September 2, 2025 · 1:51 pm

Racing Bulls boss: Verstappen trying our car is “like me flying to the moon…”

Isack Hadjar’s podium has ramped up speculation about what Verstappen could do with the VCARB

Even before Isack Hadjar’s spectacular run to third place in the Dutch GP speculation was rife about what Max Verstappen could do if he was at the wheel of the VCARB 02.

The fact that rookie Hadjar finished the Zandvoort race in the wheel tracks of the World Champion only added to the intrigue.

Even Fernando Alonso joined in the fun, suggesting that the Dutchman would be fighting for the World Championship if he was at the wheel of the sister team’s car.

In theory Verstappen could have a run in an FP1 session just to get a feel for where the Faenza car is better or worse than his own, and he could provide both his own team and Racing Bulls with some useful feedback.

A straight swap could also allow Hadjar to have an FP1 session in a Red Bull, giving the main team a little taster of his talent ahead of any decision over next season.

You could also argue that it’s something that is more likely to be green lit with former Racing Bulls boss Laurent Mekies in charge than it would have been under Christian Horner.

However Max swapping over even for a single session could also be a very public admission that RBR hasn’t done a good enough job of late, as well as providing fuel for rivals who already think that there’s a little too much co-operation between the two teams, notwithstanding the fact that Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda have swapped back and forward.

An FP1 session would be one thing, but at the other end of the scale is the enticing but highly improbable prospect of Verstappen actually spending a whole weekend with Racing Bulls.

It’s a great idea for fans to ponder over, and it would be a huge PR story for the sport, and for the overall Red Bull organisation.

Even F1 boss Stefano Domenicali admitted it would be fun when joking about the suggestion with journalists after the Dutch GP.

However the Racing Bulls camp insists that even a test is not on the horizon for Verstappen.

“I guess we are joking about it, as everybody else does,” CEO Peter Bayer told me after Hadjar’s third place at Zandvoort. “But at the end of the day, we’re two teams that operate differently, and it’s not really a question. It’s more like a running gag for everyone.”

But couldn’t it be considered at the end of the year, when there are no championship positions at stake?

“The thing is in F1 always everything is at stake. It’s about making things predictable, not putting things in jeopardy. It’s not considered, it’s not discussed. It’s not happening.

“I think we’ve been working so hard to develop our identity, and to move Racing Bulls up. It’s not an option to me. It sounds like me flying to the moon. It’s just not something that will happen…”

Team principal Alan Permane also insisted that it’s not even on the radar.

“It’s not, honestly,” he told me. “We’re just focused on our own thing. That’s something that you guys chat about.

“Someone asked me at the weekend, is Max going to get in it for a P1 session? And of course, he’s not. We’re just focused on getting the most out of it, as Red Bull are focused on getting the most out of their car.”

Permane says it wouldn’t even be an option at the post-season Abu Dhabi tyre test: “Not really. I think what’s more interesting will be us learning about next year’s tyres, which is what we’ll do at that test at the end of the year. So there’s plenty of serious stuff to do.”

There is a precedent of sorts – back in 1994 Michael Schumacher had a test with Benetton’s then sister team Ligier, essentially get a feel for the Renault V10 he’d be using the following year.

However he refused to give the French outfit any feedback on what he thought about the chassis, much to the frustration of the engineers who had arranged the test.

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September 1, 2025 · 4:47 pm

How Sainz and Lawson lost their shot at Zandvoort points – and blamed each other

Their collision was already costly, and then a penalty rubbed salt into Sainz’s wounds

While some drivers enjoyed perfect afternoons in Zandvoort for Carlos Sainz and Liam Lawson a clash after the first safety car restart proved very expensive.

Both men had to crawl round to the pits with punctures, while Sainz also needed a new nose.

They both dropped to the back of the field, and then to add insult to injury the FIA stewards deemed that Sainz was handed a 10-second penalty, which he had to take at a subsequent pit stop.

They decreed “that car 30 had the right to the corner and therefore car 55 was wholly or predominantly to blame for the collision,” a view that Sainz inevitably disagreed with, and which left him fuming.

Having called Lawson “stupid” at the time he reined it in a bit after the race. However he hadn’t changed his perspective on the shunt which he felt had cost him the chance to finish as high as P5, the position occupied by team mate Alex Albon, and who has behind him when the collision occurred.

“It’s a corner that allows two cars to race each other without really having to have any unnecessary contact,” he said when I asked him about it. “But with Liam, it always seems to be very difficult to make that happen.

“He always seems to prefer to have a bit of contact and risk a DNF or a puncture like we did, than to actually accept having two cars side-by-side, which hopefully it will come with more experience to him, because he knows he’s putting too many points on the line just for an unnecessary manoeuvre, like he did.

“But on top of that, to then get a 10-second penalty for it, I think it’s a complete joke. Honestly, I need to go now to the stewards just to get an explanation, to see what is their point of view of the incident.

