Hello! Back to it this weekend to kick off what I think is the best double-header of the year. The Red Bull Ring is a pretty fun little track and whets the appetite well before the British Grand Prix which is always brilliant. Silverstone will have a Sprint race again this year, too, so more competitive action. Before then, though, it’s to Spielberg where Red Bull and Ferrari are set to introduce some season-defining upgrades.
There’s been a lot of focus on Ferrari’s car with the prevailing theory being that they’re just a better engine away from being able to really take the fight to Mercedes. They hope to solve that this weekend with the first of their two allowed updates set to be debuted this weekend. It is the main weapon they still have in their arsenal and both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc will hope they get it right and have not wasted one of their two opportunities this year.
And for Ferrari, it needs to work on two fronts. They need to find extra performance, that allows them to compete better with Mercedes on longer straights. But just as crucial is making sure that they remain reliable. That is where they have had an edge over Mercedes this year on the engine front and they need to maintain their strong record. They could bring the most powerful engine on the grid but, if the materials haven’t been sufficiently strengthened to compensate, and the new power units keep blowing up, then the performance will be useless to them. This is a key moment in the Scuderia’s season, no doubt about it.
And the same is true for Red Bull. We know they have been racing with an overweight car so far this season, and that the upgrade they brought to Miami in early May was the first part of the fix. Well, the second part is due in Austria this weekend and, at the energy drinks company’s home race, Red Bull expect to be at the weight limit for the first time. From the people I’ve spoken to, the updated parts are set to shave about six or seven kilos of dead weight off the car, and that alone equates to a good chunk of lap time.
Team principal Laurent Mekies has made a point of playing down the importance of this particular package, insisting it is one part of a wider plan. While that is undoubtedly true, getting down to the weight limit means this is the last big step they can make on that front. And with more big updates coming out this week about Max Verstappen’s future – more on that below – the success of the upgrade could be crucial in deciding whether or not Red Bull end up keeping hold of their star driver for another year.
There will be other big upgrades, too, such as Cadillac who are hoping to move themselves closer to the midfield pack they’re chasing. And the heat will quite literally be on for all of them, with very high temperatures forecast which will put new parts, especially engines, through their paces on what is already a hilly and rather power-hungry circuit. I’m really looking forward to it.
But, for now, it’s onto the rest of the round-up!
This newsletter looks beyond just the stories about McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull to shine a light on the other seven teams making up the rest of the grid and help make F1 the vibrant sport it is today – and there are dedicated sections for each below. So read on for some of the news covering the homepages of the top F1 sites, but also plenty more content which probably didn’t.
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QUICK QUIZ QUESTION – How many times have Red Bull won an F1 Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring? The answer is at the bottom of this newsletter.
The main headlines and stories from the Formula 1 paddock this week:
🥵 As mentioned above, the conditions in Spielberg this weekend are set to be pretty brutal. There are yellow and amber weather warnings for heat in place across Austria, like many other European countries at the moment, with air temperatures expected to reach 35 degrees Celcius on Saturday and Sunday. You’d assume track temps will then be in excess of 50 degrees, which will put the endurance of both people and racing machines to the test – The Express
👀 As also mentioned above, Verstappen has held a recent meeting with Red Bull chiefs in Austria, where company bosses hoped they would leave with assurances that he will be sticking around. They got no such thing, with the Dutchman declining to commit himself to Red Bull in 2027 just yet, nor was he willing to negotiate the cancellation of his release clauses – Thomas Maher, PlanetF1
🤔 Verstappen’s manager, Raymond Vermeulen, has offered an update to say his client’s preference would be to see out his whole F1 career with Red Bull. But, he hastily added, “with the opportunity to win”. So it seems the Dutchman’s decision rests significantly on whether he believes he will have a race-winning car again soon – Kyle Archer, F1 Oversteer
⚖️ If he does leave in search of a faster car, Mercedes seems to be his most likely destination. That would put George Russell’s future in significant doubt and former F1 driver René Arnoux thinks the Brit’s place at Mercedes will be “in the balance” if he cannot take his title shot this year – Nick Golding, RacingNews365
🤦 George Russell’s struggled for pace on Sunday in Barcelona last time out has been attributed to a mistake made in the pit lane, with Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord revealing that a tool error led to his front wing being incorrectly adjusted and that compromised the balance on his car – Gianluca D’Alessandro, Motorsport.com
