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Good F-ing Day to you. People (read media) have an issue with how drivers talk on the the radio during their race. They will often be called out for use of colorful language or aggressive outbursts. Check out Vettel’s view of it 

This happened again after a spicy interaction between 8 time (ehem…7 time) world champion, Lewis Hamilton, and the reigning champ, Max Verstappen.

Max responded, "People that don't like my language don't have to listen to it. Turn the volume down. I am very driven to success. I think I've proven that already."

Regardless of your personal opinion, this means F1 is “back” from the vanilla prison that fans were in for too many years. Hard racing and a genuine contention for the championship = fans get what they pay for 😎

-Jacob Williamson

🏎 GP preview

Welcome to the longest circuit on the current F1 calendar. Originally built in 1921 using public roads between the towns of Francorchamps, Malmedy, and Stavelot, this circuit is home to some of the most exciting racing in the world.

Some stats:

• 44 laps

• 19 corners

• 7.004 km length

• 2 DRS zones

• Current official lap record set by Bottas in 2018 - 1:46.286

• Fastest time @ 1:41.252 set by Hamilton in 2020 during Quali

Check out the onboard of a flyer

What to like?

Like many famous tracks that endure the ever changing F1 lineup, Spa is home to very fast, very long straights that are bookended by challenging corners (some fast and some slow). This means you get to see the teams really stretch their cars to the limits of their setup here.

Many tracks have a consistent theme of corners. Fast sweepers, tight 90’s, chicanes, etc… but Spa has a buffet of corner types including the famous Eau Rouge.

Corner variety, circuit length, and unpredictable weather will always equal fun racing at Spa!

GP Prediction

I am going to take a complete stab in the dark here and give you my prediction for the podium at Spa. It’s a stab in the dark because Verstappen takes a 10-place grid penalty but has won from P14 before and we haven’t seen a full stretching of the legs on the cars yet. - Jacob Williamson

So…

P1 - Max Verstappen

P2 - Oscar PIastri

P3 - Lando Norris

🌎 Team Boss Silly Season

The race to 2026 is heating up. With new regulations on the horizon and major changes to the cars, we are already seeing the effects on the grid. One particular story is proving to be a never ending drama machine. That’s Audi’s entrance into F1. The latest episode of this daytime telenovela sees the former Ferrari boss, Mattia Binotto, named the new head of Audi’s F1 project. Juicy…

Sauber or Audi?

So how did Audi start calling the shots at the team that is still operating under the Kick Sauber banner? Glad you asked.

You see, Audi announced their entrance into F1 nearly 2 years ago. Audi was set to takeover the Sauber F1 team on a prolonged schedule to give the car giant time to develop their factory team, engine, and chassis. So, they bought the team from the previous owner, Finn Rausing, and set to work building their team. However, the bosses at Audi quickly realized their ambitions were going to be halted by this new working relationship. Audi relied on Rausing for support in funding larger investments. That’s like me selling you a house and asking me to paint it for you. There is just no incentive for a previous owner to pay for things that won’t benefit them.

Solution

As a solution to their problem, Audi accelerated the 100% takeover and start making changes so they could be ready for their official 2026 entry.

What about 2025?

This sets the stage for Binotto’s entry. The strategy earlier this year was for Audi (with former McLaren boss Andreas Seidl) to step back and focus doing everything possible to maximize the chances of 2026 being a blowout start to their F1 sojourn. This changed, however, with the arrival of Oliver Hoffman who was named chairman of all Sauber companies. Seidl and Hoffman didn’t see eye to eye and started blaming each other for Sauber’s abysmal performance this year.

Regardless of who is to blame, the current performance does pose a major issue. It had become clear that you can’t sacrifice short term performance to make way for 2026. Even if Audi can take the financial hit of underperforming in a championship, there is still team morale and driver excitement to worry about. How do you get driver’s aligned with your vision if the best they can hope for in 2025 is last place?

Enter Binotto

Audi’s solution to the in fighting and lack of direction was to sack Seidl and Hoffman and bring in a single visionary who will care for the current team as well as set big goals for 2026. This visionary is Mattia Binotto.

Binotto is the former Ferrari team boss who also served as their technical director of engine and chassis. Experience that Audi desperately needs.

How does this change driver seats?

The big question is how this affects the driver market. Both Bottas and Sainz have yet to take seats for next year. Furthermore, Sainz has a reportedly lucrative offer from Audi/Sauber on the table but the Spaniard has yet to accept or reject that seat.

Bottas was quoted as saying, “the big part of the remaining driver market is waiting for Carlos' move”. He then went on to say, “But also not completely relying on that. It's a bit of a complicated situation, but let's see. I'm sure the cork will pop at some point.”

The world of F1 may not wait for Sainz to make his decision. Mercedes is reportedly onboarding Antonelli for their second seat and Williams is rumored to be in talks with Bottas. This would close a couple of doors for Sainz.

With Mattia Binotto now heading up Sauber, it would not be a surprise to many if Sainz accepted his outstanding big money offer now that the team can start to see a clear path to potential success in the coming years.

🚀Headline Sprint

Hamilton speaking to the FIA. Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen came together last weekend in a late race incident at turn 1. This incident resulted in Max getting a bit ariborne and losing a place to Leclerc. According to the stewards, this was a typical ‘racing incident’ but the offical write up of the review included that Hamilton, “could have done more to avoid collision”. Lewis will be chatting with the FIA officials to sort this out.

