Max Verstappen confirms 2026 Red Bull plans after F1 contract clause condition triggered
Verstappen has been constantly linked with a move to Mercedes in recent months. Speculation over his future only increased after a dramatic move earlier this month saw Red Bull axe Christian Horner after 20 years in charge.
The 27-year-old only further fuelled the rumours by constantly refusing to say outright in interviews that he planned to stay put. But it was always the most likely outcome, as reported by Mirror Sport on July 7, the Monday after the British Grand Prix.
And now Verstappen has finally shifted his stance on his public comments. Speaking ahead of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, he committed his immediate future to his current team and explained why he had chosen not to make any definitive statements about his plans before.
He said: "The thing is always that people are waffling so much throughout the whole season, while the only one that actually can or should speak is not speaking. That's me. And I do that on purpose because it makes no sense to start throwing things around, and actually that should be the same for everyone.
"Some people just like to stir the pot, some people just like to create drama. But, for me, it's always been quite clear, and also for next year. I'm discussing with the team already the plans, the things that we want to change for next year. So that means that I'm also staying with the team for next year."
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari: no podiums but a new culture in going ‘the extra mile'
Success breeds expectation as Lewis Hamilton, who has enjoyed both like few other drivers in Formula One, knows only too well. Having set himself the task of returning a title for Ferrari, anticipation for his first season with the team was off the scale but success has been far from forthcoming. As the Scuderia have struggled the seven-time champion has been drawing on every bit of experience in what may be the defining challenge of his storied career. At the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend Ferrari announced they were extending their contract with team principal, Fred Vasseur, backing the Frenchman who was instrumental in bringing Hamilton on board to complete his mission of reforging Ferrari into a championship-winning outfit after underachieving for so long. However as the season approaches its summer break, with 10 races to come after Budapest and Ferrari winless, Vasseur still has much to achieve. Hamilton has been outspoken in his support for Vasseur since he made the switch after 12 years with Mercedes but, during a season of acclimatisation and adaptation to a new team, the British driver has appreciated that he must do more than drive. Rather it seems, as Michael Schumacher managed to such great success with Ferrari, to take a leadership role. It is believed Hamilton was somewhat taken aback at the team's organisation and methodologies when he began working with them and that he felt the decision making process was ungainly. He has repeatedly stressed he is convinced they have the talent in personnel to succeed but it has become clear he thinks they must be utilised better. At Belgium last week he was unusually candid in revealing he had held a series of meetings with the key players at Ferrari: Vasseur, the chair John Elkann and the chief executive, Benedetto Vigna. Moreover he had gone as far as compiling two documents detailing suggestions for the progress he believes is needed to turn around Ferrari's fortunes, an admission that caused no little stir. One of said submissions was about the car, where he thought it could be improved and more crucially where they might take it under the new regulations next year. This might be considered the due diligence of any committed, ambitious and thoughtful driver. However of more significance was the second aimed at the operational approach at Ferrari, the 'structural adjustments' he believed were required. 'It is a huge organisation and there's a lot of moving parts, and not all of them are firing on all the cylinders that [they] need to be,' he said. 'That's ultimately why the team's not had the success that I think it deserves. So I feel that it's my job to challenge absolutely every area, to challenge everybody in the team, particularly the guys that are at the top who are making the decisions.' For the 40-year-old Hamilton there is urgency to this task. Ferrari is surely his last shot at claiming a record-breaking eighth title that would end the team's drought stretching back to 2007 for a drivers' championship and 2008 for a constructors'. He is more than aware that since then the Scuderia has come close but still failed to deliver even with former world champions Fernando Alonso and then Sebastian Vettel at the wheel. Over 11 seasons between 2010 and 2020, there were many wins for Alonso and Vettel but still ultimately the team could not seal a championship. Hamilton's actions and attitude reveal a determination that if he too is to fall short it will not be through a lack of effort on his behalf. 'I refuse for that to be the case with me, so I'm going the extra mile,' he said. 'I've obviously been very fortunate to have had experiences in two other great teams. And while things for sure are going to be different, because there's a different culture and everything, I think sometimes if you take the same path all the time, you get the same results. So I'm just challenging certain things.' That the best use of the human resource in F1 can be gamechanging could not be better illustrated than with the extraordinary resurgence Andrea Stella has wrought at McLaren in just over two years. Moreover there are also indications that internally Hamilton is already making a difference. 