Wolff believes Ferrari won’t maintain car development
Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff doubts Ferrari won’t be able to maintain their current scale of car development through the season against the constraints of the budget cap, reckoning they should be “running out of money soon”.
The opening six months of F1’s new regulation era have seen most teams introduce aerodynamic updates to their cars on almost a race-by-race basis, with larger packages regularly proving to have a clear impact on the pecking order. Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton’s win in Barcelona the only time they’ve been beaten in a Grand Prix.
Ferrari’s strong performance in Barcelona was aided by their introduction of an eight-item aerodynamic upgrade package to their SF-26 car. They brought three circuit-specific updated parts to Monaco and then four more revised items, including some practice test items, to last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, where they experienced a more difficult race.
Mercedes, by contrast, has introduced four car changes in total since their last big update at the Canadian Grand Prix four races ago, although they continue to be the team to beat with Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull – who brought the biggest update to Austria and found sizeable gains – all eager to catch up through in-season development.
Given all teams must adhere to a yearly budget cap, which was raised to $215m for 2026 owing to the scale of the new chassis regulations, or face sanctions, Wolff is hopeful Mercedes have more development spend in hand over their Italian rivals to deploy later in the season.
Wolff told Sky Sports, “On the chassis, we’re always bringing small enhancements here and there, because we’re a little bit surprised that Ferrari can throw these huge updates at the car in the way they do.”
“In my opinion they need to be running out of money soon, cost cap money, because we can’t do that. We’re simply lacking the buffer in cost cap to be able to bring so many parts in the way they do. Hopefully that’s going to change towards the end of the season when they won’t be able to bring any parts anymore. At least the logic would say that, and we’re going to come with more.”
Last weekend, Ferrari also brought their first revised engine of the year to Austria after being one of three manufacturers granted two upgrade opportunities under the ADUO system. Ferrari played down the significance of that first upgrade, with a bigger step forward expected later in the year.
Mercedes has been awarded one ADUO this season, but Wolff has said that “at the moment there’s no upgrade planned”.
Norris “dreadful” title defence
Lando Norris has admitted that his and McLaren’s title defence this season has been “dreadful” in terms of reliability, while the pace “has not been terrible”. But he accepts that, in hindsight, the difficulty they are going through this year has its roots in their success.
Speaking to BBC News ahead of his two home Grand Prix, he said, “I’m happy I have the pain of this year for the glory of last.” There has been this growing acceptance that why the team hasn’t been defending its titles is because of Max Verstappen’s late challenge last season.
He said, “We still put a lot of effort into making sure we were ready for this year. And we’re not as ready and as strong as we would have liked to have been. But certainly a good amount of trying to win the championship as a constructor and as a driver last year required a continued amount of dedication on the car of last season.”
“When just more effort in other teams, teams that are doing well now, they just would have shifted more people, more focus would have gone to this year. So, it’s just the price you pay in a very competitive world against extremely good teams and clever people.”
McLaren has been struggling, like the rest of the top four teams, to challenge Mercedes as they’ve constantly been fluctuating from circuit to circuit. Norris did have a chance of victory in Miami, but lost it through strategic error. Beyond that, continued reliability issues – some common to all teams with Mercedes engines, some at McLaren’s own door – have led to a series of retirements.
The result is Norris heads into his home race, which he won last year, in fifth place in the championship, ninety-two points off leader Antonelli. But he says that it’s not a overall “dreadful” season, putting the reliability as the main factor as to why they have struggled.
Not being able to defend his title – so far – has been “a little bit frustrating”, he acknowledges. But his love for McLaren is as strong as ever.
Norris has been mentored by Zak Brown, McLaren Racing’s chief executive officer, for well over a decade, since long before the American even thought about ending up in that role. And Norris has spent his entire F1 career so far – eight years and counting – with McLaren.
He has no intention of changing that for the foreseeable future. For Norris, winning is important, but it’s not everything. Saying “The thing that people don’t realise is I want to win races, and I certainly want to win here and now, and I want to win in the future, and you’ve got to think of both things in the world of Formula One.”
