The penultimate week of the summer break continued the reflective mood but looking more towards not the rest of this season, but the long-term future. We are in admits of a title fight but it’s seemingly laying the foundations for the discussions over the next two and a half months. Meanwhile, what does the future hold as teams approve the 2026 regulations will ‘levelling up’ deliver results building on this year…
General News
Organisers of the Australian Grand Prix have announced next year’s race will take place between Thursday 30th March and Sunday 2nd April. That will make the race the third round of the championship for the second year running, possibly paired with Shanghai which is due to return following a three-year hiatus.
It has already been announced until 2035 it will float in the first three rounds of each season, and has been guaranteed five season-openers between now and 2035. it will open the 2024 and 2025 seasons with the other three opening slots to be spread across the decade that follows.
The FIA has approved the wording of the 2026 power unit regulations, which in turn paves the way for Porsche to enter a partnership with Red Bull. The main changes which were agreed weeks ago by the teams will see the hybrid element dropped as well as a move towards sustainable fuels.
This we know is part of levelling up the sport as well as improving the “environmental sustainability”, as well as expanding the budget cap to cover PUs. This is also to attract new suppliers, I think will take time as we get nearer the end of the decade to see the full impact of the measures combined with the general cap.
Mercedes
Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff has confessed that he still thinks about the events of last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix “every day”. The story we know Lewis Hamilton was on course for his eighth title, before a late safety car was triggered after Nicholas Latifi crashed his Williams.
During the restart, then F1 race director Michael Masi did not follow the correct procedures, selectively allowing only a few backmarkers to unlap themselves and then restarting the race a lap earlier than it should have according to the regulations. That allowed Max Verstappen, who had pitted for fresh tyres, one final lap to overtake Hamilton and secure the win that captured him his maiden world title.
Asked by Motorsport.com in an exclusive interview if he still reflected on what happened in Abu Dhabi, Wolff said: “I think about it every day. But I have my peace with Max winning the championship, because he’s a deserving champion. How it panned out, I think I have values around fairness, and especially sporting fairness. This is what provides my fundamental love for the sport.”
The events of last year’s title decider look set to be debated and discussed for decades, but we know there are ongoing questions this year about the consistency of the new race control structure, as well as the approach and attitude of new FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
Later in the week, Wolff said that Hamilton’s commitment to Mercedes never wavered. The eight times constructors champions were stuck in no man’s land between the top two and the midfield as they struggled to get to grip with the new technical regulations, encountering severe bouncing with its W13 car.
Like Fernando Alonso, I have this feeling, and have done since 2020 it as if Hamilton is driving for something bigger. I think this possibly has been the most up and down year and he’s potentially moving into a more mentor and leader both in the team and in wider society.
Red Bull
Max Verstappen has welcomed the re-emergence of Mercedes at the front saying they can “steal more points off Ferrari,” as he goes into the second half of the season with an eighty-point lead. The Dutchman is as we know is in the best position with a lead which hasn’t been overhauled under the current points structure.
Verstappen told Sky Sports, “It’s good that they are competitive because then they can steal more points off Ferrari! So I’m very happy. They’re doing very well.” However, the world champion is not taking it for granted pointing to the rollercoaster weekend in Budapest, saying “we cannot have too many days like we had in qualifying.”
Later in the week the Dutchman called for a solution for the burgeoning weight problem. The cars now have a race starting weight of 900kg, which is naturally unpopular with drivers as it affects the characteristics of the car. There are no easy solutions as most of the increased weight is largely for safety.
He said, “I think following has been quite a bit better, so that’s positive. But of course, the weight of the cars, they’re extremely heavy, which I think is not great, which I don’t really see a quick solution for.”
Those comments will be likely be something all the drivers will agree on, with Lance Stroll hoping that weight reductions can be made so the cars can be more agile as he believes the cars have become too heavy.
Alonso is clear in his head that experience in F1 has brought with it clear advantages, which allows him to have a better overall judgement on which areas he needs to focus on. Explaining that you need to vary your approach to the weekend, as practice can sometimes be important, and gave the example of a we race.
Ferrari
Team principal Mattia Binotto has shut down suggestions that change is needed at Ferrari despite the string of errors that have left Charles Leclerc facing a monumental task against Max Verstappen in the championship. The Monacan will start the second half of the season eighty points behind the Dutchman.
Leclerc and Ferrari will be aware that they have lost about a hundred points through unreliability and strategy blunders. Binotto said, “It’s not a matter of bad luck, and there is nothing to change as well. It’s always a matter of continuous learning and building, building experience, building skills.”
