Hello, welcome to This Week. We appear in uncharted territory. Several further appeals followed after Pierre Gasly\u2019s penalty in Monaco was overturned. We write this on Friday and by Sunday, we should have a result.<\/p>\n
Has reliability returned as a factor in the championship as Mercedes admits it cannot fight for a championship if cars keep losing major points through mechanical failures. Does that make Lewis Hamilton, after his first win for Ferrari, a title contender?<\/p>\n
McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes have launched an appeal of the Monaco Grand Prix result after Alpine driver Pierre Gasly was reinstated to the podium. Gasly was one of five drivers – including Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, Alpine’s Franco Colapinto and Mercedes’ George Russell – who received five-second time penalties for speeding in the pit lane.<\/p>\n
Alpine successfully appealed Gasly’s penalties and provided evidence that Monaco’s pit lane distance was incorrect, thus the drivers’ speed was also being measured incorrectly. As a result, on Thursday last week, Gasly was reinstated to third pushing Isack Hadjar and McLaren’s Piastri to fourth and fifth, with Racing Bulls pair Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad down to sixth and seventh.<\/p>\n
Ferrari has not said whether they will join the appeal, but had until Thursday to do so. It\u2019s understood that Red Bull has appealed after it saw Isack Hadjar lose his podium place to Gasly.<\/p>\n
McLaren said in a statement: “While we fully respect the FIA’s judicial processes and the role of the Stewards, we believe this case raises important questions concerning sporting fairness, regulatory consistency and the integrity of competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout the Monaco Grand Prix weekend – and in every event – all teams operated according to the regulations and established standard practices for what concerns the speed limit in the pit lane as they were applied at the time. Competitors adjusted their procedures accordingly and, where required, accepted and served penalties imposed under those regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The FIA has accepted Mercedes’ request for a review of the Monaco Grand Prix result and George Russell’s penalties, with a hearing scheduled for yesterday. While the FIA stewards have not yet formally established that Russell’s penalty was unjustified, the fact that FOM acknowledged the timing system was working incorrectly strongly suggests the Mercedes driver may also have been incorrectly penalised for speeding in the pit lane.<\/p>\n
McLaren added that they have formally protested the decision to overturn Gasly’s penalties. Oscar Piastri was also penalised during the race but, unlike Gasly, served his penalty during the grand prix. As a result, the decision to reinstate Gasly’s original race time effectively dropped Piastri from fourth to fifth in the final classification.<\/p>\n
However, come Thursday, Mercedes announced they had withdrawn their request for a right of review into the Monaco Grand Prix result after Alpine’s successful appeal saw Pierre Gasly reinstated to the podium. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has said at last weekend’s Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix that he thought any success from the appeal was a “long shot”.<\/p>\n
This post was written before the hearing on Saturday morning, and we will bring you a update on Monday.<\/p>\n
F1 says it reduced its carbon emissions by 12% in 2025, keeping it on track to achieve a 50% reduction by 2030. When it set out the goal to reach net zero by 2030 the sport wanted to halve its emissions compared to 2018 aware that most\u00a0 of the emissions come from logistics and travel<\/p>\n
Compared to the 228,793 tCO2e baseline figure from 2018, F1 has reduced its emissions by 35% over the past eight years, keeping it on track to halve them over the next for years by 2030. F1 has also been reducing its travel emissions by ramping up its investments in sustainable aviation fuel and more remote operations, reducing the amount of freight shipped to every race.<\/p>\n
More and more teams have also switched to sustainable fuel in their trucks, while F1 started investing in sustainable maritime fuel for its sea freight. The next steps to net zero is set to see the creation of regional hubs for freight<\/p>\n
Ellen Jones, head of ESG at F1 said, \u201cSustainability underpins every decision we make. By doubling the sport\u2019s investment in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), making our first investment in sustainable maritime fuel, and continuing to work closely with promoters, teams and partners, we are driving further emissions reductions while accelerating the adoption of the latest technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese actions demonstrate our continued determination to lead through sustainable innovation. As we move towards our net zero by 2030 goal, the Future Race Operations Programme will deliver further significant reductions in the years ahead, alongside the full impact of calendar rationalisation, which will come into effect from the 2026 season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Team principal Andrea Stella has said McLaren “only want to think about performance” while urging Mercedes to keep on top of the reliability issues that have plagued its power unit this season. McLaren and particularly Lando Norris, have been the most affected by these issues during practice sessions.<\/p>\n
McLaren team principal Stella told the media after Barcelona, \u201cFinally, a relatively calm and clean weekend from a reliability point of view. Of course, we don’t have to forget that in some of the previous weekends we didn’t only have problems on Sunday, but we also had problems affecting practice. So there’s been improvement from this point of view.<\/p>\n