Aero upgrades to Mercedes and McLaren: Both Merc and McLaren have brought track specific aero packages as well as more permanent rear wing and under car upgrades for this weekend. Mercedes has been focused on generating additional downforce while McLaren has been leaning toward the low downforce route. After the Friday practice sessions, McLaren seems to be the favorite as Mercedes is reportedly losing 0.9 seconds per lap.

Sim racing > irl: Red Bull’s senior advisor Helmut Marko has admitted that Max will no longer run late-night sim sessions in the future. This comes after a late race crash and a series of spicy radio exchanges between Max and his race engineer last weekend. Max has been criticized for running a 3 am simulator race before a GP weekend.

🛞 Papaya Problems

Drama at McLaren. Last weekend marked Oscar Piastri’s first Grand Prix win in Formula 1. A well-deserved albeit slightly contentious win. If you didn’t catch it, McLaren was running P1 (Piastri) and P2 (Norris) going into the final pit stops. Those final pit stops saw Norris undercut his teammate swapping the order for what would be the final stint of the race. This was a strategy called made by the team to close down a threat of an undercut by Lewis Hamilton in 3rd position as well as a potential threat from Max who was gaining on the front pack.

Essentially, Norris was called in 2 laps earlier than Piastri to swap for Medium compound tyres and give the pit crew a breather before bringing in Piastri. This was a logical decision that allowed them to play it safe with Hamilton and Verstappen approaching and it prevented undue pressure on the pit crews if there was to be a double stop.

The result of this strategic move was that Norris gained on Piastri before the Aussie boxed. Norris took P1 and the team decided to enforce team orders. this means they decided to have Norris give the position back to Piastri. Norris clearly didn’t like this decision (see team radio) and kept the lead until the final stages of the race when he finally swapped back.

Team orders are a tricky beast. You want to keep your driver’s happy while doing what’s best for the team. On one hand, Norris could continue to close the gap to Verstappen in the Driver Championship and these team orders made that more difficult. On the other hand, Piastri shows early promise and could be a priority for the team moving forward.

McLaren will be focused on one thing this Summer break…team order and who gets priority in the back half of the season. Can Norris deliver a championship? Or will the two drivers need to work together to lock up a Constructor’s championship?

🏎 Rolex is Out

It’s time to say goodbye to Rolex in F1. Rolex has been a familiar sight on the F1 calendar for the past 11 years but it seems 2024 may be the final year we see the Swiss brand strewn about the circuit.

Although the watch brand reportedly spends $50 million annually on their sponsorship of F1, it may not be enough for the growing racing brand. As F1 has grown in popularity in the wake of Netflix’s ‘Drive to Survive’ and the addition of 2 more U.S. races so has the value of the the Formula 1 brand. It’s pretty simple, more eyeballs equals a higher price tag for sponsorships.

it seems that the higher sponsorship investment is too rich for the luxury watch maker who reported annual earnings of $13 Billion in 2021. In its place, the French luxury conglomerate LVMH is poised to fill the breach.

LVMH which houses Hublot and Tag Heuer will reportedly pay $150 Million annually starting in 2025.

💨 Hot Laps

Power unit rumors: Alpine has yet to select a Power Unit(PU) partner for 2026. The rumor is Renault may co-develop a PU for 2026 with Cadillac. This may be the opening Andretti needs.

Driver lineup for 2025: With Haas choosing Ocon for the spot alongside rookie Ollie Bearman, the 2025 lineup is heating up.

Bruno Famin to stand down from his interim team principal role at Alpine. He will focus on overseeing the Alpine engine plant as Renault assesses whether or not they will keep Alpine as a customer.

Ricciardo is taking one day at a time as his future hangs in the balance after half a season of inconsistency.

No additional points: The F1 commission’s latest meeting as unanimously ruled out awarding points beyond P10.

Party on: The latest F1 commission meeting has confirmed that “team entertainment” will remain excluded from the cost cap restrictions. So, Red Bull can have their Christmas part and that new rear wing.

🛞Marbles

Random links from the authors not always car related

✅ Retire in Tuscany: Picture yourself scampering around Tuscany in this little thing. Just make sure to break down (I mean stop) near a vineyard for some wine tasting.

✅ VW ignoring history: VW’s own history of the beetle conveniently omits Hitler’s involvement in the production of this car… Made us lol.

✅ Impress with your wine knowledge: How to read the, seemingly made up, wine tasting notes to impress your next date!

✅ Money, Money, Money: A chart of the highest paid athletes at the Paris games.

✅ Favorite book this year: The book ‘Endurance’ is a fantastic recounting of an unbelievable journey to antarctica.

🤯Brain Food

Going once…

We are on a quest to find the most interesting vehicles ever sold. We’ll give you a few facts about the car and you try to guess what it sold for at auction.

This 1973 Alfa Romeo GTV 2000 was purchased by the seller as a disassembled project in 2020 and was subsequently rebuilt by Harse Autocraft of Burlington, Ontario, as part of a multi-year project completed in 2024. The chassis was stripped of its bodywork and shipped to Italy, where it was refurbished before being returned to Canada and fitted with a clearcoated carbon-fiber exoskeleton body created by Cynergy Composites of Strathroy, Ontario. Power is supplied by a balanced and blueprinted 2.0L twin-cam inline-four. A true 1 of 1.

📖Answer

$220,000 - cool but not this cool

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