Welcome to This British Grand Prix. Silverstone delivered another twist in the 2026<\/p>\n
season and blockbuster, as Charles Leclerc converted Ferrari\u2019s growing momentum into victory while Mercedes saw reliability concerns strike championship leader Kimi Antonelli at a crucial moment.<\/p>\n
With Lewis Hamilton again competitive in red, George Russell closing the title gap, and both Red Bull and McLaren searching for answers, the weekend underlined how quickly the balance of power is shifting as the championship heads into its second half.<\/p>\n
Questions are beginning to be asked about where the season ends as the continuing uncertainty remains about the situation in the Middle East. The season is due to end as things currently stand on 03 \u2013 05 December in Abu Dhabi; a ceasefire in the region between various parties is largely holding, but infractions continue.<\/p>\n
The biggest challenge is the timeline in terms of logistics and how late any decisions can be made that impact the movement of equipment and personnel. Two extreme scenarios can potentially unfold. The current plan is to reschedule Bahrain for 02 \u2013 04 October, but last time that was proposed in 2011, the race was cancelled days later.<\/p>\n
But if the Qatar and Abu Dhabi races are cancelled, there has been a proposal to cancel the weekend in Lusail and replace Abu Dhabi with a race in Portim\u00e3o, which has a contract for 2027, and to add a second race in Barcelona. But that would give organisers little time to turn the venue around after Moto GP, and what Liberty do about the Qatar Motorcycle Grand Prix scheduled for 06 \u2013 08 November, three weeks before the F1 race.<\/p>\n
The sport is hoping to also reinstate Bahrain to the calendar, which was postponed because of the war. It\u2019s understood that this would slot in to form a triple header with Baku and Singapore on 02 \u2013 04 October, but any decision would be made in the next three weeks.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Sky Sports, Domenicali said: “If there is something that we can announce also related to the possibility of seeing if there is any space for what has not been done so far, we’re going to do it, in the right moment and the right conditions. That is really the hope, because if all the conditions are right, we’re going to go ahead with our plan. If there is a chance, why not?”<\/p>\n
Domenicali also expressed hope the season’s final two races, in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, would be able to go ahead as planned. Although rumours continue of a second race in Barcelona and an earlier return to Portim\u00e3o could replace the final two races, Portim\u00e3o is due to alternate from 2027.<\/p>\n
In the COVID-hit year of 2020, the total required to fulfil TV contracts and so on was 16, and in the end, F1 managed to run 17 events. Since then, the typical minimum number in TV deals has risen to 19-20. However, F1 and the teams have some contracts that would benefit from a 21st event, hence the motivation to run a replacement race.<\/p>\n
McLaren\u2019s Zak Brown, when asked about the situation by Crash.net, said, \u201cI think ultimately Stefano [Domenicali] and the FIA are going to work through the calendar. So we’ll race where they tell us we’re racing, and we’ll be happy to do that. I think we all have the same challenge as far as kind of managing through that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Practice saw Lewis Hamilton fastest with a 29.260 to put himself just over two tenths faster than the championship leader, Kimi Antonelli. Antonelli managed to split the two Ferraris after he went just under four tenths faster than Charles Leclerc, while his championship rival George Russell was fourth, a further eight hundredths behind. Leclerc was six tenths off his teammate\u2019s fastest time.<\/p>\n
Sprint Qualifying, Hamilton beat Antonelli by a hundredth with a 28.378 to secure his eighth pole in any format at Silverstone. Hamilton, going into the weekend, had played down expectations this weekend but managed to pip the Mercedes. Max Verstappen put his Red Bull third, going six thousandths ahead of Charles Leclerc.<\/p>\n
In the Sprint, Antonelli took a three-second win after holding off Hamilton after overtaking the seven-time champion on the Hangar Straight on lap eight after strategically saving his battery charge. Lando Norris was able to fend off the second Mercedes of Russell, finishing eight and a half tenths ahead.<\/p>\n
GP Qualifying, Antonelli has beaten both Ferraris by a tenth and three-quarters to take pole position, ahead of Charles Leclerc to secure his fifth pole of the season. Leclerc put his Ferrari a quarter of a second ahead of his Ferrari teammate Hamilton. Hamilton put his Ferrari just under three hundredths faster than his former teammate George Russell.<\/p>\n