\u201cReliability, you know, I don’t want to judge it in a single race. I would like to judge it in a season and say we had a couple of exceptions. But we have to rebuild from where we were, so we take one race at a time, one event at a time. Good that we haven’t had any issues here in Spain. We have definitely raised the bar, the level of attention, and used the situations we had in the previous races to reset and increase the standards in the way we do things.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important to remember engines are allocated at random, and difficult to predict failures. But the development war is where McLaren can make inroads; performance is key to success in this sport.<\/p>\n
CEO and team principal Toto Wolff says Mercedes \u201ccan\u2019t compete for a championship\u201d with its current level of reliability woes after Kimi Antonelli\u2019s late retirement in \u00a0Barcelona. During the closing stages of last weekend\u2019s race, the Italian\u2019s car shutdown after he overtook his teammate for second.<\/p>\n
Both Antonelli and Russell have now lost major points as a result of two race-ending mechanical failures, with Russell dropping out while leading the Canadian Grand Prix last month. It\u2019s not only been an issue for the works team but its customers, teams McLaren, Alpine and Williams have also encountered problems throughout the early part of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
Wolff told Sky Sports, \u201cWe just can’t compete for a championship if every second race a car is losing fat points. It’s one and then the other, and to finish first, first you have to finish. That’s just not good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking to the press later, Wolff added, “You see, a DNF robs you of twenty-five points and it’s wide open. That’s why we can’t afford to not finish. We need to just keep putting performance on the car and power unit, not make mistakes, be clever with the strategy and stay absolutely on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wolff admits that the way Russell and Antonelli battle each other is something the Silver Arrows “need to discuss with them for the future”, due to the increasing threat of Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari. For much of last weekend\u2019s race, the two were engaged in another wheel-to-wheel fight before losing the lead to Hamilton and Antonelli\u2019s retirement.<\/p>\n
It has prompted Wolff to suggest that the rules of engagement between his drivers might need to be re-evaluated, as their on-track squabble cost them several seconds that potentially allowed Hamilton before he rejoined in the lead after making his final pit stop under a Virtual Safety Car.<\/p>\n
Wolff told Sky Sports, \u201cThey raced each other quite hard before George’s stop and I think we lost four, five, six seconds to Lewis, and then obviously with the VSC, it changed the order. We tried to race fair in the team game but maybe it cost us the win today and that’s something we need to discuss with the drivers, how are we doing it if we’re fighting somebody else for a race win.<\/p>\n
Speaking later, Wolff added: “I’ve always said that there is a third party now getting involved in the Championship fight, constructor and driver. In that respect, we will discuss internally with the two drivers how we want to handle a situation where we risk holding each other up. And I think it’s not going to be a problem. It’s just maybe we need to recalibrate.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Friday, the HPP division announced they had found the issue and were working on a permanent fix and confirmed they were linked to the battery. They also confirmed the issue for Lando Norris in Monaco was caused by settings on his power unit.<\/p>\n
Technical director James Allison said the team has pinpointed the issue to its power unit\u2019s battery, and a permanent fix is being worked on. Allison said on Mercedes\u2019 Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show, \u201cI think anyone who’s a keen watcher of the sport will have seen that this has laid a few Mercedes engine cars low over the season so far. They’re not all identical, but they do sort of originate in the same broad part of the battery.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that most of the areas of risk have been understood. And with a bit of luck, when we start to sort of phase in the new modules into the racing season \u2013 we call the battery ‘the module’ \u2013 then our fortunes as a fleet should pick up. Obviously for us, that’s an important thing. These DNFs are very, very painful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allison added that the team looks to identify failures on the rig to avoid them being exposed in racing conditions, but we know that you can only really push it to that extreme in races. But suggested that they needed to review their processes. The team need to find a \u201cproper cure\u201d going forward.<\/p>\n
Jos Verstappen has dismissed a claim by Ralf Schumacher that Mercedes attempted to prize Max Verstappen away from Red Bull. Former F1 driver turned pundit Schumacher claimed Verstappen turned down an offer from Mercedes boss Toto Wolff due to it being \u201cso bad\u201d financially.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the Backstage Boxengasse podcast, Schumacher said, \u201cThere\u2019s no spot at Ferrari right now, and at Mercedes, you hear that Wolff has made him an offer behind the scenes. But that offer was apparently so bad financially that it\u2019s not an option anyway. That\u2019s apparently what\u2019s going on behind the scenes right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Verstappen\u2019s father, Jos, has seemingly debunked the story. Writing in a response to an Instagram post quoting Schumacher\u2019s claim, Verstappen Sr said: \u201cRalf, again you bring wrong information.\u201d<\/p>\n
Verstappen\u2019s future has been one of the big storylines this year, as he has repeatedly threatened to quit because of his dissatisfaction at the current engine regulations, however, his stance appears to have softened following rule tweaks for 2027 and 2028.<\/p>\n
