🏁 Red Bull Takes Your Wings

🥇Max Verstappen [194]: Takes the helmet award this week: Check out this orange beaut. This will pair nicely with the clouds of orange flair smoke in Austria next weekend at the Red Bull Ring.

🥈 Charles Leclerc [138]: Took place in the Olympic torch relay as the iconic symbol passed through Monaco ahead of this summer’s games in Paris. Didn’t we just have an Olympics? Apparently the Olympic charter states that events that rely on mechanical propulsion are not allowed. I guess that makes sense.. supposed to be pure human ability. And maybe some PEDs.

🥉 Lando Norris [131]: He’s loving the increased competition as much as we are: “It's only going to make our life better…now there will probably be eight cars which are fighting up there and challenging us all together, so it’s exciting for us, exciting for probably everyone watching”

4️⃣ Carlos Sainz [108]: Reportedly has offers from all teams currently with an open seat, and plans to make his decision soon: “I know what options are on the table. I'm ready to make a decision and that decision will come quickly."

5️⃣ Sergio Perez [107]: Acknowledged the need for a “successful weekend” after the “disaster” in Canada. On this weekend’s race: “It’s a circuit I know very well and the RB20 should be quick around this type of track.” All signs point to Red Bull being more comfortable here. Will be interesting to see if their rivals can keep up the pressure and if Perez can turn his fortune around.

6️⃣ Oscar Piastri [81]: While he’s taken a step forward, he wants to show better consistency from weekend to weekend: "I think there have been good moments here and there…the first few rounds were quite promising, a couple of difficult races in the middle, but on the whole, I feel like I've taken a good step forward in quite a few areas from last year.”

7️⃣ George Russell [69]: From The Race: Does he have what it takes to become the team leader? He’s had the pace against Hamilton in Quali this year. While he can deliver under pressure, he has made a few mistakes in big moments over the past calendar year - which may be attributed to trying to over compensate for the car’s deficiencies.

8️⃣ Lewis Hamilton [55]: Offered this on the exorbitant ticket prices for the British GP next month: “We have to watch ticket prices. It’s hugely expensive and it’s too high. The sport won’t like that I’m saying that, but I’m just thinking from the perspective of the fans and their families.”

9️⃣ Fernando Alonso [41]: “Unfair” to be compared to Ferrari or Mercedes who have had continuity for many years, but believes in the team’s prospects: “I think this team and this project has all the ingredients to be successful.”

🔟 Yuki Tsunoda [19]: Gasly on his former teammate: “He had to learn and mature in his driving and the way he races. I think we’ve seen that this year. He’s minimizing the mistakes, very competitive, manages to get the points and the job done most of the time. He’s a very reliable driver.”

11. Lance Stroll [17]: Confirms the renewal of his unique rolling contract will be announced “soon.” What is the opposite of silly season? It’s this.

12. Daniel Ricciardo [9]: With upgrades coming, expects some tight battles this weekend: “Barcelona is always a track where everyone brings updates, so I think it’s going to be a really competitive weekend. I’m excited to drive it with the faster last sector that they changed for last year.” The last sector chicane was removed last year, but Ricciardo’s return was after the 2023 Spanish GP.

13. Oliver Bearman [6]: Will drive FP1 for Haas on Friday as he remains under serious consideration for a 2025 seat with the team.

14. Nico Hulkenberg [6]: Wants the team to investigate potential aero issues with the car that he thinks cost the team points after he wasn’t comfortable all weekend in Canada.

15. Pierre Gasly [3]: Not looking forward to the upcoming triple header, saying the team could be in for a “rough” run as no major upgrades are planned over the next few races.

16. Alex Albon [2]: Williams’ Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson says their lead driver has “everything he needs” to be a future world champion. “He's exceptionally quick. He's also very smart and his feedback that goes into those set-ups is important.” I’d like to take a look at that list and add… uh, idk… a faster car? Can’t deny the talent though.

