at Barcelona test.
Martin Brundle thinks George Russell is one of the favourites for the 2026 F1 title. Russell is widely regarded as the most talented driver on the grid without a championship to his name, and with him now heading into his fifth year with the works Mercedes team, he could be looking at his first opportunity to claim one.
30 January 2026
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

Posting to the Bluesky social media network, F1 journalist Thomas Maher wrote, “From everything I’m hearing from paddock sources, Mercedes is the team everyone has their eye on at the moment. “Have heard that Merc is already at the point of setup evaluation rather than total reliability and procedural focus, as might be expected at the shakedown stage.”

In a separate post, Maher added, “‘Super focused and sharp’ is how one senior source from another team described Mercedes, with others saying the entire body language of Merc personnel has lifted, with purpose.” Figures from Mercedes have tried to keep a lid on things to save themselves from any premature verdicts, but it’s clear to see that they have developed a respectable package from the early benchmarks.

‘Body language’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/f1-rivals-have-noticed-a-change-in-body-language-of-mercedes-staff-at-barcelona-test/


Barcelona Day 5: Lewis Hamilton puts Ferrari fastest on final day of first F1 2026 test
30 Jan 2026
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

A report of the Day 5 morning session from Barcelona is available at the bottom of this article.
F1 testing: Unconfirmed lap times from Day 5 in Barcelona
1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:16.348 63 laps
2 Lando Norris McLaren 1:16.594 83 laps
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:16.653 78 laps
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:17.446 80 laps
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:17.586 118 laps
6 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:17.707 160 laps
7 Esteban Ocon Haas 1:18.393 85 laps
8 Oliver Bearman Haas 1:18.423 106 laps
9 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:19.870 78 laps
10 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:20.179 66 laps
11 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:20.795 49 laps
12 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac 1:20.920 54 laps

‘Hamilton puts Ferrari fastest’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/f1-testing-2026-barcelona-testing-day-5


Hamilton judges the SF-26 after setting the fastest lap in Barcelona
30 Jan 2026
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Lewis Hamilton believes the 2026 F1 car is "more enjoyable" to drive compared to the previous generation. "It's been a really enjoyable week honestly," Hamilton said to F1.com on Friday after the conclusion of his final test session of the week. The seven-time world champion set the unofficial quickest time of the day and of the entire pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. He reportedly clocked a 1:16.348, finishing around a tenth ahead of George Russell.

He continued: "I think a huge amount of work over the winter on my side, personal side; then what the team have done over the winter to make changes going into the test."
"It was good to have that experience and get that knowledge [in wet conditions as well on Tuesday]."

‘Hamilton judges the SF-26’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/hamilton-judges-the-sf-26-after-setting-the-fastest-lap-in-barcelona


Hamilton’s last-gasp flyer puts Ferrari on top in Barcelona F1 finale
30/01/2026
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

The headline time crowned a quietly strong week for Ferrari. Beyond the single lap, the new car pounded around the Catalan circuit with impressive reliability and mileage, building a foundation rather than chasing glory – until the very last moment. Hamilton’s surge bumped Norris’ 1m16.594s McLaren effort into second and left Leclerc third, giving the Scuderia a one-three finish on the day’s order.

The final word belonged to Ferrari’s new spearhead. Hamilton’s lap will not guarantee victories, poles or titles. Yet as the SF-26 screamed past the timing line in the dying minutes, it felt like more than a test number. It felt like intent. A reminder that when the opportunity appears, even in the most controlled and cautious of test weeks, Lewis Hamilton still knows exactly when to pull out the stops.

‘Hamilton’s last-gasp flyer’;

https://f1i.com/news/558194-hamiltons-last-gasp-flyer-puts-ferrari-on-top-in-barcelona-f1-finale.html


Lewis Hamilton raises Ferrari hopes with top spot on final day of 2026 F1 test
30 Jan 2026
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Lewis Hamilton reportedly ended the final day of the Formula 1 behind-closed-doors pre-season test in Barcelona fastest, after a seemingly positive week for the Ferrari team. The Brit was finally able to have some extended running time in the dry weather, having spent the majority his time in the car when rain fell.

Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc have completed some positively long stints in the new SF-25, and despite the lack of importance of fast times at this early stage, buoyed the Scuderia by ending the final session of Day Five in first and third. The pre-test speculation centred around many supposedly radical features of some of the 11 teams’ cars, Ferrari being one, having allegedly decided on, in effect, running two different cars, one with the steel alloy head on its power unit.

‘Ferrari hopes’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/01/30/lewis-hamilton-raises-ferrari-hopes-with-top-spot-on-final-day-of-2026-f1-test/


Mercedes and Ferrari make statement with relentless mileage in Barcelona testing
30 Jan 2026
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Let’s take a look at how many laps and kilometres each team and power unit manufacturer completed over the five days of testing in Barcelona. Mercedes topped the mileage charts across the five days of running, racking up a total of 500 laps. Ferrari followed with 437 laps, while Haas also enjoyed a productive test with 391 laps completed.

Alpine logged a solid 349 laps over the week, with Racing Bulls and Red Bull close behind on 318 and 303 respectively. McLaren completed 288 laps in total, while Audi accumulated 243 across the test. Cadillac reached 164 laps, Aston Martin’s running was limited to just 65, and Williams failed to register any mileage in Barcelona.

Total laps per team in Barcelona testing (unofficial)
Team Power Unit Total Laps
Mercedes Mercedes 500
Ferrari Ferrari 437
Haas Ferrari 391
Alpine Mercedes 349
Racing Bulls RBPT Ford 318
Red Bull RBPT Ford 303
McLaren Mercedes 288
Audi Audi 243
Cadillac Ferrari 164
Aston Martin Honda 65
Williams Mercedes 0

‘Statement with relentless mileage’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/mercedes-and-ferrari-make-statement-with-relentless-mileage-in-barcelona


Mercedes and Ferrari impress, Red Bull closes in: what stood out in the F1 test in Barcelona
30 Jan 2026
Co-author:Kada Sárközi
Ludo van Denderen
GPblog.com

Mercedes and Ferrari were the fastest, the new Red Bull Ford power unit is a positive surprise, and Audi and Cadillac ran into problems. There were plenty of notable takeaways after the first test in Barcelona—and GPblog is here to list them for you. It is far too early to label Mercedes and Ferrari untouchable for the upcoming season. While everything went smoothly for both teams, it is impossible to draw solid comparisons with their rivals. Were the other teams running the same engine modes? What was the focus of their test programs? Which tyres were they using? How much fuel were they carrying?

Pecking order to be clearer in Bahrain. These are questions that will be easier to answer in Bahrain, where the test will be open to everyone and it will be easier to observe the teams more closely. Moreover, it is only in the Middle East that teams will start adding real performance to their cars. Only then will it become clear whether Mercedes stands above the rest or other teams can close the gap.

Aston Martin and Cadillac were teams with more issues. Aston Martin, for reasons that are still unclear, started the test late, while Cadillac was at a different stage of development than the other ten teams. For the Americans, this is the first real F1 test ever, so it’s mainly about learning to understand the car and the sport. Running into a fair number of problems comes as no surprise.

‘What stood out’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/analysis/mercedes-impresses-red-bull-follows-what-stood-out-in-the-f1-test-in-barcelona

[Fortitude]

Williams ‘issues’ cause extra ‘damage’ after Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz miss Barcelona test.
The consequences of Williams’ delayed start to 2026 could even stay with them throughout this season. That is according to GPBlog, which reports that Williams also suffered ‘financial damage’ after having to manufacture a number of new parts to finally build their 2026 car.
31 Jan 2026
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Williams had to spend additional funds to rush the manufacturing of new parts. Vowles elected against Williams making the trip to Barcelona to avoid running low on spare parts during the early rounds of the 2026 F1 season. It was far from the start of the 2026 F1 regulations era that Williams hoped for after enjoying their best season since 2017 last year.

Williams only realised how far behind schedule they actually were at a ‘very late’ stage, so a raft of parts they initially manufactured for the FW48 will never be used on a car that Albon or Sainz will drive. Albon and Sainz are set to get their first laps of 2026 at the Bahrain tests.

Formula 1 heads to the home of the Bahrain Grand Prix for two pre-season tests, for which Vowles has confirmed Williams will be ready, on February 11-13 and 18-20. But while Albon and Sainz will put the FW48 through its early paces, their rivals will be chasing performance. Williams may at least get some comfort from the reliability of Mercedes’ new engine for the 2026 regulations at the Barcelona shakedown. The Silver Arrows produced the most laps by any team at 504, and fellow Mercedes customers Alpine and McLaren penned 343 and 285.

‘Consequences of Williams’ delayed start to 2026 could even stay with them throughout this season’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/williams-issues-cause-extra-damage-after-alex-albon-and-carlos-sainz-miss-barcelona-test/


Vowles reacts to "media murmurings"
28/01/2026
Pitpass

Having completely skipped the Bahrain shakedown there have been reports of the car failing three crash tests and being found to be 20 - 30 kilograms overweight. "There's no knowledge of the weight until we get to Bahrain in terms of understanding where it is," he insisted in a media call as the Barcelona shakedown came to the end of its third day.

In reaction to the crash test murmurings, he said: "We have absolutely pushed the boundaries of what we're doing in certain areas, and one of those is in certain corresponding tests that go with it", adding that "those were only a blip in the grand scheme of things. They are one item out of quite a few that were pushing us absolutely beyond the limit of what we can achieve in the space of time that we have available to us," he said.

Referring to the decision to skip the Barcelona shakedown, and instead opting for an advanced virtual test track (VTT) programme, he insisted: "We could have made it, but in doing so, I would have to turn upside down the impact on spares, components and updates across Bahrain, Melbourne and beyond. And the evaluation of it was that for running in a cold, damp Barcelona, against doing a VTT test, against the spare situation, and frankly, there was zero points for running in a shakedown test, we made the decision.

‘Crash test murmurings’;

https://www.pitpass.com/81976/Vowles-reacts-to-media-murmurings


Williams FW48 reportedly clears crash test, but trouble still brewing
28/01/2026
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

The first signs of progress have been reported by Italian website Auto Racer which claims that Williams has successfully passed the FIA’s crash test, marking a non-negotiable step toward full homologation of its 2026 chassis. Nevertheless, Williams’ FW48 is also rumored to be between 20 and 30kg over F1’s 768kg weight limit.

In the sport’s current cost-cap era, such an issue is more than engineering headache; it threatens to trigger a financial chain reaction that can haunt a team all season long. So passing a crash test is a gateway, but weight potentially remains the elephant in the room for Williams, forcing the team into a familiar and uncomfortable corner.

Shaving mass from a modern Formula 1 car is neither cheap nor simple. It often means redesigning components, changing materials, and burning precious hours and budget that would otherwise be spent on performance upgrades. In a tightly policed financial environment, that trade-off hurts twice. Every resource diverted into slimming the chassis is a resource not spent unlocking lap time later in the year.

‘Trouble still brewing’;

https://f1i.com/news/558071-williams-fw48-reportedly-clears-crash-test-but-trouble-still-brewing.html


Williams boss defends ‘incredibly painful’ F1 shakedown decision
29 Jan 2026
Ben Waterworth
Speedcafe

“[It] clearly wasn’t our plan, and it’s incredibly painful,” James Vowles said. “But I do want it to be acknowledged, it’s the result of our determination to push the limits of performance under the new regulations.” Vowles explained that the scope of the 2026 overhaul has stretched the team’s production processes further than ever before. “The car this year that we’ve built is about three times more complicated than anything we have put through our business beforehand,” he said.

“It means the amount of load going through our system is about three times what it used to be. And we started falling a little bit behind and late on parts.” He rejected suggestions that the delays point to deeper problems, confirming the FW48 had cleared its crash testing and denying that weight will be a significant concern. “I’m pleased to say that we’ve passed all necessary tests and we’re ready to run in Bahrain,” Vowles said, adding that Williams will complete a 200km filming day ahead of the test.

“[It] clearly wasn’t our plan, and it’s incredibly painful”;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2026-barcelona-shakedown-james-vowles-comments-williams-testing-absence-update-bahrain-debut-new-car/


Vowles explains FW48 delays: Williams must push to “breaking point”
28 Jan 2026
Last Word On Sports

Until last week, Williams were a team expected to make a positive impression in 2026. Having explicitly abandoned last year’s development to focus on the new regulations, most analysts anticipated Williams could climb the field. Team principal James Vowles has addressed the issue: “Last week we took the decision to not attend the Shakedown test in Barcelona, following delays to our car programme. This clearly wasn’t our original plan, it was painful, and it isn’t a situation we want to be in again. We had intended to be on track in Barcelona. It is a result of our determination to push the limits of performance under these new regulations in 2026.”

“We are transforming fast, but this shows… we’re not yet at a Championship level, and we still have a tremendous amount of work to do. Only by pushing the boundaries can you find the pain points, and put them right – which is exactly what we’re doing. I’m not here to produce a car that is well and truly within the tolerances. We have to push ourselves as a business to breaking point, and we’ve done so. It’s painful, but it means we will never be here again.”

“We are ready to run in the official test in Bahrain, and will carry out a commercial filming day ahead of it. In the meantime, we are carrying out an alternative test programme here in the UK – including what we call a VTT, a Virtual Track Test. The car is on there now, it’s been there a few days, and it will be on there a few more days. It’s a physical car – the real car, the engine, the gearbox are all bolted to it. And it’s put through its paces on a rid, and provides valuable engineering data… we cannot wait to get on track.”

“Following delays to our car programme”;

https://lastwordonsports.com/motorsports/2026/01/28/vowles-explains-fw48-delays-williams-must-push-to-breaking-point/


Vowles says Williams are ready to take part in Bahrain pre-season testing and car has passed crash tests
28 Jan 2026
Formula One - Official Site

Speaking to a select group of media on Wednesday, Williams Team Principal James Vowles admitted that the call to miss the Spanish shakedown "clearly wasn't our plan" and that not being there is "incredibly painful" but it was the result of their call to "push the limits of performance under the new regulations". "There's no point being just underneath the curve or well and truly underneath the curve if you want to transform at speed. You need to find the pain points and put them right very quickly which is exactly what we're doing.”

"I'm confident in our decision to miss Barcelona and I’m confident it was the right one to prepare for the first test in Bahrain and Melbourne. I'm pleased to say that we've passed all necessary tests and we're ready to run in Bahrain and we'll carry out a promotional filming day ahead of it." He added: "We have absolutely pushed the boundaries of what we're doing in certain areas and one of those is in certain corresponding tests that go with it, but those were only, I would say, a blip in the grand scheme of things.”

"They are one item out of quite a few that were pushing us absolutely beyond the limit of what we can achieve in the space of time that we have available to us, so it's more of an output than anything else – of pushing not just the boundaries of design but the boundaries of just simply how many components can be pushed through the factory in a very short space of time."