“Because it’s unacceptable, I think it’s not the level of stewarding that F1 needs if they are really considering that to be a 10-second penalty. On my behalf, I think it’s a serious matter now that concerns me as a driver, as a GPDA director, and something that I will make sure I raise.”

He added: “It’s something that is very concerning. I’m talking as calmly and with eloquently and trying to pick my words in the best possible way, without trying to put here about a bad word for anyone.

“But what I’ve seen today and what I’ve suffered today is something that concerns me, for myself, but for the other drivers and for motorsport in general, if they really think this is how a penalty should be applied to the guy that is around the outside, I don’t know.”

He was adamant that Lawson was at fault, and that he wasn’t even attempting to pass at that point.

“I wasn’t even really trying to race Liam that hard. I just had a gap around the outside, and so I’m going to start getting him a bit out of position for Turn 2, Turn 3. I wasn’t trying to pass him around the outside.

“I was just trying to have a side-by-side with him to then get him a bit of line for Turn 2, Turn 3, and then suddenly I have a contact, which caught me completely off-guard and by surprise.

“You need to pick your battles. And probably Liam in his first years now, if he’s deciding to have a bit this approach of crash or no overtake, it’s something I’ll keep in keep in mind.

“But the story of my season so far again, a race where I could have finished P5 where Alex is, another 10 points that for something that I cannot understand and is out of our hands.”

Regarding the contact he added: “I’ve raced Lewis, I’ve raced Checo, I’ve raced Oscar, I’ve raced Charles, I’ve raced so many drivers doing the move I did today, so many other cars in the last four years – at the start, racing around inside, outside, high banking, low banking, without really having contact.

“If the guy in the inside doesn’t want to have contact, if the guy in the inside decides to open the wheel and create a contact or risk a contact, then it’s on their behalf, but for the guy on the outside to receive a penalty for it is what concerns me the most.”

Inevitably the two drivers had opposing views on the contact and how it should have been treated by the FIA.

Lawson wasn’t impressed when I told him how unhappy Sainz was with what had transpired.

“I’m sure he’s not,” said the Kiwi. “Obviously I’m not stoked either, it ruined my day. The rules are written as they are, and we know how they’re written.

“And I’ve been on the receiving end this year as well, where I was going for an overtake and thought that I should be given space, and I wasn’t, and I got a penalty.

“So it’s something that we learn from. We all know this. It’s lap one on a restart, it’s super slippery, cold tyres. It’s fine to go for the move, but it’s just risky. And we made concept, which is not ideal, but that’s why he got a penalty.”

Lawson was adamant that he wasn’t the guilty party.

“I think he was overtaking me today, and I also think he got a penalty today. So he can make all the comments in the world he likes. I wish he’d just come and talk to me about it rather than telling everybody else.

“But if it was my fault, I would have got a penalty. I understand his frustration. We don’t want to be in these situations. And as I said, I’ve been on the receiving end as well. It’s just the way the rules are written. And we all know that.”

The collision proved just as costly for Lawson as it was for Sainz, and while he eventually recovered to P12 he missed a shot at finishing within a couple of places of team mate Isack Hadjar.

“We were I guess behind George before everything happened. And the car has been very, very strong. So there’s no reason why we wouldn’t have come home with very strong points today.

“We were just consistent in the first stint, sort of managing. A restart is always aggressive and tough. And obviously it’s time for opportunities. But something that risky when we’re both in the points like that, it just sucks….”

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August 31, 2025 · 7:13 pm

Why Zandvoort failure will allow Norris to “chill out” and “just go for it…”

His title hopes took a huge knock in Zandvoort but Norris is keen to move on

A Formula 1 World Championship campaign is made up of 24 race weekends, and they all count. However if Lando Norris does eventually lose out to McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri by a margin of fewer than 18 points then his mechanical retirement in Zandvoort will perhaps be remembered as the unluckiest break of his season.

Failures are rare amongst the frontrunning teams these days, but down the years the destination of many titles has swung on the basis of retirement or two here or there.

What was perhaps most impressive was Norris’s calm demeanour on team radio as he coasted to a stop and prepared to abandon the car.

In effect the fact that he had done nothing wrong allowed him to quickly accept that it pure bad luck had just robbed him of second place and 18 points, and there was nothing he could do about it.

And intriguingly he also suggested that his title hopes took such a big knock, and Piastri has such a large lead, that he now has less to lose.

“It wasn’t my fault, so nothing I can really do,” he said when I asked about his measured response to the failure.

“Just not my weekend, a little bit unlucky yesterday with the wind and unlucky today. So nothing much. Out of my control.

“So a tough one. Of course it’s frustrating. It hurts a bit in just for sure, in the championship point of view, it’s a lot of points to lose so quickly and so easily. But, yeah, nothing I can control now, so just take it on the chin and move on.”

The McLaren drivers have benefited from bulletproof reliability on the chassis and Pu side in recent seasons. So was it perhaps inevitable that eventually something would go awry? Norris didn’t see it that way.

