Everything we learned from day one at F1's Belgian GP
Formula 1's penultimate race before the summer break has already told us plenty.
Here's everything we learned from Thursday's media day at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Bearman 'flattered' by Red Bull rumours
Sky F1 commentator David Croft's highly-publicised claim that Red Bull was keeping an eye out on Ollie Bearman as a potential signing took, as expected, about 0.05s to come up during Bearman's Thursday debrief.
"I mean, first of all, it's quite flattering to hear things like that, with a team like Red Bull who are incredibly successful," Bearman said.
"And to be connected with them in any way, even if it's just rumours, is very nice. But like I said, it's just rumours and I'm fully focused on what I'm doing here with Haas at the moment."
It wasn't exactly 'come and get me' but wasn't the opposite of that.
Bearman subsequently said he "hopes" it's long-time benefactor Ferrari that he makes the next step with as "Ferrari have trusted me from the very beginning in Formula 3 and put me in [Carlos Sainz's] car in [Jeddah] 2024 as well, really the reason that I'm here right now".
But he acknowledged, with Ferrari's line-up potentially set for the medium term with Charles Leclerc and a resurgent Lewis Hamilton, that he doesn't "have a full say" in ensuring his future is with Ferrari.
"At the moment I don't have a contract for next year. So, yeah, just waiting in the dark."
Asked by The Race whether he was a true free agent for 2027, he quickly corrected: "No-no, that's not what I said." - Valentin Khorounzhiy
Why Verstappen isn't engaging future rumours
Max Verstappen took just 30 seconds and 16 words to kill off the latest wild rumours that had got ahead of themselves in the build-up to the Belgian Grand Prix.
There had been a fair bit of stabbing in the dark from some quarters since the British GP that the Dutchman was on the verge of a shock switch to McLaren next year.
But in Belgium on Thursday, Verstappen showed himself not in the mood to engage with all that had been whipped up about him being Woking-bound.
“No”, he said when asked if there had been any update.
His thoughts on the speculation? “Nothing.”
A date for a decision? “Nope. There’s nothing to say from my side.”
And then asked if that means he is fully committed to Red Bull for 2027, he added: “I said there’s nothing to say.”
Verstappen’s situation has really not changed since Austrian GP time.
Yes, the four-time champion does have an exit clause in his current Red Bull contract that could make him a free agent at year’s end; but he wants nothing more than to stay at the team with a quick car.
If the latter element cannot be achieved, then options are obviously going to be looked at elsewhere.
However, competitive options are shut for next year, whereas 2028 could be a more open book (which is why the original approach to McLaren happened).
In the meantime, Verstappen won’t commit fully to Red Bull as it is important to keep the pressure on the squad to deliver him the quality of car he so wants.
The speculation probably won’t stop, even if McLaren’s Oscar Piastri – whose seat Verstappen was most strongly linked with – backed up the view that nothing is going to happen.
“I’m very comfortable with where I am and where I sit,” he said.
“Zak [Brown] and Andrea [Stella] and the whole team have been great through all that. Very reassuring – and I’ve been the same to them!” - Jon Noble
Yo-yo racing might not feature
Heading into Spa, the likelihood of rapidly draining batteries meant the prevailing view was that there would be a lot of yo-yo racing, with cars blasting past one another when the other had used its battery power, as had been the case before in F1 2026.
However, for those who are not fans of these motorway-style overtakes and this kind of racing, there's a glimmer of hope in the shape of George Russell. Despite the track seemingly offering the opportunity for different strategies with high speeds in sectors 1 and 3 sandwiching the tight and twisty sector 2, Russell reckons we’ll see convergence in energy strategy.
“No, to be honest, simple answer,” said Russell when asked about the prospect of different energy strategies.
“Because a circuit like Silverstone, with four straights, kind of split evenly across the circuit, you could divide your energy across different straights, and it would work out maybe laptime neutral.
