Any doubts over Vasseur’s future at Maranello have been ended by a new deal
Ferrari has created some crucial stability and put a stop to any suggestions that Christian Horner might end up at Maranello by giving team principal Fred Vasseur a new multi-year contract.
There had been speculation in recent months that Vasseur’s future was under threat after a disappointing start to 2025.
The team has not won a race this season, and failed to build on the momentum it had at the end of last year.
Meanwhile new recruit Lewis Hamilton has yet to log a podium as he struggles to come to terms with a very different car.
The gossip about Vasseur did not sit well with Lewis Hamilton, who stressed that he joined the Scuderia because of the presence of his former F3/GP2 boss.
In truth both men deserve to be judged on 2026, with Vasseur having spent the last few years putting the pieces in place and Hamilton currently working hard to ensure that he’s in a much happier place with the car.
It’s worth remembering that he underwent a similar process in his first year at Mercedes in 2013, ahead of the introduction of the new rules.
This would not be the right time to rock the boat with yet another change of team boss, something that Ferrari has ultimately recognised.
“I’m grateful for the trust Ferrari continues to place in me,” said the Frenchman. “This renewal is not just a confirmation — it’s a challenge to keep progressing, to stay focused, and to deliver.
“Over the past 30 months, we’ve laid strong foundations, and now we must build on them with consistency and determination. We know what’s expected, and we’re all fully committed to meeting those expectations and taking the next step forward together.”
Ferrari says that “renewing Fred’s contract reflects Ferrari’s determination to build on the foundations laid so far. His ability to lead under pressure, embrace innovation, and pursue performance aligns fully with Ferrari’s values and long-term ambitions.”
It adds that “under Fred’s leadership, Scuderia Ferrari HP is united, focused, and committed to continuous improvement. The trust placed in him reflects the team’s confidence in its strategic direction and reinforces a shared determination to deliver the results that Ferrari’s fans, drivers, and team members expect and deserve.”
Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna, the man who pushed to get Hamilton on board, made clear his support.
“Today we want to recognise what has been built and commit to what still needs to be achieved,” he said. “It reflects our trust in Fred’s leadership — a trust rooted in shared ambition, mutual expectations and clear responsibility.
“We move forward with determination and focus, united in our pursuit of the level of performance Ferrari has to aim for.”
Antonelli had another tricky weekend at Spa – and he admits he’s lacking confidence
For Kimi Antonelli the Belgian GP turned into another weekend of frustration as the rookie failed to log any points.
Qualifying P20 and P18 for the two events and finishing them in P16 and P17 is not what either he or the Mercedes team expect.
Remarkably his only score in the last seven weekends was his solid third in Montreal on a day when team mate George Russell won.
To be fair that run includes a couple of mechanical retirements and a hit from Isack Hadjar at Silverstone (when he was well outside the top 10), but it’s also clear that Antonelli has been struggling to come to terms with the car.
Russell has also had a difficult run since Canada. Mercedes technical director James Allison acknowledges that the team has lost its way of late with the W16, and that hasn’t made life any easier for Antonelli.
“I think he’s, like the rest of us, massively fed up with a string of results that are well below what we were collectively achieving earlier in the year,” says Allison.
“I hope he takes some solace from the fact that we tell him, and it’s demonstrably a fact, that we have taken the wrong steps with the car, making our team less competitive, and that he is paying the price for that, as is George.
“If the car isn’t where it needs to be, then it will be a struggle getting through the qualifying stages in your rookie season in F1. And it’s utterly clear to all of us that the thing we need to do is make the car better, and then Kimi’s fortunes will reverse with that.
“And hopefully, he’s listening to us as we say those reassuring words, because we absolutely know that he is putting in the effort on his side of that bargain.”
As a sprint weekend Spa was always going to be tough for Antonelli, notwithstanding the fact that he secured pole for the Miami sprint after just an hour of practice at a track he hadn’t been to before.
In Belgium a huge spin in SQ1 left him with damage and no chance to progress through, hence his P20 grid slot. With neither Alpine on the grid he gained two spots automatically and then in the race passed Nico Hulkenberg to secure 17th place.
Typically, he was very honest about his performance.
“Since the European season, I’ve been struggling to find confidence with the car, and I felt like I’ve done a backward step,” he said when I asked him about his form. “It’s a difficult moment for me, because I feel like I have no confidence on pushing. And yesterday I tried to push a bit too much, and then I spun.
“And then it kind of hurts the confidence even more. But it’s a difficult period. I think we know the limitation we have since quite a lot, but with the way I’m driving, I’m just increasing the problem. And that gave me even less confidence with the car.”
The team made some tweaks for Saturday afternoon’s main qualifying, which improved things. However he still managed only 17th, ahead of the struggling Aston Martin drivers.