“Not even, because I think the team and HPP have done a very good job over the last two years. I think we’ve had pretty mu,ch minimal… This might be the first one that I can remember that’s cost us any points or anything at all.

“So it’s not even inevitable at like this point, because everyone works to such high standards, we don’t expect anything, really. So that’s why it’s more again just unlucky.

“It’s not like in the olden days, when used to pretty much blow up every other race. I don’t think it is inevitable, but we don’t expect it nowadays, so it’s just, yeah, frustrating, unlucky. And that’s it.”

Piastri’s lead has now grown to a healthy 34 points, and while we still have nine weekends to go – including a few sprints – it’s starting to look like a difficult task for Norris.

“The only thing I can do is try to win every race!,” he said. “That’s going to be difficult, but I’ll make sure I give it everything I can. I thought honestly this weekend was good, it wasn’t by ever much, and I didn’t lose out by much in quali, but I felt always pretty on top of things, and a couple little areas to improve on.

“But if it wasn’t for a little gust of wind down the start/finish yesterday, I’d be on pole, and I’m sure the race would have looked a bit different today. The pace was very strong today.

“So there are so many positives. It’s just close. I have a good teammate. He’s strong, he’s quick in every situation, every scenario. So it’s hard to get things back on someone who’s just good in pretty much every situation.

“But today is a different situation. It’s just unlucky. It’s not my fault, and sometimes that’s just racing.

“It certainly hasn’t helped the [title] race. It’s only made it harder for me, and put me under more pressure. But it’s almost a big enough gap now that I can just chill out about it and just go for it…”

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August 31, 2025 · 8:02 am

How Zandvoort F1 qualifying exposed a Williams tyre weakness

Albon couldn’t get tyre temperature when it mattered in Q2 at Zandvoort

Qualifying for the Dutch GP was a tricky affair for everyone, with gusts of wind catching many people out on top of the challenge of getting the tyres into just the right window.

It wasn’t easy to put all the pieces together, and just as Isack Hadjar got it spectacularly right in P4, so some others were a little bit out of position.

Among them was Alex Albon, who was as high as P6 in Q1 but then tumbled to a lowly P15 after a difficult final run in Q2.

The Williams driver was quick to flag a tyre temperature issues on team radio. Afterwards he gave a fascinating insight into the challenge of getting the out lap just right, revealing an unusual amount of detail about how the FW47 has to be pushed harder than rivals before commencing a flying lap.

“We were quite comfortably in the top 10 in Q1, and we were quite comfortably in the top 10 in Q2 run one,” he noted.

“And then basically when we came out the garage, we must have been waiting for about two and a half minutes to get out the pit lane.

“And then by the time we got out the pit lane, all the people that came out the pit lane before were on their push laps. So then you do a slow out lap, because you have to let all the cars past who are on the push lap.

“By the time that happens, you go into Turn 1, and the tyres are absolutely nowhere. And you cannot do anything, honestly. We know we’re on the on the back foot in terms of our window to get the tyres to work is narrower than other teams. I think you see that Carlos was struggling in Q1, I was okay in Q1.

“We’ve seen it in in so many tracks we’ve gone to this year so far, if we don’t get our clean out lap, we are nowhere.

“And I think our out lap is normally around this track so far this weekend has been about 10-15 seconds a lap quicker than the people around us. And my Q2 run two out lap was maybe 20-25 seconds slower than my normal out lap. So you can imagine that normally doesn’t go well when you go into Turn 1…”

That requirement for a quick out lap is part of the DNA that is baked into the Williams, and the team has had to work around it all season.

“It doesn’t make it easy for us in many ways,” said Albon. “Obviously I’m angry at the moment. But as a strategist when your window is a bit smaller than everyone else’s to get the clean air and to get the right space on track is very difficult.

“And I feel for us. We basically need to figure out the tyres first. That’s the main issue, and then everything else will come easier. That’s where the frustration is.”

In stark contrast other cars need or can deal with a much slower lap out of the pitlane.

“I think in that moment, it’s basically how versatile are you on your out lap? A team like RB or Aston, for example, their out laps are about 15 seconds a lap slower than hours. So for them, it doesn’t matter.

“They can have the slow exit out of he pit lane and they can have a slow out lap, because it that’s what they do, even on a clear run. That’s not the same for us.

“That’s why you see us a lot of the time go early, for that very reason. I think Mercedes did it in Q2, they went early. And maybe we should have done that.”

All of this makes for some interesting scenarios as drivers jockey for position coming out of the pits.

“Communication is very important,” Albon noted. “You have to be flexible in your run plans. Like I said, the easiest thing is to get the tyres to have a big window, that’s realistically where you can afford to do it.”

“Obviously, this regulation with the minimum delta time and the pit lane thing, this is what it’s come down to.

“And what’s interesting is you’ll actually see some teams purposely letting cars get in front of them, because for them, it’s better to cool the tyres down before they start their out laps.

“But then it just creates chaos! It’s the same for everyone. So I’m not going to complain. I think it’s a valid solution. I think it’s been better doing this than it was from previous years. But it’s the name of the game, and you’ve just got to adapt and get better.”