“Here, you go from the top of the battery at Turn 1, to the bottom at Turn 5, and then again the top at Turn 14, to the bottom into Turn 18, so everybody's going to be on that same strategy, which actually means it's not going to be that straightforward to make the overtakes.
“Similar to Japan, in a way, that everyone is on the same strategy, but maybe I'm wrong, but that's my thought.”
A glimmer of hope then, that we could see some proper, opportunistic overtaking at this classic venue...if Russell is right. - Jack Benyon
Cadillac has one more race to 'survive' brake issue
Cadillac may have impressed with many aspects of the job it has done in its debut Formula 1 season, but there are still some areas where it has fallen short.
One of these is in mastering its brake cooling, with both its drivers having struggled with overheating problems during the early part of the campaign.
The nadir came at the roasting hot Austrian Grand Prix when Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez both retired because brake temperatures had gotten out of control.
Efforts have gone on to improve things since, but Bottas admitted in Belgium that a proper upgrade solution is not going to come until the next race in Hungary.
It means one final race weekend of having to manage things as best as possible from the cockpit – although at least the temperatures and track layout of Spa-Francorchamps should mean it is not too much of a headache.
“We knew it would be an issue in Budapest if we didn’t have updates, so that is why we are going to have them there,” added Bottas.
It’s all part of the learning experience that every team has to go through, and you cannot be expected to get everything spot on at the first attempt.
“Some things we've had to learn the hard way,” admitted Bottas. “We’ll survive with it [for now].” - JN
...and it has revived an upgrade
Cadillac has a new front wing for Spa, expected to confer a small increase in downforce. However, it's not entirely new.
During pre-season testing in Bahrain, Cadillac first trialled a version of the wing but found it required some more work. That's led to the new front wing introduced here, which will include a reprofiled vane on the outside of the endplates on both sides.
While it won't transform the performance of the car, provided it works, it should mean a useful bump in performance.
"Yeah," said Perez when asked by The Race if the new front wing was a version of the one previously tried. "I think we are all in a similar boat where things don't work as much as expected, so you try a different concept and hope that it will make the difference."
Cadillac has one new wing available for each driver, meaning any wing-crunching exploits would likely mean reverting to the old spec. - Edd Straw
Williams is turning to 2027 already
While Williams still has hopes that an upgraded and (more importantly) lighter B-spec car due to arrive at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix can turn its season around, the first hint of thoughts turning more long-term has emerged.
Off the back of a campaign that so far has fallen short of expectations, driver Alex Albon retains faith that the ingredients are there for the squad to move forward from its eighth spot in the constructors’ standings.
But equally, there is a realism emerging that keeping the sole focus on rescuing 2026 may not be worth it – and instead, bigger returns could come from getting a head start on next season.
Speaking in the official FIA press conference on Thursday, Albon said that early work on the 2027 car had begun at Grove – although there was no sense yet of it abandoning its current challenger.
“We are already transitioning quite early into next year's car,” he said. “We're starting to do more and more simulator work on next year's car.
“That’s not to say that we'll leave this car behind, but we are thinking long term as well for the best of the team.” - JN
Where F1 drivers stand on safety car change
After the disappointing ending of the safety car finish at the British GP, there was plenty of talk on media day about whether a rule change was needed to avoid it.
Asked about whether the race director should have more freedom to throw a red flag to ensure there’s a racing finish, Hamilton said: “Yeah definitely. It happened in Australia I think one year [in 2023] it was one of the best races.
“In those experiences, ideally when you're in the lead it's not a great thing, but it really gives the fans the maximum experience.
“I think they have the power to do it and they've done it before. Definitely finishing under the safety car, I would be disappointed - I am disappointed as being in the car and as an athlete so I can only imagine how the fans would feel.”
Pierre Gasly sarcastically clapped inside his Alpine cockpit when the British GP didn’t restart.
“I was a little frustrated with the situation. I didn't have all the information at the time,” Gasly explained at Spa.
“Afterwards, I think I understood why all the events [happened] and why things happened that way.