“Definitely I think the car was in a better place for sure, compared to yesterday,” he said. “It’s just on my side, I still struggle to get up to speed quickly, just because the confidence has been missing. So I think there’s a lot of work to do on my side, and I try to find the light out of the tunnel as soon as possible.”
He also gave an interesting insight into what he needs from the car.
“Definitely a bit more stability, because with the way I drive, I’m a bit more aggressive with the inputs,” he said. “Also, compared to George, I’m a bit more aggressive overall. I tend to try and carry a lot of speed into the corner.
“And with the limitation I have, I’m just increasing the problem. So on my side, I’m trying to change a little bit the way I’m driving to also have the balance. Because, of course, it’s impossible to have the perfect balance. And I’m just trying to work on that side. But it’s not easy.”
He added: “The team has been trying to help me as much as possible, but on my side probably I’m trying to change the way I’m driving too much, and it feels like I’m not driving naturally. It’s very first forced the way I’m driving, and it’s just difficult.”
A lack of confidence in the car was not what he needed heading into a wet Sunday, and with little to lose from that grid position the team opted to drop him out of parc ferme and give him more downforce.
“We will change the car so we’ll start from the pitlane, and hopefully that will give us an advantage. And hopefully the confidence will be back.”
He wasn’t the only one to make that choice, so at the start he found himself third in the pitlane queue behind Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton, and ahead of Fernando Alonso.
For all of them and others on the grid who had already gone high on downforce for qualifying the lack of wet race running was to be frustrating.
“The car felt better with a bigger wing,” said Antonelli when I asked him about his race. “I felt much better in places where I was struggling a lot, and it was a shame, because obviously with the delayed start, it turns out it was a dry race pretty quickly, and we couldn’t really use the bigger wing…”
Before the change to slicks Antonelli passed Lance Stroll, and he gained three more spots in the stop sequence, before finding a way past Franco Colapinto. Stuck subsequently in the queue behind Pierre Gasly, he pulled a good move on Fernando Alonso.
Later like others with little to lose he estopped for new tyres, and after that had a little tussle with Esteban Ocon, nearly getting by the Haas driver only to lose out again.
During his chase he set the race’s fastest lap, which was some reward. However P16 wasn’t ideal, especially with Russell 52 seconds up the road in fifth place.
“Despite being much quicker in the corner than in the straights, it was really hard to keep up,” he said. “And it was a shame, because the only opportunity I had to pass Ocon, I went a little bit wide, and I took a wet patch, and then just had no grip, and he made the switchback.
“And then after that, the tyre was starting to suffer, and I just couldn’t get the run. But still, it’s learning difficult conditions. Also I tried to call quite early the switch [to slicks], but because of Silverstone as well, we probably were a bit too cautious on that, and we wanted to wait a bit more.
“And I think that’s where we lost some positions as well. But on the other hand, I think driving-wise, it was better this race, and I just need to keep working for qualifying.”
A clear track after his pit stop at least gave him a chance to show his pace’ albeit briefly.
“Those few laps where I was on free air, definitely had a lot more fun than being stuck.
“It’s quite frustrating, because you can’t really unleash the real pace you have. I mean, when I was in free air, I did that lap, and then once I was stuck, I was two seconds slower all of a sudden.
“It was tricky. But I think I shouldn’t be starting that far back. I think I need to work on my qualifying and work to get the confidence back with the car, in order to start more at the front, because when you start at the front it’s a completely different race.
“Still as I said, good learning, because having to have the right feel for the transition, then still fighting, trying to get by, especially in a DRS train. So definitely, good learning.
“And now we just need to, as I said before, do a better qualifying to start more at the front. Because in those races where I start more the front it is a completely different story.”
Life isn’t easy for Antonelli at the moment, and while the will he/won’t he jump Verstappen saga appears to be over, the prospect of the World Champion joining – and potentially pushing him and not Russell out – can’t have helped in recent weeks.
At Spa he did at least receive a welcome boost from his predecessor Lewis Hamilton.
“He came to say hi to the team, and definitely, we had a couple of words. He was telling me to keep my head up, and that is normal to have bad weekends and just to keep believing. It was really nice for me.”
Having been P18 at the start Hamilton made it up to seventh by the time track dried
Lewis Hamilton’s rollercoaster Ferrari season continued at Spa, as he turned a disappointing first couple of days into a charging performance in the race – and overcame a few hurdles along the way.
There’s was a lot to deal with, as he had a new performance engineer in his corner, albeit someone he knows from his Mercedes days.
Meanwhile the team introduced an upgraded suspension package that had been trialled at a filming day. There was also another unspecified mechanical element that Charles Leclerc had previously tried on his car, but which Lewis had not yet run before Spa.