“No point being just underneath the curve or well and truly underneath the curve”;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/vowles-says-williams-are-ready-to-take-part-in-bahrain-pre-season-testing.1SuqmIqjqZ2LlTAkjXzOIz

[Fortitude]

Where ‘a lot of issues’ really leaves Cadillac's F1 team.
“…you want all the problems to come now and hopefully the next couple of days can be a lot smoother for us.” Sergio Perez.
27 Jan 2026
Scott Mitchell-Malm
The Race

For Cadillac, which has very modest expectations for 2026 and is expected to be at the back of the grid, the real priority this week is mileage and learning to work as a team. It completed a test in a 2023 Ferrari last year, and the Silverstone shakedown. That is the sum total of its experience working together as an F1 operation so there is a huge amount to learn - especially now it has its own car to understand and optimise as well as all the associated logistics and processes.

Team principal Graeme Lowdon, referencing how this has been referred to as a 'Shakedown Week' when in reality it is a full-scale test for most teams, insisted “it is very much a shakedown week for Cadillac”. “Now we're just working steadily through all of the different car systems,” Lowdon said. “These cars are incredibly complicated, but I'm really pleased with the progress that we've made. We’ve got more work to do this week, but all in a structured way.”

“The key thing for us is exactly that – debugging,” said Lowdon. “We could have run more laps [with Perez] or we could have looked to solve certain problems, make sure that they're solved, and tick those off the list. And that's the most important thing. We're very lucky this year in that we've got a shakedown week this week, and then two tests in Bahrain. So we're very much focused on using this time in Barcelona to shake down all these systems, iron out all of the various gremlins, and then be on the front foot for Bahrain.”

‘A lot of issues’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/where-a-lot-of-issues-really-leaves-cadillac-f1-team/


‘More than surprises’ – Perez opens up on Cadillac F1 shakedown
30 Jan 2026
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Nearing the end of its very first week on track as a Formula 1 team, Cadillac’s “debugging” shakedown may have encountered more problems than surprises, but Sergio Perez would rather have it now than in Melbourne. Perez concedes there have been a few hiccups along the way as Formula 1’s brand new team learns not only about its own car, but also the Ferrari engine that will power it in its debut campaign.

“More than surprises, problems,” he said. “Problems on all kinds of fronts – with the engine, with the car, with a few electronic issues. But I’m glad it’s happening now, and of course we still have a lot of work ahead of us, especially as a new team. So yes, these are exciting times.”

‘More than surprises’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/cadillac-debugging-week-finds-more-than-surprises-problems-sergio-perez


Bottas shrugs off early F1 test issues: ‘It’s Debugging’
27/01/2026
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Valtteri Bottas climbed out of Cadillac’s brand-new F1 car on Monday with no illusions about what the opening day of running in Barcelona was meant to deliver. This was not about headlines, lap times or early bragging rights. It was, as the Finn put it, about “debugging” – and he was convinced his new team was far from alone in that process.

Bottas stressed that the early days of this new era were inevitably about finding – and fixing – problems. “It's debugging, that's why we're here and it seems like every team had some issues,” he said. “It's just now really figuring out those and then getting more and more running each day, but it's just great to be here and in the car.”

“It's definitely a big difference to before,” said the 36-year-old. “The cars, they handle different, you have a bit less load, especially in the high-speed corners. The PU, you have so much more torque out of the corners, but then you have the battery to manage and again, for Ferrari [Cadillac’s engine supplier], this is the first proper day of running with their power units, so naturally there is a learning curve,” Bottas explained.

‘It’s Debugging’;

https://f1i.com/news/558030-bottas-shrugs-off-early-f1-test-issues-its-debugging.html


Bottas on Cadillac's F1 reality check: learn, finish races, don't be last
Cadillac's first F1 season comes with a clear message: Try not to be last
January 27th 2026
Motor Sport

After completing its first shakedown at Silverstone and joining the rest of the field for the opening days of 2026 testing in Barcelona this week, the American team’s new driver line-up has been clear-eyed about what success looks like in year one. “We are being realistic,” Valtteri Bottas told Motor Sport in an interview in March’s issue. “The main thing is to get a reliable car to start with and finish the races, and try not to be last, and that’s already a starting point.”

Cadillac arrived in Spain having already logged its first miles at Silverstone, a major milestone for a team built from scratch under F1’s sweeping new technical regulations. Now running alongside established outfits for the first time, the focus has shifted from launch deadlines to learning curves.

‘Cadillac's F1 reality check’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/bottas-on-cadillacs-f1-reality-check-learn-finish-races-dont-be-last/?nowprocket=1


Cadillac 'fighting issues' in Barcelona as F1 debut ticks closer
Sergio Perez was behind the wheel of Cadillac's car on Thursday in Barcelona.
31 January 2026
Fergal Walsh
RacingNews365

Sergio Perez highlighted the team is improving every time it takes to the track, but conceded there are still problems it is trying to iron out. “It was a much better day,” he said. “Obviously, we got a lot of running, a lot of information.”

“We're still fighting a few issues out there, which is great - it was all about it today. We are improving on pretty much every run. [There are] issues all around with the power unit, with the car, with a few electronics issues. But this is great that things are happening here. We have a lot of work ahead of us, being a new team.”

“We are improving on pretty much every run”;

https://racingnews365.com/cadillac-fighting-issues-in-barcelona-as-f1-debut-ticks-closer

[Fortitude]

'Get your s*** together' - Wolff's message for suspicious F1 rivals.
…rival manufacturers have allowed themselves to get distracted with "secret letters" and "secret meetings" amid the ongoing debate over Formula 1's compression ratio rules. Team Principal Toto Wolff.
2 Feb 2026
Jon Noble
The Race

In a defiant message to the other teams, Wolff said: “Just get your s*** together. Doing secret meetings and sending secret letters, and keep trying to invent ways of testing that just don't exist. I feel like I can just say, at least from us here, we are trying to minimise distractions. And minimising distractions is looking more at us than at everybody else – especially when it's pretty clear what the regs say, and also pretty clear what the FIA has said to us and has said to them so far.”

“Communication with the FIA was very positive all along. And it's not only on compression ratio, but on other things too. And specifically in that area, it's very clear what the regulations say. It's very clear what the standard procedures are on any motors, even outside of F1.” Wolff says behaviour like the joint letter being written to the FIA, and a push to change testing procedures, were not the kind of antics his squad would get involved in.

“Maybe, we're all different,” he said. “Maybe you want to find excuses before you even start, why things are not good. Everybody needs to do it to the best of their ability, but that is really not how we would do things, especially not after you've been told a few times that it is fine. It's legal, and it's what the regulations say. But again, if somebody wants to entertain themselves by distraction, then everybody's free to do this.”

“Get your s*** together”

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/toto-wolff-blasts-f1-rivals-for-secret-letters-about-loophole-controversy/


First test showed new Mercedes is “probably not a turd” – Wolff
2nd February 2026
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

Team Principal Toto Wolff said their position in the overall pecking order remains a mystery. “We’re very excited to see where the performance of the car lies,” he said during the team’s launch event on Monday. “I don’t think we have seen the true potential of anybody else. It’s always nice to know that it’s probably not a turd, the car, but something that will be fast and exciting to drive. Whether it’s good enough to win races or championships is on a different sheet of paper. We can’t wait for qualifying in Melbourne to start to have this first kind of benchmark.”

Mercedes completed 500 laps in three days, equivalent to more than seven-and-a-half grand prix distances at the Circuit de Catalunya. “The highlight in the Barcelona shakedown [test] was the reliability of the power unit and the car,” said Wolff. “It was about clocking miles, about making sure that all the systems would function properly, the interaction of the power unit and chassis, fine-tuning some of the new toys that we have in boosting the engine. And that was pretty successful.”

“Other than that, it’s really difficult to interpret times because we haven’t seen our competitors really on low-fuel runs. Neither have we seen them running really well over three days, obviously they had their problems. So we really don’t have a performance picture, contrary to what many people think.” Wolff said the off-season had been unusually intense due to the early start to testing. “It’s relentless. We haven’t stopped. Obviously in the [chassis and engine] factories the work has been going on non-stop and the drivers were in the simulator a lot over the winter also, so it was the shortest break we’ve ever had.”

“probably not a turd”;

https://www.racefans.net/2026/02/02/first-test-showed-new-mercedes-is-probably-not-a-turd-wolff/


Wolff fires back as bookmakers anoint Russell as 2026 title favourite
3 Feb 2026
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Toto Wolff has responded to bookmakers tipping George Russell as the favourite for the 2026 title. The Austrian, speaking to GPblog among other media, said he was pleased by that assessment but stressed he would rather wait for the verdict of the track before getting carried away.

“It’s always nice when your driver is the bookmakers’ favourite, and I think he deserves it because he’s one of the best. He’s shown us where the performance of the car is and has been more than great for us overall. But at the same time, it’s always the best driver in the best car who wins.”

“We haven’t yet proven that we have a package that’s good enough. We also haven’t been out in Bahrain, on abrasive tarmac, which has always been tricky for us. So, of course, I hope the bookmakers are right — but I’ll believe it when we’ve seen performances that truly back it up.”

‘Pleased by that assessment’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/wolff-fires-back-as-bookmakers-anoint-russell-as-2026-title-favourite


Toto Wolff explains sombre mood after painful Mercedes 'humiliation'
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was in a sombre mood when addressing media ahead of the 2026 season.
3 Feb 2026
Jake Nichol & Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

After the first 2026 test in Barcelona, Mercedes emerged with its reputation as the favourites enhanced with a bullet-proof and fast three days, although Lewis Hamilton pipped his former team to the outright fastest time on the final day for Ferrari. Addressing the media after the test, Wolff was in a sombre, reflective mood as he explained why he did not want to come across a shattering "realisation" in Bahrain testing, or the first race in Australia.

"Failure is such a harsh word, and we're into these regulations for the next few years, and how I'd like to see [progress] is the way we're thinking about it is not optimisation on a weekend or in a season, but seeing an upward trajectory," Wolff told media, including RacingNews365. "I am certain there will be challenges, our own challenges, and the relative performance against the others, but let's see how it goes and if we have a car with the potential to fight for a championship. But I am a glass-half-empty person, I am wary and skeptical. I am always skeptical about performance”

“I've too often set my expectations in the wrong place. I just don't want to come to a realisation in Bahrain, or in Melbourne, that we are not what we thought we are going to be, and that is a race winner. We are enthused going into this new environment, and obviously, you wake up with more of a smile if your car is quick, and the early indications are positive that at least the car doesn't look like a turd, and we're in the midfield, it looks like we have something we can build on."

‘Reflective mood’;

https://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/Sport/F1/Mercedes/Toto+Wolff


Toto Wolff Slams Rivals over 2026 Engine Debate
Mercedes boss says regulations on compression ratios are “very clear,” tells rivals to “get your shit together.”
2 FEB 2026
PHILLIP HORTON
AutoWeek

Mercedes chief Toto Wolff has lambasted rival engine manufacturers amid the ongoing discussions over Formula 1’s engine compression ratios. Meetings were held between power unit manufacturers and the FIA in advance of last week’s Barcelona shakedown, and further discussions are expected before the opening round in Australia in early March. But Wolff has been unimpressed by the situation.

“Maybe you want to find excuses before you’ve even started [for] why that’s not good. Especially not after you’ve been told a few times that that is fine. You know, it’s legal and it’s what the regulations say. But again, if somebody wants to entertain themselves by distraction, then everybody is free to do this.”

‘Regulations on compression ratios are “very clear,” tells rivals to “get your shit together”!’;

https://www.autoweek.com/racing/formula-1/a70223574/mercedes-wolff-slams-f1-rivals-over-engine-debate/


Mercedes Boss Toto Wolff Slams F1 Rivals in Explosive Speech at Launch Event
Toto Wolff didn't hold back when lashing out at Mercedes' Formula One rivals during the team's 2026 launch event.
2 Feb 2026
Ben McCrum
SPORTbible

Following the secretive behind-closed-doors testing in Barcelona, it's widely expected that Mercedes will be the most dominant team throughout 2026. According to various reports, the German manufacturer's have reacted well to the biggest-ever rule changes in the sport, with new engine and chassis regulations among the new regulations introduced for this year.

It is believed that Mercedes, as well as Red Bull, have identified a loophole in the engine regulations, leading to complaints from various other teams across the grid. And now, Mercedes team principal Wolff has responded to the complaints with a brutal rant aimed at his rivals during Mercedes' launch event.

“It’s pretty clear what the regulations say,” Wolff added. “Maybe we’re all different, maybe you want to find excuses before you’ve even started. Everybody needs to do it to the best of their ability, but that’s not how we do things, especially if you’ve been told a few times it’s fine. It’s legal and what the regulations say. If someone wants to entertain themselves by distraction, they’re free to do that. So just get your s*** together. Doing secret meetings and letters, and inventing ways of testing which don’t exist… I can just say at least from us, we’re trying to minimise distractions and that’s looking more at us, not everybody else.”

‘Toto Wolff didn't hold back when lashing out’;

https://www.sportbible.com/f1/toto-wolff-rant-mercedes-car-launch-loophole-486685-20260202

[Fortitude]

Everything making Mercedes' F1 2026 start so ominous.
Mercedes left Barcelona with such a positive feeling. The car reacted as it expected, the aerodynamic performance being measured on the car tallies with what is being seen in simulations, how the car handles on track is broadly the same as in the virtual world – Kimi Antonelli said it was actually “quite a bit better” than on the simulator.
Feb 4, 2026
Scott Mitchell-Malm
The Race

The initial evidence and impressions of Formula 1’s blurry emerging 2026 picture point to Mercedes making an ominous start that includes avoiding a problem that plagued it during the ground-effect era. George Russell said this correlation overall is better than anything Mercedes has had since its last title-winning season in 2021.

“The car reacted as we anticipated,” he said. “The numbers we're seeing from the aero on the car match what we see back on the simulator. How the car is handling is matching how it feels on the simulator. This is something we've not really experienced since 2021 as a team. We're sort of ticking the boxes of everything that we want to tick.”

George Russell’s implication from saying he was “pushing the boundaries of the car” from the very start is that he was doing enough early on to clock any initial vices and most importantly any big discrepancies with all of Mercedes’ preparations back at base. And that’s not happened yet, which may be enough to be confident that the particular difficulties of that phase are behind the team and it is now going to get the benefit of all of the work and the digging into the tools to actually make them better.

‘“Quite a bit better” than on the simulator’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/everything-making-mercedes-f1-2026-start-so-ominous/


Brundle flags one F1 team that has hit the sweet spot after Barcelona testing
3 Feb 2026
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Martin Brundle believes the Mercedes team have put together a strong and cohesive package with its 2026 car. The former F1 driver turned pundit expressed his belief that the Brackley-based team appears to have mastered the new regulations. However, Brundle was quick to temper expectations, stressing that the true test will come under proper race conditions.