He added, “But I’ll also at times choose happiness of place over maybe some unknown territory. There might be a year in Formula 1 where I’m very happy at McLaren. We might win, we might not. I’d rather stay here and enjoy my years at McLaren than maybe choose to go somewhere else where I could have a better chance.
“Chaos” predicted if Verstappen leaves Red Bull
Sky Sports’ Simon Lazenby believes that Max Verstappen leaving Red Bull would cause “chaos” in the driver market. The broadcaster understands Verstappen initiated talks with McLaren last week, and Red Bull CEO and team principal Laurent Mekies admitted his team need to prove to the Dutchman he should not switch teams for 2027.
It is well known that while the Dutchman has a contract until 2028, there are several exit clauses in his contract which would allow him to leave at the end of this year. The most relevant at the moment being if he was outside the top two positions in the Drivers’ Championship at the start of this season’s summer break in August.
With three races remaining before the summer break, Verstappen is seventh in the standings, fifty-eight points behind second-placed George Russell, who trails his Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli. Verstappen has also threatened to quit because of his dislike of these regulations, but that appears to have dissipated.
Lazenby said: “The key is Max Verstappen. If someone takes Max, then the whole thing is chaos again.”
Verstappen leaving Red Bull would have implications for the rest of the grid as there would be a seat available at one of F1’s top teams. While a swap between Oscar Piastri and Verstappen could take place, Red Bull may also consider re-signing Carlos Sainz from Williams or promoting Britain’s Arvid Lindblad from Racing Bulls.
Asked on the grid ahead of Sunday’s race at the Austrian Grand Prix whether Verstappen could find a home at McLaren, the team’s chief executive, Zak Brown, did not completely shut down the idea.
Brown told Sky Sports, “I would be very surprised if Lando or Oscar went elsewhere because they are very happy. Of course, we have got contracts, but, even besides that, contracts aside, we are very happy with them, and they are very happy here. If for some strange reason someone slipped on a banana peel getting out of the tub, then of course Max is a four-time world champion.”
Sainz not considering options
Carlos Sainz is out of contract with the Grove team at the end of 2026, but admits he will “not really” consider where his F1 future lies until the championship’s summer break. The Spaniard joined the team eighteen months ago, having a decent season where he scored two podiums.
But from the Barcelona-Catalunya test in January, which the team missed, Williams has been on the back foot with an overweight, uncompetitive car, sparking questions in the paddock about whether Sainz will elect to stay with the team or look elsewhere.
When asked if he was scoping out seats at rival teams, Sainz said, “Not really. I’m not, seriously. I’m not because I have so much work to do here in Williams right now. Over the next few races and the amount of simulator sessions we’re doing, amount of meetings that are being held in the last few months.”
“I’ve also told my team to leave me a bit on my own until the summer break, just to try and help Williams and improve the situation as much as possible. And then in the summer break, it will be obviously time to think about it, look at the options.” He added the team “knows what my intentions and my priorities are.”
This suggests that it’s a ‘when not if,’ a new contract is signed and commits to its long-term aim of returning to race-winning ways. However, he concedes that there is “a lot of work” still to do with this regard.
This weekend is what Williams describes as a “medium-sized” update would arrive at Silverstone, before further tweaks across the following three weekends at Spa, Budapest and Zandvoort. In fact, he said the team will have “almost an entirely new car for Baku” in September.
The performance this programme of upgrades unlocks at Williams will be a key factor in any decision Sainz makes on his future.
Adding “I’m trying to go deep into the root of the causes together with JV, all the management, and everyone involved to see where things started to go wrong. I think we’ve analysed and concluded that, but not only that, it’s what do we do moving forward, how quick are those changes going to start paying off, and how diligent and how aggressive we are obviously in the recovery from the bump.”
Until this all becomes clear, Sainz has asked for “as little noise as possible” from his management regarding contracts, driver moves and where his future could potentially lie.