Throw in the fact that it was a sprint weekend and life became quite complicated, especially on Friday, with just FP1 in which to sort things out.
A frustrated P18 in sprint qualifying, Lewis was then demoted from P7 to P16 in Saturday’s Q1 session after losing his lap time to track limits, a mistake he took the blame for.
With little to lose he then joined three other drivers in dropping out of parc ferme and starting from the pitlane with added downforce for the rain expected on Sunday, taking the opportunity to add a fresh PU to his pool.
The delayed start and extra safety car laps meant that he couldn’t use the full potential of his bigger wing, but it was certainly a help in the early wet laps as he charged up from an initial 18th to 13th.
He then made a superbly-timed call to switch to slicks on lap 11, which put him into seventh by the time those ahead had pitted.
High downforce then became something of a handicap and he spent the rest of the race behind Alex Albon.
Nevertheless it had been a good day, and he had a smile on his face after the flag.
“Obviously massively challenging being all the way back there,” he said when I asked him about his race. “But we made some changes overnight.
“So much in the build-up to this week, obviously, with the upgrade that we had. There’s basically two elements to it. One of those elements, we had it to test back in Montreal, but I didn’t end up testing it. Charles ended up testing it, and he ended up using part of it for a couple of races.
“He did a great job today, and he’s feeling more acclimatised. For me it was the first time using it, and that spin that we had [on Friday] caught me out, because we didn’t have settings.
“Also a change of engineer, so we’re both in the deep end, basically. And I think we did a really good job overnight to rectify some of those, tweak it, fine tune it. And the car was so much better today to drive. So I had a lot of fun trying to make my way through.”
Hamilton felt that the race should have got going a little earlier, a view shared by others who had added downforce for the wet but could not take full advantage.
“We obviously started the race a little bit too late, I would say. I kept shouting, like, it’s ready to go, it’s ready to go. And they kept going round and round and round.
“So I think they’re probably overreacting from the last race, where we asked them not to restart the race too early, because visibility was bad. And I think this weekend they just went a bit too much the other way, because we didn’t need a rolling start, for example.
He added: “Definitely could have done a standing start, especially at the end there, because it was almost a dry line. It was hardly any spray. So definitely could have done that.”
Lewis said that he got the change to slicks just right.
“I’m really working to try to finesse that, to get it right each time. And I think I would say that’s been an area for me that’s not always been the strongest. And in the last race I called it, it was maybe a one lap too early, and I think this today was spot on.
“I probably could have just about done it one lap earlier, but it was like pretty much right there.”
Hamilton admitted that it hadn’t been a great weekend for him in the context of various changes. However, the race turned it into a positive.
“We obviously had these upgrades,” he said. “Everyone back at the factory works so hard. And then when you come and put a performance like I had in these past two days, it’s tough, because that’s not what the team deserves.
“And as I said, it wasn’t a case of necessarily coming in and not being in the right mind through the weekend, there were a few factors that did affect particularly on the Friday. Saturday, was just me.
“But I recovered today. So got some points, we outscored Mercedes on points, which is great. Charles did a great job. Clearly, the car is improving because Charles was able to hold on to another podium.”
Regarding the change to his engineering team he said: “”It’s not easy to switch engineers within the middle of a season, but it’s someone that I’ve known for years, who was actually on my previous team with me, but not in that position.
“So we’re getting used to each other and learning, having to learn, like, super, super quick. As I said, I think the changes that we had really caught both of us out.
“But I think we did a great job overnight, and we’ll just get stronger and stronger together.”
Lewis agreed that Spa gave him something to build on.
“I think this one’s definitely one to kind of put behind me, and I definitely feel confident going forward from here as I said, having learned more about the car today, fine tuned it. I’ll set that up better for next week, be at the factory on Wednesday. So yeah, I don’t see why we won’t have better results going forward.”
Albon starts a surprise P5 in Spa – after taking off downforce
The surprise package of Spa qualifying was Alex Albon, who popped up in P5 at the end of Q3.
The Williams driver had endured a frustrating sprint qualifying, with PU issues contributing to his 16th place on the grid.
In the sprint itself he finished in the same position, and prior to main qualifying he opted to make some aero changes – and somewhat counter intuitively given the rain forecast for Sunday he actually took downforce off while others were adding it.
Of course, it’s all relative to where you start from, and he felt that he was running too much wing.
He was ninth in Q1 and then just made it through to the last session with P10 in Q2. His fifth place in Q3 came as surprise to him as much as anyone else as he headed a very closely matched group behind the top four.
