The F1x

• Sainz to Williams on multi-year contract

• Checo confirmed to keep seat

• The In Lap

  • Norris needs to work on starts

  • Piastri continues to improve

  • Russell looses out after great 1 stop

  • Lewis changes tune on team results after inheriting

• Overheard in the Paddock 

  • Bruno Famin to leave Alpine

  • Max shoots back on sim racing for rain lol

  • Lewis disturbing the peace in the drivers parade

  • Max and Daniel leave Spa together

• A Quick Look Ahead

We are a day late because we wanted to wait and see if more came out on the Checo situation at Red Bull and any more details on the meeting between Horner and Marko, sorry!

Carlos Sainz to Williams

Before we even get to the race we need to talk about Carlos move to Williams and Checo being confirmed at Red Bull for the remained of the season.

From the options available Williams was becoming more and more the most likely spot for Carlos to end up. Vowles was making it clear the smooth operator was the teams top choice and who they were pursuing to race alongside Albon in 2025.

This is a blow to Sauber/Audi, where Sainz was initially tied. They have had leadership changes, and with Carlos's inability to commit to the team, it seems they might not be on track to field a strong car.

This obviously pushes Logan Sargeant out of his seat and probably out of F1 for good.

Memes are already circulating that Carlos and Albon might be the first driver pairing to both be missing their appendix—an entirely new way to limit weight in the car!

Williams now has a very highly rated driver pair, which shows how serious the team is about its goals to improve and climb back up the field.

Sergio Perez keeps Red Bull seat

After the highly anticipated meeting between Christian Horner and Helmut Marko on Monday to discuss Red Bull’s plans for after the summer break, it is being reported Red Bull is set to keep Perez.

There have been rumors swirling for weeks about a replacement for Perez, especially considering Red Bull’s history of having a short leash on their second driver when they underperform.

The details of the performance clauses in Perez’s contract have also been speculated upon, and from what we have heard, it was not unrealistic to think that these performance targets are not currently being met by Perez.

Perez has underperformed for a while now, and most people might be surprised by the decision to keep Checo in the seat for the rest of the season.

Red Bull must have been weighing the balance of bringing in a new driver against the risk of upsetting the team further, losing fan support in some markets, the likelihood of winning the Constructors' Championship with Perez or another driver.

The In Lap

McLaren

I think we need to talk about Lando and his starts. In every race, he seems to lose ground to cars behind him. With 3-4 teams capable of being in contention on any given weekend, he needs to stop putting himself on the back foot.

Piastri continues to improve. He is becoming more confident, getting better at tire management, and has outscored Lando over the past few races. A lot of this can be attributed to their starts.

McLaren would agree that they should have more points and wins this season given how strong their car has been. They must have some regrets about how far they are behind Max and Red Bull in both championships.

Mercedes 

A very unfortunate turn of events for George. He drove a great race and seemingly took his strategy into his own hands and ultimately made a great call and managed his tires perfectly.

Post race George’s car weighed in 1.5kg underweight which resulted in a race disqualification. Some speculated that based on Toto’s reaction in the garage (or lack of reaction) means he might have known before it was announced they were in trouble.

Things got a bit tight towards the end, and I think that with another lap or two, Piastri would have caught up to Hamilton and George and had a chance to overtake them both.

Lewis was pretty gutted immediately after the race when he realized his team had run a one-stop strategy with his teammate. The difference in strategy cost him a win that he undoubtedly would have secured if George hadn’t executed his one-stop strategy as well as he did.

Lewis drove another great race and was undoubtedly deserving of the race win. With the post-race penalty against George, we can understand the awkward position it puts him in—it's hard to fully enjoy the win when he was disappointed with his team afterwards.

Overheard in the Paddock

Bruno Famin to leave Alpine at the end of this season. Things at Alpine continue to get worse and their future is looking uncertain on many fronts.

After Max’s P1 in qualifying he decided to shoot back at the media and fans who have been speculating that his sim driving has been causing the dip in performance. And he did this in the most Verstappen way possible:

“Last week I drove a lot in the rain on the sim in Spa… sim racing is not that bad after all, even though a lot of people are crying about it, they can all f*** off”

Daniel and Max were seen leaving the track together via helicopter but that was the last just the last bit of fuel to the Red Bull seat rumours before Checo was confirmed… the rumours were fun while they lasted.

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A Quick Look Ahead

We are on to the summer break! The next time we see F1 cars on track will be in the Netherlands at Circuit Zandvoort.

Don’t worry! We will be here to cover all the news that breaks over the summer break so you will be hearing from us.