17. Esteban Ocon [2]: On working with Hamilton coming up through the Mercedes program: “He’s got a very busy life in general and seeing how he switches his focus from one thing to another, for me that kind of amazed me… He always had his paper boards with notes [to] not to forget things from one year to another, or one session to another. This is what I do as well now.”

18. Kevin Magnussen [1]: On what Haas has told him about their plans for 2025: “They’ve told me that they’re not in a rush, and that’s okay – they’re in control there. I think it’s a very open market at the moment, and lots of pieces have to fall in the puzzle. Slowly it’s starting to go together, and hopefully we’ll all have our future sorted quite soon.”

19. Zhou Guanyu [0]: Open to returning to Alpine where he acted as a development driver earlier in his career, saying he doesn’t want to take a reserve driver role or take a year off. “Nothing has been confirmed, but I feel like there should be a spot for me in the future on this grid, but I just don’t know where.”

20. Valtteri Bottas [0]: Could be in the mix to join Alpine next season, says he’s “confident” he won’t be left without a seat in 2025.

21. Logan Sargeant [0]: TP Vowles admits the team “needs more” from him to save his seat for 2025. He also admitted the #1 target is Sainz for 2025… so Logan’s future is riding on him as well. At least this weekend he’ll finally have the same spec car as his teammate… let’s see what he can do with it.

Constructor’s Corner

🥇Red Bull [301]: After Silverstone officials blamed lack of ticket sales on Red Bull dominance, Max retorted: "I don't think it's my fault. The current F1 season is very exciting, with several teams fighting for wins lately. If a promoter cannot fill all the seats, maybe they need to first look at themselves and see what they're doing wrong. In other places they're managing to fill the stands quite easily." 🎤 

🥈Ferrari [252]: Bringing a new floor, revised rear body work, and diffuser upgrades this weekend to increase overall load and efficiency. The team worked hard to bring the updates this weekend ahead of the originally scheduled Silverstone release.

🥉McLaren [212]: Some 2024 stats: Norris and Piastri are the only drivers to complete all laps this season and are the only driver pairing with a 100% Q3 appearance rate. Lando is the only driver to score points in every race so far this season.

4️⃣ Mercedes [124]: James Allison on the team’s upgrade strategy to make their way to the front: “Our challenge is just to keep those upgrades arriving at a pace that the others cannot keep up with. “In doing that, just bullying our car to the front by virtue of the effort made by everybody here over the coming weeks and months to get the car so that it can have its Montreal weekend or better at any track that we face in the future.” Love a good brute force method.

5️⃣ Aston Martin [58]: TP Krack says the team is now battling inflated expectations after their over achievement in 2023, and are being judged too harshly for their 2024 results. “These processes take time and there are not many businesses where you have less time than Formula 1.”

6️⃣ RB [28]: Bringing their biggest upgrade of the season to Barcelona in hopes of taking the fight to Aston. New bodywork, floor, sidepods, and rear wing are included.

7️⃣ Haas [7]: Bearman will make his second of six FP1 appearances this weekend. “on a weekend like this, I’m very busy, I have a lot of mental pressure, a lot of stuff to take in. But I like the challenge, it’s good preparation.” Six?? Didn’t realize it was that many.

8️⃣ Alpine [5]: Thinking of abandoning Renault engines for 2026 and becoming a customer team. Options could be Red Bull (which may not want to supply a third team in their first year with new power units), or take Mercedes’ open customer spot since Aston Martin is switching to Honda PUs.

9️⃣ Williams [2]: TP Vowles says their on the brink of signing some “big names” in their technical organization. “We were a team that were 10th [in the standings] for many years… Yes, last year we were seventh and we started this year poorly, [but] keep an eye out for us. We’re now starting to put performance to the car race by race, and this is a different entity to what it was before.”

🔟 Kick Sauber [0]: If Sainz goes elsewhere, Ocon is a top target for next year. Signs are pointing to Sainz at Williams next year, with a possible announcement this weekend…

Quick Quiz (Answer)

Nico Rosberg 9(!) years ago in 2015. Barcelona is a classic racing circuit where the top dogs usually shine.

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