Leclerc has won a drama-filled Grand Prix after the race finished behind the safety car following championship leader Kimi Antonelli tumbling out of the points with technical issues and Max Verstappen spinning out in the closing stages of the race. As Antonelli dropped down the field, amid a series of increasingly desperate radio messages, Verstappen crashed at Stowe while chasing Hamilton for second place. He continued but repeatedly ran wide, losing position before being awarded a five-second time penalty for track limits, which dropped him to sixteenth<\/p>\n
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 \u201cforever.\u201d Norris goes into the first of back-to-back home races as world champion and having completed the most races for the team.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Asked if he sees himself as a one-team driver, Norris said: \u201cVery, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Adding \u201cthat’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 \u2013 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Sprint Qualifying, Norris could only manage eighth, just under four tenths off Hamilton, but explained that during SQ1 and SQ2 he suffered from brake duct damage. The team had brought a new brake duct for this weekend. Having finished tenth in that session, he then scraped out of SQ2 in the same position, as there was no time for repairs.<\/p>\n
Norris conceded that he was hampered more than he thought before the final session and felt that had prevented him from fully exploiting the car when it was repaired.<\/p>\n
Norris said, \u201cIt was [hampering me], actually, quite a lot more than I thought. It was only for the final run that we managed to fix it. The guys did a good job fixing it for the final run. The car was just completely different and way better again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt pretty shocking for most of it, and it was just lucky that we managed to fix it, because it felt like a completely different car. But by the time that I got the feeling for the final lap, I felt like I could have just pushed way more. It\u2019s just unfortunate today, but I think also the pace was still there or thereabouts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, his team-mate Oscar Piastri had to settle for seventh, having been as high as fourth. He said, \u201cI think after practice we looked pretty slow, so it’s about where we thought we’d be. I think, to be honest, probably closer to that next pack behind Kimi and Lewis. I felt like I’ve really been on it today, and it’s not had the pace, so bit of a shame. But we’ll try again tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
CEO Zak Brown has insisted his team has the capacity to overtake its rivals to produce the fastest car on the grid before the current regulation cycle ends. Speaking on the Up To Speed podcast, the American cited, as I have to, their dramatic recovery from the ninth-fastest team to two-time constructors’ champions as evidence that massive performance swings are possible.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cI’ve got a lot of confidence, but it’s going to be very tough. The other ten teams in Formula 1, these are the best racing teams in the world. So, the competition never sits still. But we have gone from ninth to quickest. So, we can definitely go from third to quickest. It’ll take some time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMercedes has done a great job. We won the sprint in Miami. We almost won the race in Miami. We almost won the race in Japan. Great to see Lewis get his first win in Ferrari colours. He can take some time now to worry about the second because now it’s our turn next. But great to see for Lewis. I’m a Lewis fan. I think that was cool for the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown believes that the field is closing up and the team were fluctuating between the fourth and fifth fastest team, but was hoping that it would eventually return to the traditional top four.<\/p>\n
Norris was very happy with finishing the sprint third as he believed the team believed they didn\u2019t have the pace to fight Mercedes and Ferrari. The Englishman starting sixth on the grid, with a strong launch at the start seeing him surge through the field.<\/p>\n
Speaking afterwards, the reigning World Champion explained how pleased he was with how the Sprint was managed. He said, \u201cI think at the minute anywhere in the top five is good, because to finish ahead of any Mercedes or Ferrari is not what we should be doing at the minute because we\u2019re not as quick as them. Any time we finish in the top four, it means we\u2019ve just done a very good job.\u201d<\/p>\n