🔋 As for Mercedes’ overall reliability difficulties, technical director James Allison has offered a positive update by saying he believes the team have got to the heart of the issues and will, “with a bit of luck”, sort it out when the team phases in its new battery packs as the season goes on – Sky Sports
🧑⚖️ Mercedes have also confirmed that they have withdrawn their Right of Review request over George Russell’s penalty in Monaco earlier this month, which was lodged after Alpine successfully overturned Pierre Gasly’s penalties. In a statement, the Silver Arrows said they no longer felt pursuing the matter “will not serve our team or the sport”, after talks with the FIA and Formula One Management. McLaren and Red Bull’s appeals are still ongoing, however – The Express
🔴 Speaking about Mercedes’ rivals, Allison played down the prospects of engine customers McLaren as he name-checked Ferrari as the team that has them worried at the moment – Thomas Maher, PlanetF1
🥰 Speaking of the Scuderia, they are understandably delighted with the impact Lewis Hamilton has had lately. Rob Smedley, formerly a long-serving race engineer for the Italian team, says his old colleagues at Maranello “just love him” – Lewis Larkam, Crash
🏆 Hamilton is 41 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli, though he insists he is not thinking about the prospect of winning the title for the eighth time just yet – Keith Collantine, RaceFans
😡 F1 press conference host Tom Clarkson has been speaking to Ferrari contacts about Charles Leclerc and how hard he has been on himself amid this difficult run of late. He said he asked them if the team tells him to stop being so self-critical, to which they apparently said they do, but that “the more we tell him to stop doing that, the harder he gets on himself” – David Comerford, F1 Oversteer
🗽 Onto McLaren, who have in the past week unveiled a statue at their Woking base of double world champion Mika Hakkinen as part of their 1,000th race celebrations this year.
📉 Their current fortunes don’t look likely to be so glorious this season, with team principal Andrea Stella admitting “we have quite a lot to improve” if they are to join the fight at the very front – James Phillips, Motorsport Week
🟠 Oscar Piastri has been criticised of late for not standing out very much of late by the likes of Nico Rosberg and Jacques Villeneuve, both of whom have been slammed for those comments in Australia with former Supercars champions James Courtney and Garth Tander speaking in Piastri’s defence during a difficult season so far for McLaren – Kada Sarkozi, GPBlog
📝 The proposed changes to the engine regulations between now and 2028 have been ratified by the World Motor Sport Council, confirming that there will be a little less reliance on electrical power in the future of this current ruleset – Formula1.com
🌍 Formula 1 has also confirmed it is on track to achieve its goal of becoming a net-zero sport by 2030, having reduced its carbon footprint by 35 percent overall. Changes made to the sport’s freight, logistics, broadcast and race operations have contributed to almost 80,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent being removed from the sport’s operations since 2018, F1 said – Formula1.com
🍾 F1 is said to be considering another season launch event similar to the F1 75 celebration in London last February. O2 Arena bosses have said they would love to host again, though there is no guarantee that a similar event would be held in the UK again with Milan being touted as a possible host city – Matt Hardy, CityAM
🇺🇸 Former F1 driver Kevin Magnussen made his NASCAR debut over in the US at the weekend, though it ended with American racer Noah Gragson in his face after a long battle on track which ended with Magnussen spinning Gragson around. I can’t repeat much of what was said between them as it was mostly cursing, though you can find the video in this article about it – NASCAR.com
🙏 Finally for this section, some sad news as former F1 driver Guy Edwards has died, aged 83. He started 17 Grands Prix in the 1970s and his best finish was a seventh place, though his time in F1 is best remembered for his work to help save the life of Niki Lauda in the moments after the Austrian’s life-threatening crash during the 1976 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring – The Express
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Here are the main stories around F1’s seven midfield teams this week:
⭐ Pierre Gasly is one of only two drivers, alongside Lewis Hamilton, to have scored points in all seven rounds so far this year. The Frenchman is delighted with the team’s progress and said “everything has been perfect” for them so far in 2026 – Sam Hall; Adam Cooper, Crash
🏎️ Gasly will be joined by team-mate Franco Colapinto, reserve driver Paul Aron, Alpine academy driver Alex Dunne and F1 Academy racer Nina Gademan at the Goodwood Festival of Speed later this summer with all five set to drive up The Hill as Alpine go big at the event this year – Simon Ostler, Goodwood
💥 Let’s hope they all do better to keep any of their cars out of the wall, unlike Formula 3 driver Ugo Ugochukwu whose first experience behind the wheel of an F1 car ended with a crash during a private test for Alpine at Monza last week.
