Racing Avenue

George Russell appeared to lash out at his own team on the radio after a Lap 1 incident with Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari. "I'm out. What happened with the SOC down the straight. I hate this battery. Guys, unacceptable. The whole weekend."

Team boss Toto Wolff put it plainly: "Probably half of it is attributed to the power unit. And on the other side, maybe on the driving."

Ex-Sky F1 pundit Damon Hill has come to Russell's defence, questioning why his car keeps underperforming against team-mate Kimi Antonelli: "What does he have to do? It's all a bit weird how his car is different to Kimi's. They should be identical, performance-wise."

📸 Mercedes F1 📰 via MercedesAMGF1BR, russellius

#F1 #Russell #Mercedes #Antonelli

15 hours ago | [YT] | 160

Racing Avenue

Max Verstappen was asked, point blank, about the McLaren rumours this week. Twice. Both times, one word: "No."

Asked if that meant he was committed to staying at Red Bull, he still wouldn't give a straight answer: "I don't want to say yes or no about my future. I've said it many times, if there's something new I'll say it myself."

The only real answer came when he was asked about loyalty. "This is a relationship built over many years, and what the team has done for me, and what I've done for the team, has always been very good for me. It's like a second family to me."

A driver who won't rule out a move, describing the team he might be leaving as family.

📸 Red Bull 📰 via f1speed_indo

#F1 #Verstappen #RedBull #McLaren

15 hours ago | [YT] | 94

Racing Avenue

Lewis Hamilton is contesting his 5-second penalty for contact with George Russell at the start, the same incident that left Russell fuming on the radio.

Hamilton doesn't dodge his own mistake first: "it was a tough weekend, I take full responsibility for my crash yesterday, which also led to an incorrect setup and cost me places in qualifying."

On the Russell contact: "my starting grid position forced me to drop back, and then I found myself in a situation where George seemed to have lost power. Then he just came out to the outside, and we ended up stuck against each other."

His case: "I think it was a racing incident and there shouldn't have been a penalty."

📸 F1 📰 via post-race interview

#F1 #Hamilton #Russell #BelgianGP

15 hours ago | [YT] | 24

Racing Avenue

Max Verstappen, reflecting openly on his future in Formula 1.

"I personally also have a lot of things to figure out. About life. About life here," he said. "I do enjoy working with everyone, everyone is obviously doing their best. It's just that a lot of things are coming together right now that make it not so much fun for me anymore. That has nothing to do with the people in the team."

He pointed at the FIA as the deciding factor: "It depends on what they decide for next year. I just hope the cars become fun to drive again."

And on the noise around him: "People are not trying to silence me. I say what I think because I care a lot about the sport. I say what I have to say and then I go home, but at the moment it is not really a nice situation."

📸📰 via @RBRHub

#F1 #Verstappen #RedBull

1 week ago | [YT] | 383

Racing Avenue

The FIA has passed a proposal to end term limits for its president, allowing Mohammed Ben Sulayem, 64, to continue beyond the previous 12 year cap.

There is currently an age restriction of 70 for anyone standing for FIA president, but sources with knowledge of Ben Sulayem's intentions say he plans to move to remove that as well. The reported intention is to serve as president for life.

Governance reform, or a power grab?

📸📰 via F1BigData

#F1 #FIA #BenSulayem

1 week ago | [YT] | 129

Racing Avenue

Max Verstappen has sarcastically warned that energy management at Spa will be even harder than it was at Silverstone, with only one heavy braking zone on the 7km circuit to recharge the battery.

"Spa and Monza will be fantastic, yes," he said. "It's a real shame, because Spa is obviously one of my favourite tracks. But this year it will be very different."

Coming from a driver who has spent the season attacking the 2026 power unit rules, the sarcasm was the point.

📸Redbull
📰 via @f1_naija

#F1 #Verstappen #RedBull #BelgianGP

1 week ago | [YT] | 236

Racing Avenue

Ferrari are preparing a serious straight line push for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Motorsport IT reports Ferrari expect to bring a Macarena EVO rear wing to Spa that would give them around 11 km/h more on the straights. Ferrari do not fear a ban on the Macarena wing, because they are the only team to have developed a fully working version of it.

They are also expected to drop the FTM exhaust winglet at Spa. The FTM adds downforce by catching exhaust gas, but it costs top speed. Removing it is worth roughly another 7 km/h, at the price of some aerodynamic load. The setup was already trialled on Dino Beganovic's car in Austrian GP practice.

📸📰 via Motorsport IT

#F1 #Ferrari #BelgianGP

1 week ago | [YT] | 114

Racing Avenue

Max Verstappen was asked directly about the rumours linking him to McLaren, and refused to feed them.

"I'm not going to get involved in that. I've already said what I wanted to say," Verstappen said. "If something new happens or if something changes, you'll hear it from me, and not through word of mouth or from someone else writing about it."

He said he is focused on Red Bull's recovery: "We are on the way back, so that is very nice to see. I had a really positive weekend in Austria. From that point on, we are now just trying to improve further."

📰 via @verstappenews

#F1 #Verstappen #RedBull #mclaren

1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 137

Racing Avenue

Carlos Sainz offered a blunt take on Lewis Hamilton's turnaround at Ferrari, and on how much a driver's form depends on the car underneath him.

"You go to a team with a car to your liking, and you look like God," Sainz said. "You go to a team with a car you don't like, and spend three years there without adapting, and you look useless. It's a much more complicated sport, and Lewis deserves credit for turning it around."

He added a sting: "The rule change was his luck. If he stays with last year's car, we don't see this Hamilton."

📸📰 via MARCA

#F1 #Hamilton #Sainz #ferrari

1 week ago | [YT] | 186

Racing Avenue

Helmut Marko has revealed that Christian Horner was against the decision that made Max Verstappen a Red Bull driver in 2016.

"Team principal Christian Horner didn't agree with promoting Max after only four races in 2016, he was against it," Marko said. "Likewise, many rivals and critics put a lot of pressure on me, saying that Max was still too young and that it was a risky decision."

Max won on his first start for Red Bull in Spain that year. The gamble Marko pushed through became one of the best calls in the team's history.

📸📰 via RBR Daily (X)

#F1 #Verstappen #RedBull #HelmutMarko

1 week ago | [YT] | 86