“But I think we will agree in the future, ideally, we don't have a safety car ending the race in that fashion.”
He said it’s likely to be discussed in the drivers’ briefing on Friday night but Grand Prix Drivers’ Association director George Russell said there’s “no major conversations as yet”, so this is something very much still in the ideas phase.
Russell said he has “conflicted views” as he doesn’t think it’s fair if a driver has done everything right until a last-minute red flag, but he doesn’t like the anti-climax of finishing under the safety car.
He called it a “niche” issue that doesn’t happen all that often so it is unlikely to even be a topic again for a while. - Josh Suttill
There’s parts fears for Aston Martin’s crucial B-spec car
There’s a lot riding on the arrival of Aston Martin’s huge upgrade at the Hungarian Grand Prix, but whether it has enough spare parts for its arrival is "the $1million question" for Aston Martin right now.
That’s according to chief trackside officer Mike Krack, who said “you always try to push the deadlines as far as you can”, especially when the team is in such dire need of a leap forward.
He said “everybody has done a good job in trying to put mitigations in place, but also have plan Bs for if one or two components can't make it”.
Lance Stroll hopes Spa will be “hopefully the last painful weekend for us” before that upgrade arrives.
Asked by The Race if there’s any strengths from the ‘A-spec’ that need to carry into the ‘B-spec’, Stroll said: “It’s been pretty terrible: there's nothing we like about our car, there's no strengths, so we can only get better”. - JS
...meanwhile, Alonso's finding joy elsewhere
Fernando Alonso is among the loudest critics of the current, battery-dominated version of F1. He says he’s trying to find and cling to any positives where he can, but ultimately is having to turn to museum pieces to find pure joy in driving again.
Much of this depends on your frame of reference, of course. For a rookie like Arvid Lindblad, this is the only F1 he’s ever really known. It’s still a significant step up from what came before and that’s probably enough for him.
But Alonso has experienced so many different versions of F1 over the past quarter century that he can’t help but hold the underwhelming current version against the harsh light of what came before.
He described the most recent ground-effect cars as “pure attacking mode and driving to the limit of the cars and the physics and pushing the tyres to the limit, all these kind of things. We don't do that anymore” and said the joy left for him in F1 is that “I do enjoy competing and I do enjoy racing against the rest of the field. So when I close the visor, I don't really notice anything new on the rules. I'm just fighting against the car alongside and I'm still having fun and I'm still enjoying what I do”.
“If I was alone on track, I probably would not enjoy much driving these [2026] cars.”
Of course Aston Martin is currently cut adrift at the back, so the clear implication here is that Alonso isn’t enjoying F1 at all right now, and probably won’t want to stick around unless the team can haul itself into the midfield fight soon, so he can actually race with those other cars.
Alonso had a few stabs at trying to be positive about this generation of F1, mentioning the loss of weight, added dexterity in slow speed corners and across kerbs, and setup directions that have moved away from the excessively low and stiff requirements of ground-effect.
But in terms of pure driving satisfaction, he revealed he dips into his personal collection of old F1 cars to find that feeling.
“Apart from all the cars that I have in my museum, I have old cars, 2007, 2012,” he said. “I have my own Formula 1 cars that I drive from time to time and I do enjoy it a lot.” - Ben Anderson
Only Lindblad has full Racing Bulls upgrade
Racing Bulls is looking to strengthen its position at the head of F1’s midfield with the debut of another upgrade package at Spa - but the full package will only be on Arvid Lindblad’s car.
That’s despite Liam Lawson being the highest Racing Bulls driver in the championship in 10th place, with 39 points to Lindblad’s 20.
Chief technical officer Tim Goss explained an upgraded “cooling system will feature on one car here in Spa, with the second car converted for Budapest.
“If it all goes well, we are capable of continuing our recent run of top 10 finishes."
Lawson said of Racing Bull’s Spa prospects, “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be strong. Obviously, we have new parts on the car, more on Arvid’s side, but let’s see what they do. Hopefully they work for us.” - JS