“It’s always nice to be on that side of it,” he said when I asked him about the session. “Really happy. I would say we were quite draggy on the sprint race, and we decided to drop some wing out of the car just to be in line more with other people. I felt like in the sprint race, I was quick, but couldn’t do anything behind any other cars.
“So it means going into qualifying, everything feels a little bit trickier, because you’re obviously sliding around a little bit more, the tyres fall away from you more as well. We fixed the deployment, which was the biggest difference from Friday to today.”
Albon conceded that he didn’t expect the change to work so effectively.
“I would say on pure pace, I felt less competitive during qualifying than I was at any point before the before the qualifying session. So it felt tricky. I mean, I was P10 in Q2 and I didn’t feel that happy.
“I didn’t really know where I could get more positions, let’s say. And then Q3 happened, and I found a chunk of time. So I put it down to tyres, as it always is, and we found the sweet spot today on the last run.”
He added: “I didn’t feel comfortable. I felt like when we when we took off the down force, we made the car much harder to drive, and the tyres weren’t lasting the whole lap. So it was becoming harder and harder.
“You go quicker in sector one and sector two, and sector two, and then you go slower again. You never felt like you could get all the lap in one place, and then in Q3 I did. I got it all in one. So I was really happy.”
Albon wasn’t concerned about compromising his wet weather form for the race, indicating that he still has a decent level of downforce.
“We were so far on the draggy side, though, that we’re still okay. If you remember Silverstone, I think it was the Red Bulls and ourselves, we were quite low on downforce, and we paid the price when it rained on Sunday.
“So we made sure not to overdo it. But yeah, hopefully we’ll be okay. I still think as a team, we struggle a bit more in the wet compared to some other cars out there. So if it can stay dry as long as possible, that will be great.”
He remains confident about his race form, although hopes of a dry race receded on a wet Sunday morning.
“We obviously haven’t done enough laps yet to really set up the car into a perfect place. I think a lot of that will come back to us just with setup changes.
“Being a sprint-based weekend, we haven’t really been able to do much. We’ve got more downforce. I think we need to see, because it hasn’t been the easiest weekend so far just to get the laps together.
“I think our race pace is strong. It’s hard to know, because I’ve been in DRS train the whole race this morning, but my race pace was good on Friday. I think we’ll be okay.
“We just need to kind of get some clear air, and I hope maybe the cars in front clear off and I can do my race.”
Norris has some momentum after two wins. Can he beat Oscar Piastri in Belgium?
Lando Norris came to Belgium on the back of a pair of race wins in Austria and Britain, having put his Canadian GP nightmare well behind him.
The first was a particularly impressive performance given that it came soon after his Montreal disappointment.
Of course at Silverstone he benefited from the penalty that race leader Oscar Piastri landed. However he still had to get the job done in tricky circumstances. A win is a win, and it was a huge boost to his morale.
If he’s going to beat his McLaren team mate to the World Championship Norris has to keep up that momentum and outscore the Australian as often as he can, starting with Spa this weekend.
He has had his struggles this year as he’s tried to get the most out of the car when it matters in qualifying. Meanwhile Piastri has stepped up his game in all areas, and has been impressively consistent.
The last two races gave Norris a chance to recover his mojo and start to get his campaign back on track.
“I feel like I climbed a little bit back to where I was,” he said at Spa. “I certainly feel happier. Austria was a place I felt the happiest, even happier than I was in Silverstone, with the car, with the knowledge of where I can push, how I can push, and all those things. It’s always been a good track for me.
“So I think a selection of things came together. And the pace I had then in qualifying was quite easily and most convincingly, the best I’ve had all season, and just my laps consistently were always up there in P1. I think there was some positive things that came from that.”
Norris concedes that he’s still working on how to get the best from the MCL39.
“We’re still trying to work on things to give me more from the car,” he said. “In order to allow me to unlock that more often, like I was doing last season. There are certain things that I just had to work on and be better at, and I feel like I have.
“A nice thing is that I had the two wins. The most positive thing from those two weekends was just that the pace was better from the off, and I was more comfortable with the car and in understanding how to get the most pace from it at times, that brings a more of a smile to my face than just winning the race itself, because it’s progress, and that’s always a very good thing, it’s a very rewarding thing.
“But there’s still some more I need to get. There’s still more things. I feel better than what I did. So do I feel more confident that I can have more performances like that? Yes.
“Do I feel as good as I still felt last season, and that I’m performing at the same level consistently enough? I would still say no.
“I have more understanding of everything now. We’re talking my new things like small, incredibly small gains here and there. I feel more of a threat now, yes, but am I happy enough still with where I’m at, where the car is, and my harmony with the car, it’s still not to the level that I that I want.”
That was a typically honest assessment from Norris, who always wears his heart on his sleeve.
