The world of Formula 1 might be on a break from the weekend races right now, but that hardly means there’s no news on our favorite racers (like Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton)! As they are busy enjoying the summer break with their friends and family, we have collected important news headlines from around the paddock just for your eyes.

First off, Tom Coronel has shared some bold words on Ferrari hiring Lewis Hamilton, and Jos Verstappen has squashed his own son’s dreams too. Next, Frederic Vasseur has talked about the difficulties he faced as the Ferrari leader while Flavio Briatore has claimed he sees Oscar Piastri as a deserving World Championship candidate. But it gets even spicier from here on as some great news headlines have been revealed this week–but what are they?

F1 analyst makes bold claim about Lewis Hamilton’s position at Ferrari

With the arrival of the 2025 season, Lewis Hamilton will move to Maranello to race for Ferrari after spending 12 years at Mercedes. While the Italian team will shell out $100 million per year to keep Lewis with them, F1 analyst Tom Coronel feels that the 39-year-old was not the first name on their recruitment list. The Briton reckoned, “I think it was a masterstroke by Ferrari that they took him, but of course they would have preferred Max [Verstappen]. Ferrari can only become World Champions with Max, they won’t succeed with Hamilton. He is second choice, but better second than third.”

Thus, Coronel has made the bold prediction that despite Fred Vasseur’s hiring of Lewis Hamilton, his team will still keep waiting for a World Championship win. As long as the Maranello outfit does not bring in Max Verstappen, its chances of breaking a losing streak of 16 years will not be successful.

Max Verstappen gets a blow to his Le Mans dreams from father Jos

Max Verstappen has already attained 3 F1 World Championship wins in his bag and he wants to get glory in the other racing leagues as well. The Dutchman is already a part of Team Redline thanks to his sim-racing affinity. However, he wants to take on the challenge in real life now as he has hinted at dreams of taking part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Meanwhile, his father Jos had tested one of the Le Mans cars 4 years back.

Thus, fans thought they might catch the father-son duo pair up for one of the future editions of the endurance racing championship. But Jos has rained on those plans since he has said he wants to keep going at rallying for now. “No, I enjoy rallying,” he said. “Let the young guys race at Le Mans; I find rallying much more exciting.”

Frederic Vasseur gets candid about the “challenge” of leading Ferrari

For Ferrari leader Mattia Binotto, the job of keeping the “mood” of his team solid has been challenging. The Frenchman has made some radical changes ever since stepping into the Italian team by succeeding Mattia Binotto. But to date, he has not led the Scuderia to a World Championship victory yet. In the current season, there have been some races in which Ferrari has shown dominance. But at others, the mistakes of its recruits Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are too big to overlook.

Speaking on the challenges of steering such a legacy team, Vasseur has said, “It’s a huge challenge, it’s probably the most demanding job in my business. But the mood is there and the mood is important for the final result. We have to keep our positive attitude and try to do a better job.”

Ferrari might make a radical change in its approach to the 2025 challenger

2025 will be a year full of changes for Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton will debut for the team next season. Some reports confirm that the Maranello outfit will also debut a new approach toward building its car for F1 ’25. Being a legacy squad, Ferrari has followed a conventional method to produce its challengers since 1989. For 36 years, the legendary red racecars have had the push-rod suspension set-up. But in 2025, for the first time, Ferrari will feature cars with pull-rod front suspension that the entire grid is using at this point except for the Scuderia and Haas.

This shift to the pull-rod suspension will make life easier for newcomer Lewis Hamilton since he has driven cars with a similar setup for Mercedes already. However, Charles Leclerc might find it difficult to adapt to the change since he has always used the push-rod suspension in prior seasons.

Fernando Alonso defies age by dreaming of a Championship for AMR in 2026

42 might seem like an age to retire from Formula 1 for most people, but for Fernando Alonso, his Championship chase has not yet begun. 2 years ago, the Spaniard signed a contract with Aston Martin Racing. At that time, Nando had talked about how he was switching teams because he believed in AMR boss Lawrence Stroll’s target for the team to win the World Championship. However, that has not yet happened.

But as all the teams are now preparing for a massive rule change that will come in 2026 from the FIA, Alonso believes that will be his team’s best chance to become dominant in the grid. He commented to Motorsportweek, “We want to be champions. We want to be competitive next year and also take the big opportunity in 2026. It’s not the time to be frustrated. It’s time to enjoy the process of becoming a big team.”

Jacques Villeneuve shoots back at Lance Stroll’s critics with a “simple” comment

Canadian ex-racer Jacques Villeneuve has come to Lance Stroll’s rescue. Speaking of his fellow Canadian, Villeneuve took a dog at all those critics who claim Stroll is occupying a seat in F1 just because his father is the boss of his team. Indeed, Lawrence Stroll is the principal shareholder of the Aston Martin Racing team. But Jacques believes there is nothing wrong with Stroll’s situation. So, he said, “Lance Stroll is one of the drivers who most deserves to continue driving in Formula 1 because his father bought the team. Aston Martin could have gone bankrupt without the help of Lawrence Stroll. It’s as simple as that.”

However, Villeneuve did not take too kindly to Daniel Ricciardo’s prospects in F1. He asked, “Why’s he [Ricciardo] still in F1?” Thus, Jacques Villeneuve raised the question of why the Aussie was still an active racer in Formula 1 when his results clearly reflected the fact that his retirement was drawing closer.

