This Week – 24/08/2025
Hello, coming up This Week, Zak Brown speaks about how McLaren is managing the fight for the championship between its drivers, Fred Vasseur admits Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton underestimated the challenge this season, Max Verstappen admits Red Bull is in a rebuilding phase, and why Ollie Bearman believes he has more confidence since Silverstone?
General News
The FIA says it has been “surprised” by the focus on lap times for the new 2026 cars, which it admitted could be “between one and two-and-a-half seconds slower”. With four months to go, the biggest changes to both power units and aero regulations in a generation, with drivers saying they have a “different feeling” based on their first simulator runs, while questions have also arisen whether F1 will become more of an “energy management championship”.
There is also another variable which looks to relate to the way cars generate speed, thus lap time. The new cars will be faster on the straights than the current generation, but significantly slower in the corners.
Its analysis says that the new cars will be slower but not o an extent that fans will notice much. FIA’s single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis said during an interview with Motorsport.com, “First of all, I do get a bit surprised by how much emphasis is put on the actual lap times. We’ve had various phases of the sport when cars have been slower or faster, and I think once you are used to it, it’s okay.”
“If you walk out of a simulator or in real life go from one car to another car that is one second and a half slower, you initially think ‘this is not a good car’, because you feel that second and a half. But I think once you’ve driven that a bit, then it actually doesn’t matter.”
According to Tombazis, this applies not only to drivers but also to fans. “I really don’t think the lap times are going to be a factor once people get used to these cars. I think it’s a comment you make initially when you see the delta, but I don’t think it will be a factor frankly, nor will it be hugely different from now.”
Having watched this sport through several regulation changes, these are the types of stories we get in the year before the changes take effect, while the consensus appears to be the new cars will be roughly two and a half seconds slower.
Even the FIA doesn’t have the complete picture from data, but Tombazis believes what matters more is close racing rather than pure lap times: “I find it a bit surprising why people actually care. Clearly if we’d make cars as slow as F2 or anything like that, then obviously people will have something to say about it, but that is definitely not the case.”
McLaren
McLaren CEO Zak Brown has discussed how the team is managing the intense drivers’ championship battle between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. The American says to avoid conflict between its drivers as they fight for the championship, to ensure full transparency and ensure that upgrades are equally shared.
Norris and Piastri’s championship battle has, so far, only resulted in one race-ending crash when the former went for a gap in the closing laps in Montreal, forcing him to retire from the race. Aside from that, the pair has managed to keep it relatively clean on track while still racing.
Brown explained on How Leaders Lead with David Novak, “It’s all about transparency, being fair, being equitable. When we have upgrades on the car and we can only give it to one driver for a race because two aren’t ready, we tell them why. We don’t let them find out by reading, ‘Oh, he’s got a new front wing, I don’t.’”
“So we give them the rationale. We keep scores. ‘Hey, next time we get a new development.’ Or we are in a position where one driver gets the benefit, the other can’t, we keep score.” Piastri currently leads Norris by nine points ahead of the season resuming in Zandvoort next weekend.
Brown also says the team a fortunate two have the best drivers on the grid who have not only proved they are the fastest drivers, but are “really good guys, they are very competitive, they are very respectful.” He added there is no tension between them and seemed to suggest that as we move towards the end of the season, it might be tougher, but added he still believed the championship wasn’t just between its drivers.
Norris has spent the last five and a half years racing his childhood heroes Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, but he has revealed that he doesn’t always feel like he is ‘one of them’.
Norris explained to Quadcast, “Watching Formula 1, Fernando, Lewis, you know, this is like ’07. Fernando, Lewis, Jenson [Button], all of the coolest races that ever happened and like wow, that’s so cool watching them. I would wake up at 3am, 4am, to watch some of these races. And now that’s me. Some of these guys are still racing. It’s such a crazy thought. I don’t know. It’s hard to say in words that that is now me. That’s what I once never even thought was possible.”
When quizzed on whether he was starstruck when he came out of the pits on his debut in 2019 behind Hamilton and Alonso, Norris explained, “You still have that little – I was like, ‘Oh my god, it’s Fernando!’ you know? And the thing is, I’m still – maybe not quite as much like that because I’ve grown a bit – but I’m still like that. I’m still like ‘wow, I’m racing Fernando and I’m racing Lewis’.”