He’s not blaming the car or anyone else – he knows he has to do a better job.
“My driving, how I drive the car, my ability to adapt to more driving styles, per se,” he said. “That’s really the main thing, working at how I drive the car. It’s also my job at the end of the day to drive whatever car I get given as quickly as possible.
“But it’s a mixture, also some more things away from the track, with my team, I have a very good group of people around me.
“So I’m working on the things for on the track and off the track, how I can approach the weekends in a better way, most of which is how I can work on being a better driver in the situation of struggling with things that I don’t like, or I’m not used to, or changes on the car for this year.”
Spa provides everyone with a curveball, as the sprint format, potential for rain and a tricky Pirelli compound step in the dry make life complicated.
For McLaren you can throw in the new floor, validated in practice at Silverstone but not raced, and it could be a tricky weekend to get right. Norris and Piastri might not be able to focus solely on beating each other.
“I think it’s definitely a weekend where there’s just a lot of opportunity for everyone, and even more than Silverstone.
“[Often this year] we have an advantage over everyone, because the team give us such a good car, but I don’t expect that as much on a weekend like this, like with the weather, how It’s going to be – it could be dry and then suddenly rain at different points.
“And you might have someone I guess who gets half a lap more in the dry section on track, and then the rain comes again.
“And that’s what is also going to happen to the season. It’s more about it can be maybe that bit more consistent, rather than who can be quicker on one weekend than the other.”
Verstappen is keen to downplay the impact of the ousting of Christian Horner
Inevitably the recent management changes at the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team provided the big talking point at Spa on Thursday, and of course the man we wanted to hear from was Max Verstappen.
Many observers suspect Christian Horner was ousted at least in part as an attempt to keep the Verstappen camp onside, and to help ensure that the Dutchman remains at the team into 2026 and beyond.
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If that’s the case it was something of a roll of the dice, because any such commitment is far from set in stone, it seems, despite his long-term contract.
When quizzed on Horner’s departure Verstappen was adamant that the decision to oust Horner was made by the parent company in order “to steer the ship in a different direction” – and that just like everyone else in the team he was informed that it has happened, and was obliged to accept it and move on.
“At the end of the day management and of course the shareholders decided that they wanted a change,” he said.
“And at the end of the day, they run the team. And I’m the driver, so whatever they decide, it’s fully in their right to do what they want. And that’s basically how it happened.
“And at the same time now sitting here, you look back at those 20 years of Red Bull, I think we’ve had a lot of great, great years, great, great results. Now, naturally, of course, are also years where it’s not going that well.
“And I think the last one and a half years have not gone how we would have liked, and management decided they wanted to steer the ship in a different direction, probably.
“And then everyone else, of course, has to, anyway, agree to that and look forward. And I am looking forward.
“Of course, I had already quite a few meetings with Laurent [Mekies] as well. The last two weeks have been quite intense for him to jump in.”
Verstappen paid tribute to his former boss.
“I’m equally also excited for the team now moving forward, because that’s what we have to do,” he said. “Looking back doesn’t make sense. It’s not going to make you faster.
“But at the same time you do appreciate of course those 20 years, and especially from my side the 10-11, years, I mean, part of Red Bull. Those things will be remembered.
“And the relationship between myself and Christian, for example, that doesn’t change. Of course, he’s not here now or during a race weekend, but it’s still like a second family to me.”
Asked if he was surprised by the Horner news he said: “At the end of the day, I think in this world things like that they can happen. And when they told me, it’s not like they just said this is what we just decided and then you hang up on the phone. You have a conversation about it.
“Now, I don’t need to go into the details of what they said. But it was okay, if you guys think that is the way forward, I’m the driver, you decide, and this is how we’re going to do it.”
Verstappen downplayed the part played in recent events by any conflict between Horner and father Jos, and insisted that the change wouldn’t impact any decision on his future.
“I think people can have a difference in opinion here and then. And I actually expect that to happen, because if everyone always agrees, there is a problem, you need to have difference in opinions. And yeah, that’s now something that we work with in a different direction.
“I’m excited about it. I don’t think it will matter at all, you know, for my decision in the future. At the end the only thing that matters is that we work on the car and make it as fast as we can make it, really, and like I said, the last one and a half years have not been where we want to be.
“Now, we try and be more competitive this year, a little bit, but for sure, also with the new regulations.”
That suggestion that there is indeed a decision to be made on his future was an intriguing one, given the debate over a potential move to Mercedes.
However when I asked if he there was a chance he would not be at RBR in 2026 and there was an option to go elsewhere he was keen to downplay the idea.
“There’s also a possibility I don’t wake up tomorrow, that there is no driving at all!,” he joked. “So life is unpredictable. But in general, I’m very happy where I’m at, and I hope and that was still the target that we set out when we signed a new deal, that I would drive here until the end of my career.”
