🏁 And We're Back!

🥇Max Verstappen [277]: He’s won all 3 of his home races since F1 returned to The Netherlands in 2021. “It’s great to start it back at my home race. It’s always a fantastic atmosphere, and the fans are incredible, so it’s a special one for me.”

🥈Lando Norris [199]: A podcast host for Paddock Insider recently said on his show: “I was with Lando the other day and I said how was life aside from doing brilliantly in F1? And you know what he said? – Lonely.” Dang. I don’t doubt it - a lot of sacrifices growing up pursuing the dream, constantly on the road once you’re in F1. A lot of people would certainly trade places if given the chance though.

🥉Charles Leclerc [177]: Stated that Ferrari has actually made significant improvements to the SF-24 but the bouncing issue has hidden their effectiveness. They’ve tried aggressive set up changes to reduce it, and hope to get back on track in the upcoming races with further improvements.

4️⃣ Oscar Piastri [167]: “Sunned and healed”: he’s fully recovered from a broken rib and is “ready for some more race cars.” Classic Oscar. He’s my (not so dark horse) pick for the win this weekend.

5️⃣ Carlos Sainz [162]: Williams Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson thinks that Sainz will present a challenge to the team next season as their two cars will likely be running close together quite often. In past years with Sargeant and Latifi, this was not usually the case.

6️⃣ Lewis Hamilton [150]: Hopes to build on the team’s recent good run, but has downplayed the chances of a title shot this season. “It would be high hopes.”

7️⃣ Sergio Perez [131]: Says he’s feeling “recharged” after the break. Richard Wood will step in as his race engineer starting this weekend while Hugh Bird is on paternity leave. Will this switch be a needed shake up? Or just add to the troubles..

8️⃣ George Russell [116]: Pointed to tire and plank wear being higher than expected for Spa DQ, along with his own weight: “I knew before the race I was a little bit light, but it was too late to make a substantial change without eating a steak or something, which is probably not the best pre-race routine." Imagine trying to drive an F1 car with a 22oz ribeye and half a bottle of cab swishing around in your belly? I guess George could have skipped the cab though.

9️⃣ Fernando Alonso [49]: Chimed in this week on the headlines where NASCAR driver Kyle Larson proclaimed himself better than Verstappen: “I think he’s good at everything. Although not as good as me! (laughs).” I like how they put (laughs) in parenthesis. Clearly Alonso is tongue in cheek, though I don’t doubt he does believe he’s better. A lot of guys think they’re the best. As for Kyle Larson.. pshh.. it’s laughable that he’s better than the three time champ.

🔟Lance Stroll [24]: Dutch pundit Tom Coronel says he’s a “really good driver” but the “fun factor” is missing. Which driver has the highest “fun factor”? I’d say Danny.

11. Nico Hulkenberg [22]: Appreciates the call he got from Audi CEO Gernot Doellner when joining his new team for 2025. “It shows respect and how serious he and the brand are about our Formula 1 project.”

12. Yuki Tsunoda [22]: VCARB CEO Peter Bayer says he’ll be considered for the Red Bull seat next year if his performance continues to impress.

13. Daniel Ricciardo[12]: Helmut Marko said that Liam Lawson will be in a car next year, and Daniel agrees: “I saw [Liam] compete in the car when I was on the sidelines, and I think he did a great job. He is worthy of a seat. If he’s in the sport next year, that’s a good thing.” But will it be at his own expense? Seems pretty possible right now.

14. Ollie Bearman [6]: Echoed Lando’s loneliness comment: “At some stages, there wasn’t any light at the end of the tunnel. That’s difficult to stay motivated and driven. When you don’t see an end goal; and I remember some points where you know loneliness is a real thing in top-level sport.”

15. Pierre Gasly [6]: Excited about new TP Oakes taking over, citing “positive changes” at the team.

16. Kevin Magnussen [5]: On why he loves Zandvoort: “The Dutch Grand Prix has a crazy atmosphere with the Orange Army, which makes up about 99 percent of the fans there. It’s a very cool track for Formula 1 as it’s super old-school and hasn’t changed much since the seventies….it’s a driver’s track. When you push there, you really are pushing the limits.”

17. Esteban Ocon [5]: Haas TP Komatsu says his signing shows that the American team is no longer a last resort.

18. Alex Albon [4]: Shares insight into his former team’s ability to stay at the top despite no longer having a dominant car: “I still feel like they haven't lost their edge in terms of execution. Pit stop strategy, generally speaking, is always very good. And they do show you that even with not always having a top car, either if it's Max or if it's team, they seem to execute things very well.”