"Clearly, they look like they've sort of aced this completely different set of regulations. But we need to see what it's like on normal track temperatures. It's going to be about power regeneration and filling their battery back up, but of course, they'll regen as well as any other Mercedes-powered car, probably a Ferrari-powered car too,” Brundle wrote in his Sky Sports column.

"You might have a car that just fires its tyres up brilliantly on a cold day and then overheats them on a hot day, which is a problem we've seen Mercedes have before,” he added. "I do think we need to stay calm on it, but you can't ignore the relentless pace and reliability that they've shown. So, clearly, they've got a really good, cohesive package. It’s too early to judge any team’s concept, but I think Mercedes have found the sweet spot in the very early stages of F1's new era.”

‘Strong and cohesive package’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/brundle-names-one-f1-team-that-has-hit-the-sweet-spot-after-barcelona-testing


George Russell pinned as title favourite: 'He's ready to be world champion'
George Russell is quickly emerging as many people's favourite for a maiden F1 drivers' title in 2026.
3 February 2026
Nick Golding
RacingNews365

Former F1 driver Karun Chandhok has pinned George Russell as the favourite for the 2026 drivers’ title, believing that the Briton is "ready to be world champion". Asked on talkSPORT if Russell is the title favourite, Chandhok replied: "Yes, I believe he’s the favourite, in my book anyway, for the world championship.”

"Because we’ve got this big rule change, I think having a team where the engine power unit side and the chassis side are so integrated will be key to success. Now, Ferrari and Mercedes are the two teams that have that, along with Red Bull and Audi. But Red Bull and Audi are brand-new power unit companies, so I think you have to cut them a bit of slack and give them some time.”

"But I think Mercedes and Ferrari, with that integrated structure, have got to have an advantage at the beginning of a rule cycle. So, to me, George Russell — in my opinion — was the second-best driver in F1 last year after Max Verstappen. He had an outstanding season. I think he’s ready to be a championship contender if the car’s capable of it. I think he’s ready to be world champion."

“George Russell — in my opinion — was the second-best driver in F1 last year after Max Verstappen”;

https://racingnews365.com/george-russell-handed-major-distinction-ahead-of-2026-f1-season


Antonelli embraces Russell battle in bid to repeat Hamilton’s success
2 Feb 2026
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Kimi Antonelli hopes to fight for the world title, something he says would be especially enjoyable against his teammate George Russell. "That's absolutely the goal. It is to win and to eventually fight for the world championship. I mean, that's absolutely the goal. It is to win and to eventually fight for the world championship," the young Italian driver said while answering GPblog's question in a session with a select group of media.

Towards the end of the season, his teammate, George Russell, repeatedly declared that he was ready to finally battle for the world title. According to many, Mercedes is also the favourite heading into the 2026 campaign. The young Italian added: "George is very, very strong and definitely is ready to fight for a championship and is one of the benchmarks on the grid. So I think it's going to be quite fun, especially competing with him. And so, yes, really looking forward to it."

"That's absolutely the goal. It is to win and to eventually fight for the world championship”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/antonelli-reacts-to-russells-target-aims-to-match-teammates-lofty-goals


Russell tips Antonelli for major step forward heading into 2026
2 Feb 2026
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

George Russell has spoken about what he expects from his teammate Kimi Antonelli as he heads into his second season with Mercedes. “Kimi very much falls into the category of a future top-class driver, and there’s no doubt he’ll take another step forward this year compared to last” - George Russell

The Briton, speaking to GPblog among other media, voiced strong confidence in the young Italian, describing Antonelli as one of the standout talents to watch in the future of Formula 1.
“I expect Kimi to really step things up this year,” he said. “He’s clearly a driver with huge potential, and you only have to look at the progress Oscar made over his time in Formula 1 to see how quickly someone can reach a very high level”

“I’ve always had a great deal of respect for Kimi, and I expect him to push me throughout the season. That said, I believe in myself. I believe I can beat anyone on this grid, and I’m working extremely hard to make that happen. I wouldn’t be intimidated by being teammates with anyone.” Russell finally added: “Kimi very much falls into the category of a future top-class driver, and there’s no doubt he’ll take another step forward this year compared to last.”

“Kimi very much falls into the category of a future top-class driver”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/russell-tips-antonelli-for-major-step-forward-heading-into-2026


George Russell wary of 'sexy' Aston Martin after 'spectacular' Adrian Newey influence
Has Adrian Newey found a sweet spot with his first Aston Martin design? It certainly raised eyebrows in Barcelona.
3 February 2026
Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

George Russell has conceded to being wary of Adrian Newey's "pretty spectacular" debut car with Aston Martin, but has warned that F1's new era is not about the sexiest design. "The Aston Martin was probably the most standout in terms of the car design," said Russell, speaking to select media, including RacingNews365.

"I think everybody was looking at that rear suspension, and obviously, visually it looks very impressive, but it's not a competition of how sexy it is. It's a competition of how fast it goes around the track. People always look towards the fastest car, and we'll find that out in Melbourne. Whoever that is, that will be the car that you wish to try and take inspiration from."

‘George Russell has conceded to being wary of Adrian Newey's "pretty spectacular" debut car’;

https://racingnews365.com/george-russell-wary-of-sexy-aston-martin-after-spectacular-adrian-newey-influence

[Fortitude]

Williams becomes final team to run its 2026 F1 car on track.
Williams completed this run as part of its 'promotional filming day' allowance. It will complete a second such filming day in Bahrain on February 10, a day before the first official pre-season test starts.
04 Feb 2026
Jack Cozens
The Race

Williams has now run the full FW48 on track in a shakedown at Silverstone. Race drivers Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz both got to drive the car, which ran in the fan-chosen livery that will be used at the upcoming Bahrain pre-season tests.

More on Williams's pre season so far;
• How much did Williams really lose from missing first F1 test?
• Zero-rods? Williams's unusual 2026 F1 showcar explained
• Williams reveals livery for late 2026 F1 car that's 'most complex' yet
• Williams promises 'different' front suspension, but not as extreme as Newey
• What latest 'painful' F1 car delay has exposed about Vowles' Williams
• Video: What late 2026 F1 car has exposed about Williams

Prior to its Silverstone shakedown run, Williams did complete a virtual track test (VTT) programme in lieu of being at Barcelona. This involved "most of the physical car", according to team principal James Vowles, which included "the chassis, the engine, the gearbox" but did not have its "wings bolted to it".

‘Final team to run its 2026 F1 car’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/williams-makes-track-debut-with-late-2026-f1-car/


James Vowles and Alex Albon react to first 2026 Williams run after avoiding embarrassing scenario
5 February 2026
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

How Williams avoided a ‘highly embarrassing’ no-show at the Barcelona shakedown. Journalist Chris Medland was speaking on the RACER Weekly Podcast about Williams’ start to 2026.
He shared what sources within the team were telling him about not making it to Spain and explained:

“I was told when they announced that they weren’t going to be in Barcelona that the only crash test that they hadn’t yet passed was to do with the nose box and that actually there was a way of them manufacturing a compromise, but then that was at cost that might still not be fully ready and pass the test until you’d actually done it. And he would then have sent the whole team out to Barcelona to get ready and have personnel there waiting for the car to show up and build the garage and everything like that.”

“And then maybe still not make it, which would be highly embarrassing, but be costly. This is the cost cap era. You can’t just keep throwing money at things that aren’t actually going to happen. So they then decided, well, we’ve still got two more tests. We’ve still got at that point over two weeks until Bahrain. If you spend that whole time just focusing on Bahrain rather than scrambling to get to Barcelona, maybe you can do a bit more work on engineering and development and improve the car.”

'Reaction';

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/james-vowles-and-alex-albon-react-to-first-2026-williams-run-after-avoiding-embarrassing-scenario/


James Vowles dismisses Williams 2026 title hopes as ‘not realistic’
Feb 05, 2026
The Straits Times

“Our expectation is that 2025 set the baseline. P5 is where I want us to be at our base, and we nudge forward from there,” British Formula One team Williams Team Principal James Vowles said. “But it’s exponentially harder, in my experience, being P4, and exponentially harder being P3, P2, P1. And I think with what you can see at the moment, the journey to P2, P1 is simply not on the cards for 2026. We have work to do. But do I expect that, as a baseline, we perform at least where we were last year? Yes.”

Williams won the last of their nine constructors’ titles in 1997 when Jacques Villeneuve also won the drivers’ world championship. Vowles is confident that the long-term planning is there to return to the glory days. “Am I confident we as a business have made a step forward from 2025 to 2026 in the way we’re working? Absolutely,” he added.

“There’s some elements of the car that are really quite impressive. Not all of it, but elements of it. Are we at championship level today? No. But I’m confident the way we are going about this will allow us to catch up in the time frame. I will always invest in our future... The decisions that we made in 2025 were the right ones to make sure we forward invest in this team.”

“P5 is where I want us to be at our base”;

https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/formula-one/james-vowles-dismisses-williams-2026-title-hopes-as-not-realistic


Williams cut through speculated FW48 rumour with hard facts
4 Feb 2026
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Williams FW48 is already running very close to the 2026 minimum weight limit according to the technical data, contrary to earlier speculation. “In terms of weight, until there are two race cars built to the correct specification going forward, it’s hard to comment on that”
- James Vowles.

“But even so, in that regard, your question was: does that stop you being competitive right now? “No one knows – and I really do mean no one – what the pecking order is, especially ourselves as we haven’t been on track, so it’s hard for me to answer that question.”

‘Hard facts’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/williams-cut-through-2026-challenger-noise-with-proof-on-the-table


Williams missed test to be competitive says Vowles
FEBRUARY 4, 2026
GrandPrix.com

Williams team boss James Vowles has defended the decision to miss the entire Barcelona shakedown week, insisting delaying the FW48 was painful but necessary as the team prioritises competitiveness. “I wish we hadn't had to confront it so aggressively to discover all the weaknesses,” he admitted.

“But if we'd known the limitations of our processes - how we communicate, how we move pieces within the company - we would have changed the programme earlier. hat pleases me, in a strange way, is that if you avoid a problem, it doesn't hurt enough to dig deep and fix it. This won't happen again. You have to let the pain of failure drive change.”

“The decisions made in 2025 were the right ones - investing upstream for 2026”, he explained. “Have we made a significant leap from 2025 to 2026? Absolutely. Some elements of the car are truly impressive. Are we at championship level today? No. He was equally clear about tempering expectations even for next year. “World champion in 2027 is not realistic,” Vowles said bluntly.

“To be competitive”;

https://www.grandprix.com/news/williams-missed-test-to-be-competitive-says-vowles.html


First look: Williams FW48 hits the track in F1 2026 shakedown at Silverstone
4 Feb 2026
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

Williams later confirmed that Sainz and Albon shared driving duties at Silverstone, with the team planning to use a second filming day in Bahrain on February 10 – 24 hours before the start of the second pre-season test in Sakhir.

Speaking to PlanetF1.com and other select media outlets last week, Williams team principal James Vowles insisted that the team could have made Barcelona testing. However, concerns over spare parts at the start of the season led to the “incredibly painful” decision to miss the shakedown.

‘FW48 hits the track’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/williams-fw48-f1-2026-shakedown-silverstone


Williams’ FW48 Turns First Laps at Silverstone in Fan Chosen ‘Flow State’ Livery
4 Feb 2026
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

The ‘Flow State’ livery was selected from six competing concepts as part of the team’s ‘Your Livery’ initiative, which drew almost 55,000 votes from fans across 162 countries over a seven day period in December. The project forms part of Williams’ broader commitment to bringing fans closer to the sport through digital engagement and live activations.

Team Principal James Vowles described the day as a significant milestone for the organisation. “This was a milestone day for us and it is always a very proud moment to see a new car on track for the first time,” he said. “The team has absolutely pulled together under the pressure of the situation and delivered a car today for a planned promotional filming day here at Silverstone.”

"We were able to understand more about our package in preparation for Bahrain next week, and Carlos and Alex were able to provide some positive feedback to direct us, while also identifying some minor issues for us to clean up between now and then. The push isn't over yet – this is just the beginning and there is more in front of us.”

‘Williams’ FW48’;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/28207

[Fortitude]

Key voices at Mercedes want to ‘get rid’ of world champions McLaren as an engine customer.
“There are voices in Stuttgart saying that ‘we actually have to get rid of them so that we can become world champions again.” F1-Insider’s Ralf Bach.
8 January 2026
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

According to F1-Insider’s Ralf Bach, some at the Mercedes HQ in Stuttgart are pushing for the F1 team to split with McLaren when the current contract concludes. There is a feeling that McLaren are standing in the way of Mercedes ‘becoming world champions again’. The HPP division has been regarded as the benchmark since the start of the turbo/hybrid era in 2014 and is widely believed to have built the best engine for the 2026 regulations.

If McLaren outclass Mercedes in the aerodynamics department, the horsepower advantage over the rest of the field may count for little. “How long can Mercedes afford to keep supplying McLaren?” Bach asked. “They also have the Mercedes engine. There are voices in Stuttgart saying that ‘we actually have to get rid of them so that we can become world champions again.” Toto Wolff has indicated that Mercedes plan to cut down the number of teams they supply in the next rules cycle, which will begin in 2030.

‘Voices in Stuttgart’.

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/key-voices-at-mercedes-want-to-get-rid-of-world-champions-mclaren-as-an-engine-customer/


Zak Brown outlines how Red Bull ‘pleasantly surprised’ him during 2026 Barcelona shakedown
5 February 2026
Tyler Rowlinson
F1 Oversteer

Zak Brown was left ‘pleasantly surprised’ by Red Bull’s progress with their 2026 engine. The Milton Keynes outfit are entering a new era in 2026, becoming a power unit supplier for the first time in their history. Red Bull have come a long way to get the engine up and running, leaving many to wonder where they will end up on the grid.

Talking about the shakedown in a media press conference, via journalist David Land’s YouTube channel, Zak Brown said: “So early to tell, but it kind of looks like the usual suspects, but too hard to tell in what order. The Red Bull engine was very strong. I think everyone was, let’s say, pleasantly surprised. I’d rather them not be as competitive! But, impressed with what they’ve done because they came out, they did a lot of miles and they seem to be very competitive.”

“Bull engine was very strong”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/zak-brown-outlines-how-red-bull-pleasantly-surprised-him-during-2026-barcelona-shakedown/


Lando Norris says 2026 F1 cars ‘feel like F2 in some ways’
Reigning F1 champion Lando Norris gives his feedback on the new 2026 cars
5 Feb 2026
Lewis Duncan
Crash.Net

Reigning Formula 1 world champion Lando Norris admits the 2026 machines “feel like an F2 car in some ways”, which “I don’t know if I like that or not”. The 2026 F1 season marks the first of its radical new car regulations, with the ground effect machinery replaced by smaller and lighter ones.

“It certainly feels like an F2 car in some ways with how you have to drive it,” he said, talking about the challenges facing the teams and drivers coming into 2026. “I don’t know if I like that or not for the time being. But I think we understood quite a few things already from Barcelona on how you had to drive the car, but Barcelona, you’re talking about fourth-gear corners, third-gear corners, quite open, quite wide.”