Meanwhile Verstappen stressed that it was too early to form any opinions about a different approach from Mekies.
“Time will tell. I cannot say right now within two weeks with not even action on track, that suddenly everything is different or better, but we are trying to be better, and we are trying to work on that.”
He added: “It’s been good. I like Laurent, he’s a very nice guy first of all, very clever guy. He’s been in different areas of the F1 paddock as well, and I think that can be helpful.”
P6 might not sound like much for a works team but Gasly gave Alpine a timely boost
While Nico Hulkenberg’s drive to third place at Silverstone last weekend rightly grabbed the headlines it wasn’t the only impressive underdog performance.
For Pierre Gasly and his Alpine Formula 1 team sixth place was a welcome boost after a difficult run in recent weeks.
It might not like sound like much for what is a works organisation, and in the grand scheme of things it didn’t move the team out of P10 in the World Championship, given that all the midfield teams have been scoring well recently.
Nevertheless it was a useful score for a team that had previously logged only a seventh and eighth place in 2025, and in its way given the mediocre form of the A525 it was as unlikely as the remarkable two-three finish in the wet in Brazil last season.
“I think last year the overall performance relative to the others was in a much better place,” said Gasly when I asked him about that comparison.
“So considering the car was in a better place, we were on the podium. It was incredible.
“But this year, I feel we are in a worse place. The others have a better package. And yeah, that P6 is probably as good. So I think we all very happy, especially to do it here in Silverstone.
“I know a lot of guys are here from the factory, and we definitely need that boost, because we all have our eyes on next year.
“But for everybody to work as hard as ever, they also need a bit of extra energy and extra motivation, which I’m sure it will give them today.”
A feature of Gasly’s season this year is that at some tracks he’s been able to make it into Q3. However he’s then faded in the race, mainly due to tyre usage.
At Silverstone he qualified 10th, and then gained two places on the grid thanks to penalties for Oliver Bearman and Kimi Antonelli.
That was already a handy bonus, but more was to come – at the end of the formation lap George Russell and Charles Leclerc peeled into the pits, leaving Gasly in sixth place with a couple of empty spots ahead of him.
At the start he went one better, passing Fernando Alonso to put himself in fifth. Hulkenberg and Stroll got ahead on strategy, and after battling at various times with the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, Gasly crossed the line in sixth.
“Honestly, I don’t really know where to start,” he said. “Because P6, at the start of the weekend, no one would have ever imagined that we’ll be in such a position. Fighting Fernando at the start of the race, I managed to get past him, on the wet I was feeling extremely good.
“And right behind Lewis, I eventually managed to get past him as well before the safety car. And battling with Max at the end, who was on pole yesterday. I mean, at some point I wondered what the heck was going on in my race!
“But yeah, we took the risk, but the right one, and all the calls were right, the strategy was great, the pit stops were good, and we made the best out of all these conditions. I managed to defend my position at the right time not to lose track position and too much time.”
Gasly was worried about losing performance after the switch to slicks, although in the end he managed to hang on to a decent result.
“In the dry I knew it will be tough for the reasons we obviously know around this track,” he said.
“And yeah, it was tricky. But I think all in all with evolving conditions, having to look after the tyre, having to push on the wet, on new tyres, on destroyed tyres, I think we really made the best out of these conditions.
“And it wasn’t easy. There were a lot of traps. We managed to avoid all of them, and in the end, it’s pretty much the perfect day for us…”
Good calls helped, but in the end it was Gasly himself who got the job done.
“The whole race every single lap was tricky,” he admitted. “You’ve got to stay on track. But at the same time, these are the moments where you know you have everything to lose, but you have everything to win, because you know the other guys are also going balance this type of risk they are taking.
“But these are the moments where, for me, I know I have a lot to gain and I just need to go for it, and be at the limit without going over that line. And I love this type of conditions.”
It might only be a P6, but the result was welcomed in an Enstone camp that has had little to shout about recently, aside from the recent confirmation that the experienced Steve Nielsen will come on board as managing director in September.
“I’m just very proud of all the team, because this year is very tricky for everyone,” said Gasly.
“We know the car is not in the place we like to be, but every single day we go out there we try our best, and today really showed that we are able to perform and make the best out of the opportunities when they when they come to us, so very proud of them, and very happy.”
Gasly meanwhile continues to show what he’s capable of. For the last couple of years he was in a tense situation with former team mate Esteban Ocon, but this season he’s been a clear team leader alongside rookies Jack Doohan and Franco Colapinto. It’s a role that he’s clearly enjoyed.