Although Verstappen is contracted to Red Bull until the end of 2028, his deal is believed to include several performance-related clauses that would enable him to leave earlier. The one which appears to be most relevant at the moment appears to be if he is not inside the top-two of the championship by the August summer break.<\/p>\n
Mercedes has a long-standing interest in Verstappen, with Wolff publicly courting the Red Bull driver for months after Lewis Hamilton announced he was making a shock switch to Ferrari.<\/p>\n
Verstappen\u2019s future is set to continue to dominate the F1 headlines over the coming weeks and months, given the magnitude of the repercussions any decision will have on the wider driver market.<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton says “nothing is impossible” in terms of winning this year’s F1 world title after his first Grand Prix victory for Ferrari last weekend turbocharged his 2026 resurgence. The seven-time champion won his first Grand Prix in nearly two years r in emphatic style on Sunday with a triumph that married impressive pace with the fortune of a well-timed Virtual Safety Car.<\/p>\n
With Mercedes’ championship leader Kimi Antonelli retiring from second place late on, Hamilton clawed the full twenty-five points for his race win back on the Italian’s lead in the title race. Second-placed Hamilton is now forty-one points behind with at least fifteen rounds to go.<\/p>\n
He told Sky Sports, \u201cI think it’s just the beginning. Mercedes has got an amazing package and they’re so strong. Both drivers are doing such an incredible job. It’s going to take absolutely everything from all of us in this team to overcome the deficit and to get to being ahead of them and doing this consistently. But nothing is impossible, so just one step at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton had arrived in Barcelona as Antonelli’s nearest challenger in the standings for the first time this season after he had moved ahead of Russell the previous week in Monaco.<\/p>\n
But the seven-time champion added that he wasn\u2019t going to get ahead of himself, admitting he wasn\u2019t expecting to be in this championship fight at the start of the season. Adding \u201cWe had worked towards being able to win, but I’ve always been conscious of the fact that it takes time. And Mercedes have come out the gates with a blistering car and blistering pace, both drivers doing such a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ferrari is looking to introduce their first ADUO upgrade to their power unit as soon as Austria next weekend. The updated power unit pushes the concept of its steel-alloy cylinder head even further.<\/p>\n
Using a steel alloy rather than aluminium for the cylinder head allows combustion chamber temperatures to be significantly higher than usual; with aluminium, structural failures would have been inevitable at the same temperatures. Meanwhile, its fuel supplier, Shell has developed a fuel specifically for this configuration; the increase in power is expected to help reduce the horsepower deficit.<\/p>\n
The manufacturer will be hoping off the back of its win in Barcelona last weekend, they will be further able to close the gap to Mercedes on the ICE. It is difficult to determine how much of the performance increase comes from the newly homologated fuel and how much from the FIA-approved engine modifications.<\/p>\n
The higher temperature and pressure inside the combustion chamber will allow a much greater proportion of the fuel particles to burn, producing fewer emissions while achieving a significantly more efficient combustion process. The result should be an increase in engine power, as more of the chemical potential energy is turned into mechanical work with a cleaner burn.<\/p>\n
Aston Martin has announced that their third driver, Jak Crawford, will take part in his latest FP1 at next weekend\u2019s Austrian Grand Prix. The American will take part in his second practice session of the season, with each driver required to sit out two sessions during the season.<\/p>\n
Off the back of a Pirelli tyre test with the team in Barcelona earlier this week, Crawford is due to take over Lance Stroll\u2019s AMR26 for the opening one-hour session at the Red Bull Ring. It comes two years after the American\u2019s first experience in an Aston Martin F1 car, when he tested the AMR22 in Austria in June 2024.<\/p>\n
Crawford said, \u201cIt\u2019s great to have another opportunity to drive the AMR26 during a race weekend. Austria is a circuit I know well and it\u2019s quite special to be returning to the Red Bull Ring with the team, almost two years after my first test in an Aston Martin F1 car.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve spent a lot of time in the simulator this season supporting the team and recently completed the tyre test in Barcelona, so I\u2019m looking forward to applying that work on track. Every opportunity in a Formula 1 car is valuable, and I\u2019ll be focused on delivering useful feedback and maximising the session for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike Krack, Aston Martin\u2019s Chief Trackside Officer, added: \u201cJak continues to play an important role as Third Driver, and this FP1 session is another valuable step in that process. Austria provides another opportunity for us to evaluate his progress in a race weekend environment while gathering valuable data for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dive into the latest buzz in the world of F1 with our comprehensive analysis and round-up of this week’s top stories. Discover the strategic moves by top teams, and what it all means for the ahead season. Stay ahead of the curve with insights on and off the track. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15471,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,18],"tags":[2339,664,754,2213,1996],"class_list":["post-16092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-analysis","category-this-week","tag-2339","tag-f1","tag-formula-one","tag-news-analysis","tag-this-week"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16092"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16094,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16092\/revisions\/16094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}