F1 driver news

The cars haven’t even been out on track in Holland and yet there has been plenty of driver news.

On the eve of reportedly signing a big deal in the US, Yuki Tsunoda finds himself back in Formula One at RB, a team where he had some of his best drives. Liam Lawson, against all the odds, steps back into a Red Bull.

All of this has been created by the wrist injury to Isack Hadjar, reportedly sustained boxing - part of his fitness training.

Arvid Lindblad is behind Lawson in the Driver’s Championship, but still he will be in two minds. Of course, he would never say no to Red Bull and the opportunity to test himself against Max Verstappen. But why jeopardise his reputation in what has been a brilliant rookie season for what could be just one weekend, with no preparation with the team in Milton Keynes? His job thIs weekend is to out-perform Tsunoda.

RB were excellent last year in Zandvoort and I expect the same again this weekend.

Williams have played a blinder by managing to get Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon to commit to them going forward. They are two of the most talented drivers on the grid and hopefully that will help bring in more sponsorship and also encourage the best engineers, mechanics and team personnel to join the Oxfordshire outfit, and get them back on track. There are people on gardening leave from other teams who will be starting at Williams very soon. I sincerely hope that the future is bright for them.

Sainz has signed a multi-year deal and Albon just a one-year contract for 2027.

There are still questions around how such a brilliant team with great people could get things so catastrophically wrong this season. The car was overweight and didn’t even make the shakedown in Barcelona.

But drivers know what they have committed to and hopefully that will make for a more cohesive process going forward.

They’ve not always sounded convinced on team radio when it comes to strategy, and certainly not about performance, but they have chosen to stay and work together with the team and now they have to pull together.

Plenty of news and media day hasn’t even started!