The McLaren driver had an eventful journey on his way to third, fighting off George Russell at one stage while he also briefly got ahead of Antonelli on the opening lap to run second. Going into qualifying later, he believed the team still had more to find, for Sunday\u2019s Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Piastri finished the Sprint down in seventh \u2013 almost eight seconds behind Norris \u2013 and acknowledged that progress had to be made across the rest of the weekend. Adding \u201cI mean the first lap was good, just chaotic for everyone, I think. Yeah, from that point onwards I got into a decent spot, and then fell back again, and the pace in following was just not great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later on, Saturday, Norris said the car was \u201cnot good enough\u201d after a frustrating GP qualifying left him in sixth, almost seven and a half tenths off pole, two spots ahead of Piastri. The Englishman just made it into Q3 after what he called an \u201camazing lap\u201d to move up the order when it mattered. However, the gap of 0.766s to pole man Kimi Antonelli told its own story.<\/p>\n
When asked by Crash.net about the performance, he said, \u201cI mean, just tough, we still don’t have any pace. It was seven-tenths of pole, and I thought my lap was pretty amazing. I was very happy with my lap, improved in every single corner, and I felt like I got everything out of the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we’re just slow, the car was slow in the straights, we’re slow in all the corners. There’s nothing more I can say apart from that. The car is not very efficient at the minute, which makes it pretty unbelievable that we finished P3 yesterday, considering we’re seven-tenths off. There’s no excuses, the car’s not good enough, and we know that, and we just have to keep working hard, that’s it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the upturn in form since the start of the European season last month, Norris insisted nothing had changed in recent weeks, pointing to Silverstone highlighting the team\u2019s weakness compared to Mercedes.<\/p>\n
Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff doubts Ferrari won\u2019t 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”.<\/p>\n
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 has more development spend in hand over their Italian rivals to deploy later in the season.<\/p>\n
Wolff told Sky Sports, \u201cOn 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Kimi Antonelli praised his Ferrari rivals after Lewis Hamilton pipped him to sprint pole by a hundredth, saying \u201cFerrari have done an incredible step forward.\u201d The seven-time champion has emerged as a threat to his former team in recent rounds with him forty-six points behind.<\/p>\n
He said on Friday evening, \u201cFerrari have done an incredible step forward, so definitely is going to be very tough. Plus, Lewis is in great form. But that’s good, we like the challenge, and we try to make the best out of it. Of course, we’ll go for it and try to do our best. It’s not going to be easy but everything is on the table to do well so we’ll make sure that we do well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russell had also struggled during the session, failing to challenge the leading times and eventually finishing fifth quickest but more than three tenths adrift of Hamilton’s benchmark.<\/p>\n
Despite taking GP pole Antonelli appeared a bit stressed, despite being under pressure during Q3 the Italian convincingly went a tenth and three-quarters ahead of the two ferrari\u2019s, securing his fifth GP pole of the season.<\/p>\n
Asked if overnight changes were key to Mercedes\u2019 bounce back after Hamilton beat Antonelli to pole in Friday\u2019s sprint qualifying, he replied: \u201cWe didn\u2019t change the car at all. It was just about the differential, brake migration, and driving. We worked around it and managed to find a good setting that helped me to progress through qualifying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victory in the sprint enabled Antonelli to extend his championship advantage by three points, and he has a great opportunity to pull even further clear of Russell, who qualified fourth, in Sunday\u2019s main grand prix.<\/p>\n
Antonelli finished the race outside the points following technical issues and a penalty, meaning\u00a0 he finished eight seconds off winner Leclerc; he said it was \u201ctough to swallow.\u201d He had closed to within just a few seconds of the Ferrari driver on fresher tyres, having initially dropped from pole to third at the start before re-passing Lewis Hamilton in the opening stint.<\/p>\n
In the closing eleven laps of the Grand Prix, the Italian\u2019s front-left wheel shield became detached, making turning difficult and requiring two additional pit stops to try and rectify the problem. Dropping to P10, Antonelli was then handed a five-second penalty for track limits, having gone off line several times due to the problem.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cI couldn’t believe because it was going from bad to worse,” Antonelli said afterwards. When I went out after the last stop, the car was kind of driveable. Still, I was missing so much downforce but I think P10 was very achievable despite the penalty. I was pulling away and I think I would have had the gap that was required but then the Safety Car came and I knew it was over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Antonelli is the championship leader, but there appears to be under pressure having lost a maximum of fifty points over the last three races; this sees him now only a race win ahead of Russell. This was bad luck, but he should have been more careful to stay within track limits as the stewards don\u2019t accept a mechanical issue as a defence for repeatedly going wide.<\/p>\n
