Max Verstappen arrived at Belgium’s legendary Spa Francorchamps circuit feeling frustrated by the ongoing performance issues and technical failures related to this year’s Red Bull car, leaving him only seventh in the Drivers’ Championship and privately considering the best way ahead for the four-time champion with his manager, Raymond Vermeulen, and his father, Jos.

It’s well known that the Dutch driver is contracted to his current team until the end of the 2028 season, but he also has an escape clause that means he can, if he so wishes, leave at the end of the current campaign if he is outside the top two in the Drivers’ Championship rankings come the start of the sport’s summer break, which follows next weekend’s round in Hungary. Interestingly, this exit clause became effective after the recent British Grand Prix and before the races in Belgium and Hungary, as it was no longer mathematically possible for Verstappen to rise into the leading duo later this month, even if he scored maximum points in the next two races and those above him failed to score any.

In the background, paddock rumours persist that a move to McLaren alongside Lando Norris may come to be if Red Bull is unable to convince Verstappen that its car will become far more competitive in the near future and beyond. As Vermeulen recently commented:

Max would like to remain at Red Bull for the remainder of his F1 career, but he wasn’t born to simply compete in the midfield.

When Red Bull’s Gianpiero Lambiase announced that he would be leaving the team for McLaren, Verstappen was quick to accept the forthcoming move of his close ally, somewhat cryptically adding that they might still work together again in the future. For now at least, it’s impossible to determine whether this might happen or not, and in the Spa paddock Verstappen was understandably remaining tight-lipped about the subject, adding that he will be the first to announce any news if/when there is anything to announce. For what it’s worth, my gut feeling is that he might end up deciding to stay with Red Bull.

Any move to McLaren for Verstappen would displace the Australian driver, Oscar Piastri, and a move in the opposite direction to Red Bull would be a possibility. However, an alternative strategy for Red Bull is emerging, involving the young British driver, Ollie Bearman, who is quietly doing what he does best at Formula 1’s smallest team, Haas, performing well alongside Esteban Ocon. Bearman is a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy and has been hoping that an opportunity might arise to be promoted to its iconic F1 race team. However, this route seems to have now been blocked for the foreseeable future by Charles Leclerc having recently signed a contract extension and by a return to form this season for the 41-year-old Lewis Hamilton.

It was Laurent Mekies, the Red Bull team principal, who had originally signed up Bearman for the Ferrari Driver Academy while still working for the Italian team, and, with Verstappen remaining unsettled at Red Bull, Mekies is keeping a close eye on the potential availability of Bearman should a replacement for the Dutch racer be required.



Having said that, Red Bull is actually clearly benefiting from an abundance of talent at the F1 level this season. Isack Hadjar is proving to be Verstappen’s best teammate since Daniel Ricciardo occupied the other Red Bull car, and both Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson are consistently driving really well for the Racing Bulls sister team. Beyond this, let me introduce the name of a Red Bull Junior Team driver who could well grace the Formula 1 stage before too long – Nikola Tsolov. He’s a very quick 19-year-old Bulgarian who arrived at Spa comfortably leading this year’s Formula 2 Championship rankings and who is also an entertaining and likeable character out of the car.

It’s always been impossible to accurately predict the future fortunes of teenage hotshots unless you have ever had a young Verstappen, Hamilton or Antonelli on your books, but Tsolov seems destined to progress beyond F2 with a bright future ahead of him at global motorsport’s top table, and this could help to ease Red Bull’s burden should its current team leader choose to move on.



Aston Martin is hoping that its miserable season to date might become a little less so when a raft of performance-related updates are due to be added to their cars at next weekend’s round in Hungary. Chief trackside officer Mike Krack is very hopeful that his team can produce sufficient new parts to fit both cars, adding a note of caution about whether there will also be sufficient spares available.



With Formula 1 testing so limited these days compared to years gone by for cost-saving reasons, the drivers have more time on their hands than in the past when the relentless in-season schedule was often simply race weekend, testing, race weekend, more testing, etc. Nowadays drivers obviously need to keep themselves in prime physical and mental condition and spend time in the simulators as well as performing duties for their teams’ sponsors, but their schedule still leaves them with free time to fill.



During the two-week gap between the British Grand Prix and Spa, the UK’s annual Goodwood Festival of Speed attracted a plethora of current and former F1 drivers, including McLaren’s Lando Norris and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli plus Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson, all enjoying a chance to drive a variety of cars up the famous hill. Wimbledon was also popular with Antonelli, meeting with his friend and fellow Italian Jannik Sinner as he defended his title, and George Russell and Sergio Pérez also enjoyed time out at the home of British tennis.



Ferrari and its F1 drivers, Leclerc and Hamilton, were in Madrid to undertake some promotional laps of the new circuit there, the Madring, which will host the Spanish Grand Prix for the first time in September, and the Tour de France also caught the interest of Williams’ Carlos Sainz. Still on a two-wheeled theme, Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas and his partner, Australian professional cyclist Tiffany Cresswell, enjoyed some quality time on their bikes in Aspen, Colorado amidst the mighty Rocky Mountains. And then, of course, it was time for everyone to resume their day jobs and head to the Ardennes at the eastern end of Belgium for a Grand Prix, which has been an integral part of Formula 1 for so many decades and was actually first held at Spa way back in 1925.