Last Time Out … Spielberg
FP1 saw Kimi Antonelli lead a Mercedes one-two with a 07.796 to put himself four hundredths faster than his teammate George Russell. Oscar Piastri put his McLaren third as he went just under eight hundredths off the two Mercedes and comfortably faster by over a tenth and a half than the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.
FP2 Antonelli continued to lead the way with a 07.014, going ahead of the McLaren duo by two tenths. Oscar Piastri was just under nine hundredths faster than his teammate Lando Norris, and Max Verstappen put his Red Bull fourth just over two tenths behind the McLarens.
FP3 saw Russell set a 07.096 to deny Antonelli a clean sweep of practice sessions, with Russell pipping the Italian by just under four hundredths, as Lewis Hamilton impressed for Ferrari but was seven hundredths further behind. McLaren didn’t look as strong as it did on Friday, as Piastri and Norris settled for fourth and fifth, just under three tenths adrift.
Qualifying saw Russell take pole by two tenths ahead of the Ferraris with a 06.113, after Verstappen spun out on his last attempt, which prevented others from improving. Despite improving under yellow flags, Russell managed to prove he backed off enough and still secure pole. Leclerc second and Lewis Hamilton third, after going six hundredths faster, with championship leader Anton.elli in fourth.
Russell held off Verstappen to win the Grand Prix by just over a second and a half. The Englishman delivered a strong drive to secure his first victory since the opening race in Melbourne and could be a huge boost mid-season as he seeks to close the gap to his teammate Kimi Antonelli in the championship.
Hamilton was taken out of contention for victory by the way the strategy played out but that was caused by the decision to stop just before the VSC, caused by Carlos Sainz stopping on the pit straight just after his second stop. The timing opening the door for Oscar Piastri to take fourth and finish four and a half seconds ahead of the seven-time champion.
Talking Points Silverstone
Round nine brings F1 to Silverstone, one of the iconic venues and the home race for most of the teams. The return of the sprint format, though different to when it debuted here five years ago, adds to the drama and excitement to this weekend. Then add into that a high-speed and downforce circuit where overtaking is part of the fun this weekend always comes as Alex Jacques said once, “in box office.”
George Russell, fresh from his win four days ago in Spielberg, will be hoping that is the beginning of a fight back after his teammate won five of the last seven Grands Prix. Barcelona, he managed a “reset” and bounced back, well sort of, by inheriting second to Lewis Hamilton after Antonelli’s late retirement.
But the Briton still needed that long-awaited second win of the campaign, which finally arrived in Austria. Now, it’s time to kick on as he comes to his home track, where he hasn’t fared particularly well over the years. Russell still awaits that first Silverstone podium, and he’ll certainly need to achieve it at the very least this weekend to continue the momentum is starting to build.
While Russell has gained ground over recent races, there still is the perception that Kimi Antonelli has been at least matching him. It feels like Russell still needs a weekend where he is clearly a step above Antonelli on outright pace to get a stranglehold in this period of the season.
Lewis Hamilton can’t be counted out either; a nine-time winner at Silverstone and a tenth would be another seismic moment. Ferrari were unable to back up Hamilton’s Barcelona win last weekend in Austria, though, perhaps due to the altitude and track layout, which does not suit their smaller turbo.
There are aspects of Silverstone that are similar to Barcelona, but it’s an even more power-hungry circuit, so it remains to be seen whether one aspect outweighs the other for Ferrari this coming weekend.
With that in mind, they should be more competitive at Silverstone and are set to have more upgrades coming to the car too – something Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has questioned, given Ferrari’s impressive number of new parts in recent weeks. But the big question is whether Ferrari can match Mercedes on engine performance.
Norris, who won last year’s race, is driving well this season, but McLaren’s inconsistent form makes it hard to read if he will be in the fight for victory this weekend. Norris and Oscar Piastri have driven very well this season, but reliability issues from both McLaren and their power-unit supplier, Mercedes mean neither driver has been able to put together a string of results.