“Certainly there is something that you need to look at and understand why. But if I look again at the balance of the first half of the season, there is no reason why we should change.” I wonder if Ferrari and Leclerc need almost a year to build and get used to performing in a championship winning way, Red Bull has that from last year as well as more recent experience in winning back-to-back titles.
McLaren
Lando Norris says his third-place finish at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix still “blows my mind” given McLaren’s pace compared to its rivals, calling it “one of my best podiums.” The Englishman took the team’s only podium in the first half of the season at Imola when he finished behind both Red Bulls
McLaren is another team whose season has been a bit hit and miss, Norris as well has been leading the team since Melbourne since the teams nightmare in Bahrain and Jeddah. His performances have as we have been saying for weeks is putting pressure on Daniel Ricciardo.
Norris said “Early on in the season, they had a very strong car. Just a lot of people made a lot of mistakes with crashing, [Alonso] had a failure or whatever with the power steering. We’ve also done a very good job, disregarding the car. Everything else has been a good step this season, in how everyone is working, with strategy, pitstops”
Alpine
Fernando Alonso blew open the driver market on the first day of the summer break, but he says that has roots in his ability he continues to show on track. Despite being the oldest driver on the grid, the two-time champion continues to show the same abilities of speed and talent which have carried him through his twenty-year career.
Alonso I think is a driver we often overlook in the latter part of his career he seems as hungry as ever and you can see him driving as if he is a member of the younger generation. We know he came back to the sport for this year’s regulation changes and he can still deliver results, the way he drives is as bold and brilliance of drivers almost half his age, or the gaming generation.
Its been said a lot by us in the last two years that the two-time champion is in the sport really as a hobby and has very little to prove. But as a driver he naturally wants success and we know in his own words, it is all part of the strong competitive streak he has, in both exploiting his strengths and hoping to open up weaknesses in others. In an interview published this week done before his move to Aston Martin was announced, he said, he was “that type of guy.”
Alpha Tauri
Pierre Gasly says that Alpha Tauri is “paying the price a bit more” for its inconsistent form due to the increased competition in the midfield this year. The Frenchman lead team to their best finish in the championship with sixth in 2021, however, the team has slipped back into a more competitive midfield.
At the halfway stage the team has half the points they had at this point last season, they also have not scored points since Baku. The team I think are being caught out by the more competitive midfield, as the Frenchman said himself, also the consistency we saw over the last two years.
He described the situation like his debut season in 2018, when the team had a car which had “some very small glimpses of very amazing performance, but on very particular tracks and in specific conditions.”
Yuki Tsunoda believes he has made a measurable improvement as a driver during his second season in F1, rating his year to date as seven out of ten. In an interview at the French Grand Prix and published today by Motorsport.com, the Japanese driver rated himself higher than in his rookie season, putting the uptick down to the confidence that comes with experience.
I think we haven’t seen the best of him because as Gasly said their season has been inconsistent, but Tsunoda isn’t making as many mistakes and he isn’t as firey on the radio compared to last year. technical director Jody Eggington agreed with Tsunoda’s assessment, noting the difference a year has made in terms of Tsunoda’s work with the engineering staff.
Saying, “He’s developing and he’s got a good relationship with his engineers, I sit down and talk with him, and he’s forming an opinion of what he wants on the car. Which is good stuff, because it means he’s starting to click and he’s got a view on it.”
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo team principal Fred Vasseur says the team’s parent company Sauber’s focusing to “give the best to Alfa Romeo” through its partnership amid links to a possible takeover by Audi in the future. The deal is renewed yearly, but the 2026 regulation changes mean there is speculation that one of the options for VW is taking over a team or a partnership.
CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato told Motorsport.com last month that he was “not blind” to the Audi links, but was relaxed about the future of their partnership. Asked about Imparato’s comment, Vasseur says he thought Alfa Romeo was “more than happy with the current situation.”
I think a lot of movement around engine manufacturers will be made once we get these regulations are ratified, the key I think is the financials, will the current manufacturers agree to a budget cap.
Haas
Kevin Magnussen says he has gained a new appreciation for the privilege of being a Formula One driver throughout his 2022 comeback season. When the Danish driver returned in Bahrain he immediately validated the decision with fifth-place. I think sometimes when drivers get another chance they are even more motivated.
He told Motorsport.com, that he was still pinching himself and “It’s such a big thing to get to be a Formula 1 driver. That’s one of the things I really started realising last year when I wasn’t in it.”
“When you see from the outside…you realise how many people watch it and how many people talk about it during the race weekends at home. So I started to really appreciate that and it kind of hit me, how big it is. Then to come back into it, I appreciate it much more being at every race.”
Although things have been tougher admits a very tightly packed midfield, Magnussen believes his eighth place in Austria vindicated in his decision to take up Haas team principal Gunther Steiner on his offer to return to the team.
