Category: Formula 1

F1 and Liberty Media went to great lengths to assist filming, with star’s APX team embedded within the sport

After the British Grand Prix last year the drivers took their places in the media zone to conduct interviews, with Formula One world champions Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso among them. Yet it was all but impossible not to cast a glance sideways as Brad Pitt nonchalantly strolled out to face the microphones and cameras of his own, entirely staged, media scrum.

None of us in the media pack openly goggled at the fact that Hollywood’s A-list had joined the sweaty throng, because Pitt was there filming what would become F1 the Movie. And we, as with everyone else, were under strict instructions to behave normally.

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• ‘They come up with weird clauses … it’s just embarrassing’

• Red Bull accused Russell of erratic driving in Montreal

The Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, has called Red Bull’s protest “petty” and “embarrassing” after George Russell beat the reigning world champion, Max Verstappen, at Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.

Red Bull challenged Russell’s ­victory in Montreal for ­driving ­erratically and committing ­unsportsmanlike conduct behind the safety car, a claim rejected by the stewards. It was the second time they had launched a protest against the Mercedes driver this season after a claim he had failed to slow ­sufficiently under yellow flags in Miami.

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• ‘I love animals so I’m so sad about it. That’s horrible’

• McLaren chief warns Norris after Piastri collision

Lewis Hamilton has spoken of his distress after his Ferrari struck a groundhog during the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, describing the accident as “devastating”.

The incident occurred 13 laps into the race, damaging the underside of Hamilton’s car and leaving the animal lover distraught. He had qualified in fifth on the grid and had been hoping to make inroads on those ahead of him while managing his tyres. But the accident cost him half a second per lap and was followed by other problems with the car.

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George Russell held off Max Verstappen as McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri collided

Toto Wolf is concerned about the heat. “The asphalt is very closed and smooth,” the Mercedes principal says. Sounds like a Suede lyric. Max Verstappen is looking calm as he runs over the final instructions with Gianpiero Lambiase, Red Bull’s chief engineer.

“Oh Canada” was sung well by some local youngsters, no straining of the national anthem in the cursive style made famous by Whitney Houston but rarely bettered, and often favoured south of the border.

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• Mercedes’s George Russell shares front row with Red Bull rival

• ‘It is really pissing me off,’ Verstappen says of media scrutiny

A furious Max Verstappen lashed out at criticism of his driving, saying it was “childish, annoying and pissing me off” after his nemesis George Russell beat him to pole position for Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.

Russell snatched top spot with a brilliant final lap at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to leave Verstappen trailing by 0.160sec, with the McLaren pair Oscar Piastri third and Lando Norris a disappointing seventh. It means Mercedes’s Russell and defending champion Verstappen will line up on the front row together, a fortnight after their collision in Spain.

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• Hamilton: ‘There is no question as to where my head is at’

• 40-year-old is 115 points off lead in world championship

Lewis Hamilton insisted he will be in Formula One for several years as he moved to defend the disappointing start to his Ferrari career. Hamilton described the recent Spanish Grand Prix – where he was ordered by Ferrari to move aside for teammate Charles Leclerc and was then passed by Sauber driver Nico Hülkenberg in the closing laps – as one of the worst races he has ever experienced.

Hamilton is 23 points behind Leclerc, and 115 adrift of the championship leader, Oscar Piastri, before this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix. But speaking on the eve of the race in Montreal, the 40-year-old, who is in the first of a two-season deal with Ferrari, said: “I have literally only just started with this team. I am here for several years and I am in it for the long haul.

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• Next year’s F1 season gets under way in Melbourne

• Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola drops off list

The 2026 Formula One season will kick off in Melbourne in March and again feature 24 races as Madrid arrives on the calendar.

The Australian Grand Prix gets the new campaign up and running on the weekend of 6-8 March and it will again conclude in Abu Dhabi on 4-6 December. Madrid, which last hosted an F1 race in 1981, enters the schedule on 11-13 September. The new “Madring” circuit, featuring both street and non-street sections, is under construction and will be the only new venue on the calendar in 2026.

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There was no justification for the driver’s rash and futile act of retribution at the Spanish Grand Prix

There was no justification for Max Verstappen’s rash and futile act of retribution at the Spanish Grand Prix, when he deliberately drove into the side of George Russell’s car. The world champion knows it and on Monday he admitted as much with something of a mea culpa on social media. Yet it also must be considered that it is part and parcel of what makes Verstappen so competitive, albeit in this case in an entirely unedifying and self‑defeating fashion.

