F1 RUSH (2026)

14/05/2026

Former Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley has warned Oscar Piastri that “the grass isn’t always greener elsewhere” amid reports linking him with a move from McLaren to Red Bull Racing.

Speaking on the High Performance Racing podcast, Smedley said: “I've seen drivers do that and I've never seen it work out well. I've never seen it where the driver's been happier.”

Reports claim Red Bull see Piastri as a ‘Plan B’ if Max Verstappen leaves, despite the Dutchman being contracted until 2028.

Former Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer backed Smedley’s view, saying: “That team also has to ascend to be the best team. And those two things are a bit more rare.”

Piastri lost last year’s title battle to teammate Lando Norris, but Smedley suggested remaining at a top team gives drivers the best chance of future success.

Would you stay at a championship-winning team as the number two driver, or leave to become a team leader elsewhere?

14/05/2026

Former Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley has warned Oscar Piastri that “the grass isn’t always greener elsewhere” amid reports linking him with a move from McLaren to Red Bull Racing.

Speaking on the High Performance Racing podcast, Smedley said: “I've seen drivers do that and I've never seen it work out well. I've never seen it where the driver's been happier.”

Reports claim Red Bull see Piastri as a ‘Plan B’ if Max Verstappen leaves, despite the Dutchman being contracted until 2028.

Former Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer backed Smedley’s view, saying: “That team also has to ascend to be the best team. And those two things are a bit more rare.”

Piastri lost last year’s title battle to teammate Lando Norris, but Smedley suggested remaining at a top team gives drivers the best chance of future success.

13/05/2026

Guenther Steiner believes Max Verstappen is likely exploring options with Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren amid ongoing uncertainty over his Red Bull future.

Although Verstappen is contracted until 2028, performance clauses could allow him to leave early if Red Bull’s struggles continue. The team sits fourth in the constructors’ standings after four rounds, while Verstappen is seventh in the drivers’ championship.

Steiner named Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes as the only realistic destinations for the four-time champion.

"In my opinion, Max can only go to 3 teams: Ferrari, McLaren, or Mercedes."

He added that while seats may not currently be open, teams could still make room for Verstappen.

"Who is prepared to sacrifice what they've got now for Max, because Max is, in my opinion, the champ, he's the GOAT."

Steiner pointed to Ferrari replacing Carlos Sainz with Lewis Hamilton as evidence top teams will reshuffle for elite talent.

Mercedes links remain due to Verstappen’s relationship with Toto Wolff, while McLaren’s appeal has grown with long-time engineer Gianpiero Lambiase set to join the team by 2028.

"He will be looking and speaking with these three teams, but I don't think there is one which is focused on him."

Would you like to see Max Verstappen leave Red Bull — and if so, which team should he join: Ferrari, Mercedes or McLaren?

13/05/2026

Carlos Sainz says Alpine is still “clearly” ahead of Williams despite the team’s stronger showing at the Miami Grand Prix, where Williams introduced an upgrade package originally planned for the season opener in Australia.

After a difficult start to the 2026 F1 season caused by development delays to the FW48, Williams scored only two points in the first three races. In Miami, however, Sainz and Alex Albon finished ninth and 10th.

Sainz finished nearly 20 seconds behind Franco Colapinto’s sixth-placed Alpine but described the Miami upgrade as a “positive” step forward.
He said: “We finally put the upgrade on the car that was supposed to come to race one, because of all the delays we had at the beginning of the season.
“Now we’ve finally put on the car what was supposed to be the race one package.
“Now it’s on the car, it’s performing at least at the level of the midfield cars. We know we still have a lot of overweight [issues] to set up the car.”

Sainz praised the team’s recent efforts but admitted Alpine remains well ahead.
He said: “Clearly, this weekend, we were I think sixth fastest, but then Alpine is 20 seconds in front of us.

“It would have been 25-30 [seconds] without a safety car, so to Alpine there’s still a big gap."
Still, he felt Williams had made clear progress against rivals such as Haas, VCARB and Audi.

He added: “At least the Haas, the VCARBs, the Audis, I think we managed to beat them on pace on merit, which is something a race ago we were half a second behind in terms of race pace, so we must have done a pretty decent step.”

Despite the improvement, Sainz stressed Williams is still far from its targets.
“So not where we want to be,” he said. “But we need to keep pushing because it’s still not where we expected to be at the end of last year when we were hoping for 2026.”

Sainz also warned that a full recovery will take time.
“It’s going to take some months to finish the turnaround,” he said.
“I think we’re going to need to get to the last third of the season to see a proper turnaround.”

13/05/2026

Guenther Steiner believes Max Verstappen is likely exploring options with Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren amid ongoing uncertainty over his Red Bull future.

Although Verstappen is contracted until 2028, performance clauses could allow him to leave early if Red Bull’s struggles continue. The team sits fourth in the constructors’ standings after four rounds, while Verstappen is seventh in the drivers’ championship.