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August 30, 2025 · 6:18 pm

Why a modest P7 grid spot still suggests that Hamilton is getting his mojo back

Lewis Hamilton is in a much happier place than he was before the summer break

P7 and a spot behind his Ferrari team mate Charles Leclerc might not sound much, but for Lewis Hamilton the outcome of Zandvoort Formula 1 qualifying was much more encouraging than the numbers might suggest.

Consider that including the Spa sprint he was 18th, 16th and 12th in the three previous sessions and it does represent a clear improvement in terms of overall performance.

However more importantly Lewis felt that he’d made progress in coming to terms with the tricky SF-25 and how to get the most out of it.

The man who dismissed himself as “useless” just a few weeks ago appears to be on the way to getting his mojo back.

“I tried to have a slightly different approach into the weekend,” he said when I asked him about his progress. “I’m not going to go into details of what that is, but some tweaks before I even got here, and then through the weekend, and it’s been a lot smoother.

“Yesterday, the car was a bit unpredictable, and we made some changes. I think maybe the wind makes it a little bit difficult as well, but I think we were looking for progress, and feel like I have had that this weekend. And I’ve not been in Q3 for some time, so I’m grateful for that.”

The fact that things are going in the right direction is a welcome boost for Hamilton after his recent struggles.

“Definitely encouraging at least on my side of the garage to have a better result,” he said. “Because the boys in the garage deserve it, and the team deserves it, so I’m happy I could be there or thereabouts.

“But of course, we’re not where we want to be. To be seven-tenths off, six and a half tenths off at a track like this, that’s a huge amount. So we’ve got to try and understand what that is, because Charles was P1 in the last race. But we naturally do still have that deficit, we’ve had it all year long.”

Indeed the gap to McLaren in Zandvoort provides plenty of food for thought.

“I think ultimately we need more load to go through the corners as fast as McLaren here. Now is that load, or is that coming from the tyres? Difficult to know. Maybe they are getting the tyres in a different operating window to us, potentially, or it’s a combination of both.

“Ultimately, I think McLaren definitely have more downforce than everybody, but they’re not very draggy. If we were to try and match them, we have to go up a couple levels of wing, but have the efficiency of a lower wing.

“Then it’s just combination of getting the car to be more stable through corner. I think the wind makes it really tricky, so you’ve got tail winds into Turn 1, and cross winds in lots of different places. And I think this car is just quite sensitive to wind.”

Hamilton was coy about saying too much about what he’s adjusted in terms of the car or his approach.

“As I said, there’s some things I changed on the way in which enabled me to start on the right foot, on the better foot. You saw my first lap yesterday. It was quickest at the time and then the next lap was a spin!

“The car, as I said, was quite unpredictable, but I think the setup changes, I think we really worked well together with the engineers this weekend, and it’s not been up and down changes.

“It’s been quite stable. Just made small tweaks, really, really small tweaks, and therefore just been trying to gain more and more confidence in the car. And I think that’s what’s happened the past couple days.”

He also made an interesting observation about the amount of setup tinkering he’s done, making it clear that he’s reining it in in pursuit of some stability. For example he didn’t join Leclerc in a major change for FP3.

“We started the same, he went a different way this morning, and I didn’t. I just stayed steady and just stayed with where I was, which I think was the right decision for me. I tried where he went many times through the year, and it’s never been positive for me. I’m definitely learning how to track the best from this car and realise that.

“I’m the type that’s always searching for more, like everywhere. It’s a little bit in the tyre pressure, a little bit in the blanket temperatures, a little bit in ride height, front, rear. I’m looking at everything.

“And I think what’s clear, the difference from where I was before, I think here you can’t be looking for those. You have to kind of stay put most often. And I think that’s also the case with this general generation of cars.”

So is this the best he’s felt in the car this year, given that there have been previous false dawns in places like China and Imola?

“I’ve got a bad memory, so I don’t really remember before, it’s all a bit of a blur. But it definitely feels like it’s been one of the most solid couple days so far of the year. So as I said, that’s to do with some of the improvements in the process, my approach, and then it’s just a little calmer overall.

“The team did a great job through qualifying. We just need more performance at this track from somewhere. But tomorrow maybe race pace will be a bit better, I hope. And I hope we can apply some pressure and try and move forwards.”

Indeed what he needs to do now is convert P7 into a decent result on Sunday and give himself and the team a boost ahead of Monza.

“Definitely important to have a solid weekend in general. So the last couple have been nightmare-ish. Get to bed early tonight and come back from tomorrow, and hopefully have a solid day.”

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August 29, 2025 · 7:00 am

Piastri focussing on what he can control as F1 title battle ramps up

Piastri could have a bigger lead over Norris – but he’s not looking backwards

Oscar Piastri heads into the final 10 races of the 2025 Formula 1 season with a nine point advantage over McLaren team mate Lando Norris.

Had things gone his way at certain races, or perhaps more accurately not gone the way of Norris, he could have been sitting on a much more substantial lead.