Despite Alonso and Hamilton being his colleagues, Norris says he still a “hundred percent” looks up to them and wants to beat them, even when they do have on track fights and abuse in the cooldown room, thinking “man, this is cool.”
Ferrari
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur says he and Lewis Hamilton “stupidly” underestimated the challenge the seven-time world champion would face in joining the Italian team. The seven-time champion made a blockbuster switch to join Ferrari at the start of the 2025 season after spending twelve years at Mercedes, which he had joined in 2013 having driven at McLaren for the first six years.
However, despite all the hype around the move and the pole and sprint win in Shanghai, it has largely been an underwhelming season with him yet to finish on a Grand Prix podium. Hamilton hit a new emotional low in the final round before the break in Hungary, as he declared himself “useless” and said Ferrari needed to change driver, after qualifying twelfth when his team-mate Charles Leclerc – who has five grand prix podiums this season – claimed pole.
Vasseur told The Race, “Lewis and I, we collectively, probably underestimated the change of environment, and the fact that he spent, for me, twenty years in the same team. McLaren was Mercedes, and then he moved to Mercedes, an English team [based in Brackley], same engine guys, that same culture and so on. So, he spent 2006 to 2024, eighteen years, in this environment, and then he arrived at Ferrari. And we were stupidly expecting that he will have everything under control.”
Even before qualifying in Budapest, Hamilton admitted there would “be some tears” during the summer break as he attempted to come to terms with “a real battle” of a start to life at Ferrari.
A week earlier in Belgium, Hamilton revealed he had been submitting documents to Ferrari bosses and holding meetings with key figures across the team in an attempt to ensure the partnership is more successful in 2026. While there have been occasional bright spots, most notably a Sprint pole and victory at the second round of the season in China, Hamilton has largely struggled to get to grips with the SF-25.
Vasseur also explained why he thinks the Brit might be finding it more challenging than the driver he replaced at Ferrari, Williams’ Carlos Sainz, to switch teams. The seven-time champion is in his third team of an eighteen-year career, while Sainz is at his fourth team in ten years. Also, he believes there’s a bigger culture difference “between Ferrari and Mercedes than between Mercedes and McLaren. And this we underestimated.”
Red Bull
Max Verstappen has claimed that Red Bull faces a rebuilding phase before it can return to its championship-winning form. For the first two and a half years of this regulation cycle, they dominated the sport, before they fell to third during the second half of last season a trend which has continued this season.
Red Bull sits fourth in the constructors’ standings behind McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes. In addition to the dip in performance on track, there have been significant off-track changes in the team. Red Bull announced on 9 July that Christian Horner had been replaced as Red Bull Racing CEO and team principal by Laurent Mekies.
Although the specific reason for his departure was not revealed, it is thought that the departures of several key personnel, including Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley, contributed to the decision. Verstappen told F1.com, “The team has gone from, of course winning championships before I arrived, to when I arrived, a bit through a rebuilding phase, and then we really hit the peak again of winning championships.
“Now I feel like [it’s a] slight rebuilding. We’re still of course, a very strong team, but I do think that to make again a step up, there’s slight rebuilding or restructuring maybe, and understanding a little bit more what’s going on, and that of course takes a little bit of time, but hopefully not too much time.”
I think that is right, the team are in this rebuilding phase, you need to ask, I feel like Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes, indeed Red Bull themselves, how far they need to fall before they can start rebuilding.
Motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has said that Max Verstappen staying with Red Bull is the logical move for the driver, given the unpredictability of the 2026 regulations. This comes after talks between the four-time champion and Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff were confirmed earlier this year as the team struggled to maintain the dominance it had shown over the past few years.
Speaking on the F1 Insider podcast, the Austrian said that it was always clear to him that the four-time champion would always remain at Red Bull. he said, “From his statements it was clear that he wanted to stay, and it makes sense, even if the exit clause had become actionable. No one knows what the situation will look like in 2026. On the engine side, Mercedes declare themselves the class leader, but there is no proof.”
Next season sees the biggest overhaul of both power unit and aerodynamic regulations in a generation and Red Bull joins as an engine manufacturer in partnership with Ford. The biggest challenge for the team since taking over Stewart-Ford in 2003-04, Despite this added pressure on the team, Verstappen has confirmed his future, at least for now.