'The response has been amazing to the steps that we've taken in all areas,' he said in Hungary. 'The passion and the desire to continue to do better is what's the most amazing thing.' On track there is a sense that for all that Hamilton has struggled with the car this year, without a podium for 13 races, the longest period of his career, he remains as sharp as ever. His recent drives at Silverstone and Spa were proof enough of that and his call to switch to slick tyres in Belgium evidence that his instincts remain finely honed. Hamilton is then putting the building blocks in place, confident that if the team can deliver he will too, having already done the hard yards behind the scenes this season. In first practice at the Hungaroring Hamilton and his teammate Charles Leclerc continued to work with the new rear suspension Ferrari brought to Spa and which they hope will develop into a serious improvement for the car. They finished fifth and third respectively in a session which was once more dominated by the McLarens of championship contenders Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. In the second session McLaren were once more on top, with Norris again leading Piastri by two-tenths. Leclerc was third and Hamilton sixth, with Max Verstappen in 14th, very much struggling with the balance of his ride. The Dutchman's difficult afternoon was further compounded as he was investigated for throwing a towel, left in error in his car, from the cockpit while on track and issued with a warning for an unsafe release. Norris on Friday looked to ease the pressure on the title race, saying that it does not matter if he fails to beat Piastri to the world championship because 'in 200 years we will all be dead'. Asked if he needs to get under the Australian's skin to land his maiden F1 title, Norris replied: 'I don't enjoy that. In 200 years no one is going to care. We'll all be dead. I am trying to have a good time. I still care about it, and that's why I get upset sometimes and I get disappointed and angry at myself. And I think that shows just how much I care about winning and losing. 'But that doesn't mean I need to take it out on Oscar. I just don't get into those kind of things.'
Scottish Sun
7 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Five of the best car-themed hotels with rooftop race test tracks, F1-themed gyms and ‘petrol' cocktails
One of the hotels also overlooks Mercedes-Benz World's test track, and anyone can sign up for a lap of this circuit GET A VROOM Five of the best car-themed hotels with rooftop race test tracks, F1-themed gyms and 'petrol' cocktails Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) WHETHER you are an F1 fan dreading the sport's annual August shutdown, or simply fancy the idea of dozing off surrounded by supercars, you can build a stay around motor racing. Here are five hotels designed with petrol heads in mind. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up NH TORINO LINGOTTO CONGRESS, Turin, Italy 7 The NH Torino Lingotto Congress hotel has a former rooftop test track - but is now a cool jogging track IN the 1920s, the opening of a Fiat factory put Turin's park-filled Lingotto neighbourhood firmly on the map. Part of it has now been transformed into the NH Torino Lingotto Congress hotel. Photos of vintage cars line the walls, and other reminders of its history include the former rooftop test track, which appeared in the Italian Job, and has since been transformed into one of the world's coolest jogging tracks. GO: Rooms cost from £100 per night. See V8 HOTEL, Stuttgart, Germany 7 V8 hotel's beds are made from the chassis of a vintage Mercedes or BMW Credit: V8 HOTEL - MOTORWORLD Region Stu THE V8 hotel is in Motorworld, a sprawling complex which is part museum, part car dealership. Motoring fans flock here to marvel (and occasionally buy) everything from Lamborghinis and Ferraris to vintage motorbikes and car parts. The hotel's lobby is filled with supercars while in the rooms, beds are made from the chassis of a vintage Mercedes or BMW. We recommend the Le Mans room, which has coffee tables made from oil drums and an enormous wall mural depicting a pit crew at work. GO: Rooms cost from £138 per night. 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For a nightcap, head to the Blue Flame bar, where engine pistons have been transformed into sculptures. We recommend the Racing Fuel cocktail, made with blackberry moonshine, lime juice, blueberry syrup and lemon-lime soda. GO: Rooms cost from £103 per night. See Disney's Art of Animation Resort, Florida 7 Disney's Art of Animation Resort's suites which pay tribute to the animated movie Cars. Credit: Supplied HEADING to Florida with a little Lando in tow? Consider Disney's Art of Animation Resort – more specifically the suites which pay tribute to the animated movie Cars. Highlights include the traffic cone-shaped bedside lights and the carwash-inspired bathrooms, along with the coffee tables topped with colourful maps highlighting famous driving routes. There are endless opportunities for some seriously fun selfies, too – guests can head outside to pose next to the movie's Sally Carrera and Lightning McQueen cars, or next to the Butte Gas station. 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Telegraph
7 hours ago
- Telegraph
Fred Vasseur signs new Ferrari contract but it is not worth paper it is written on