19. Zhou Guanyu [0]: Feature on racial bias and prejudice he’s experienced moving up through the racing world: “My family sacrificed a lot. We moved from China to Sheffield when I was 12. It took everything. Some luck, too. And then, before I ever get a chance to race, it’s, ‘he doesn’t deserve it, it should be so-and-so; he’s only there because of money.’”

20. Logan Sargeant [0]: Focusing on the last 10 races despite his Williams exit, and is looking forward to Zandvoort: “From a track perspective, it’s one that I enjoy. It’s one that I go well at.”

21. Valtteri Bottas [0]: Ferrari reserve driver Robert Swartzman will drive his car in FP1 this weekend.

Constructor’s Corner

🥇Red Bull [408]: From Monza onwards, the development program for the RB20 will include reverting some specs and mixing new parts with old ones. Marko: “Once the car's behavior becomes more predictable again, Perez will also regain his speed." Another great Helmut quote this week: “The car has become a ***** that only Max can tame.” 😆 

🥈McLaren [366]: CEO Zak Brown thinks having his two drivers “constantly at the front” gives his team an advantage over Red Bull. On the Constrctors’ title, he thinks “I think it’s going to come down to the last race. There’s not much between the cars. It’s gonna come down to how does Sergio Perez perform?”

🥉Ferrari [345]: Replaced the floor of their wind tunnel during the summer break. The new roller system should be more gentle on the 10 set allotment of tires given to the teams for their tunnel testing.

4️⃣ Mercedes [266]: The team is now seeing better correlation between the simulator and how developments are behaving on track. Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin: “The ability to predict what the car will do is one of the best ways to develop these days, when you don’t have endless amounts of simulation or track testing.”

5️⃣ Aston Martin [73]: You can’t escape the rumor: $100M Newey deal expected to be announced soon.

6️⃣ VCARB [34]: Rolled back it’s Barcelona floor upgrade after identifying it as the main reason the package missed the mark. Technical Jody Errington: “As a package, it was clear that we hadn't been able to extract everything from it, and although the load that we anticipated was there, we'd sort of decoupled the car in through-corner and through-speed balance more than we wanted.”

7️⃣ Haas [27]: TP Komatsu says that rivals’ struggles have made them look better than they actually are: “Sauber then had problems with the pitstops, Williams with the chassis, Alpine with development and weight. We couldn't have expected that.”

8️⃣ Alpine [11]: Executive Technical Director David Sanchez on the team’s second half goals: “Our objective will be to try and settle on the high side of our performance level, which is trying to consistently enter Q3 in qualifying.” Q3 consistency would be quite the turnaround from their awful start.

9️⃣ Williams [4]: Looking for upgrades this year to become the baseline for their 2025 car, viewing the two as a singular project as they focus on 2026 as much as possible. Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson on 2026: “The aero will come, although we've been able to do a little bit of aero under the TD from the FIA, they are really helping to understand the regulations. So that's always useful to just get everyone's mind into the 2026 game.”

🔟Kick Sauber [0]: It’s now the Mattia Binotto show for the Audi project as he’s been given “full responsibility.” The new stakeholders hope to lean on his engine experience heading into 2026.

• That’s Quick: Adrian Newey revealed that an amateur driver taking his RB17 hypercar for a test drive on the team’s simulator put up a lap time that would have taken pole in Silverstone this year by one second.

• Bono Not Gone-o: Peter Bonnington, current race engineer to Lewis Hamilton, is expected to become Kimi Antonelli’s race engineer next season. Rumors are the deal is done for the 17 year old to join the team in 2025, but there has yet to be an official announcement. Word is they’ll introduce him during Monza weekend, where he’s set to take part in a free practice.

• All Technical Updates: Check out this chart from @LuisFeF1 on X that highlights every technical update brought by every team so far. You can see the difference in design philosophy, for example Ferrari bringing two large update packages with Mercedes taking a more piece by piece foundational approach. 🔽 

• George Pose: Internet hooligans photoshop the infamous “George pose” into various scenarios. Gotta admit I can’t get enough of these.

• Fasionista: Watch Zhou Guanyu (P2 in F1 fashion rankings) break down Lewis Hamilton’s (P1 in F1 fashion rankings) outfit during the seven (eight?) time champion’s summer break trip to Africa.

• Something Missing: Ever wonder what an F1 car would look like without being plastered with sponsorship logos? It needs something on the engine cover or sidepod. But don’t expect to see this look on track anytime soon. Or ever, really.

Quick Question (My Answer)

I’m thinking McLaren. They’ve got some small upgrades, but expect Mercedes to be right there as well. Red Bull is a toss up based on how Checo performs. Look Ferrari to be back in the mix once they bring more upgrades to Monza and beyond.