Alpine Club@alpineclub_esp
🚨 El accidente de Ugo Ugochukwu🇺🇸 ayer (19 años, líder de la F3) con un Alpine de TPC en Monza🇮🇹 Era su primera vez en un F1. #F1
11:39 AM · Jun 18, 2026 · 29.2K Views
21 Replies · 21 Reposts · 423 Likes
⏳ It continues to be a waiting game for Aston Martin, who are unlikely to introduce a big upgrade until the summer break. Until then, chief trackside officer Mike Krack admits, they are lacking in “everything” – Michael Delaney, F1i
🇯🇵 On engine supplier Honda’s side, this interview with Koji Watanabe is a good deep dive into the problems they have faced at the start of this nascent partnership with Aston Martin – Jon Noble, The Race
🇦🇹 Reserve driver Jak Crawford will get another outing this weekend, set to drive in his second FP1 session of the year when he takes over for Lance Stroll at the Red Bull Ring on Friday – Tobia Elia, GPBlog
🪫 Gabriel Bortoleto thinks Audi have the scope to add more than a second per lap of pace with engine upgrades this year and even thinks they could have been challenging for race wins if their power units had matched their “very strong” chassis from the start of the season – Henry Valantine, PlanetF1
⚠️ Improving their engines is easier said than done and “a very complex situation”, as described by racing director Allan McNish. Regardless, he said he is pleased with the progress they have made so far, particularly on the reliability front – Nick Golding; Sandor Meszaros, RacingNews365
🤔 Audi will get upgrade opportunities through the ADUO system, though chief Mattia Binotto thinks the system would be better if performance wasn’t measured by kilowatts on output, instead advocating for a system where, like with wind tunnel testing time on the aerodynamics front, the amount of development you can do is based on performance and results from the previous season – Veerendra Singh, Read Motorsport
❌ Valtteri Bottas knows he is not at his best right now and thinks thinks “definitely haven’t come my way” so far in his short Cadillac career – Nick Golding; Pepijn van der Hulst, RacingNews365
🔮 Sergio Perez has fared better and is eyeing more in Austria this weekend with a “big package” of upgrades hopefully helping to push the team closer to the midfield battle – Sam Hall, Crash
🙌 Oliver Bearman says he is loving life with Haas right now and is having lots of fun with the team. “I absolutely love it,” he told Lawrence Barretto in a newly released video – F1, YouTube
‼️ On track, his team-mate Esteban Ocon says the European season will be “very critical” to the team’s hopes this year as they will either develop the car and remain competitive, or fall behind and miss out on the potential this season held – Jack Oliver Smith, Motorsport Week
🇦🇹 Ocon will sit out FP1 in Spielberg on Friday, with reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa getting another chance behind the wheel of F1 machinery – Archie Griggs, The Express
👏 Add respected former F1 car designer Gary Anderson to the growing list of Arvid Lindblad’s admirers. In this piece, he wonders whether Red Bull might just have found their next wonderkid to (eventually) replace Max Verstappen – Gary Anderson, The Race
📆 The latest driver market rumour is that Liam Lawson could lose his seat if Verstappen chooses to stick with the main Red Bull team, because Formula 2 title contender Nikola Tsolov’s promotion to the F1 grid in 2027 is “practically a done deal” – Jesus Muñoz, SoyMotor (in Spanish)
😕 Lawson has done well so far this year, but has admitted in a new interview that his time in F1 so far has come at the cost of his “happiness”, in a revealing insight into the mentality of a driver working to cement their place on the grid and achieve the lofty goals set for them – Ben Waterworth, Speedcafe
🤷♂️ Alex Albon doesn’t hold out much hope for this weekend’s race, pointing out that the high-speed sectors two and three around the Red Bull Ring are unlikely to suit their car – James Phillips, Motorsport Week
🗣️ Team boss James Vowles is also not too optimistic, saying he expects them to not be as exposed as they were in Barcelona earlier this month, but that their issues also won’t be magically resolved – Lydia Mee, Motorsport.com
🔄️ Another interesting driver market rumour here, suggesting Williams could move for Cadillac’s Sergio Perez if they were to lose one of Albon or Carlos Sainz this year amid their struggles – Sandor Meszaros, RacingNews365
QUICK QUIZ QUESTION ANSWER – Red Bull have won five Grands Prix at their home circuit, every one of those victories taken by Max Verstappen. He won four Austrian Grands Prix in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2023, and one Styrian Grand Prix also in 2021.
Thanks so much for reading this week’s edition of Pit Lane Chronicle. This newsletter is FREE for all to enjoy. Please do let me know what you think, with any tips, comments and suggestions always welcome!
✍ My name is Daniel Moxon and I’ve been an F1 fan since I was old enough to listen to my dad’s tales about Ayrton Senna and Damon Hill. I clearly caught the bug as I now work as the senior Formula 1 correspondent across Reach PLC’s titles including the Daily Mirror and Daily Express. I live in Merseyside, in the north west of England, with my fiancée Abby and our two-year-old daughter Eve, who likes to watch races while sat in her ride-along Mustang.
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