Frédéric Vasseur's new contract at Ferrari should not come as a shock. Since being appointed for 2023 to replace Mattia Binotto the team have progressed, not just on the track but behind the scenes, too. He was, after all, the man who convinced Lewis Hamilton to leave Mercedes after a decade at the team. In 2024 Ferrari won five races – their most in a season since 2018 – and finished just 14 points from champions McLaren. Better still, he has managed to tone down some of the team's tendencies towards disorder, chaos and their grande casino approach to motor racing. The last time they competed for a drivers' championship beyond the summer break was in 2018. Too often in the last 20 years the team – and their drivers, too – became experts in turning good into bad. With Vasseur, that has started to change, though he is not yet changing bad into good. 'I feel like the beauty of Ferrari is that, emotionally speaking, it's always quite intense. But it can also harm us in some ways especially when tougher times arrive,' Ferrari's Charles Leclerc said on Friday after Vasseur's contract had been confirmed. 'Fred always has very cold blood in those moments and helps the team to be a little bit more lucid.' Vasseur's new contract is a vote of confidence from the higher-ups at Ferrari after reports in Italy that his job was at risk. It also shuts down any of the fanciful rumours that Christian Horner was heading to Maranello to replace him. In 2023, when Vasseur started at Ferrari, I compared his job to that of Erik ten Hag, who was on course to finish third in the Premier League and had just won a trophy in his first season at Manchester United. In short, men hired to restore a sleeping sporting giant to its former glories. Clearly, one half of that comparison has fared better than the other. Vasseur is still in place and Ten Hag was sacked in late 2024, shortly after being given a contract extension, having just won the FA Cup in his second season. That is also a warning – a contract is only worth so much and for so long. Vasseur's place at Ferrari is dependent on results. As for the reports that Vasseur was under pressure from the executives at Ferrari? Such is the status of the team inside of Italy, this is the status quo for the team principal, unless they are winning titles. 2025, clearly, has not been a good season. Yes, the team currently sit second in the standings but there is an enormous gap to last year's rivals McLaren, who have scored twice as many points. That, though, is partly because of the under-performance of the second drivers at Mercedes and Red Bull. At least those two teams have won a grand prix this season. Given where Ferrari finished 2024, this is a significant disappointment. New signing Hamilton has settled fairly well into Ferrari, but it has not been without its problems, either. Ferrari have been vague about the issues that has so far meant they have had to run their car in a compromised set-up, meaning Charles Leclerc and Hamilton have been unable to get its true potential. The upgraded suspension they ran at Spa last weekend appeared to help things, but how definitively and by how much is a question that can only be answered in the next run of races. In any case, their championship ambitions disappeared a long time ago. Next season could be worse. The regulations change significantly in 2026, primarily around the power units but also in many other areas too, with active aerodynamics introduced. Until the cars take to the track for the first time in anger, the running order will be a mystery. Given the complicated nature of the new regulations it would be a surprise if at least a few teams did not fall foul of the changes at the very least in the early part of the season. Ferrari could be top of the pack, of course, but they could also be towards the back of it. In other words, you cannot rule out that tougher times are to come for Ferrari and Vasseur. If they do arrive they will surely stress the strength of Ferrari's commitment to its limits. That is not to say that he will not be given time to turn things around – and it will take all teams time to get their heads around the new F1 – but that commitment is never absolute and nor should it be. The consequence of this is that if Ferrari are not competitive, Hamilton is staring at the reality that he will not be able to win that elusive eighth world championship. Given the disappointment of 2025, Hamilton has always been clear that he viewed 2026 as the critical year for his hopes. We will not have to wait long to find out how that plays out. Hamilton is a man who wears his heart on his sleeve and is unlikely to hide his emotions much. That would be a tricky issue for Vasseur to deal with. Sign the most successful F1 driver of all time, but fail to give him a race-winning car, let alone championship winning one. Perhaps even worse than that (for Hamilton but not Ferrari) would be that the team are competitive in 2026 and he watches team-mate Leclerc win the world championship. Leclerc is definitely in the top bracket of drivers at the moment alongside Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri and George Russell. Hamilton is not finished yet, but he has certainly been second best to his team-mate in 2025. That was the case in 2024 at Mercedes, too, and arguably 2022. Perhaps the new breed of cars will suit Hamilton's driving style more than the current era of ground-effect cars he has struggled with. Perhaps he can match Leclerc, or even beat him. It is not impossible, but it is certainly the less likely of the two outcomes. Given everything we have seen from both drivers in the last few years it would be a bold bet to pick the Briton to come out on top next year. Dealing with this, though, is something Vasseur would surely settle for.