Angry and frustrated at a sequence of events in Barcelona, including having to cede a place to Russell, Verstappen surrendered to his baser instincts. Having pulled over to give the place to Russell, he clearly then felt a point had to be made and accelerated back up the inside to collide with the Mercedes.

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• Four-time champion posts message on social media

• Driver hit with penalty for Spanish Grand Prix collision

Max Verstappen has issued a veiled apology for his crash with George Russell by admitting it “was not right and should have not happened”. The four-time world champion was hit with a 10-second penalty by the stewards for causing a collision with Russell with two laps remaining of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Russell said he felt Verstappen’s move was deliberate and accused the Red Bull driver of letting himself down. He also suggested that Verstappen should have been disqualified. After the race, Verstappen refused to accept blame for the coming together and even sarcastically offered Russell a tissue after he was informed of his rival’s comments.

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• World champion given 10sec penalty for collision

• Russell: ‘It felt very deliberate … it felt strange’

George Russell has insisted that Max Verstappen should have faced disqualification after he crashed into the British driver at the Spanish Grand Prix, claiming he felt the world champion had done so deliberately and that he was setting a bad example for young drivers.

Verstappen, who was bullish after a race where he received a 10‑second penalty that dropped him from fifth at the flag to 10th, dismissed Russell’s comments, maintaining he had no regrets and mocking the British driver’s reactions with the comment: “Well, I’ll bring some tissues next time.”

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• Piastri leads Norris by 10 points in drivers’ standings

• Verstappen drops to 10th after penalty for late collision

Max Verstappen has worked hard to throw off a reputation for being reckless and indeed dangerous at times on track. Efforts that were left sorely damaged after he displayed a moment of anger at the Spanish Grand Prix that tarnished his standing as both a four-time champion and an enormously accomplished driver, quite apart from potentially costing him the world championship.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri won at the Circuit de Barcelona‑Catalunya with an accomplished drive from pole, beating his teammate Lando Norris into second place and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc into third. Yet it was Verstappen’s moment of ill-judged anger for which the race will be remembered and which will not be forgotten when the Dutchman’s legacy comes to be considered.

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McLaren’s Oscar Piastri started on pole and finished first on a tough day for Max Verstappen

Harry Kane is at his first grand prix. He loves Lando Norris, so that’s nice.

As I said before, today is going to all about the tyres on this hot track. Who can manage the situation the best?

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• McLaren teammate Lando Norris locks in second

• Lewis Hamilton finds form to secure fifth for Ferrari

Oscar Piastri barely broke a sweat under the blazing Catalan sun, demonstrating a fearsome control to claim pole for the Spanish Grand Prix. Indeed, such has been the dominance and the nonchalance with which he claimed this pole and his wins this season, it was put to him that he was taking on Kimi Räikkönen’s mantle as the Ice Man, albeit in the somewhat less flattering form for the 24-year-old of Ice Boy.

Piastri’s pole was imperious at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, beating his teammate Lando Norris into second by a huge two-tenths of a second, the biggest margin of the season, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in third, three-tenths down.

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Team principal has turned Williams around in a short space of time and is looking to 2026 for a serious title charge

Finding themselves fighting off Ferrari and mauling the midfield, these are heady times for a resurgent Williams. The team principal James Vowles has engineered an extraordinary comeback but this year’s progress is likely to be just the start for a team determined to return to the heights of Formula One, which they once dominated.

That Williams’ form has changed drastically could not have been clearer than at the Miami GP. Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz were in a fight with the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, the Scuderia finding themselves at one point trying to catch Albon, who took fifth place and at the same time fending off a charging Sainz.

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• Rules intended to close gap between the best drivers

• McLaren’s Oscar Piastri is fastest in second practice

All the talk in Spain this week has been about the potential impact of the FIA’s clampdown on the flexing of front wings and the governing body’s hope this might close up the pecking order on the grid. Certainly those chasing the dominant McLaren were optimistic that might be the case.

The technical regulation was imposed as teams look to push the boundaries of the rules, with a flex in the wing under load affording the maximum downforce in corners. In order to maintain a level playing field, the wings must now pass a deflection test measuring the leeway of their flex. This has been reduced from 15mm to 10mm.

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