Also competing at their home race this weekend is Oliver Bearman and rookie Arvid Lindblad, both of whom have impressed this year and should be right amongst the midfield, as well as Alex Albon, who races under a Thai flag but has British citizenship. Bearman and Lindblad are fighting in the lower end of the points, but both have scored in the last four races.
After finishing second thanks to an upgrade for Red Bull, this has been labelled a crucial weekend to see how the car performs, as last weekend was a bit of a curveball thanks to it being a historically strong track for Max Verstappen and its short nature. The longer circuit this and next weekend will give more answers.
Red Bull passed the first test with its upgrade package, but one swallow does not make a summer. Silverstone, together with Spa, should provide a better picture of how real the team’s progress is, especially with its rivals continuing to develop as well.
Four drivers on the grid have yet to score. Lance Stroll has been struggling with his Aston Martin all year, Cadillac needs a crazy race to come close, and Nico Hulkenberg has somehow still not scored this season. At Silverstone, the site of the German’s first podium in F1 just twelve months ago, could he finally put his mark in the sand?
Hulkenberg has been just outside the points in recent races and has been just outside the points and Audi has been running an updated power unit and a handful of other tweaks in the pipeline. Could Hulkenberg finally pick up his first points a point a year on from his glorious podium for Sauber at the British Grand Prix?
He’ll have a fight on his hands if he is to do so, as Haas, Racing Bulls and Alpine are all regularly scrapping for the final points. And, while Austria was something of a damp squib for Cadillac, its latest round of updates brought performance
Norris committed to McLaren “forever”
Lando Norris says there is only one other F1 team he would be interested in racing for, but the Briton has insisted he is committed to McLaren and that his current goal is to stay with them “forever.” Norris goes into the first of back-to-back home races as world champion and having completed the most races for the team.
The English-Belgian driver is currently on a ‘multi-year’ deal at McLaren but, speaking on the latest episode of the Beyond The Grid podcast ahead of his home race in Silverstone, he conceded that he would only ever be interested in representing one other team on the F1 grid.
Asked if he sees himself as a one-team driver, Norris said: “Very, very potentially because I don’t know how long I’ll be in Formula One. My contract still goes for a good amount of years so I know I’m not leaving any time soon. I don’t know. If there’s any place I want to go, there’s only one place I’d ever be interested in, but that’s very, very in the distant future.”
Norris has been with the team for nearly a decade, and was adamant that his partnership with the team still has many years left in it. He described the team as his family, as he wants to do as much as he can for as long as possible, which he is proud to do.
Adding “that’s my goal, to be with McLaren forever, but I also love winning. So, until that time comes, you never know. But even if I’m not winning – you know, I didn’t win for six years, I could have gone to different places and I didn’t because, at the end of the day, I just want to enjoy.”
“It goes all the way back to the very beginning, honestly. You easily have that perception from people saying you have to be cut-throat and do all these different things, but I’ll do my best with McLaren forever and, even sometimes if you’re not winning, that doesn’t mean I necessarily want to go to another team. I just want to be with the people that I enjoy being with and that’s the only thing I really care about.”
Lindblad looks ahead to first home race
Arvid Lindblad has opened up on how he feels ahead of his first home race, where he will showcase a uniquely personal helmet design as he takes on the British Grand Prix. The English-Swedish-Indian driver has driven and is well experienced at Silverstone and goes into the weekend having scored in the last three rounds.
Looking ahead to the weekend, he said: “I’m extremely excited. It’s going to be a very special moment for me. I remember being here in 2013 when I was five and sitting at Maggotts and Becketts with my dad.”
“As I was watching the cars go past, it was when I was really learning about my love for the sport and asking him questions. Is it possible to be there one day? Could that be me? thirteen years later, to be coming here as an F1 driver will be incredibly special.”
For this weekend, he has drawn on his British Indian heritage with hand-drawn designs created by British-Indian artist Navinder Nangla. The childlike sketches reference his dad’s support in his motorsport career and memorable achievements, as well as the Union flag and inspirational phrases like ‘dream big’ and ‘my path my way’.