“And when you get to a street track or bumpier tracks, slower tracks, that’s a question we’re yet to answer. And Bahrain will answer some of those questions. It will be a learning curve. But I have strong confidence in myself and strong confidence in my team. But it will be a learning curve for both of us as it will for everyone on the grid.”

‘2026 machines feel like an F2 car’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1088964/1/lando-norris-says-2026-f1-cars-feel-f2-some-ways


Lando Norris issues sarcastic response when told George Russell is favourite for the 2026 F1 title
5 February 2026
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

Martin Brundle believes Russell will fancy his chances of securing a maiden title this season, and according to Sky Sports F1’s Craig Slater, the British driver is the ‘bookmaker’s favourite’. When asked for his thoughts on this by Slater during an interview at McLaren’s Woking-based headquarters, Norris couldn’t help but laugh.

He sarcastically responded to the journalist with, “He is the massive favourite, to be honest with you. I completely agree with the bookmakers.” Mercedes are regarded as the benchmark in the upcoming season largely due to their impressive reliability at last week’s shakedown in Barcelona.

“I completely agree with the bookmakers”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/lando-norris-issues-sarcastic-response-when-told-george-russell-is-favourite-for-the-2026-f1-title/


‘You’re going to see more chaos in races where…’: Formula One champion Lando Norris on new rules in F1
5 Feb 2026
Express News Service
Indian Express

The defending champion Lando Norris spoke about how the driver’s main challenge will be battery management as well as knowing how to utilise the battery energy. “The biggest challenge at the minute is battery management and knowing how to utilise that in the best way. It’s not simple. You can explain it in quite simple terms. It’s just that you have a very powerful battery that doesn’t last very long, so knowing how to use it at the right times, how much energy, how much of that power you use, how you split it up around the lap…”

“The biggest challenge is how you can recover the batteries as well as possible, and that’s when it comes down to using the gears, hitting the right revs. Obviously, you’ve got some turbo lag now, which we’ve never really had before. All of these little things have crept back in, but I don’t think that changes too much. In a perfect world, I probably wouldn’t have [all] that in a race car, but it’s just F1. Sometimes you have these different challenges,” said Norris.

‘More chaos in races’;

https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/motor-sport/lando-norris-new-formula-1-rules-f1-chaos-10515988/


Norris demands to be 'punched' on one condition after life-changing success
5 Feb 2026
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Lando Norris wants to be reminded of his 2025 title if he is not smiling this year. He said: "I still have many more years in Formula 1 and I will still try and get as many more championships as possible. If I never do, I'm still happy. If you ever see me not smiling or something, just punch me or something, Remind me. I achieved my goal in life and I'm very happy, I'm proud. That's something I'll always take with me."

"I still achieved one. The 20 years I spent from starting karting to last year, trying to achieve what I achieved and what we all achieved as a team and my group and my family, what we achieved last year... So it's a lot of time and effort and singular focus and then it's done. I guess not many people in life get to achieve that end goal or their life goal, but that was it."

‘If he is not smiling this year’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/norris-asks-to-be-punched-on-one-condition-after-life-changing-success


Why Lando Norris isn’t worried by rival innovations in F1 2026
5 Feb 2026
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Reigning World Champion Norris says the teams have to accept that someone has done a better job and then set about reeling them in. “There’s always that element of looking at others, that’s also just part of the sport,” he told F1TV during the Barcelona shakedown. “You look at others, see what other great minds have come up with, what ideas they’ve come up with, see how you can learn from it, incorporate it, avoid it, whatever it may be.”

“You always have to be willing to accept that sometimes people can do a better job and you want to learn from them. I’m happy with the team’s efforts and everything we’ve done so far this year, but yeah, it’s going to be a long year, so we’ll keep working hard, we’ll make sure everyone’s happy and take it from there.”

“Sometimes people can do a better job”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/f1-2026-lando-norris-mclaren-rival-innovations

[Fortitude]

Juan Pablo Montoya has heard that one F1 team are hiding an extra ‘four seconds’ of performance.
The times they were doing in Barcelona, from what I’ve heard, are between three and four seconds away from the car’s full potential.” Juan Pablo Montoya, a former F1 driver.
6 February 2026
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Juan Pablo Montoya reveals the extent of Mercedes’ sandbagging. Juan Pablo Montoya, a former F1 driver and now a pundit, has ‘heard’ that Mercedes haven’t even come close to pushing flat out in their W17. In fact, he says they may still have another three to four seconds in their pocket. That means Russell could have set a mid-1:12 in full qualifying trim.

Montoya was then asked whether Mercedes could be as dominant as Red Bull were at the start of 2023. The team scored four one-two finishes in the first five races and were unbeaten until round 15. One key difference is that Mercedes supply engines to McLaren, the reigning world champions. Their power unit is seen as the basis of their superiority, but it will also strengthen Zak Brown’s team. “Someone will get it right, and someone will get it wrong,” Montoya said. “If Mercedes is far superior, does that mean all the Mercedes teams are going to be strong?”

‘W17’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/juan-pablo-montoya-has-heard-that-one-f1-team-are-hiding-an-extra-four-seconds-of-performance/


Gary Anderson on the 2026 return of an F1 design trend
Feb 7, 2026
Gary Anderson
The Race

One of the big talking points about the new 2026 Formula 1 cars is the return of what was called the "mousehole". That can be seen, below, with the red highlight here on the McLaren under the old ground effect regulations. As the slot in the rear of the floor leading into the diffuser exit has been enlarged this year, I suppose it should now be called "the rathole", and it certainly could put the cat among the pigeons in terms of performance.

The lead illustration shows how the opening is on the Mercedes. It's believed to allow airflow to be pulled through it into the diffuser expansion area, which is similar to the effect with the mouseholes that we have seen before. But why would you want to reduce the performance of the diffuser with such a big opening?

To complicate the airflow structure even more in this area, the small louvres on the floor's top surface allow airflow to be pulled through them (magenta arrows). These will help reduce the airflow that is being pulled under the floor by the low pressure underneath the car and connect it to the tyre squirt, which is the airflow created by the squeezing effect from the tyre tread meeting the track surface. If this can be achieved, it will improve the performance of the underfloor in this area.

‘The "mousehole" should now be called "the rathole"!’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/f1-2026-mousehole-diffuser-trend-gary-anderson/


Five winners and six losers from F1's secret testing sessions
30 Jan 2026
Matt Majendie
i News

Mercedes (183 laps without any noticeable gremlins and another 168 on Thursday)
Red Bull and Racing Bulls (Perhaps a surprise winner – well, certainly on the opening day of testing).
Ferrari (Completed a table-topping 170 circuits of the track)
McLaren (Lando Norris: “A decent day, a productive day”. That said, the following day it was a case of just 48 circuits of the track.)

Williams: Williams team principal James Vowles tried to put a brave face on the fact that his crew didn’t run on any days at all in Barcelona.
Aston Martin: AMR26 only made a first appearance in the last hour of the penultimate day and initially looked good before the car came to a halt in the hands of Lance Stroll and the session was red flagged.
Haas(154 laps on day one before some mechanical issues curtailed them on their return to track), Alpine(shy of running on their opener) and Audi(hampered by a couple of mechanical issues).

‘F1's secret testing sessions’;

https://inews.co.uk/sport/formula-one/five-winners-six-losers-secret-f1-testing-sessions-4188900?ITO=newsnow


What the 2026 F1 cars are like – according to the drivers
7 Feb 2026
Formula One - Official Site

First we go to reigning World Champion Lando Norris, who explained to a select group of media including F1.com in the days after the Barcelona Shakedown that the new machine is “fun to drive”.
Team mate Oscar Piastri also shared his thoughts, with the Australian enjoying the opportunity to finally experience the MCL40 in Barcelona and discover that there are “challenges but not as alien as we might have feared”.

Over at Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton was left with a positive impression following his time at the wheel of the SF-26 in Barcelona. “In terms of just understanding the car and the balance, we have a lot less downforce than previous years,”
On the other side of the garage, Charles Leclerc suggested that the challenge posed by the new cars is one that brings excitement. “It’s an exciting time for Formula 1, where there’s so much change that we’ve got to adapt as drivers…”

George Russell has been left impressed by the power that the new engines provide, with the Mercedes driver commenting early on at the Barcelona Shakedown: “There was obviously a lot of anticipation for these new power units, and so far, just generally on the whole, the amount of power they give is pretty impressive.”

‘The drivers verdict’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/what-the-2026-f1-cars-are-like-according-to-the-drivers.3bPY3Joja2kSCAPNeCmaBL


Juan Pablo Montoya disagrees with what Adrian Newey has said ahead of the 2026 F1 season
6 February 2026
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Juan Pablo Montoya who worked with Newey at McLaren in 2005, cannot believe the 67-year-old’s suggestion that Aston Martin’s wind tunnel is now the very best in F1. He also expects Aston Martin are “going to struggle” with syncing their wind tunnel and on-track data during 2026.

Montoya told AS: “The thing is, they have one of the best, not the best, wind tunnels, and the most modern and latest wind tunnel technology. But the most important thing is the results produced by the model, and the results produced by the actual car. That’s the most complicated part. That’s where I personally think they’re going to struggle.”

‘Syncing their wind tunnel and on-track data’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/juan-pablo-montoya-disagrees-with-what-adrian-newey-has-said-ahead-of-the-2026-f1-season/


[B]Red Bull Will Be The Deciding Vote In The Battle To Outlaw Mercedes' F1 Engine Loophole
FEB. 6, 2026
BRAD BROWNELL
jalopnik.com

The rumor in the paddock is that Red Bull attempted to replicate Mercedes' efforts, but couldn't find the gains Mercedes did and instead leaked the documents to the other manufacturers in an effort to bring this to light. With support from Red Bull, the anti-Mercedes teams will have to hope that Formula One Management will vote their way.

The 2026 Formula One World Championship will finalize all engine homologation on March 1st, which would give Mercedes very little time to build a different engine if it were required to by any potential engine regulation or measurement change. Likewise, the season kicks off a week later at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on the 8th of March. It seems highly unlikely that F1 would make an engine rule change now that could have massive implications on the running order for the 2026 season.

If anything, it seems more likely that the FIA would allow this method of measurement for the full 2026 season, giving Mercedes the competitive advantage it has built. If the FIA and FOM decided they wanted to change the rulebook for 2027, however, that would allow Mercedes plenty of time to develop a new engine for that set of rules. Creative interpretation of the rulebook is what Formula One is about, after all.

‘Leaked the documents to the other manufacturers’;

https://www.jalopnik.com/2095037/red-bull-deciding-vote-outlaw-mercedes-f1-engine-loophole/

[Fortitude]

Christian Horner would be proud of what Laurent Mekies has just done to annoy Toto Wolff.
Mekies has handled the situation as any great team boss would – if you can’t join them, beat them.
7 Feb 2026
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

As reported by Motorsport, Red Bull may have found lap time through their research, but not as much as Mercedes. On that basis, they could ‘push for action’ against the Silver Arrows, joining a voting bloc with Ferrari, Audi and Honda. Mekies is smart enough to see the bigger picture. It’s better for Red Bull to forfeit their own gains if it means Mercedes won’t have a game-changing advantage themselves.

Toto Wolff will be furious over Red Bull defection. What happens now? Red Bull could sign a letter of protest penned by Mercedes’ rivals, effectively suggesting the W17 is illegal in its current form. The F1 Commission could soon vote on a proposal to measure fuel compression ratios in real time, or at least when the engine is still hot, potentially forcing Mercedes to surrender their weapon.

Toto Wolff, Horner’s long-time nemesis, would be furious over such an outcome, particularly if the rules are changed before 2027. He has already blasted competitors for trying to find ‘excuses’ and is adamant that his car is compliant with the regulations. t seems Red Bull may have leaked the story to the rest of the grid in the first place, which generated the storm. Mekies has handled the situation as any great team boss would – if you can’t join them, beat them.

‘Toto Wolff will be furious’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/christian-horner-would-be-proud-of-what-laurent-mekies-has-just-done-to-annoy-toto-wolff/


Max Verstappen’s early verdict on Red Bull’s eye-catching 2026 F1 engine
Max Verstappen gives his first thoughts on Red Bull’s new engine after opening 2026 F1 test
7 Feb 2026
Lewis Duncan
Crash.Net

“I think, overall, pretty decent,” Verstappen told the official F1 website when asked about the Barcelona shakedown with the RB22. “The first morning, I didn’t get too many laps, also with the weather basically. “But [the last day] was good. I did a lot of laps, we learned a lot. Still a lot of things that we want to look into and do better, but that’s normal, I guess.”

“In general, with the new engine, to do the amount of laps that we did is very nice and it’s a good start for us. So, positive, but it’s still very early days. Still a work in progress, but I think we’ve hit the ground running quite well with those things. It’s still a very complicated formula, I think, for everyone, so there’s still quite a bit of work to do. But that’s normal.”

“We learned a lot”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1089073/1/max-verstappens-early-verdict-red-bulls-eye-catching-2026-f1-engine


Max Verstappen confidence hints early promise for Red Bull-Ford alliance
2 Feb 2026
Lena Ferle
Motorsport Week

Max Verstappen has given little away in public, but his demeanour has caught attention as Red Bull beds in its first in-house Formula 1 power unit. According to Bernie Collins, the four-time World Champion looks far more at ease than the noise around Red Bull Powertrains might suggest. Subtle cues have hinted at confidence within the team.

Expectations had been tempered long before the car hit the track. Many in the paddock predicted Red Bull would struggle to match Ferrari and Mercedes, both long-established engine manufacturers. “There was a lot of noise in the paddock last year that this engine was really going to struggle,” Collins explained. “It wasn’t going to be as good as the others, and I guess the story was maybe different internally at Red Bull, but we are starting to see that confidence come out a little bit.”

“Max is sounding very relaxed, and I think you can tell by their posture, he’s not just saying the words, he is looking very relaxed. He does say that the car has room for improvement, that’s what happens in the first test of any season, but he does look quietly confident. He’s got that little smile he sometimes carries when he is in these interviews, that he knows much more than we do.”

‘Early promise’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/02/02/max-verstappen-confidence-hints-early-promise-for-red-bull-ford-alliance/


George Russell issues huge Red Bull F1 engine warning: ‘They’ve delivered’
Red Bull’s new engine caught George Russell by surprise at the recent Barcelona F1 test
2 Feb 2026
Lewis Duncan
Crash.Net

Mercedes Formula 1 driver George Russell has praised Red Bull’s new power unit, labelling it “very impressive” following the Barcelona pre-season test last month. The 2026 Red Bull, and the sister Racing Bulls team, are running in-house-built Red Bull Powertrain units that have had input from Ford. The new engine enjoyed a strong start to the season during last month’s opening winter test at Barcelona, showing good performance and reliability across its running.