Following the race, Russell called upon himself to improve his performances to become world champion after early domination from Antonelli. As we know and said on Thursday, he has been unlucky this season as well as being out performed by Antonelli. The championship leader has still been quicker and would\u2019ve beaten Russell in Barcelona and Silverstone had issues not struck.<\/p>\n
Russell said about his Silverstone pace, \u201cThe feeling was good but the lap times were slow. There were things outside of my control that contributed a lot towards that and things in my control. I\u2019m still struggling to understand this car. I’d probably still leave this weekend, albeit extremely grateful to stand on the podium, less satisfied than probably Canada when I broke down from the lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I want to fight for the championship, the performances need to be better. I need to be better. I need to be working better with my team. We need to be maximising everything. We’ve got a close fight now with Ferrari so it’s not just Kimi and I. Lewis [Hamilton] is still very close – it needs to be improved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although he\u2019s \u201cnot sure\u201d if the luck between the pair has now \u201cbalanced out\u201d after Silverstone, the seven-time grand prix winner still recognises that the championship deficit he holds is fair.<\/p>\n
Max Verstappen qualified seventh for the Grand Prix, almost seven tenths behind Antonelli after a \u201cdouble whammy\u201d of issues hampered his qualifying. The four-time champion looked to be in the mix in Q1 he was out performed through out the session by his teammate Isack Hadjar.<\/p>\n
Some issues appeared to kick in as the session progressed; however, with Verstappen reported that the engine was \u201cnot responding as normal\u201d in Q2, before he wound up in seventh \u2013 behind Hadjar in fifth \u2013 when Q3 reached its conclusion.<\/p>\n
Reflecting back on Qualifying after stepping out of the car, Verstappen explained: \u201c[There were] two things. The whole session, like of course not a good balance, but at the same time terribly slow on the straight for whatever reason, even compared to the other car.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe couldn\u2019t fix it from the first run until the end. I mean, when you\u2019re slow on the straight here, you\u2019re more full-throttle, you burn more battery\u2026 so it\u2019s just like a spiral and it gets worse and worse throughout to the end of the lap. It\u2019s like a double whammy, so it\u2019s extra painful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his qualifying, Hadjar said \u201cI think yesterday I was fairly happy with the car \u2013 I just made a step I think, day two, made a step driving-wise, and very little mistakes. So I think that was good, but still it hits hard when you\u2019re six tenths behind pole after a very good lap. And the thing is, I feel like the car is pretty good, so it\u2019s hard to, at the moment, see how we can do to fight ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
The race didn\u2019t get much better for Verstappen who was the final retirement despite Red Bull replacing his power unit and making set up changes overnight. Asked by Viaplay why he had ultimately started from seventh on the grid, Verstappen replied bluntly: “You have to ask the team. I would much rather have started from the pitlane because the race was exactly the same. I told them: ‘We’ll just see the same thing again in the race.’ And that’s exactly what happened, just like in qualifying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite that, Verstappen was still on course for a podium finish, although he made it clear to the media that such a result would not have reflected the true picture. He added, \u201cWe were lucky, of course, with everything that happened around me \u2013 with the penalty for Lewis, a slow puncture for George, Kimi’s problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if we would have finished on the podium, I mean, you take it, but it’s not deserved at all. Because on the hard tyres we were really slow. I don’t know how I kept George and Lewis behind for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton has dismissed Max Verstappen\u2019s in-race claim that he should have been penalised for the way he defended position in the early stages of the Austrian Grand Prix. Last weekend, the 2021 title rivals went wheel-to-wheel at the Red Bull Ring on Sunday, with Hamilton keeping Verstappen’s Red Bull behind him for the first 22 laps of the race.<\/p>\n