“I think it’s always difficult to gauge, but I know I’m performing at a very high level with the car that I have at the minute,” je noted last weekend. “And whether it’s my best or not, it’s always tricky. But I know at the moment, there’s nothing else we can get out of it.
“So I managed to do it many times in Q1, Q2 and also in Q3, and then same in the race, so I’m pleased. It’s not the first time I’m facing challenges in my career, and I need to put my best every single time out there and in difficult conditions and motivate all the guys.
“But that’s what I am. I am fighter and a warrior, and I’ll always keep pushing them.”
After a troubled race Leclerc finished P14 at Silverstone for the second straight year
Silverstone hasn’t been kind to Charles Leclerc of late, and remarkably the Ferrari Formula 1 driver’s frustrating P14 in last weekend’s wet race replicated his result at the same venue in 2024.
The difference is that at this stage last year he’d had a much better season, winning in Monaco and lying third in the championship on 150 points, whereas this year he’s fifth on only 119 and has yet to secure a victory.
To be fair he has logged four podium finishes whereas team mate Lewis Hamilton has yet to make the top three.
Nevertheless it’s not been the year that he was expecting given the momentum that the team had at the end of 2024.
“It’s a bit of a shame, because until now, I kept saying that we were maximising the package that we had,” he said after Silverstone when I asked him to sum up the year so far.
“But clearly today I did not maximise the package that I had, at least on the Sunday. Very often on the Saturday, I think we felt like we left something on the table.
“Very often coming the Sunday, we always put everything together and since the beginning of the season. I don’t have much more to say, but today, clearly, I left points on the table, and that’s not nice.”
The reality is that Sunday at Silverstone was a complete nightmare for Leclerc. He was one of several drivers who followed George Russell into the pits for slicks at the end of the formation lap, a call that didn’t pay off.
“For sure, this did not help,” he said. “However, we were kind of nowhere the whole race. And when I say nowhere, it’s like, really nowhere. I was a second off and on top of that, I was doing lots of mistakes. I was really struggling to keep the car on track.
“So it was an incredibly difficult day. I need to analyse what was going on, what did I do in terms of tools, in terms of setup, in terms of driving that made everything worse, because today was extremely difficult.”
Pressed on the call for slicks he said: “That was my decision. I thought the first and second sector was kind of for slicks third sector was wet, but this I expected it. I had seen it, but I expected the track to dry up a lot quicker. It did not.
“And I think we were quite a few to have done that, mistakes of thinking that it will dry out quickly. This is part of the reason why we had a bad race.
“But I would say that the biggest part is the lack of pace today, and on that, I want the answers before going back home. So I’ll work hard to try and understand what was going on there.”
In his desperation to make up ground he became embroiled in a fraught battle with his old team mate Carlos Sainz that left the Spaniard frustrated.
“I did speak to him. I mean, Turn 4, it was aggressive, but I don’t regret that. That’s the way I had to do it. It was the only place on track that I could overtake.
“The one in Turn 15 was a mistake from my side, and that was clearly my fault. And I went to see Carlos for that, because that I know cost him points, and I’m sorry for that.”
At the end of the day the main issue was an overall lack of speed relative to Hamilton, who was himself disappointed to be only fourth at the flag.
“I didn’t see Lewis’s pace, but for sure, he was much, much stronger than me,” said Leclerc. “So the only positive I’ll say is that whenever you’ve got Lewis in the same car and being much faster than me today, there are definitely some things that I will learn from a day like this.
“When you struggle as a team and the two drivers are struggling, it’s a lot more difficult to know what’s going wrong. There we’ve got an example extreme in both ways.”
Leclerc is in no doubt about what he needs from the car in the second half of the year, and the hope is that a upgrade package scheduled for Spa will help.
“Eventually, it’s the performance that we need. We’ve got some upgrades coming, which will cure some particular weaknesses of the car, which I think will help us in some phases of the corner.
“I won’t go too much into detail, but again, I think there are some weaknesses. We’ve identified them, and we’ll try and fix them as soon as possible.”
Regarding the upgrades he added: “It’s still early days, but we’ll see how it goes. It’s still two weeks.
“I know that everybody’s pushing very hard production-wise, to try and give us upgrades as soon as possible. If they are here, I hope it can help us to do a significant step.”
Christian Horner has taken to social media with his first public reaction to his sudden departure from Red Bull Racing.
The news was confirmed today after Horner was relieved of his duties by Red Bull’s top management on Tuesday.
He has been replaced as CEO and team principal by erstwhile Racing Bulls boss Laurent Mekies.
In a short statement on Instagram Horner gave no details of the circumstances surrounding his departure, and instead paid tribute to the team and the people he has worked with over the years.