Steiner named Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes as the only realistic destinations for the four-time champion.

"In my opinion, Max can only go to 3 teams: Ferrari, McLaren, or Mercedes."

He added that while seats may not currently be open, teams could still make room for Verstappen.

"Who is prepared to sacrifice what they've got now for Max, because Max is, in my opinion, the champ, he's the GOAT."

Steiner pointed to Ferrari replacing Carlos Sainz with Lewis Hamilton as evidence top teams will reshuffle for elite talent.

Mercedes links remain due to Verstappen’s relationship with Toto Wolff, while McLaren’s appeal has grown with long-time engineer Gianpiero Lambiase set to join the team by 2028.

"He will be looking and speaking with these three teams, but I don't think there is one which is focused on him."

06/05/2026

Tensions rose early at the Miami Grand Prix after a clash between Liam Lawson and Max Verstappen triggered confusion and debate.

On the opening lap, Verstappen spun at Turn 2 and fought back through the field, going side-by-side with Lawson at Turn 11. Both ran off track, but Lawson rejoined ahead. Verstappen reacted angrily, calling him an “idiot,” while Lawson said, “I don’t know what Max was doing there.”

Moments later, Lawson’s engineer Alexandre Iliopoulos issued a clear आदेश: “Liam, we need to give the position back to Max… Do it as soon as possible.” Lawson obeyed, but questioned it after the race: “I didn’t think I had to give the place back, but apparently I did.”

His race soon unraveled due to a gearbox failure, ending any chance of points. Reflecting on the car’s struggles, Lawson said, “At that point I didn't know, but I think a couple of laps after that I realised we had not a very good balance.”

Though the incident was brief, the forced position swap added fuel to ongoing debates about racing rules. For Lawson, it became a defining moment: “It’s close racing, but I wasn't really going to be fighting today anyway.”

09/04/2026

Williams boss James Vowles admits the team is struggling but says a major turnaround is coming—just not before the summer break.

The season has started poorly, with frequent Q1 exits and only one point so far. In a tightly packed midfield, Vowles says being average isn’t enough:

“You can see that bundle of cars around P5 to P7 is incredibly close, there’s not a lot in it,” he said.
“So the issue with the word consistently is even those teams are not consistently scoring points, you have to be elevated and ahead of all that.”

Rather than quick fixes, Williams is focusing on bigger gains later in the year:

“Right now what I can really forecast forward is we have a huge amount of work going all the way through and beyond the August break to effectively add performance to the car,” he explained.
"Now, other teams will as well, it’s a relative game. Some of that performance I think on the stronger end will be coming post-August break.”

That long-term approach was clear in Japan, where the team used the race as a test session:

“We know we weren’t in a point-scoring position but equally we want to maximize our learning in all of these races while that is the case,” Vowles admitted.

Instead of visible tools like aero paint or rakes, Williams tested via setup changes:

“In order to correlate between track and our wind tunnel and CFD facilities, you can do a number of things,” Vowles noted.
"For example, you sometimes see flo-viz being added to the car, being sprayed with paint. You sometimes see rakes being run, especially in a free practice – that’s clearly not something that we’re going to go and fit in a race."

“For us, what we were doing was actually going up and down on front wing angle and ensuring that what we were showing as a map for the amount of downforce we had at the front of the car but also at the rear of the car, correlated exactly across three or four different angles,” he added.
“What it helps us do is just make sure we haven’t got any other gains or losses we wouldn’t expect otherwise, and that the map we are using is somewhat correct as we move forward in the wind tunnel.”

27/03/2026

Oscar Piastri led practice for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix, raising hopes of a first non-Mercedes win this season.

The McLaren driver beat Kimi Antonelli by 0.092 seconds at Suzuka, with George Russell third. Lando Norris, delayed by a hydraulics leak, was fourth—half a second off his team-mate.

Charles Leclerc took fifth, seven tenths behind Piastri, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who was 0.847s off the pace. Max Verstappen continued his difficult start to the season in 10th, 1.3s down, with team-mate Isack Hadjar 15th.

Mercedes had dominated practice sessions so far this season, with Russell and Antonelli sharing wins, and Russell fastest earlier on Friday. But Piastri’s later pace offers encouragement for McLaren after a tough start and a double non-start in China.

Hamilton, who claimed his first Ferrari podium in Shanghai, struggled for confidence, saying: “I am very slow because I have no confidence in the car.”

Ollie Bearman impressed again in ninth, while Nico Hulkenberg was seventh, ahead of Alex Albon in eighth, as Verstappen completed the top 10.

F1 RUSH

14/05/2026

14/05/2026

13/05/2026

13/05/2026

13/05/2026

06/05/2026

09/04/2026

27/03/2026

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