Lindblad said the design is “quite different”, explaining: “I wanted something that really reflected my journey to this point, almost like a map of it as such. As I’ve said before, when I was five [or] six, I believed I could be in F1 so I wanted the images to be almost like me envisioning my journey as my five-year-old self.
“I’ve got lots of little sketches on the back of my helmet of pivotal moments that have helped me get here, and the phrases of ‘dream big’ and that sort of stuff. I think it’s really cool and I’m looking forward to using it on track this week.”
Silverstone ready for record breaking weekend
Going into the weekend, the organisers say they “absolutely ready” to drive this weekend’s British Grand Prix into the history books as the most-attended F1 event ever seen. It is anticipated that an extraordinary 565,000 spectators will descend on Silverstone across the weekend for the ninth round of the season which will eclipse the sport’s thirty-one-year record, held by Adelaide in 1995, by 45,000.
Silverstone has sold more than 175,000 tickets for Sunday’s race alone, which is also a new record for the Northamptonshire circuit. Chief executive Stuart Pringle told the Press Association: “What does it mean to be hosting the largest Grand Prix ever? It feels entirely appropriate for the place which ran the first round in 1950.”
“The British fanbase and the history of strong attendance make it fitting that it is us [that breaks the record], and it reinforces how important the British market is to Formula One. This is a very big race in the calendar. We are absolutely ready. The whole thing has got an air of polish to it. We have been building up year-on-year, but this feels like a big step forward for me.”
George Russell arrives at Silverstone having won and cut his teammate Kimi Antonelli lead to forty-points in Spielberg on Sunday, while nine-time winner Lewis Hamilton having taken his first win for Ferrari in Barcelona is six points further behind. Lando Norris returns to the race he won for the first time last year.
Silverstone is in its third year of a ten-year agreement with F1’s American owners, Liberty Media, understood to be worth £300 million, which safeguards one of the jewels in the F1 season and the country’s sporting summer until 2034.
Pringle said: “I have noted other race promoters have got renewals or extensions with still quite a few years outstanding on their contracts and we are not against that. The more certainty we have, the more we are able to invest for the future.”
“I don’t think Formula 1 wants to go anywhere else. There is nowhere else in the United Kingdom. This street race nonsense [in London] is just that. And why would you want to walk away from the biggest crowd, passionate fans, and an event which is popular with teams, sponsors, partners and celebrities?”
It has been suggested by Liberty in the wake of the alternation deal between Spa and Barcelona, that Silverstone, along with Monza and Monaco, as a race which has been held continuously since the beginning of the championship in 1950, wouldn’t be placed on rotation.
“Punch in the face” car behaviour in Spielberg – Bearman
Ollie Bearman says it was a “punch in the face” when he was happy with the behaviour of the Haas car in last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, only for it to be off the pace compared to midfield rivals. Despite being knocked out in Q2 and finishing the race fourteenth, he said the car was the best of the season.
He stressed that having a tricky car that hasn’t been optimised, while knowing that there was more performance in it, was a much better position to be in. When asked by Crash.net about Austria, he said, “Compared to the previous weekend [Barcelona], it’s been a shame.”
“You can stomach being what we were, which was the eighth fastest car on a weekend where you’re really unhappy with the balance, and say, ‘Yeah, we were the eighth fastest, but we didn’t optimise everything.’ “Last week, we optimised everything, and we were eighth fastest, and that’s a really tough one to take. We actually finished one spot ahead of where we should have, but that was nowhere near the points, almost getting lapped by the (Racing Bull).”
Bearman described it as a punch in the face after having a competitive car in terms of pace in Barcelona, but it was competitive in terms of race pace. Asked if the team had found any answers in the past few days, he said: “There’s no answers. The answer is that we’ve been out-developed and overtaken by our competition.
“So it’s not that we’ve left anything on the table in terms of what we could have done in Austria, it’s that we’ve not brought as much performance to the car since round one as everybody around us, and that’s been very clear last weekend.”