The most recent example was in Budapest, where as the chasing car Norris had the option of an alternative strategy – one that allowed him to secure victory, a result that created a 14-point swing in his favour.

Having done the difficult bit and been in front in the early stages Piastri could be forgiven for feeling a little bit miffed.

Hungary wasn’t the only time that events that were essentially out of his control conspired against Piastri and favoured his team mate. However, he denies that he feels hard done by in any way.

“No, I don’t,” he says. “I think there’s always going to be things in racing that you don’t necessarily agree with or don’t go the way you want. And that’s just part of it. Sometimes it makes you wonder why you picked this damn sport! But no, I think certainly don’t feel hard done by

“I think we’ve done a lot of things well that we can control this year. There’s been some tough moments, some tough lessons.

“But I’m very confident with the position that I’m in. I feel like I’ve driven well this year, and again all the things I can control, I feel like I’ve controlled very well. There is an opposite universe where a lot of things look very different, but none of that matters.

“So I’m just trying to focus on these next 10 races, and how I can perform either the same or, if not even better, than I did at the start of the year.”

For both Norris and Piastri the intensity of being in the spotlight of a World Championship fight is a new experience, although both have been battling for and indeed winning titles from their karting days and into the junior single-seater categories.

It’s also important to have a good team around you, and thanks to manager Mark Webber Piastri can absorb advice from someone who went through it himself back in 2010.

“The intensity will kind of naturally increase as we get close to the end of the year,” says Piastri. “And I’m ready for that. I’ve been in that position before and in other championships, and that kind of feeling and that countdown to the end of the year, that is the same. So I’m ready for that.

“And yes, I can lean on Mark. Ultimately, it’s down to how I manage it, how I drive, how I cope with the things that are going to be coming. But having an important team around you and a good group of people around you is very important to be able to lean on. So Mark is certainly one of those people. And yeah, I’m excited to see how it goes.”

You don’t have to be a sports psychologist to appreciate that Piastri’s outwardly calm demeanour contrasts with the heart-on-the-sleeve approach of Norris.

However, it would probably be a bit simplistic to suggest that the former will pay dividends as we get closer to the end of the season, and the title battle reaches its climax.

Indeed Piastri concedes that it’s not that straightforward, and there’s more going on below the surface.

“I definitely do get nervous,” he says. “Yes, I think before every race, nerves are there. Firstly, I don’t believe anyone that says they don’t get nervous, because I don’t think that’s possible. And I think it would be a bit weird if you weren’t nervous. So they are definitely there.

“I think it’s just how you how you manage it, how you try and channel it in the right ways. Because I think ultimately, the nerves can be good or bad, and it’s how you manage it that decides that. I think for me, being calm is just part of who I am, but definitely I’ve learned through the years that that’s how I get the most out of myself as well, and that doesn’t look the same for everybody.

“So it’s not a magic thing, but that’s how I feel like I work best. It’s kind of partly natural and partly through experience and through learning. It’s just how I am in some ways, and how I try and get the best out of myself.”

Meanwhile what unfolded in Budapest, and the possibility of future similar scenarios, has been the subject of debate in Woking.

“Yeah, we’ve spoken about it since then,” says Piastri. “I think ultimately there are race situations where being the second car from the team on track, or you don’t even have to be the second car from your team, it’s just being the kind of last car in the train, or the last car in the group, you’ve got a lot less to lose.

“So that kind of aspect is always going to be there. And I think it would be unfair to neutralise that just because of wanting to be on the same strategy. There were discussions about whether there was anything we could have done differently for myself, which were very productive discussions.

“I think we’re still going to be free to pick alternative strategies if that’s what we want. But yes, there were definitely some discussions about how we can tackle that, because it’s obviously a difficult thing to try and cover different strategies, especially when you’re in the position we are in the championship.”

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August 28, 2025 · 3:46 pm

Why Hamilton is determined to “have some fun” and turn his F1 season around

The Ferrari driver wasn’t happy in Hungary – but he’s made the most of the summer break

Lewis Hamilton ended the first half of his maiden season with Scuderia Ferrari on a low with a frustrating weekend in Hungary that saw him publicly express doubts about his own ability.

The timing was unfortunate given that he then headed into the three-week break with his head clearly in a bad place. There was a long wait until the next race, and a chance to try and move things on.

On the plus side he used the summer shutdown part of the gap to in his words be “completely unplugged”. He returned to Maranello at the start of this week to dig through the data with his engineers and prepare for the second half of the season.

He is of course keen to have something of a reset and turn things around from this weekend onwards.

“I feel determined to and motivated to, yes,” he said in Zandvoort on Thursday. “We’re going to work hard, keep our heads down, try to change a few things in our approach and start to enjoy ourselves. It’s been so much pressure in this first half of the season.

“It’s not been the most enjoyable. So I think just remembering that we love what we do, we’re all in this together, and yeah, trying to have some fun.”

Pushed on that intriguing aspect of having fun and enjoying what he’s doing he made some interesting observations that can be applied to all of us.