Verstappen first attempted to pass Hamilton at Turn Three on lap four, only to lose the position again on the run down to Turn Four. The Red Bull driver locked up into Turn Four but still managed to get a better exit and attempted to pass Hamilton around the outside of Turn Six.<\/p>\n
With the Red Bull on the outside, Hamilton claimed the apex of the corner and then inched Verstappen towards the gravel in the run-off area as they remained wheel-to-wheel on the exit. Over the radio, Verstappen stated his view, \u201cThat’s a penalty, clear penalty.\u201d The stewards noted the incident as a possible example of “forcing another driver off the track” but chose not to investigate after a brief review of the footage.<\/p>\n
After the race, Hamilton said there was no way Verstappen was going to pass him around the outside of a high-speed corner like Turn Six. He added \u201cWell, he went off on the outside. You don’t expect to go around the outside of a champion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn’t expect to go around the outside of him there and hold the line. He was behind at the apex and therefore he should have backed out, but he didn’t. I left just enough room for him.” Verstappen finally overtook Hamilton on lap 22 when he positioned his car to the inside of Turn 6, leaving the Ferrari with nowhere to go on the outside.<\/p>\n
The seven-time champion said Verstappen’s Red Bull, which went on to finish the race second with Hamilton dropping to fifth, had benefited from significant performance upgrades in Austria.<\/p>\n
Hamilton said, \u201cThey made a huge step this weekend. I think they must have brought a three or four-tenths [of a second] upgrade. Three-tenths was just from the weight that they dropped from the car, which was huge. Then they brought up lots of upgrades, so they’re going to be a force to be reckoned with in the following races.\u201d<\/p>\n
Going into the weekend, Hamilton has promised the Silverstone crowd he “won’t stop until we get there” in pursuit of a record eighth world title. The seven-time champion has been fired up this season and took his first win for Ferrari in Barcelona, raising expectations that he could challenge for a record eighth world title this year. He sits third in the standings, 46 points behind Mercedes’ title-leading Kimi Antonelli, after eight rounds.<\/p>\n
Speaking in a live interview with Sky Sports on Thursday, he vowed \u201cI won’t stop til we get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, in the press conference earlier in the day said the Ferrari had a “reality check” in Austria last weekend when he finished fifth in a race won by Mercedes’ George Russell. Adding his former team still has “plenty in their pocket” in terms of performance but says Ferrari is working hard to close down their main deficit to the Silver Arrows – straight-line speed.<\/p>\n
Hamilton said, \u201cThere’s a lot of races ahead but I’m a realist as well. Mercedes have won pretty much everything, particularly at the beginning, very easily. Even when people brought upgrades, they still won and they didn’t bring an upgrade so I think they have plenty in their pocket. But there is also races we will be able to challenge them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well in sprint qualifying, the seven-time champion took pole by a hundredth which was a surprise as the team were predicting to be six tenths off. Friday was impressive given the predictions going into the weekend; he topped every session from FP1 to SQ3.<\/p>\n
He said on Friday evening, \u201cYesterday they all scared me, they were like, we\u2019re going to be six tenths off in a straight line to these guys. And in the last race we really were four tenths off in a straight line. But today, all of a sudden we\u2019re kind of there. I was like, is this real, are they going to turn it up in qualifying? But we are right there competing with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton said the pole position underlines the progress the team has made, as well as the way they are growing into a factor in this championship. He called on the team to bring it home and says that they have added performance to the car every weekend.<\/p>\n
Charles Leclerc endured another difficult sprint qualifying, but he too admitted he was pleasantly surprised by just how competitive Ferrari appeared to be on one of the calendar’s most power-sensitive circuits. He qualified in fourth five thousandths behind Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cWe are extremely surprised with Lewis taking the pole today, but in general we were expecting a much bigger gap to the cars in front. It\u2019s a good step forward, but yeah, as a team we are just very, very surprised to be that competitive on a track like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton avoided a second penalty and hung onto third despite a investigation for a yellow flag infringement at Silverstone. He was summoned to see the stewards after the race for failing to slow when a yellow flag had been shown in the closing stages.<\/p>\n