This caught the eye of Mercedes’ George Russell.: “But we’ve been quite surprised by what we’ve seen from some our rivals, especially on the Red Bull power unit side. That looks very impressive, especially given they’re a new outfit. It’s very reliable as well, so kudos to them. We’ve had a very reliable test; we’ll have to wait and see if the car lives up to expectations.”

“Kudos to them”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1088758/1/george-russell-issues-huge-red-bull-f1-engine-warning-theyve-delivered


Isack Hadjar’s testing crash ‘reminded many’ Red Bull staff of F1 driver who lasted just nine races
3 February 2026
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

‘Many’ Red Bull staff were reminded of Pierre Gasly when Isack Hadjar crashed during Barcelona test. During an appearance on the F1 Insider podcast, journalist Ralf Bach revealed what ‘many’ Red Bull employees were reminded of after seeing Hadjar crash out during F1’s inaugural week of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya.

He said, “It seems to be a kind of virus: you jump into the Red Bull, have Max Verstappen as your teammate, and instead of being cool and doing your own thing, you just go out there and try to beat him. “I heard that he just looked at the times Max was driving, where he could be faster, and boom, the car was wrecked. That cost a day of testing, maybe even more.”

“It reminded many at Red Bull of Pierre Gasly, the one from before, who was also at Red Bull at one time. He wrecked a car during a test drive, which cost them valuable time, so Hadjar didn’t do himself any favours there. Someone needs to talk to him and say, look, you’ve got one of the best drivers of all time up against you. You can’t just focus on competing with him. Just do your thing as best you can and then see how far you get. But at the moment, it’s the same old story.”

'F1 driver who lasted just nine races';

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/isack-hadjars-testing-crash-reminded-many-red-bull-staff-of-f1-driver-who-lasted-just-nine-races/


Max Verstappen reveals how he maintains a "super simple" life amid F1 success
4 Feb 2026
Lydia Mee
Motorsport.com

“I try to be myself, to be honest. I don’t need to meet a famous person. I don’t need to act differently because I know what I need to do, is to perform, right? If I don’t perform, I’m out. It’s as simple as that,” the Red Bull driver told TAG Heuer.

“I have very good friends around me that keep me grounded. Same with my family. They are the most important in my life. Of course, along the way, because of F1, you meet a lot of important people, like you said, celebrities, but I’m not there for it. I just embrace it. I do what I need to do and then I go home. That’s why I try to keep my life super simple, nothing crazy. Just try to live a normal life outside of Formula 1.”

"Super simple";

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/max-verstappen-reveals-how-he-maintains-a-super-simple-life-amid-f1-success/10795083/

[Fortitude]

“A Line in the Sand,” claims Toto Wolff on Mercedes, Reinvention, and the High Stakes Dawn of 2026.
“2026 is a line in the sand for all of us,” Wolff says, leaning forward slightly, as if to underline the point. “It’s a moment where every assumption, every habit, every comfort zone gets stripped away. And that’s exactly why it’s so exciting.” Toto Wolff.
8 Feb 2026
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

Toto Wolff sounds almost invigorated. “We’ve faced big regulation changes before, but never all at once like this. Power unit, aero, tyres, energy systems — it’s a complete reinvention of the sport. If you get it right, you can redefine the next decade. If you get it wrong, you spend years trying to claw your way back.” He pauses, letting the weight of that truth settle: “We don’t intend to claw anything back. We intend to lead. People talk about 2014 as if it was magic. It wasn’t magic — it was preparation, courage, and a willingness to challenge ourselves more brutally than anyone else. 2026 demands that same mentality. Maybe even more.”

“You can’t build a car in one place and an engine in another anymore. Not with these rules. The W17 is one organism. If one part fails, the whole thing fails. If one part excels, the whole thing moves forward. That’s the challenge — and the beauty — of this era. “We’ve made bold decisions. Some people will say too bold. But if you’re timid in a year like this, you’re finished before you start. I’d rather take a risk that scares us than settle for a solution that keeps us comfortable. Comfort doesn’t win championships.”

Wolff speaks about George Russell and Kimi Antonelli with a mixture of pride and expectation. Their contrasting profiles — Russell’s polished steel, Antonelli’s raw electricity — form a pairing that Wolff believes is perfectly suited to the unknowns of 2026. “George is the benchmark. He’s become one of the most complete drivers in the field — fast, analytical, unshakeable under pressure. Kimi is the spark. He’s fearless, curious, and unbelievably quick. Together, they push each other in all the right ways.”

“We don’t intend to claw anything back. We intend to lead”;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/28209


Toto Wolff against Mercedes ‘world dominance’ in F1 2026
8 Feb 2026
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Still viewed as the F1 2026 title favourites by many, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff would like his squad right there in the championship fight, but “world dominance” is not his desire.

It was put to Wolff, by PlanetF1.com and others, that he would like Mercedes to dominate Formula 1 in an ideal world, but as a team shareholder, must think of the bigger picture, of Formula 1’s overall health, which would benefit from strong competition at the front.

Wolff replied: “Maybe someone that is on a limited contract would see it you want world dominance and win 24 races of 24, and make it the most successful campaign that any team has ever had.”

‘World dominance’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/toto-wolff-does-not-want-mercedes-f1-2026-world-dominance


Wolff cools Mercedes hype: 'We haven’t seen Verstappen pushing the car'
2 Feb 2026
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Toto Wolff has chosen to keep expectations in check, mindful that teams in Barcelona were not focused on outright performance. The Austrian, speaking to a selected group of media including GPblog, said he was encouraged by the car’s early signs but stressed the need to keep his feet firmly on the ground until genuinely representative lap times begin to emerge.

“I’m really happy with how it went for us in terms of the interaction between the power unit deployment and the chassis. That said, we had three solid days — something to build on — but we don’t yet have a clear performance picture. We haven’t seen Max push the car, and we haven’t seen McLaren or Ferrari show what they can really do. I’d therefore be careful about saying it was great for us. We simply don’t know.”

‘Keep expectations in check’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/wolff-cools-mercedes-hype-we-havent-seen-verstappen-pushing-the-car


Mercedes boss Toto Wolff gives first verdict of ‘spectacular’ F1 2026 cars
5 Feb 2026
Sam Cooper
PlanetF1.com

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff gave an overwhelmingly positive review of the new regulations and suggested the cars “look like Formula 1 cars again.” “I don’t see any worse points,” Wolff, who is the longest serving active team principal, said. “I’m not overselling here or trying to make a product better than it is. But I think the cars are awesome. They look spectacular. They look like Formula 1 cars again. They’re not too small, they’re not too big. They’re not like the whales of the past. The aesthetics are very good.”

“I like the engine concept in terms of the boost. George [Russell] went past [Franco] Colapinto [in the Barcelona shakedown] whilst Colapinto was doing his long runs, I think it was like 60 kilometres straight line speed difference and that is super exciting. We are going to see much more overtaking,” the 54-year-old said.

“We’re going to see it in areas that we wouldn’t expect it. Apart from the fact of the quickest cars, the best drivers, it’s also gonna have this additional dimension of intelligent driving and tactics that are going to be easy to understand, in my opinion, for Formula 1. So, so far, I haven’t really seen any negatives and again, I wouldn’t bulls**t or oversell anything that I don’t believe. For me so far, it’s ticked all the boxes.”

‘Overwhelmingly positive review’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/mercedes-toto-wolff-f1-2026-cars-look-classic


Max Verstappen's new power unit also caught Toto Wolff's eye
8 Feb 2026
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff also gave a positive first impression of the new Red Bull Ford power unit. "When it comes to Red Bull, I think they've done a good job," Wolff told a select group of media, including GPblog. The Mercedes team boss added: "Hadjar did 107 laps I believe on the first day and was running reliably, so you have got to give them that."

‘Positive first impression of the new Red Bull Ford power unit’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/wolff-praises-verstappens-new-power-unit-theyve-done-good-job


Ferrari already working on a ‘substantial’ response to expected FIA ruling on Mercedes engine trick
4 February 2026
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari are designing a new engine for 2027 as they expect the FIA will allow Mercedes’ trick. Mercedes team principal Wolff has hit out at the accusations that his squad are not working in line with the 2026 F1 regulations. Wolff has told Mercedes’ F1 rivals to “just get your s— together” and he suggests that Ferrari, Honda and Audi may just be trying to “find excuses”.

Enrico Gualtieri, the technical director of Ferrari’s engine division, has ‘given the green light’ for their engineers to develop ‘substantial modifications’ for their power unit, with the goal of creating a dynamic compression ratio. But any changes are unlikely to be raced this season. Ferrari will bring the production of their engine connecting rod back in-house, as they need a new design with a high enough thermal expansion coefficient that it can then ‘stretch’ and reverse the loss of compression due to thermal expansion inside their engine for likely 2027.

‘Substantial response’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-already-working-on-a-substantial-response-to-expected-fia-ruling-on-mercedes-engine-trick/

[Fortitude]

Bahrain F1 test will expose Barcelona's illusions.
Barcelona proved Formula 1's radical 2026 cars can run, but only Bahrain's tests will reveal who's genuinely quick and who's in trouble.
10 Feb 2026
Pablo Elizalde
Motor Sport Magazine

Mercedes completed 502 laps in Barcelona. Five hundred and two. As Aston Martin managed around 65 and Williams didn’t even show up, Mercedes churned through mileage like a team possessed to surprise even itself. It looked impressive, but it may also have been necessary: a team prioritising correlation, software validation and system robustness over outright exploration.

Dominant form, surely? Maybe. Ferrari looked imperious in 2022. Mercedes seemed sorted in 2023 — a team convinced it had finally understood its own car. Both seasons ended in disappointment. The problem isn’t just that teams are trying to deceive, but that pre-season testing happens in conditions utterly divorced from the reality of a race weekend, a fact that is even truer this year.

‘Bahrain F1 test’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/bahrain-f1-test-will-expose-barcelonas-illusions/?nowprocket=1


FIA prepared for flood of allegations as F1 season nears
Although the compression ratio issue has dominated F1 in recent weeks, with the start of the new season approaching, new topics of debate may soon take centre stage.
10 February 2026
Sàndor Mészáros
RacingNews365

The "official" part of the preparation period for the new F1 season is about to begin, with the teams spending two three-day sessions testing their 2026 cars in Bahrain over the next two weeks. The first act was the five-day 'Shakedown Week' held behind closed doors in Barcelona, where Mercedes proved to be strong, which really stirred up emotions.

Since the end of last year, there have been rumours that the Silver Arrows have found a loophole in the compression ratio of internal combustion engines: even then, it was rumoured that competing manufacturers were unhappy with the situation, and the performance in Barcelona added fuel to the fire. With Red Bull reportedly joining Ferrari, Audi, and Honda in opposing Mercedes' trick, the opposition has grown stronger and the quartet is pushing for a solution as soon as possible.

Leaks from recent engine manufacturer meetings suggest that the four members are expecting a satisfactory solution to the issue before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. The situation is escalating, with Mercedes sticking to its position that the engine is completely legal, while the FIA has stated that it is seeking a solution that is satisfactory to all parties.

‘Flood of allegations’;

https://racingnews365.com/fia-prepared-for-flood-of-allegations-as-f1-season-nears


Zak Brown discusses chances of all-Mercedes cars being banned from Australian GP
9 Feb 2026
Co-author:Tim Kraaij
Ben Hunt
GPblog.com

Zak Brown has moved to shut down speculation surrounding Mercedes’ Formula 1 power unit, dismissing claims of a compression-ratio loophole as “typical politics” during pre-season testing. Speaking at a media briefing that included GPblog, Brown suggested the controversy was part of Formula 1’s long-standing competitive culture. “It’s typical politics of Formula One,” Brown said. “The engine has been designed and is totally compliant within the rules. That’s what the sport is about. It’s no different from things like double diffusers that we’ve seen in the past, where they were compliant within the rules.”

Speaking at a media briefing that included GPblog, Brown suggested the controversy was part of Formula 1’s long-standing competitive culture. “It’s typical politics of Formula One,” Brown said. “The engine has been designed and is totally compliant within the rules. That’s what the sport is about. It’s no different from things like double diffusers that we’ve seen in the past, where they were compliant within the rules.”

There is no advantage: Brown also rejected suggestions that Mercedes has found a decisive performance advantage, despite claims from rival manufacturers. “I don’t believe there’s a significant advantage as being represented by the competition,” he added. “But of course, it’s their job that any perceived advantage they’ll make some story out of it. The reality is the engines are completely compliant, they’ve passed all their tests, and HPP has done a good job.”

‘Shut down speculation’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/breaking-news/zak-brown-discusses-chances-of-all-mercedes-cars-being-banned-from-australian-gp


Tyre availability for pre-season testing in Bahrain
10 February 2026
F1 Chronicle

The Sakhir circuit hosts the first three days from Wednesday 11 to Friday 13 February, with a further three from Wednesday 18 to Friday 20 February. Cars can run on track from 10 am to 2pm and from 3pm to 7pm. Over the course of the six days, all Pirelli slick compounds will be available for testing, though not all at the same time.

For the three days of the first pre-season test, teams can only run the C1, C2 and C3 slick compounds. They can use up to 28 sets of dry weather tyres, while one set of Cinturato Intermediates will also be available to them.

For the second session, from 18 to 20 February, the full range of compounds from C1 to C5 will be available, each team able to use a maximum of 24 sets. No wet weather tyres will be supplied for the second session, but teams can carry over sets previously fitted at the first session, including used sets that have done no more than nine laps.

‘Tyre availability’;

https://f1chronicle.com/tyre-availability-for-pre-season-testing-in-bahrain/?nowprocket=1


McLaren unveils 2026 MCL40 Livery in Bahrain
9 Feb 2026
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

McLaren has lifted the covers off its 2026 Formula 1 challenger, the MCL40, during a launch event streamed live from Bahrain — a symbolic choice given the nation’s long standing ties to the team’s ownership. The reveal brought together CEO Zak Brown, Team Principal Andrea Stella, drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, Chief Marketing Officer Lou McEwen, and Chief Designer Rob Marshall, who presented a livery that blends heritage with the confidence of a reigning champion.

Brown emphasised the balance between aesthetics and performance, noting that the livery was shaped with aerodynamic considerations in mind. “The iconic papaya continues on the MCL40 as we keep our tradition of carrying Championship winning liveries through to the next season,” he said. “We’ve balanced creative direction with aero considerations to create this striking 2026 competitor.” He also paid tribute to the organisation behind the scenes: “Thank you to all our committed shareholders and partners, without whom we simply wouldn’t be able to go racing… We’re all excited to see it hit the track.”

“We’ve balanced creative direction with aero considerations”;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/28212


Aston Martin F1: Fernando Alonso admits team is 'at square one' as livery revealed ahead of Bahrain test
10th Feb 2026
David George
National World

Fernando Alonso did not mince his words when asked about Aston Martin’s chances this season. Speaking to Spanish outlet AS, Alonso said: “We’re definitely behind, we’re at square one. I don’t think we’ve even started. “In Barcelona we were able to run some track time, but I treated it more like a filming day - a shakedown that other teams did privately at Silverstone with 200 kilometres that we couldn’t do.”