“I think it’s probably the most important part,” he said. “Because that’s the reason I got into this sport, that it was fun for me.

“And I think for anyone who in whatever career you’re in, if you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, then why are you doing it? And there can often be so much noise, you can lose sight of what’s really, really important.

“So that’s what I’m saying, I just really want to focus on getting back to that enjoyment. I joined the team that I’ve always dreamed of driving for and there’s been so much noise around that it’s kind of clouded us from getting to enjoy it.

“So now it’s about kind of moving those things aside, and just getting back to focusing on the pure love of what we do.”

There has been plenty to distract him thus far. Asked about his earlier reference to pressure he mentioned the workload that he’s faced in his new job.

“I think ultimately, just to get on top of everything, the amount of work we have, all the new partners, the amount of shoots we’ve done, getting integrated into a new team.

“And it’s a big, big team, and it’s also the biggest brand in our sport as well. So a combination of all those different things has been it’s been a lot.”

It’s a difficult process. How do you balance driver having to adapt to his new team versus the other way around? Hamilton admits that it’s not easy.

“I think it’s a very fine line,” he said. “I think my approach this year was really to adapt as much as I could to how they work, rather than arrive and say you have to change everything, and get a perspective of how they like to work.

“And then just try to then bring my experience to see how we can make those bits even better. But it’s a fine line, for sure.”

Asked if he’d experienced similar difficult times with an F1 car he made it clear that it was nothing new for him.

“I never just got in and just won,” he said. “There were always difficult times. I’m the type of person who doesn’t like to get complacent, and be comfortable.

“And that’s really kind of where I was with a long-term relationship I had before, and taking this step into a team that I truly believe in, and I still believe in the potential here and what we can achieve together, and I think everyone in the team does.

“But no one succeeds without going through those tough patches. So I do welcome it. Look forward to the sunnier days, for sure.”

Whatever happens this weekend in Zandvoort the real test will come at Monza next weekend, and his first Italian GP in red.

“I’ve not really thought about it, to be honest,” he said. “Trying to take it one day at a time. I don’t really know what to expect. Obviously, what I saw in Imola was incredible. And I have obviously been to Monza and seen how Ferrari has been received there, and 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’ll be a unique experience.”

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August 4, 2025 · 8:30 am

Ferrari still looking for answers after last stint “disaster” for Leclerc in Hungary

Something went wrong on Leclerc’s car in Hungary but the team doesn’t know what

The Hungarian GP had a thrilling conclusion as Oscar Piastri failed to dislodge leader and McLaren team mate Lando Norris, but it could have been even more intriguing had Charles Leclerc still been in contention.

We’ll never know if one or both McLaren drivers would have passed him without a fight had he not been slowed by a still mysterious issue in the last stint of the race that ultimately saw him drop to fourth, behind George Russell.

The Ferrari driver’s frustration was clear on the radio as he appeared to blame the team for the car becoming undriveable, apparently because of what he thought was an “aggressive” wing adjustment at the stop that he didn’t request.

Between getting out of the car and meeting the media he learned that wasn’t the case, and that an unidentified issue had been the cause.

As we know F1 cars can be incredibly sensitive to aero damage – in Hungary Oliver Bearman was forced to stop after he experienced similar symptoms to Leclerc, and afterwards the Haas driver had no explanation as to how any such damage had occurred.

After retrieving Leclerc’s from parc ferme the Ferrari crew found nothing visibly obvious in terms of aero damage that could have been responsible, and still had no answers as of Monday morning.

By chance Ferrari is doing 2026 Pirelli testing in Hungary this week. The team has the option to run the Leclerc chassis and potentially find out if there is a problem with it (or the Hamilton chassis or the spare with race-used LEC parts), although no decision had been made on its plans at the time of writing.

In the immediate aftermath of the race Leclerc was keen to retract some of the radio chatter that hinted at an operational or set-up mistake.

“First of all, I need to take back the words I’ve said in the radio,” he said when I asked him about the radio traffic.

“Because I thought that it was coming from one thing. But then I got a lot more details since I got out the car, and it was actually an issue coming from the chassis, and nothing that we could have done differently.

“I started to feel the issue in lap 40, or something like that. And then it got worse, laps after laps after laps. And towards the end, we were two seconds off the pace, and the car was just undrivable.

“Again, as I repeat myself, but this was an issue, and it’s an outlier. It shouldn’t ever happen again. But, I mean, I’m still very disappointed. We had one opportunity this year to win a race, which I think was this weekend.

“The first stint was perfect. The first laps of the second stint were really good as well. And I think we were in pace to try and win that race. The last stint was a disaster, when I started to have that issue on the chassis.”

When I asked if a kerb or gravel could have triggered something he said: “I don’t know yet how it was caused, but we will look into it.”

He added: “I think it was quite tricky. Otherwise I probably will have known, and they will have told me. Apparently it wasn’t as obvious on data. However, now we can definitely confirm that that there was a problem.”