“After an incredible journey of twenty years together, it is with a heavy heart that today I say goodbye to the team I have absolutely loved,” he said. “Every one of you, the amazing people at the factory, have been the heart and soul of everything that we have achieved.
“Win and lose, every step of the way, we have stood by each other as one and I will never forget that. It’s been a privilege being part of and leading this epic team, and I am so proud of our collective accomplishments and you all.”
He continued: “Thanks to the amazing partners and fans who enabled us to go racing. Your support has helped grow the team from its humble beginnings to an F1 powerhouse that laid claim to six Constructors’ Championships and eight Drivers’ Championships.
“Equally, thank you to our rivals, with whom there would be no racing at all. You’ve pushed us, challenged us, and enabled us to achieve accolades we never dreamed possible. The competition has made every victory sweeter and every setback an opportunity to develop and grow.
“Formula 1 is a sport built on relentless ambition, passion, and respect. The rivalries have been fierce, but the mutual drive to innovate and raise the bar is what has made this journey so special.
“It’s been an honour to be part of this incredible era of motorsport. I leave with immense pride in what we’ve achieved and also with what’s in the pipeline for 2026 — and huge respect for everyone who’s made F1 the pinnacle it is today.”
Russell saved his best session of the weekend for when it mattered in Q3
Given that he qualified on pole for the British GP 12 months ago you might think that George Russell would be disappointed to be starting only fourth this year.
In fact the Mercedes driver was more than happy with the final outcome after what had been a tricky weekend for the team – until with perfect timing he pulled off a great lap at the end of Q3.
Lower temperatures at Silverstone were expected to play to the strengths of the W16, but that didn’t really happen.
Eighth fastest on Friday and in the same position in FP3, Russell had a tricky Q1 that saw him asking his engineer to “stay calm” as they discussed the evolving run plan.
He got through in 11th and was ninth in Q2 – cutting it a bit fine, but job done nevertheless.
Then in Q3 he logged his best lap of the weekend to outpace the Ferraris and put himself in fourth, behind Max Verstappen and the two McLaren drivers.
“Really pleased with that last lap,” he said when I asked him about the session. “Every lap until that point, we were anywhere from five-tenths to eight-tenths off the pace, and we were scratching our heads a little bit today, because we thought with the cooler conditions, things would come more towards us.
“And it was only about last lap in Q3 when, when it did. So it’s always good when your best lap of the weekend is the last one.”
When I asked about the “stay calm” comment he noted that it’s not easy to get everything right as you try to progress through the sessions in the most efficient way.
“Q1 is a really challenging session for probably all the teams other than McLaren, because you want to try and get to Q3 on two sets of tyres,” he said.
“And to do that, you need to get through Q1 on one set of tyres, and also get through Q2 on one set of tyres as well.
“I think it’s always a bit frantic on the pit wall sometimes, and from my side in the car, I’ve got no visibility of what’s going on. So I was just like, ‘Let’s just chill out a bit.’ Tell me what you’re thinking, and we can discuss.”
He had no doubts about what conditions he wanted on Sunday.
“Cold and dry, to be honest. It’s clear whenever it’s warm, we struggle. Whenever it’s cooler, it’s better.
“So as I said yesterday, we’re working so hard to improve this, we have been fortunate that we’re racing here this weekend, because two weekends ago in England, it was 34 degrees. So that’s not how we should be racing.”
P4 was a decent outcome, but Russell conceded that the team was hoping for me before the start of the weekend given the cooler weather.
However it’s not just about ambient and track temperatures, but also the loads that the loads that the corners put through the tyres.
“I do think today was probably, on the whole, less competitive than we were potentially expecting,” he said.
“I think the likes of Ferrari have been very competitive this weekend, which was a bit of a surprise. I know McLaren have brought some little upgrades. We didn’t really bring anything, but we haven’t brought anything for a while now. So we just need to try and understand that.
“It is cool, but of course, still this circuit is so quick. You’re putting so much energy in the tyre, so much temperature of the tyres.
“The tyres are running hotter here compared to what they’re running in Canada. And Canada was 50 degrees track, here is 25 degrees track, but just because of the layout, so that gives it some perspective.”
Meanwhile it was a solid if unspectacular session for Russell’s team mate Kimi Antonelli, who earned seventh place behind the two Ferrari drivers before his Austrian GP crash penalty dropped him to 10th.
“I think was was okay,” said the Italian. “The lap was not amazing, but I’ve been struggling the whole qualifying in high-speed, just struggling with stability, and that killed a bit of confidence throughout the session.
“And I just think it was tough on that side, and especially Sector 2, and start of Sector 3 was always a bit of a struggle because of that. And obviously not super happy, because I have the penalty tomorrow, but we’ll try to build from there.”
Adam Cooper F1 