“Some parts of the car weren’t validated for top speed, and we had to limit ourselves to 280 kilometres per hour on the straights. It’s just one example of how the preparation was pushed to the limit. Bahrain will be our very first test, our very first contact with the car. Barcelona was just starting the car and seeing that everything worked.”

'At square one';

https://www.nationalworld.com/sport/formula-1/aston-martin-fernando-alonso-admits-team-at-square-one-livery-revealed-ahead-bahrain-test-5510193


Zak Brown fires ‘uninformed’ jibe at Australian politician for Oscar Piastri bias claim
10/02/2026
Jack Oliver Smith
Motorsport Week

Piastri was leading the Drivers’ Championship by over 30 points during the final third of the campaign, when various incidents and results saw his advantage dissipate. It led Senator Matt Canavan to go as far as raising the question of whether McLaren was favouring Norris in Australia’s parliament. Brown hit back at the time, describing Canavan as “uneducated”, and this week, ahead of the launch of the Woking-based squad‘s new MCL40, the American was asked about the topic once again.

“I think fans – put aside countries – all have various opinions in sport,” he told select media, including Motorsport Week. “It can be frustrating when some people – and again, this isn’t country specific – are very uninformed and the statements you see are just ridiculous. But I don’t think that’s territory specific. I think, as Oscar has communicated many times, he knows he’s getting a fair shake at it.”

“You win some you lose some. Things fall your way, things don’t fall your way. We lost Oscar some points, we lost Lando a lot of points in Holland, etc I think we just need to keep our head down, stay focused and the people that matter most to us know that we bring total sporting fairness to our racing team, our papaya fans and our sponsors, family and friends.”

“You win some you lose some”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/02/10/zak-brown-fires-uninformed-jibe-at-australian-politician-for-oscar-piastri-bias-claim/

[Fortitude]

F1 engine war set for Bahrain boilover as latest pre-season test to answer big questions.
Self-interest rules in Formula 1. Expect the other manufacturers to keep thrashing in Bahrain. The engine manufacturers can’t change the rules themselves; both F1 and the FIA have to agree too.
11 Feb 2026
Michael Lamonato from Fox Sports
Fox Sports (Australia)

The simmering debate over engine legality could boil over and into the open this week as put-out manufacturers attempt to have a controversial loophole closed. Mercedes is said to have found a way to increase its engine compression ratio — that is, how much the air and fuel is compressed in the engine cylinder — while running hot but to return a legal reading when the power unit is measured at ambient temperature. Ferrari, Audi and Honda have been pressing the FIA for answers for months.

Closing the loophole, however, would require four of five manufacturers to agree. With Red Bull also said to be exploiting the loophole, there has been no prospect of a successful vote. Reports from The Race, however, suggest Red Bull has switched camps. It’s a fascinating and late development, especially considering apparent hints from the brand that thermal expansion was engineering 101. Either Red Bull Powertrains was misdirecting or has found that it’s not able to achieve the higher compression ratio.

If Red Bull were to switch, rule changes could be forced through for the start of the season to have the compression ratio measured hot, when the car is on track. “We’ve spent a lot of time … discussing how we solve those issues,” FIA single seaters director Nikolas Tombazis said. “Our intention is to solve them for the start of the season. We don’t want to have controversies. We want people to be competing on the track and not in the courtroom or in the stewards room. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

‘Bahrain boilover’;

https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport/formula-one/typical-politics-f1-engine-row-set-for-bahrain-boilover-in-crucial-second-preseason-test/news-story/47d471bea43dedfd2e18751f466a6791


Rivals unite against Mercedes as Hill warns of Australian GP qualifying gap – round-up
10 Feb 2026
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Mercedes facing united front against its engine? According to Cadillac F1 CEO Dan Towriss, this is the case. Towriss claimed that talks are ongoing with the FIA over a solution, with reports pointing to Mercedes as a team which has exploited a compression ratio loophole in the new regulations. Towriss stated that “there’s unanimous views outside of Mercedes” about what the outcome should be.

Given the newness of it all, former F1 driver Johnny Herbert has predicted that the gap in Q1 between the 22 cars at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix could be as high as 1.3s. “1.3,” Herbert told The Race’s Stay on Track podcast, “quite a big difference front to back. 1.2, 1.3.” However, his fellow pundit Damon Hill believes it will be even bigger. “I’m going to say 1.8,” he declared.

‘Australian GP qualifying gap’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/damon-hill-f1-2026-q1-gap-australian-gp


Adrian Newey Built F1’s Most Radical Car: Now He Has to Prove It Works
10 FEB 2026
SCOTT GULBRANSEN
Sportsnaut

Adrian Newey is 67 and has been the aerodynamic brain behind 12 constructors’ championship winners at Williams, McLaren, and Red Bull. He doesn’t use computer-aided design. He sketches by hand, with a mechanical pencil, on a drawing board. His cars have won over 200 races. Think of him as the Bill Belichick of F1 engineering, except he’s pulled it off at three different teams. Now he’s at Aston Martin, backed by billionaire Lawrence Stroll, with a gleaming new campus in Silverstone and a fresh engine partnership with Honda.

The ambition is championship contention. Newey is the centerpiece. But there’s a catch. Aston Martin started wind tunnel development on the AMR26 roughly four months after everyone else. Their new facility wasn’t ready until April 2025. Newey didn’t officially join until March, though he spent his contractual gardening leave from Red Bull doing what he always does: thinking about cars.

“The philosophy really came in my gardening leave time from late April, when I was effectively out of the Formula 1 team,” Newey said at the car’s launch on February 9. “We all knew what the regulations were, they were published, so I just tried to sit back and think, ‘OK, I’ve got to think from first principles with these regulations. What could be a possible solution?’”

‘But there’s a catch’;

https://sportsnaut.com/f1/adrian-newey-impact-on-amr26


Adrian Newey deals Fernando Alonso major blow ahead of F1 2026 season
The Aston Martin team boss tempers expectations heading into F1 preseason testing
10 February 2026
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

Adrian Newey deals Fernando Alonso a major blow by warning the Spaniard that Aston Martin are four months behind their rivals heading into the latest round of preseason testing, ahead of the F1 2026 season.

“The AMR Technology Campus is still evolving,” Newey told Aston Martin. “The CoreWeave Wind Tunnel wasn’t on song until April, and I only joined the team last March, so we’ve started from behind, in truth. It’s been a very compressed timescale and an extremely busy 10 months. The reality is that we didn’t get a model of the ’26 car into the wind tunnel until mid-April.”

“Whereas most, if not all of our rivals would have had a model in the wind tunnel from the moment the 2026 aero testing ban ended at the beginning of January last year. That put us on the back foot by about four months, which has meant a very, very compressed research and design cycle. The car only came together at the last minute, which is why we were fighting to make it to the Barcelona Shakedown.”

‘Tempers expectations’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/adrian-newey-aston-martin-f1-2026-behind/


Aston Martin being ‘closely watched’ by F1 rivals with FIA on alert after Barcelona shakedown
10 Feb 2026
Tyler Rowlinson
F1 Oversteer

Aston Martin are being ‘closely watched’ in Bahrain after rivals feel they have pushed the boundaries. The Silverstone squad are hoping to return to the front of the grid with Adrian Newey and Honda spearheading their operation. Aston Martin unveiled the AMR26 on Monday, having tested the car in Barcelona with the other 10 teams.

They may have missed the opening three days of the test due to development issues, but that did not stop Aston Martin from turning heads in the paddock. Mercedes described the AMR26 as ‘adventurous’ when it hit the track. Newey has clearly gone in his own direction with the car’s design, given his expertise with regulation changes. For example, Newey has enhanced the RB19’s suspension for Aston Martin, using his previous Red Bull concepts in 2026.

Naturally, Newey’s car ‘attracted attention’ from their rivals, as per a report from RacingNews365. Some think that Aston Martin are ‘pushing the boundaries of the regulations’. So much so that the teams are ‘closely watching’ their Silverstone rivals in Bahrain and what Newey will bring to the test. The FIA is almost certain to keep tabs on Aston Martin, but the same goes for the rest of the field.

‘Closely watched’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/aston-martin-being-closely-watched-by-f1-rivals-with-fia-on-alert-after-barcelona-shakedown/


Seven things to look out for at first Bahrain F1 2026 test
10 Feb 2026
The Race

Are cars evolving already?
Is the Aston Martin-Honda package close enough?
First real look at the battle out front: Bahrain will be our first real look at anything, never mind the battle to be top dog! But in all seriousness we should at least begin to get a better indication of who's nailed ground zero of this new ruleset.

Do engines really look close?
How far off is the first Cadillac car? It certainly is in terms of clearing the 107% start requirement.
How much did Barcelona absence hurt Williams? The worry will be that missing Barcelona will be a symptom of something bigger at Williams. And there'll be no better time to dispel that notion than in the Bahrain test…

The first public test: No more 'is it a test or just a Shakedown Week?' No more secret testing that isn't really secret because F1 keeps showing the world what you're up to because it makes good 'content'. This week is proper pre-season F1 testing as we've all come to know and expect.

‘Seven things to look out for’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/f1-2026-bahrain-test-one-what-to-expect/

[Fortitude]

Verstappen leads Piastri on first morning of second test in Bahrain.
The Red Bull driver set the quickest time over the first four hours of running at the home of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Teams will have a further four hours of running in the late afternoon and evening.
11th February 2026
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

While Verstappen also exceeded a grand prix distance in the RB22, the next-quickest drivers – Piastri, Mercedes’ George Russell and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton – fell slightly short. Hamilton lost time with a brief, harmless spin at turn one early in the test.

Bahrain test one, day one morning lap times:
Pos. Car number Driver Team Model Best time Gap Laps
1 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull RB22 1’35.433 65
2 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren MCL40 1’35.602 0.169 54
3 63 George Russell Mercedes W17 1’36.108 0.675 56
4 44 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari SF-26 1’36.433 1.000 52
5 31 Esteban Ocon Haas VF-26 1’37.169 1.736 63
6 41 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls 03 1’37.945 2.512 75
7 55 Carlos Sainz Jnr Williams FW48 1’38.221 2.788 77
8 5 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi R26 1’38.871 3.438 49
9 77 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac 1’39.150 3.717 49
10 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin AMR26 1’39.883 4.450 33
11 43 Franco Colapinto Alpine A526 1’40.330 4.897 28

‘Verstappen leads Piastri’;

https://www.racefans.net/2026/02/11/verstappen-leads-piastri-on-first-morning-of-second-test-in-bahrain/


Toto Wolff: Red Bull Ford engine "the benchmark" in F1 Bahrain test
11 Feb 2026
Filip Cleeren
Motorsport.com

Mercedes Formula 1 Chief Toto Wolff believes new power unit manufacturer Red Bull Ford has come out of the gates with the best engine at Bahrain testing.

‘Toto Wolff: Red Bull Ford engine "the benchmark" ‘;

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/toto-wolff-red-bull-ford-engine-benchmark-f1-bahrain-test/10796702/


Williams bounce back as Sainz tops lap charts in Bahrain morning session
11 Feb 2026
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

Carlos Sainz was the most active driver on track during the opening morning of the Bahrain test. Williams were expected to deliver some answers after skipping the behind-closed-doors Barcelona test, and at least on the reliability front, those answers have come through.

The Williams driver, at the wheel of the FW48 in what was effectively the Grove-based team’s first official on-track session, racked up an impressive 77 laps — covering almost one and a half race distances.

Lap count standings in opening morning session of Bahrain test
Pos Driver Laps
1 Carlos Sainz 77
2 Arvid Lindblad 75
3 Max Verstappen 65
4 Esteban Ocon 64
5 George Russell 56
6 Oscar Piastri 54
7 Lewis Hamilton 52
8 Gabriel Bortoleto 49
9 Valtteri Bottas 49
10 Lance Stroll 33
11 Franco Colapinto 28

‘Williams bounce back’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/williams-bounce-back-as-sainz-tops-lap-charts-in-bahrain-morning-session


Everything that happened in first session of Bahrain F1 test
Feb 11, 2026
Josh Suttill
The Race

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was the fastest driver in the first half of the opening day of Formula 1’s first 2026 Bahrain pre-season test. After its behind-closed-doors five-day Barcelona test (where teams could run on a maximum of three days each), F1’s first Bahrain test is the first time all 11 teams are sharing the track with their 2026 cars.

With the opening four hours done, it was Verstappen who was quickest, with a 1m35.433s, set during the second hour of the test on the medium tyres. He clocked 65 laps aboard the RB22, more than a race distance (57 laps) at Bahrain Grand Prix venue Sakhir.

Verstappen was one of many drivers to start pushing the limits of his car, as he locked up at Turn 1 and went straight on with around an hour of the session to go. His closest competitor on the leaderboard was McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who was 0.169s slower with 54 laps on the board.

‘First session’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/verstappen-leads-first-morning-of-bahrain-f1-test/


Lewis Hamilton ‘struggling’ with new Ferrari issue after spin on day one of 2026 Bahrain testing
11 Feb 2026
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton hasn’t had the easiest start to testing ahead as action gets underway on day one of running in Bahrain. Journalist Kemal Sengul is at the track in Bahrain and keeping a very close eye on what’s going on among the 18 drivers who will take to the track on day one among all 11 teams. He said on X just after the first hour of running had finished: “Hamilton experienced a lock-up and went off the track. Drivers are struggling with braking due to the extremely hot weather.”

The official commentary from Formula 1 stated: “The yellow flags fly briefly for Hamilton, who has had a half-spin. He lost the rear on entry, turning the car round and sliding into the run-off area backwards. Bar some small flat spots, there is no harm done there – he was well away from the barriers, which is one of the reasons this makes such a good testing venue.”

‘Struggling’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/lewis-hamilton-struggling-with-new-ferrari-issue-after-spin-on-day-one-of-2026-bahrain-testing/


Where new F1 cars are already troubling drivers in Bahrain
Feb 11, 2026
Scott Mitchell-Malm
The Race

Interestingly, there were an inordinate number of lock-ups here as the first group of drivers explored the limits and went well beyond them on Wednesday morning. Nobody seemed immune to this although it happened in different ways. Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton caught small rear slides into Turn 10 but several had huge lock-ups. Hamilton and Franco Colapinto bailed out of the corner big time on one lap, with the Ferrari driver even turning right (not left) to make use of the run-off area.

Something Valtteri Bottas then did even more extremely as his Cadillac arrived and triggered a big plume of smoke. Lance Stroll then suffered three lock-ups in four laps in the Aston Martin, running deep every time. There were many less dramatic moments, though, and it painted a clear picture of cars that are challenging under braking. The reduced grip these cars produce is an obvious factor but it will be interesting to establish how much the energy recovery system is having an impact.