Oscar Piastri reveals he won his maiden F1 race while racing with a broken rib

There is something going on with McLaren racers and their Grand Prix wins coming right after they have sustained an injury or surgery. For Lando Norris, his maiden F1 race victory came at the Miami GP. Days before that race, Lando had hurt his nose while partying. Also, at the start of the 2024 season, ex-papaya army man Carlos Sainz had to undergo an emergency appendectomy that led to the Spaniard being out of the Jeddah GP. However, he came back all the stronger in Australia and clinched his first race win of the year.

Now, another McLaren talent, Oscar Piastri has revealed that he had a broken rib when he was racing for the win at the Hungarian GP.

F1’s kingmaker Flavio Briatore sees a World Champion in Oscar Piastri

Flavio Briatore is a name that you just cannot ignore in F1. Yes, the Italian has been a part of some shady incidents such as the 2008 Singapore GP Crashgate where Nelson Piquet Jr. had deliberately crashed to make Fernando Alonso the race winner. However, Briatore’s knack for discovering talent is famous in the F1 town. And this time, Flavio Briatore has spotted talent at McLaren’s garage. The 74-year-old has claimed that Oscar Piastri has World Championship-winning potential.

The F1 veteran, who has previously played mentor to GOATs of the sport like Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, thus speculated, “Piastri, I believe, is one of the next world champions. If he’s not (world champion) next year, 2027, he’ll be there. If McLaren still has this car, Piastri will be one of the best drivers.”

Johnny Herbert: Lando Norris is suffering from the “mental aspect” of F1

Lando Norris has already established himself as the breakout star of the 2024 season of F1. With his debut win in Miami and several close podium finishes, he is up in the second spot in the pecking order, right behind Max Verstappen. With a 78-point gap, the Briton is inches away from catching up with his F1 title rival. But at a time like this, he ruined his run at the Belgian GP before the summer break began. Reflecting on his fault, Lando had said, “I think I just need to reset. I’ve given away a lot of points over the last three, four races, just because of stupid stuff and mistakes, bad starts.”

But ex-racer Johnny Herbert knows exactly what is going wrong with Lando. The Briton said, “It is the mental side which is very tough. Lando is very honest, but in my opinion, it is something he should have kept to himself and not shared with the world.” Thus, perhaps Herbert wants Lando to keep a cool head at his race outings so that he can bring the Championship back to McLaren.

Tom Coronel delivers brutal verdict on Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 hopes

For 12 long years, Daniel Ricciardo has kept up a steady presence in the F1 paddocks. He has not spent a single season during this period where he did not have a regular racing seat. While McLaren had ousted him in 2023, he still found a way to replace Nyck deVries at AlphaTauri (now called Racing Bulls) as Helmut Marko was unimpressed with the Dutchman’s results. But F1 analyst Tom Coronel believes Ricciardo’s chances have run out. He said, “He didn’t succeed at McLaren, he didn’t succeed at AlphaTauri [now called VCARB], and he will never succeed again. Then I think: be honest with yourself.”

Thus, Coronel delivered the verdict that Ricciardo should hang his boots and retire from F1. For the next season, he still does not have a contract with any of the teams yet. But there remains a chance that Danny Ricc can prove Coronel wrong by landing a second season at Racing Bulls or bagging the promotion to Sergio Perez’s seat at Red Bull beside Max Verstappen.

Daniel Ricciardo nominates Yuki Tsunoda for becoming teammate to Max Verstappen

Yuki Tsunoda might become Racing Bull’s longest-serving racer ever since he will be entering his 5th year with the team in 2025. But the Japanese had plans to move into Red Bull way before this. As Sergio Perez’s position at the Austrian outfit is uncertain right now, Tsunoda could have captured the Mexican’s seat. However, RBR has announced that Checo will continue racing for them for the rest of the current season. This means, Tsunoda will be stuck at VCARB for much longer than expected. However, as per Yuki’s teammate Daniel Ricciardo, the 24-year-old has improved a lot since his F1 debut.

Ricciardo said, “Probably a lot of people still think about his [Yuki Tsunoda’s] first year where he made a lot of mistakes. [But] he’s definitely grown a lot in the last couple of years.” While the Honey Badger might have given Yuki a glowing recommendation for becoming Max Verstappen’s teammate, it all rests upon the team’s bosses to decide whether they want to switch Sergio Perez with a new recruit now.

Ex-Brabham racer contradicts popular belief regarding James Vowles’ leadership

In 2021, Williams had flourished under Jost Capito’s leadership as George Russell earned a podium finish. However, the following year saw Russell’s exit and then, Williams ranked last in the Championship. As a result, Capito stepped down from his role in the team and passed the baton to James Vowles. With an experience of 20 years in F1, the ex-Mercedes man got the gears running as soon as he joined Williams. According to some reports, he has recruited 700 new workers for the Grove outfit in these two years.

However, the results have remained the same for Williams despite Vowles’ efforts. As of now, the team has earned just 4 Championship points from the first thirteen races. Hence, ex-F1 racer Marc Surer has said that contrary to popular belief, James Vowles is not a perfect boss for Williams. The Swiss also mentioned, “They [Williams] have become worse this year, you must not forget that! I have often said that James Vowles is simply over-estimated. Jost Capito built a car with his people. James Vowles came to Williams, took the car, and they drove fully into the points. All the praises went to James Vowles, not the one who built the car.”

Thus, these are the top news headlines from this week that you have to know about. From Lewis Hamilton being called a second choice for Ferrari to Max Verstappen missing out on a Le Mans debut with his dad–the F1 town has seen it all in this week. Do you think the next week will also bring up some similar shocking news too? Share in the comments.