Marko added, “Max is a very important part of our team. He has achieved his successes with Red Bull Racing; in his Formula One career he has only ever driven Red Bull cars, and beyond his driving potential he is simply a very important family member for us.”
Mercedes
George Russell has spoken of there being “no rush” for himself and Mercedes to agree on a new deal, with the Briton’s future beyond 2025 yet to be settled. Although it looks to be a formality that the Englishman will stay with the team, over the last month, it has appeared his future is now in his hands.
Before the summer break at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Russell stated that there were “no updates” regarding his contractual situation with Mercedes, but he did say things were moving “in the right direction”.
He told F1.com, “To be honest, now, with the time of the year that we’re in, there’s no time pressure from my side. There’s no major time pressure from the team. The truth is, we’ve been in contact a lot this week, but nothing about contracts or the future, because we need to get the car back on track.
“Of course, we’re having conversations about the future. Things are going in the right direction, but it’s not like we need to get this done right here and right now.” This suggests two things to me, that these talks are more serious as he is at the of his career where he needs to make the right decision if he wants to be a champion.
But he says he is less anxious than he was six months ago, and suggested it was more important to be in the right team.
Haas
Ollie Bearman says it is “crazy” how much his confidence has changed since Haas brought an upgrade package to the British Grand Prix in July. The American outfit fitted a revised floor and new sidepod inlets, which made an immediate impact as Bearman recorded his highest qualifying position of the year with eighth.
Although he was unable to translate that eighth into points after a ten-place grid penalty for ignoring red flags in practice, he was able to make up eight places in the race, missing out on points by nearly a second and a half. He then ended his pointless run in the Spa Sprint and before missing out again by four tenths in the Grand Prix, partly due to strategy and power unit issues.
The Englishman continued his fine form into Hungary, where he outqualified veteran team-mate Esteban Ocon – but a mechanical failure then ended Bearman’s race. Yet the improvement of the rookie across the last three race weekends is evident after a tough start to the year, which left Bearman bottom out of the drivers that have raced since Melbourne.
In the mid-season review I wrote, “I think Bearman has delivered what we expected following his stand-in drives last season, given where Haas are. Bearman is often just outside the points, so his championship position doesn’t reflect his season, which has been consistent, and he is pushing Ocon.”
He explained to Motorsport.com, “I haven’t found my confidence until we brought the Silverstone upgrade to the car. Since then, I’ve had a really good feeling, and I’ve been able to replicate that feeling – and that’s crazy. You can’t describe it, but you chase it, you chase it, you chase it, and when you can have it, it’s very special.”
Asked if he thinks the upgrade is a “proper start” to his campaign, Bearman agreed that it was and is optimistic about what he can achieve across the final ten weekends. he added, “It’s a car that I feel fully comfortable in. Of course, I tried to feel as comfortable as possible in the previous car, but it’s difficult when the balance is tough. Now we’ve managed to replicate that and from now, I think we can do a lot with this car.”
Sauber
Team principal Jonathan Wheatley insists that any pressure he under will be “something positive,” as the team enters the final phase of the transition to the Audi works team in 2026. The former Red Bull sporting director has spoken of feeling “re-energised” by his new role, while he has also enjoyed some on-track highlights, most notably Nico Hulkenberg’s long-awaited maiden podium at the British Grand Prix.
Wheatley also suggested that he was anticipating a greater level of responsibility than he was used to when the German manufacturer arrives into the sport. Wheatley explained to Sky Sports, “I don’t think so, I think you take these things in your stride. I feel very comfortable in the role I’m doing at the moment, it’s an amazing opportunity. I’m so excited about the project.”
“Just saying Audi Formula One project sounds like the most incredible thing to be part of. Pressure is part of the job, it’s been part of my job for the last thirty years. I turn it into something positive.”
He added that he was approaching his new job by absorbing and immersing himself in the team. Saying it’s important to listen to everyone and work out why decisions have been made, adding you can rarely bring procedures and processes across from one team to another as “it just doesn’t work.”
Adding, “But what you can bring is a philosophy, you can bring a cultural philosophy as well. There’s low-hanging fruit, there’s been some of that to be had. It’s a very young team and I think people forget that. A lot of people here only started in January or February so we’re knitting together the team.”