Recharging the battery is a critical component of the new engine rules, and harvesting from the rear axle under braking forms a key part of that. That is very dynamic and the brake balance between the front and rear can change lap to lap - which may be what drivers are having to get used to. Downshifting is also a factor, though. Verstappen and Gabriel Bortoleto went down an extra gear into Turn 10 compared to most, which was causing their cars to squirm a little into the apex (and rev higher/sound louder on throttle before upshifting early).

‘Lock-ups’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/our-initial-trackside-verdict-of-the-2026-f1-cars/

[Fortitude]

Norris tops first day of Bahrain test for McLaren.
Norris collected 58 laps on his way to a session-best 1:34.669s in the MCL40. The test was blighted by strong winds, which wreaked havoc on some parts of the circuit as drivers struggled to slow down under brakes.
12 Feb 2026
Simon Chapman
Speedcafe

“It was good to be back in the car today, we completed a lot of test items which gave us a lot of data to look over, as well as a better understanding of the car,” said Norris. “Of course, being in Bahrain in the sun, the conditions are very different to Barcelona, very hot and quite windy, and that was interesting to see how differently the car behaves. Positive day, lots learned, and looking forward to getting back in the car tomorrow.”

McLaren said the first focus of the test was to collect aerodynamic data, rather than chasing lap times or kilometres. “A productive first day in Bahrain as we continue our early on-track learning and developments for the MCL40,” said McLaren chief designer Rob Marshall. “We have approached this week by prioritising our learning and therefore chosen a deliberate run plan to optimise work that ultimately accelerates the development of our package.”

“You can see from Oscar and Lando’s running that they have both completed heavy aerodynamic testing today in conditions that are very different to the ones we experienced in Barcelona last month. With this in mind, we have prioritised data gathering runs over out and out mileage on this first day of the test. Everyone is pushing in the same direction...”

Results: Formula 1 Bahrain Pre-Season Test Day 1
Pos Driver Team Lap Diff Gap Laps
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:34.669 58
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:34.798 0.129 0.129 136
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:35.190 0.521 0.392 80
4 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:35.578 0.909 0.388 115
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:35.602 0.933 0.024 54
6 George Russell Mercedes 1:36.108 1.439 0.506 56
7 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:36.433 1.764 0.325 52
8 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:36.765 2.096 0.332 49
9 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:36.861 2.192 0.096 73
10 Alexander Albon Williams 1:37.437 2.768 0.576 68
11 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:37.629 2.96 0.192 30
12 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls 1:37.945 3.276 0.316 75
13 Carlos Sainz Williams 1:38.221 3.552 0.276 77
14 Sergio Perez Cadillac 1:38.828 4.159 0.607 58
15 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:38.871 4.202 0.043 49
16 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac 1:39.150 4.481 0.279 49
17 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:39.883 5.215 0.734 36
18 Franco Colapinto Alpine 1:40.330 5.661 0.446 28

‘Norris tops first day’;

https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2026-bahrain-pre-season-test-day-1-results-lando-norris-fastest-oscar-piastri/


McLaren unusual strategy identified as F1 rivals take different approach
12 Feb 2026
Samuel Coop
RacingNews365

Ted Kravitz has pointed out how McLaren is bucking the pre-season trend of continuously adding new components to its car across the two official tests, ahead of the campaign-opening Australian Grand Prix. The reigning constructors' champion has equipped the MCL40 at the Bahrain International Circuit with what is expected to be the aerodynamic package it will use in Melbourne.

"McLaren have done something different in that they have waited as late as they could to put what is pretty much the first-race aero package on their car," Kravitz said on Sky Sports F1. "Then that is what they are going to Melbourne with, whereas others, such as the Mercedes, the Ferrari, the Aston Martin are going to change."

‘McLaren is taking a contrarian approach’;

https://racingnews365.com/mclaren-unusual-strategy-identified-as-f1-rivals-take-different-approach


9 things we learned from day one of Bahrain F1 test
11 Feb 2026
Scott Mitchell-Malm, Edd Straw, Jon Noble
The Race

Mercedes’ extraordinary Red Bull claim: Does F1 have a new early benchmark? That’s what Mercedes boss Toto Wolff insisted with a surprise declaration fuelled by his team’s analysis of the initial long-run pace and GPS data.
What the early data tells us: While it was McLaren’s world champion Lando Norris who topped the times on Wednesday, Verstappen was a close second and was on a very quick-looking lap that faded in the final corners.
Why Max stands out trackside: From trackside, Verstappen also stood out for an aggressive downshifting technique linked to the new engine demands.

Ferrari’s car seems really difficult: After an encouraging start in the Barcelona test, the Ferrari looks far from the most stable car early on in Bahrain.
Aston Martin and Honda troubles: Aston Martin only managed 65 laps during the whole Barcelona shakedown test, and its game of catch up in Bahrain didn’t start well…
Audi with a bold new design: Audi was the first team to run this year way back on January 9, and appropriately enough it’s the first to introduce a big upgrade package.

How the cars really sound: The few videos we were served of the cars from Barcelona offered a bit of a clue that the new engines sound quite different to before.
Williams is overweight, but it works: After deflecting rampant speculation over the winter about its car being overweight, Williams has admitted that it will need to get its FW48 on a bit of a diet over the first few races.
More cars should have this design...: Shout out to the teams that have put their race numbers on the shark fin of the engine cover: Ferrari, Red Bull, Racing Bulls.

‘9 things we learned’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/9-things-we-learned-from-day-one-of-bahrain-f1-test/


Verstappen strikes fear into rivals with an impressive day of testing in Bahrain
11 Feb 2026
Kada Sárközi
Nicole Mulder
GPblog.com

The first day of testing in Bahrain made one thing clear: despite all the expectations around Mercedes and the new 2026 regulations, more and more points to the grid once again having to measure itself against Max Verstappen. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff even said that the Austrian Formula 1 team is the absolute benchmark on the power unit front. "The car, the power unit, (they) are the benchmark at the moment I would say. And then obviously you have Max in the car, that combination is strong,” he said.

Wolff points to Verstappen and Red Bull as top favorites. Wolff particularly highlighted Red Bull’s energy deployment, which, according to the Austrian, makes Verstappen’s team up to a second per lap faster. “Look at their energy deployment today. I mean, speaking a second a lap, over consecutive runs,” he explained. When asked, the Mercedes team principal admitted his own team currently has no answer to that.

‘Verstappen strikes fear’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/features/verstappen-strikes-fear-into-rivals-with-an-impressive-day-of-testing-in-bahrain


Red Bull develops old Adrian Newey trick Aston Martin has missed
Technical analyst Paolo Filisetti casts his eye over a minor, yet potentially magic development on Red Bull's RB22.
11 Feb 2026
Paolo Filisetti
RacingNews365

If we consider Red Bull's RB22, it was interesting to note not only the presence of a cooling vent in the rear, at the base of the halo, but above all its re-profiling, which integrates it better into the rear bodywork of the car. If this is compared to the Aston Martin solution, it is clear that not only is the cross-section of the two vents different,, above there is a clear difference in the internal ducting of the sidepods which feed them.

The purpose of these heat dissipation intakes is not only to ensure the precise management of the PU's operating temperatures, but also to exploit the hot outflow to increase the Coanda effect, used by Adrian Newey in the Sebastian Vettel heyday, in the airflow against the bodywork towards the rear axle. The idea of having the cooling vents far away from the rear axle serves not only to reduce the potential turbulent air which could disturb the rear wing, but to effectively guide the airflow through the difference in speed and density of the hot air emerging compared to the ambient air temperature.

In practice, low pressure is generated downstream of the cooling vents, which draws the streams of air at ambient temperature towards the rear, keeping them close to the body of the car. This not only generated aerodynamic load with the car, but also increases air extraction from the bottom by speeding up the central portion of the flow as it skims the bodywork.

‘Old Adrian Newey trick’;

https://racingnews365.com/red-bull-develops-old-adrian-newey-trick-aston-martin-has-missed


Explained: The issue that hit Adrian Newey’s radical Aston Martin in F1 testing
Aston Martin had limited running on Wednesday at the Bahrain F1 test
11 Feb 2026
Lewis Duncan
Crash.Net

Adrian Newey’s aggressive Aston Martin Formula 1 car managed only limited mileage on the opening day of the 2026 Bahrain test due to a “data anomaly” in the engine. On the opening day of Bahrain testing, Lance Stroll was tasked with putting the AMR26 through its paces. However, the Canadian only managed a total of 36 laps after an issue was detected with his Honda power unit.

Aston Martin has confirmed that an “anomaly” was detected in the power unit, which required investigation and kept Stroll sidelined for some time in the afternoon. “The Honda team detected a data anomaly with the power unit in the afternoon, which required further analysis and limited Lance’s running. This also marks the first time the AMR26 has run on track since the unveiling of its 2026 livery at Ithra in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, on Monday.”

“The Honda team detected a data anomaly with the power unit”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1089238/1/explained-issue-hit-adrian-neweys-radical-aston-martin-f1-testing

[Fortitude]

Leclerc leads Norris early in Bahrain after issues hit Mercedes and Red Bull.
Charles Leclerc finished ahead of Lando Norris during the second morning session of Bahrain winter testing, while Mercedes and Red Bull ran into issues.
12 Feb 2026
Olly Darcy
GPblog.com

On the track, it was Charles Leclerc and Ferrari who were the team to beat, with a 1:34.273 the fastest lap put down by anyone on day two of testing. World Champion Lando Norris set a 1:34.784 to put his McLaren in P2, but his 64 laps were the most of anyone, just two more than Leclerc's 62 laps.

The Alpine of Pierre Gasly rounded out the top three, while Oliver Bearman and Alex Albon finished the morning session in P4 and P5, respectively. Nico Hulkenberg finished sixth for Audi come the end of the four-hour session, with Liam Lawson and Racing Bulls were eight-tenths behind the German in P7. Cadillac's Sergio Perez and the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso rounded out the top ten.

Pos Driver Team Best lap Gap
P1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:34.273 —
P2 Lando Norris McLaren 1:34.784 +0.511
P3 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:36.723 +2.450
P4 Oliver Bearman Haas 1:37.025 +2.752
P5 Alex Albon Williams 1:37.229 +2.956
P6 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:37.266 +2.993
P7 Sergio Perez Cadillac 1:38.653 +4.380
P8 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 1:38.707 +4.434
P9 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:38.960 +4.687
P10 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 11:54.791 N/A
P11 Isack Hadjar Red Bull N/A N/A

‘Charles Leclerc finished ahead of Lando Norris’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/breaking-news/leclerc-leads-norris-early-in-bahrain-after-issues-hit-mercedes-and-red-bull


Why unusual Max Verstappen F1 2026 approach is proving controversial
Max Verstappen has adopted an unusual energy management technique. RacingNews365 technical analyst Paolo Filisetti explains why it may not be sustainable.
12 February 2026
Paolo Filisetti
RacingNews365

At certain points around the Bahrain International Circuit on the first day of F1 pre-season testing, it was clearly audible how Max Verstappen was performing some very unusual and entirely deliberate downshift sequences — specifically in sections where a downshift would not normally be expected.

It later emerged that the Dutchman — and also Audi — is using these downshifts as a way of charging the battery and having more energy available on the straights. Based on what we have seen so far, Verstappen's technique is undoubtedly effective, but specifically at this circuit; its impact is likely to vary from track to track over the course of the season. On some tracks, the drawbacks may outweigh the potential benefits.

In practical terms, and according to several engineers, it is very likely that over the opening races of the season, we will gradually see a blend of battery recharge techniques emerge, rather than one single dominant approach. What will ultimately prevail is a balance between the costs and benefits associated with each individual method. There is no doubt that energy harvesting and subsequent deployment currently represent the primary focus for all teams.

‘Very unusual and entirely deliberate downshift sequences’;

https://racingnews365.com/why-unusual-max-verstappen-f1-2026-approach-is-proving-controversial


Day 2 of F1 Testing: Leclerc Shines While Red Bull and Mercedes Struggle
FEBRUARY 12, 2026
SCOTT GULBRANSEN
sportsnaut.com

Red Bull and Mercedes, two teams widely expected to contend for the F1 2026 championship, spent most of the morning sidelined with mechanical problems while their rivals racked up miles in the desert heat. For newcomers trying to figure out the 2026 pecking order, here’s the honest truth: don’t read too much into it yet. Teams run different fuel loads, tire compounds, and engine modes during testing. But reliability? That matters. And Thursday was a rough one for two big names.

The F1 Start Problem Nobody’s Talking About Enough. One of the more fascinating storylines coming out of Bahrain has nothing to do with lap times. It’s about race starts, specifically how much harder they are under the 2026 rules. The new F1 engines no longer have the MGU-H, a component that previously used exhaust gases to spin the turbocharger.

Without it, drivers face significant turbo lag off the line. They have to rev much higher and hold it much longer before releasing the clutch. It’s a completely different procedure from what they’ve done for the past decade.

‘Day 2 of F1 Testing’;

https://sportsnaut.com/f1/f1-bahrain-testing-leclerc-fastest-red-bull-mercedes-struggles


Ferrari SF-26 debuts ‘aggressive’ diffuser extensions to outpace Mercedes and Williams on downforce
12 February 2026
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Ferrari have developed ‘aggressive’ diffuser extensions on their 2026 Formula 1 car. A report from Motorsport has shared more details about what’s going on with the back of Ferrari’s car this year.

A change in the 2026 regulations has allowed Ferrari to extend the sides of the diffuser structure in the hopes of improving the efficiency of the car and generating more downforce. Mercedes and Williams are two teams that have followed a similar path to Ferrari in the development of their diffuser.

‘Ferrari SF-26 debuts’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-sf-26-debuts-aggressive-diffuser-extensions-to-outpace-mercedes-and-williams-on-downforce/


Mercedes relied on manual hammer adjustments for W17 suspension in Bahrain testing
12 Feb 2026
Luke Newman
F1 Oversteer

Heading into the six-day Bahrain test, it was expected that Mercedes would continue their strong form. However, on the opening day at the Bahrain International Circuit, the team encountered issues with the W17. George Russell was able to complete 56 laps in the opening session and ended the day sixth on the timesheets, but Kimi Antonelli was only able to complete 30 laps after an issue delayed his running in the second session.

Mercedes were forced to fix a suspension issue with a hammer. After missing half of the session, Antonelli was released from the pits and ended the opening day of the test in 11th place on the timesheets. Mercedes confirmed that the issue they faced in the second session was not related to their Power Unit, but they did not want to discuss any further details regarding the problem. However, it is now believed that there was an issue with the W17’s suspension, which they were ‘hitting with a hammer’.

Technical Analyst, Sam Collins, added, “Well, I have been fettling about in the back of the garage, and they were hitting it with a hammer. So, I know they had a big problem. “I understand that the issue was in the suspension area of the car; they did not want to give more detail but obviously, they needed to make an adjustment with a hammer. So, that is a pretty substantial issue, because Mercedes are not the team to fix it with a hammer.”