Bearman stressed that Haas has been left behind in the upgrade battle, but there was more to come when they bring their next upgrade, pointing to the gains they have made despite being out of sync with rivals. They had only brought one real upgrade this season.
Haas needs to get the car “healthy” – Ocon
Esteban Ocon says that the team has to focus on getting the car “healthy” alongside the usual push for overall performance. The Frenchman has been struggling with a lack of rear downforce in recent races.
Despite changing aero parts between practice and qualifying last weekend in Spielberg, the team still wasn’t able to address the issue, which is now believed to relate to the floor. It has made life difficult for Esteban Ocon in races, as sliding in turn hurts the rear tyres.
At the Red Bull Ring, that meant that he was unable to capitalise on a good start that saw him jump up from fifteenth on the grid to an initial eleventh place. The Frenchman eventually dropped to sixteenth two places behind his teammate Ollie Bearman. He told Crash.net after the race, “The start was mega, the launch was incredible. It’s something that we worked very hard with the team to get right, and also the choices in the first and second lap were really good. I kept moving forward.”
“I was able to fight for the first nine laps, I would say. Then we got the safety car timing wrong again, once again we pitted when the safety car is not there, and then five laps later it comes. So that’s something that feels like a deja vu, but that’s just luck.”
“Unfortunately, we struggled massively again. To be honest, I was struggling to keep the car on track towards the end of the race. The team has done everything they could to try and fix the issue on the load that we are missing on the rear of the car, and the problem is still there.”
Ocon believes the impact on tyres is the big problem, explaining that he was running at the bottom of the rear wing, causing him to cook the tyres, resulting in him being three and a half seconds slower than everyone else. It’s also a issue that affected him in Barcelona and Monaco.
Adding, “I think there’s two issues: getting my car healthy and the overall performance, because even if Ollie’s car is healthy, we’re still missing some performance. So yeah, struggling with a lot with the same things. And we’ll keep pushing hard in Silverstone, and hopefully the problem will go away.”
Cadillac marks 250 years of American independence
Cadillac has unveiled a special livery to mark 250 years of American independence, which it will run at this weekend’s British Grand Prix. The US-owned team will run the stars and stripes when it takes to the Silverstone circuit this weekend. It follows similar special liveries of home teams McLaren and Williams.
While McLaren and Williams are celebrating their home races, Cadillac will use its livery to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America’s independence from the UK on Saturday. The MAC-26 will feature a full-colour red, white and blue livery for the race weekend.
The updated look also incorporates the stars and stripes icons of the country’s flag on the front wing and engine cover. The vibrant new colour scheme will be replicated across the garage dressing at Silverstone, as well as on driver helmets and team kit.
CEO of Cadillac Dan Towriss said, “The 4th of July weekend is a moment for us to show our continued pride in representing the United States on the global stage of F1. We want to use it as an opportunity to allow new communities to discover the sport and share our passion.”
Lego parade lap take two
F1 drivers will hop into Lego minicars for the British Grand Prix parade lap this weekend, following on from the success of the Lego drivers’ parade at last year’s Miami GP. Last years Lego parade became an instant hit on social media and with the drivers themselves this year the chaos will go a step further.
Lego have built each driver their own car 28,000 Lego bricks for the traditional drivers’ parade lap at Silverstone before Sunday’s grand prix. The minicars were built by 20 designers and engineers and took more than 6,400 hours to complete at Lego’s Czech Republic factory, with the minicars capable of reaching up to 25km/h. Each minicar weighs 280kg, 65kg of which is Lego bricks, and has standard go-kart wheels.
The parade lap in Miami morphed into a race between the drivers, with bricks flying everywhere. Chief commercial officer at Formula 1, Emily Prazer, said. “Last year’s F1 drivers’ parade in Miami with the Lego big build cars was one of the most memorable and talked-about moments of the season, capturing the imagination of fans around the world and showing a different side of the sport”
“This year, we’re building on that moment to create an incredible spectacle for fans attending the British Grand Prix and those watching globally.”