F1’s rules state a driver must lift off the throttle when they pass through a yellow zone. The seven-time world champion had been in a downbeat mood about his chances \u00a0of avoiding a penalty when he spoke to the media after the race. He was penalised after jumping the start, with him serving a five-second penalty at his stop.<\/p>\n
Hamilton told Sky Sports, \u201cI’m probably going to get a penalty right now as well, so I’ll probably lose [it]. I went through a yellow flag, and I didn’t see it,” Hamilton told Sky Sports after the race. So it is another jump start, yellow flag. When it rains, it pours. I’ve just been to see [the stewards]. I don’t have an answer yet, but most likely I’ll get something. I’ll probably get a penalty, I’m sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, despite the fact that he had not lifted off the throttle as suspected, he escaped with just a reprimand instead of a more serious penalty, as the stewards accepted there were significant mitigating circumstances. They found he entered the yellow flag zone before any warning had been displayed, with the yellow flag only appearing on his steering wheel when he was already close to the end of the sector, leaving him very little time to react.<\/p>\n
Carlos Sainz is out of contract with the Grove team at the end of 2026, but admits he will \u201cnot really\u201d consider where his F1 future lies until the championship\u2019s summer break. The Spaniard joined the team eighteen months ago, having a decent season where he scored two podiums.<\/p>\n
When asked if he was scoping out seats at rival teams, Sainz said, \u201cNot 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI’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.\u201d He added the team \u201cknows what my intentions and my priorities are.\u201d<\/p>\n
This suggests that it\u2019s a \u2018when not if,\u2019 a new contract is signed and commits to its long-term aim of returning to race-winning ways. However, he concedes that there is \u201ca lot of work\u201d still to do with this regard.<\/p>\n
Aston Martin team principal and chief technical officer Adrian Newey says the team\u2019s tools and procedures have not been up to standard as he details the squad’s disastrous 2026 season.<\/p>\n
Despite their expectations, the team has struggled with the Honda power unit’s reliability, as well as with the car being overweight and lacking downforce. The team previously admitted it had started its 2026 development several months behind its rivals, with its car not hitting the wind tunnel until April 2025.<\/p>\n
But beyond those delays, Newey said several other key weaknesses at its Silverstone factory further derailed its 2026 project, leading to a season in which the team is now well behind newcomer Cadillac as F1’s slowest runner.<\/p>\n
Newey wrote on the team\u2019s website, \u201cTiming was a huge part of it, but not the only part. We’ve got a very talented group of people, but as an organisation, we weren’t yet working together as well as you would like and operating as one cohesive unit. Expectations were sky\u2011high, but the reality of where we were didn’t match that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the chassis side, we’re quite a long way overweight. Some of that comes from integrating the power unit and dealing with vibration issues we’ve had to work through with Honda, but we also didn’t do as good a job as we should have on our side at saving weight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAerodynamically, we also took a bold direction \u2013 which was largely pushed by me \u2013 without the luxury of exploring multiple concepts in depth because time was against us. I wouldn’t say the direction we’ve taken is fundamentally wrong, but it has thrown up challenges we didn’t anticipate.\u201d<\/p>\n
This team had huge expectations when they moved into the new factory in mid-2023, however Newey revealed that when he joined the team, he found that a lot of the underlying fundamentals at the team were still antiquated or not synced up properly.<\/p>\n
Explaining that \u201cAt some point, a system that’s just patch\u2011on\u2011patch stops being fit for purpose. That’s where we had got to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fernando Alonso has said that the teams \u201cbig\u201d upgrade for Budapest will not \u00a0solely decide his future beyond 2026, with the Spaniard acknowledging that there are \u201cmore things on the table\u201d.<\/p>\n
Alonso\u2019s contract is up for renewal at the end of the season, leading to much recent speculation over whether the two-time World Champion will continue to race into 2027 amid what has been the team\u2019s most challenging start to a campaign yet. Despite his age Alonso is still a driver in demand by other teams.<\/p>\n