‘Manual hammer adjustments’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/mercedes-relied-on-manual-hammer-adjustments-for-w17-suspension-in-bahrain-testing/

[Fortitude]

'We're not quick enough' - Norris says McLaren are behind Ferrari, Red Bull.
Lando Norris believes world champions McLaren currently trail Ferrari and Red Bull on pace with four days of pre-season testing to go.
12 Feb 2026
Sky Sports

Speaking to Sky Sports after Thursday's running, his final day in the car this week, Norris said: "We did a good amount of laps, we're certainly not quick enough. Plenty of work for us to look into and try to improve on. I think today was our first bit of understanding on where we stand in terms of pace, against at least Ferrari, who did a full long run.”

"We're not really close to them at the minute. We're certainly not bad, but we're not quick enough. It's still just testing and we've got plenty of things we know we can already improve on and work on, so nothing to be worried by, but a productive day for the teams and for myself, and that's the most important thing."

When speaking with the written media, Norris also highlighted the strength of Red Bull - who have produced their own engine for the first time, in conjunction with Ford - as a standout performer from testing so far. "They have a very good power unit by the looks of things," said Norris of the team described by Mercedes' Toto Wolff on Wednesday as 2026's current "benchmark". "They deploy and have a lot of efficiency [with their engine energy management].”

'We're not quick enough';

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/13506733/lando-norris-mclaren-driver-says-ferrari-red-bull-are-ahead-of-f1-world-champions-so-far-in-pre-season-testing


F1 results: Bahrain F1 2026 pre-season testing: Day 2 (Sakhir)
12 Feb 2026
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

Here are the complete F1 results from Day 2 of the first official pre-season test of F1 2026 in Bahrain.

F1 results: Bahrain pre-season test: Day 2
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:34.273 139 laps
2 Lando Norris McLaren +0.511 149 laps
3 Oliver Bearman Haas +1.121 130 laps
4 George Russell Mercedes +1.193 54 laps
5 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +2.288 87 laps
6 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +2.397 67 laps
7 Pierre Gasly Alpine +2.450 97 laps
8 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac +2.551 67 laps
9 Alexander Albon Williams +2.956 62 laps
10 Nico Hulkenberg Audi +2.993 47 laps
11 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls +3.197 83 laps
12 Carlos Sainz Williams +3.319 69 laps
13 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +3.744 50 laps
14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +3.975 98 laps
15 Sergio Perez Cadillac +4.380 42 laps
16 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes no time 3 laps

‘Complete F1 results’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/f1-results-bahrain-pre-season-testing-2026-day-2


Stroll sounds the alarm at Aston Martin: ‘We’re four seconds off!’
12/02/2026
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

It’s early days still, but the numbers underline a start far below expectations for a team boasting a new Honda power unit, Adrian Newey at the helm, and substantial investment from billionaire owner Lawrence Stroll. “Right now, we look like we're four seconds off the top team, four and a half seconds,” commented Stroll. “Impossible to know what fuel loads and everything people are running. But, yeah, now we need to try and find four seconds of performance.”

Despite the harsh reality, Stroll tried to frame some hope for the future, though his tone remained cautious. “We have all the tools to fight for race wins and championships,” he said. “We're not doing that at the moment and we have to think about what we can do about it. Do we want to fight for race wins? Yes. Are we fighting for race wins today? It doesn't look like it. Does that mean we can’t fight for race wins in the future? No, I believe we can.”

Yet Stroll refused to sugarcoat the uncertainty surrounding the team’s progress. “So, I don't have a crystal ball, I didn't have a crystal ball before the season started, and we are where we are here today. It doesn't look like it's amazing. Can that change in the next few weeks? Can it get a lot better? For sure. Will it 100% get way better? I don't know. I don't have the answers to those questions. All I can say is we're pushing as hard as we can. We're focused on bringing performance to the car, to the engine every single second of every single day and time will tell how competitive we look at the first race and throughout the whole season.”

‘We’re four seconds off!’;

https://f1i.com/news/558977-stroll-sounds-the-alarm-at-aston-martin-were-four-seconds-off.html


What we learned from Day 2 of the first 2026 pre-season test in Bahrain
F1.com's Lawrence Barretto runs through the main developments from the second day of testing in Bahrain.
12 Feb 2026
F1 Correspondent & Presenter Lawrence Barretto
Formula One - Official Site

Red Bull impress despite loss of early running: Red Bull's Max Verstappen was prolific during his full day in the car on Wednesday, with the four-time World Champion clocking 136 laps.
Mercedes encounter another tricky day: Mercedes' boss Wolff was keen to play down the team's hopes for the season, despite their smooth Barcelona Shakedown, when he spoke to the media on Wednesday – not least because they encountered a suspension issue that cost track time.

Audi continue productive F1 debut: Audi have made a very strong start to life in Formula 1. They were the first team to complete a shakedown of a 2026-spec car – and while they encountered several niggles that hindered mileage in Barcelona, that is to be expected of a new works team, running a debut engine.
Challenging start to Newey era at Aston Martin: Lance Stroll cut a despondent figure when he spoke to media on Wednesday, with the Canadian admitting his Aston Martin – the first to be designed by legend Adrian Newey – just needs more performance, more grip and a better balance.

‘What we learned from Day 2’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/what-we-learned-from-day-2-of-the-first-2026-pre-season-test-in-bahrain.2bdxgVm6KVo6rcciRTI2J7


MAX ON DRIVING WITH A NEW GENERATION OF F1 CARS: 'NOT FUN AT ALL'
12 February 2026
Florence Cobben
Verstappen.nl

When asked if he enjoyed driving the car, Max hesitantly answered: “It’s not fun at all. I would say the right word is management. But on the other hand, I also know how much work has been going on in the background, from the engine side, from the guys. So it’s not always the nicest thing to say, but I also want to be realistic as a driver (that) the feeling is not very Formula 1-like. It feels a bit like Formula E on steroids. But the rules are the same for everyone, and so you have to deal with that.”

He clarifies: “A lot of what you do as a driver, in terms of input, has a massive effect on the energy-side of things. For me, that’s just not Formula 1. Then it’s better to drive Formula E, right? ‘Cause that’s all about energy, efficiency, and management – that’s what they stand for. So yeah, driving-wise, not so fun. At the same time, I also know what is at stake for the team – our own engine. And seeing the excitement of the people – of course when I sit in the car I will give it my very best. They know that, but the excitement is not so high.”

“It’s not fun at all”;

https://news.verstappen.com/en/article/6071/


Ted Kravitz says Mercedes are already planning major update in time for second Bahrain F1 test
12 February 2026
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Mercedes planning to use third different chassis during 2026 Bahrain pre-season F1 test. Kravitz was reporting on proceedings in Bahrain on Ted’s Notebook (11/2 8:49 pm), and describing the situation at Mercedes, he said: “Mercedes, as I say, have they got the sandbags out? Have they realised that the pace in Barcelona was a little bit, let’s just say, it didn’t serve them right.”


“They only did 86 laps today. They got the laps in, but they did have a problem after lunch. So, George Russell 56 laps, P6, Kimi Antonelli P11 and 30 laps. They were slower than Barcelona. George was doing some longer runs in the morning. Then they found an issue. They hoped to be out later on with Kimi Antonelli; they were. But yeah, otherwise it all seems to be OK. This, I believe, I understand is chassis number two on the Mercedes, and they’ll actually bring a third chassis to the Bahrain number two test.”

‘Chassis number three on the Mercedes’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ted-kravitz-says-mercedes-are-already-planning-major-update-in-time-for-second-bahrain-f1-test/


HADJAR ENDS DAY TWO OF BAHRAIN TESTING IN FIFTH, AS LECLERC TOPS THE TIMESHEETS
12 February 2026
Florence Cobben
Verstappen.nl

Despite missing most of the morning session due to a hydraulic issue (bar one installation lap), Isack Hadjar was able to get back in the car during the second half of today’s session and climbed to fifth place on the timesheets. Max Verstappen’s Oracle Red Bull Racing-teammate was able to close this Thursday practice session with a respectable 87 laps to his name.

‘P5’;

https://news.verstappen.com/en/article/6070/

[Fortitude]

Fernando Alonso throws gloves in fury after first laps in Aston Martin’s AMR26.
F1 journalist Antonio Lobato: “He gets out of the car, throws away the gloves; they’re not where they wanted to be, not even close.”
12 February 2026
Ashley Hambly
F1 Oversteer

Newey reportedly told Alonso that Aston Martin are now ‘months’ behind their F1 rivals on the grid, highlighting the severity of the issue that the British constructor are currently looking down the barrel of. The 32-time Grand Prix is yet to make an official decision on his future in the sport. Alonso recently stated that he wants to wait until September to announce his intentions, despite the pressure that figures at Aston Martin are piling on him to decide quicker.

In a separate Instagram story from Lobato, he asks Alonso’s counterpart, Lance Stroll, what the ‘best thing’ about Aston Martin’s new F1 car is. The Canadian sarcastically replied, “The decoration is very nice,” which further draws attention to the struggles that the Silverstone-based team are currently experiencing. Now, Stroll isn’t the most talkative driver on the grid as it is, but his silence over any other potential positives about the car speaks volumes.

The first day of testing in Bahrain was Stroll’s first proper run out in the new machine, after handing the car over to Alonso in Barcelona following the completion of just a handful of installation laps on the Thursday evening. Newey and co certainly have their work cut out for them over the next few weeks, before the grid congregate in Australia for the 2026 season-opener.

‘Throws gloves in fury’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/fernando-alonso-throws-gloves-in-fury-after-first-laps-in-aston-martins-amr26/


Antonelli leads Mercedes one-two as second test concludes in Bahrain
13th February 2026
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

The Mercedes drivers occupied the top two places on the times sheets as Formula 1’s second pre-season test concluded in Bahrain. Andrea Kimi Antonelli took over from George Russell halfway through today’s test and took almost a quarter of a second off his benchmark time. The 19-year-old left the quickest time of the test at a 1’33.669, just under four seconds off last year’s pole position time.

Test two, day three times
Pos. Car number Driver Team Model Best time Gap Laps
1 12 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes W17 1’33.669 61
2 63 George Russell Mercedes W17 1’33.918 0.249 78
3 44 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari SF-26 1’34.209 0.540 150
4 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren MCL40 1’34.549 0.880 161
5 3 Max Verstappen Red Bull RB22 1’35.341 1.672 61
6 6 Isack Hadjar Red Bull RB22 1’35.610 1.941 59
7 31 Esteban Ocon Haas VF-26 1’35.753 2.084 75
8 43 Franco Colapinto Alpine A526 1’35.806 2.137 144
9 87 Oliver Bearman Haas VF-26 1’35.972 2.303 70
10 27 Nico Hulkenberg Audi R26 1’36.291 2.622 58
11 23 Alexander Albon Williams FW48 1’36.793 3.124 78
12 30 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 03 1’36.808 3.139 119
13 55 Carlos Sainz Jnr Williams FW48 1’37.186 3.517 68
14 11 Sergio Perez Cadillac 1’37.365 3.696 67
15 5 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi R26 1’37.536 3.867 60
16 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin AMR26 1’38.165 4.496 72
17 77 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac 1’38.772 5.103 37

‘Mercedes one-two’;

https://www.racefans.net/2026/02/13/antonelli-leads-mercedes-one-two-as-second-test-concludes-in-bahrain/


PIERRE WACHE AFTER FIRST WEEK OF PRE-SEASON TESTING: 'ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT'
13 February 2026
Yvonne Huijs
Verstappen.nl

Pierre Waché, Technical Director of Oracle Red Bull Racing, reflects on the first test week in Bahrain for the new Formula 1 season: “It has been a positive week, running a full day with Max, with plenty of testing time as we worked on understanding the car and the direction to go in with the power unit. Unfortunately, on day two we had some problems with the hydraulics on the chassis side, which compromised Isack’s running in the morning but we were able to recover this in the afternoon. This morning with Max we evaluated set-ups and saw some good direction and this was similar with Isack this afternoon, so it's been quite positive with the mileage done this week."

Waché continues: "We need to make sure the car continues to develop a lot more to improve the issue on the balance side and we know that there is a lot of room for improvement. Our drivers are very motivated and have given us a lot of feedback on where we can improve the car and how we can change the direction of development. In general, Red Bull Ford Powertrains has done a remarkable job as a start-up; in three and a half years we have created a power unit and have it out running on track, which is fantastic.”

“We know that there is a lot of room for improvement”;

https://news.verstappen.com/en/article/6074/


Charles Leclerc sounds early alarm as Ferrari chase Red Bull and Mercedes in F1 2026
Ferrari star delivers blunt verdict on where the Scuderia stands before the new era truly begins
13 February 2026
John Smith
Total Motorsport

“It’s so difficult to understand,” Leclerc admitted. “It was difficult with the previous generation of cars, but now with the hybrid and especially the electrical engine being so much more powerful, there are so many small tweaks that you can do, and you can hide the real potential of the car in many, many different ways now. So, it’s very, very difficult for us to understand exactly where we stand.”

“What I’m happy of is that we are going through our programme. We didn’t have any reliability issues so far, and this is a good start. Everything stacks up with what we expected. So that’s a good base to then start to work on and to improve. I think everybody is trying to throw the ball to the other guys, it’s normal at that point of the season,” Leclerc said.

“I think Red Bull have shown very impressive things power unit wise since the start of the test, especially here. Mercedes are showing some very impressive things as well sometimes. But I would say they are hiding a lot more. I would expect them two especially to be a bit ahead of us,” Leclerc continued. “Then McLaren is a little bit more difficult to understand, but from where I stand now, it’s Red Bull, Mercedes in front, and then us. But it doesn’t seem to be too much of a gap for now.”

‘Blunt verdict’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/charles-leclerc-f1-2026-pecking-order-ferrari-red-bull-mercedes/


Mercedes called 'very good at hiding their potential' in Bahrain verdict
13 Feb 2026
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Charles Leclerc believes Red Bull and Mercedes are both in front, despite the two teams suggesting their rivals are ahead. Leclerc believes it's hard to draw conclusions for now. He continued: "Because it's so difficult to understand. It was difficult with the previous generation of cars. But now with the hybrid and especially the electrical engine being so much more powerful, there are so many small tweaks that you can do. "And you can hide the real potential of the car in many, many different ways now. So it's very, very difficult for us to understand exactly where we stand.”

"What I'm happy about is that we are going through our program, we didn't have any reliability issues so far this is a good start, everything stacks up with what we expected so that's a good base to then start to work on and to improve," the Monegasque driver added, before the SF-26 stopped under Lewis Hamilton during the final ten minutes of the afternoon session. The reason remains unknown.

'Very good at hiding their potential';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/mercedes-called-very-really-good-at-hiding-their-potential-in-bahrain-verdict