Max Verstappen has issued a grim warning about the quality of the racing ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix.
The four-time F1 world champion said he “started laughing” when he first drove the iconic Silverstone track in the team simulator in preparation, because of how he had to drive the car with the new engine regulations.
Max Verstappen has issued a grim warning ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix. NurPhoto via Getty Images
“Silverstone, I love the track, but I did a few laps on the simulator and I started laughing,” Verstappen said in Austria.
“It felt like a different track, to be honest. You barely have battery around the lap.
“It’s just constantly flat … it’s going to feel very different compared to what we are used to around Silverstone, because of the layout of the track.
“(In Austria) you have long straights and big braking zones, so you can charge the battery. There you have long straights but in a fast corner, for example, so you can’t really charge the batteries, and then the next straight you don’t have a lot (of charge) to spend.
“It’s going to be a tough one.”
The circuit has some of the best and most iconic corners on the entire F1 calendar.
The flat-out right-hander at Copse, the snaking left-right-left-right-left Maggotts and Becketts complex, and even the right-hander at Stowe at the end of the long Hangar straight.
Silverstone is usually a snarling, growling beast, but the new engine regulations mean the beast will this weekend be muzzled, each leg chained, and maybe even tranquillised.
While those fast corners are brilliant, the circuit has just two heavy braking zones, and they’re not far apart from each other. So for the rest of the lap, electrical power will have to be harvested directly from the engine.
What made those high-speed corners mentioned above brilliant was the fact they are – or at least were – taken at the absolute peak of a car’s cornering ability. Aerodynamic load is at its peak, and tyre grip on the limit.
But because drivers will be forced to lift to recharge the battery before they get to the corner, the cars will likely be well-below their peak loads.
Or, as Verstappen suggested, drivers will lap the circuit with their foot planted firmly to the floor, without even bothering to try and charge the battery. The result, where cars are well-below their aerodynamic peak, remains the same.
Both are equally yucky prospects for fans.
Verstappen leads the McLaren pair on the exit of the Maggotts and Becketts complex during the 2025 British Grand Prix. Getty
The Max-Oscar swap rumours just won’t die
There’s the old saying where there’s smoke there’s usually fire, and it seems no amount of water will extinguish the smouldering rumours of a potential swap between Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen.
During the Austrian week, fresh reports emerged from Sky Sports that members of Verstappen’s camp had held meetings with McLaren.
McLaren chief executive Zak Brown once again, as he has repeatedly, denied the rumours. Although this time there was a small caveat.
“I’d be very surprised if Lando (Norris) or Oscar went elsewhere because they’re very happy,” Brown said.
“You know, of course we’ve got contracts but contracts aside, we’re very happy with them (and) they’re very happy here.
“If for some strange reason, someone slipped on a banana peel getting out of the tub, then yeah, of course, Max is a four-time world champion.”
As happy as he is with his current driver line up, it would be foolish of Brown as chief executive to not be across Verstappen’s availability, just in case either Norris or Piastri, as he so eloquently put it, “slipped on a banana peel”.
Rumours of a potential swap between Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri just won’t go away. Getty
He would then theoretically be far better-placed to act swiftly to potentially score Verstappen’s signature.
Meetings like this would be happening nearly every weekend somewhere in the paddock, but of course only make the news when it involves the drivers at the front of the grid.
Although he’s locked in until the end of 2028, it’s widely believed Verstappen has clauses in his contract that would allow him to depart early. What exactly those clauses are isn’t known, although it’s likely to include his position in the driver’s championship by a certain time.
So although the smoke lingers, it’s difficult to tell if it’s from a genuine fire, or if someone in Verstappen’s management is just feverishly fanning a matchstick.
Legend’s stinging takedown of own team
Aston Martin boss Adrian Newey has delivered a stunning slap down to his own team, declaring some of their processes and tools ‘not fit for purpose’.
The comments come amid a dismal start to the season for the British marque, who have battled horrible reliability from a car that is also massively overweight and underpowered.
In a wide-ranging and surprisingly candid interview with the team’s own website, Newey opened up on the difficulties of the start of the season and revealed some of the team’s processes were more than three decades old.
Aston Martin boss Adrian Newey on the grid in Melbourne. LAT Images
He also revealed he had been fighting his own health battle.
Although the Aston Martin name has only been on the grid since 2021, the team has existed in various guises since 1991 when Eddie Jordan entered his eponymous team for the first time. The Jordan team was on the grid until the end of 2005, when it became Midland (2006), Spyker (2007), Force India (2008-2018), and Racing Point (2019-2020).
Newey said some of the out-of-date practices could be traced back to the Jordan days.
“We were relying on tools and processes that had been patched and bodged for years – you could trace some of them right back to the very early days of the Jordan team that was based here in Silverstone, long before Aston Martin returned to the grid,” he said.
“At some point, a system that’s just patch‑on‑patch stops being fit for purpose. That’s where we had got to.
“The result was a very frustrating car build. Parts weren’t being ordered at the right time – not because people weren’t doing their jobs, but because the underlying system was failing them.”
Fernando Alonso managed to secure a point for the team in Monaco, although only due to penalties to drivers in front of him. He finished 12th on the road.
Only the brand-new Cadillac team is below them in the constructors’ (teams) standings, and for a moment after Monaco, were the team to pick up a point for 10th place before Sergio Perez was penalised, which promoted Alonso into the points.
The team is yet to bolt on any upgrades to the car, outside reliability fixes to the engines from earlier in the season. As a result, the team has only fallen further and further behind the rest of the grid.
Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll have locked out the back row at the last two grands prix.
While just about every other team has brought at least one upgrade, Aston Martin’s first won’t come until the Hungarian Grand Prix at the end of July.
Aston Martin has been plagued with reliability problems all season. Getty
Newey said his health battles only added to the difficulties of the start of the season.
“I’m OK now, but it’s been a difficult period. As I said earlier, it never rains but it pours,” he said.
“In truth, I was not 100 per cent last year. I had to balance health and work much more carefully.
“The team handled it incredibly well. I kept a very good relationship with the engineers and I don’t feel it caused too much of a blip. That’s a testament to how adaptable and supportive everyone here is.”
The Silverstone circuit will host the fourth sprint weekend of the season – the first held at the track since the inaugural sprint race in 2021.
2026 British Grand Prix schedule (AEST)
Friday 9.30pm | Free Practice (60 mins)Saturday 1.30am | Sprint QualifyingSaturday 9pm | Sprint Race (17 laps)Sunday 1am | Grand Prix QualifyingMonday 12am | Grand Prix (52 laps)