He said, on Thursday, \u201c\u201cIt\u2019s very exciting times for the team,\u201d said Alonso. \u201cWe started on the wrong foot this year and we decided to wait for a proper package to come, and that’s coming in Budapest.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet’s see what it brings to the car in terms of performance \u2013 it’s a little but unknown. It\u2019s difficult to predict sometimes with this complex technology that we have in our cars, how it will translate into lap time, but looking forward [to it].\u201d<\/p>\n
Audi racing director Allan McNish believes despite not finishing in the points last weekend, the eleventh place for Gabriel Bortoleto and twelfth Nico Hulkenberg in Austria represented the best weekend so far for the Hinwil outfit.<\/p>\n
The Red Bull Ring is a track that is heavily power unit dependent, and Audi is well aware that they have a significant deficit, benchmarked at a second a lap at some venues by Team Principal Mattia Binotto. In last weekend\u2019s race, when no one ahead retired the Audis finished just outside the points, beaten in the midfield battle only by Racing Bulls.<\/p>\n
After a run that has seen a few non-starts and technical issues, the R26 ran like clockwork and a significant aero upgrade package did what it was supposed to do. Given the restrictions of the PU, the team can now be confident that when they go to circuits where sheer horsepower is less critical, they will have a strong package.<\/p>\n
McNish told F1.com, \u201cI think it was our best weekend so far in terms of all the runs through Free Practice, Qualifying, race, getting the maximum out of the car. Performance around this circuit was always going to be a little bit trickier, although we brought the upgrades, and they actually tallied up pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the (Racing Bulls) were quicker. End of story. And once they’re ahead, it’s very difficult to race them. Not very much happened in the race itself. So both Gabi and Nico, I thought, drove very, very well.\u201d He was also adamant that they couldn\u2019t have performed better, because they finished close together.<\/p>\n
McNish says it was another big step and one in the right direction, but warned the team needed to maintain that level in terms of performance, execution and maximiation so they can get the most out of it. Work is continuing apace at the Audi power unit facility in Neuberg, but it will take time for significant developments to make it to the track.<\/p>\n
This weekend has been interesting as reflecting on the themes we have reliability has definitely become a factor as we seen two retirements in three races for Mercedes, where as there main rivals, Ferrari, are on the up after winning two of the last four races. We know this is likely a power unit issue and when can they fix that?<\/p>\n
They need to be concerned as we now move into the second half of the season and you can never rule out Lewis Hamilton, we still don\u2019t know where and when this season ends, though it could be in a double header in Barcelona and Portim\u00e3o.<\/p>\n
As the second half of the season approaches, the title fight appears more open than it has for several months.<\/p>\n
For the other big two, Red Bull and McLaren, this was a tough weekend, with Verstappen struggling with balance, straight-line speed, and race pace before retiring late on. McLaren struggled for outright pace, despite Norris taking a strong Sprint result; Norris said the car was \u201cnot good enough\u201d after qualifying well off pole. But McLaren is still confident of returning to the front, citing the team\u2019s previous rise from midfield to title-winning form, I think four years ago we were sat here with the same statements and they did the double last year.<\/p>\n
We will hopefully have more analysis later in the week, This Week will be back next Sunday and we move to Spa in a fortnight.<\/p>\n
\nSprint Pole Position<\/h6>\n<\/td>\nFerrari<\/p>\n 01:28.376<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n | Sprint Winner<\/h6>\n<\/td>\nMercedes<\/p>\n 26:12.129<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n | Race Pole Position<\/h6>\n<\/td>\nMercedes<\/p>\n 01:28.111<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n | Grand Prix Podium<\/h6>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n | Po<\/h6>\n<\/td>\nName<\/h6>\n<\/td>\nNat<\/h6>\n<\/td>\nTeam<\/h6>\n<\/td>\nTime<\/h6>\n<\/td>\nPoints<\/h6>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n1<\/td>\n | Charles Leclerc<\/td>\n | MON<\/td>\n | Ferrari<\/td>\n | 01:27:11.335<\/td>\n | 25<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 2<\/td>\n | George Russell<\/td>\n | GBR<\/td>\n | Mercedes<\/td>\n | +00:00.427<\/td>\n | 18<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 3<\/td>\n | Lewis Hamilton<\/td>\n | GBR<\/td>\n | Ferrari<\/td>\n | +00:00.772<\/td>\n | 15<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Fastest<\/p>\n | Lap<\/td>\n Andrea ‘Kimi’ Antonelli<\/td>\n | ITA<\/td>\n | Mercedes<\/td>\n | 01:31.777<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n | Championship Standings<\/h5>\n
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