Leclerc confirmed that he thought a front wing adjustment at the stop was responsible for the change in the behaviour of the car, which was so bad that he knew straight away that victory was likely to slip away.

“When I started to feel the issues, I didn’t really know where that came from. I thought it was from a change we did on the front wing at the pit stop being too aggressive.

“But then, of course, it got a lot worse, and then it seemed a bit off to me, but when I first felt the very strange behaviour of the car, I was okay, if this is staying, it’s going to slip away from us.

“It wasn’t very consistent, but yeah, basically every corner, it was doing something different.”

After the race team boss Fred Vasseur had no theories about what had gone wrong.

“Honestly, the situation was quite strange,” said the Frenchman. “We were under control the first 40 laps of the race, we are very in control the first stint, a bit more difficult the second one, but it was still manageable. And last stint, was a disaster, very difficult to drive, the balance was not there.

“And honestly, we don’t know exactly what’s happened so far. It means that we have to investigate something broken on the chassis side, or whatever. But it was at one stage I thought that we will never finish the race, we can be lucky in this situation to score points of a P4.

“It’s really frustrating for us, because that I think we did the first pole position of the season. The first two stints went pretty well, and we lost completely the pace and the path of the weekend.

He continued: “The first lap of the last stint, he lost something like one second at one stage and perhaps the message that also you interpret.

“He asked us if we didn’t do a mistake on the front wing, and adjust the front wing, but [we didn’t]. And we lost completely the pace, and then perhaps a bit snowball effect, but at the end of the day that I think from 38 to 43 we lost at least eight-tenths.”

For Leclerc it turned into one of those nightmare days, and in the course of his defence against George Russell he picked up a 5-second penalty for erratic driving.

It didn’t make any difference to his safe P4, but the penalty point was probably annoying.

“I knew I was on the limit,” he conceded. “I don’t have much opinion about it. I felt like I moved before braking and then I braked, obviously angling my car towards the apex, which is normally what I do, but I can imagine George being quite vocal on the radio. It’s normally the case.

“I don’t mind, especially on a race like this. If there was a safety car at the end of the race and I would have taken a five second penalty, I probably would have been a lot more frustrated. But it wasn’t the case.”

For Leclerc the real frustration was that this was the first opportunity in 2026 for Ferrari to win a full-length race, and while there are some tracks coming in the second half of the year that historically have been good for the Maranello outift, McLaren is going to be hard to beat everywhere.

“I think they are the strongest team out there,” he said. “And even today, they were very, very fast. I think on a track like this, what gave me hope of winning is that we were starting first, and with the dirty air, it’s a struggle to get past. I think Oscar had probably a bit more place than me, but couldn’t overtake.

“So I don’t think we are going into the second half of the season thinking that we can win anywhere.

“And that’s what makes the frustration even bigger, because we knew that this was one opportunity, probably over the season, and we had to take it. But unfortunately, with this issue, we couldn’t do much.”

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August 3, 2025 · 7:43 am

How Hungary 2024 taught McLaren valuable lessons

12 months on the team is better equipped to deal with tricky situations

A year ago McLaren was just starting to emerge as the team to beat, which meant that race wins were sup for grabs for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

In Hungary the team faced its biggest challenge up to that point in terms of balancing the interests of its two drivers.

What looked like a smart strategy call intended to maximise the team’s overall result became a little complicated when it reversed the positions and put Norris ahead of Piastri.

When Norris was told to let his team mate back past he was reluctant to do so, and while he eventually did follow instructions the episode somewhat overshadowed the Australian’s first victory.

Twelve months on and the team has been through a few more difficult situations, and each one has been something of a learning exercise, and potentially added layers to the Papaya Rules.

And given that the title is at stake and each race becomes more important as the number of points available reduces, we can guess that there could be further awkward scenarios yet to come.

However the team is now much better equipped now to deal with such eventualities, as Andrea Stella confirmed when I asked him about the subject.

“It was one year ago,” said the Italian. “To me, it looks like it was 10 years ago in terms of how much has happened from a racing point of view, how much has happened in terms of the rate of development of the team, or growth of the team, in the way the results that we have been able to achieve since then.

“But as part of this journey, there’s also a journey that has to do with the improving our way of going racing, what we call the racing approach.

“We have reviewed extensively one year ago, the race here in Hungary, and then we kept this diligent, rigorous approach to reviewing and learning, and we have as much as possible, formalised everything that we learned into our racing approach.

“And the thing that makes me most proud is that Lando and Oscar have always contributed very genuinely, very honestly, very transparently, just bringing their values into the way we go racing. So we’ve gone a long way. I think we have established a pretty robust platform in terms of how we go racing.”

He knows that it could get stressful in the coming weeks: “We are going to be challenged, because racing in F1 is difficult, but so far, and for the remainder of the season, I’m really proud and happy with what, with the way we’ve been going racing, and with the way in which Lando and Oscar have sustained the journey of the team.”

The team may have missed pole in Hungary, but Stella remains confident that the team has a strong package for the remainder of the season.

He points out that in contrast to the recent past – when the team tended to bundle upgrades together and bring them in one hit – this season there’s been more of a drip feed of performance items.

“We have seen a very positive trend in terms of our competitiveness, especially, I would say over the last three events in which we have finished P1/P2.

“This is not only because we started with a competitive car, but actually we have upgraded the car since Canada with what was in the past a single instalment upgrade. So it would have been very noticeable – McLaren bring a new car and improves by a few tenths of a second.

“But in the recent races, we have upgraded the car with some parts at pretty much each race, so we have become faster. I think here, the Hungaroring, despite the result in Q3 has actually proven that the car is fast.

“I think every single session we were P1/P2 by a decent chunk compared to the next team. This makes us very positive about the reminder of the season.

“We look forward to starting racing again after the shutdown. I think we have some tracks that will be favourable to us again, like Zandvoort, and we have also done some specific work for some tracks like Monza or Vegas in which, not necessarily last year we were dominant, and we knew that we needed to do some work for the performance at low drag.

“So we definitely look forward to the second part of the season, and we expect to be competitive.”

As for this weekend, Stella says the tricky conditions contributed to a cautious approach by his drivers, neither of whom could afford to make a mistake that dropped them down the order. Charles Leclerc in contract had nothing to lose and took his chance in style.

“I think it’s an interesting qualifying in terms of understanding how things go for an F1 car, because definitely we had a significant change of conditions. You can see in the meteo data a change in terms of wind direction, wind intensity, temperature, humidity, everything changed.

“And everyone from Q2 up until when we were pretty competitive, we put together definitely strong laps, from Q2 to Q3, everyone went slower. We went slower by about half a second in average.

“Actually, we simulated the change of conditions in our simulations, and it gives a little bit less than that, but about four-tenths of a second. But Ferrari and Leclerc managed to go actually faster. So the track was definitely slower.

“I think for Lando and Oscar, after they had seen in the first run that conditions had changed, that the grip wasn’t what they expected, that every corner was going to be a bit unpredictable, therefore, the lap time didn’t come.

“I think in the second set, they needed to be a bit cautious, because obviously, when you race for the championship, you want to make sure that you are there. I think this is a slightly different approach for Charles. I think it just went, went for it, like, I don’t think I have much to lose here.

“And it paid off. And this is a credit and merit to a very good execution by Ferrari and Charles.”

The conditions in Hungary were very specific, but Stella paints an interesting scenario.

What about the next time we get a rain-affected session, or places like Baku and Singapore, where there is very little margin for error? As their battle gets tighter will Norris and Piastri again leave a few vital hundredths on the table as they ensure that they don’t mess up that crucial last lap in Q3 – and potentially allow others to sneak ahead? It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

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August 3, 2025 · 7:37 am

How a frustrated Verstappen was left “driving on ice” as Red Bull struggles in Hungary

Verstappen could manage only eighth on the Hungarian GP grid

For Max Verstappen the Hungarian GP weekend has been something of a nightmare this far, and his car was sliding so much that at one point in qualifying he said it was like driving on ice even on his out lap.

In the end he was almost relieved to have made it into Q3 and earned P8 – albeit with a couple of Aston Martins and a Sauber ahead.

Had Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli qualified where their cars should in reality have been, Verstappen would indeed have been edged out of the top 10.

In fact over the three practice sessions he was ninth, 14th and 12th – not where you would usually expect him to be.

“I mean, looking at the whole weekend, I think we are happy to be in Q3 because I’ve been more outside of the top 10 than,” he said when I asked him about qualifying.

“It’s been difficult. The whole weekend no grip, front and rear, and it was the same in qualifying. So for me, it was not really a shock. I just drove to what I already feel the whole weekend.”

He admitted that the team didn’t know what the issue was: “No, clearly not, otherwise, of course, we would have changed it already. But somehow, this weekend, nothing seems to work.”

Verstappen acknowledged that RBR also had a difficult Hungary last year, although not to quite the same degree.

“I think we still qualified very close to pole, like within a few hundredths, so I think we were a lot more competitive back then. But yeah, this weekend already, from lap one, it just fell off, and we threw the car around a lot, and nothing really gave a direction.

“And that of course is the biggest problem, because normally, when you use or you change a lot on the side of it will always give you positives or negatives, and now just nothing works.

“It’s like just going around in circles, and nothing gave you any kind of idea of what to do.”

He added: “There’s not been a single lap or a single corner that I felt good. So the whole weekend so far, it’s just been sliding.”

That sliding won’t help his tyres in race conditions. Normally you would expect an out-of-position Verstappen to make progress, but it could turn into a rear guard action.

“There may be a car a few cars in front of me that I can maybe battle with a little bit. But of course, also Lewis is still a bit further down the road, which I think he shouldn’t be there, right? So he will come through a bit.”

So is this the worst weekend he can recall over the past couple of seasons?

“I mean, we have had a few Singapore disasters. So yeah, I mean, it’s just not been a good one for sure…”

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