F1 news: Verstappen gets behaviour warning as Hamilton points finger at Mercedes engineers

With Audi ramping up their preparations for entry into F1, the German manufacteurer have reportedly drawn up a two-man shortlist of drivers to spearhead their team.

According to motorsport.com, Nico Hulkenberg is Audi’s top priority for 2026, with it being no secret that the team are keen to work with a fellow German and the Haas star being the only driver from the nation on the grid at this moment in time.

Alphine ace Esteban Ocon has also been highlighted as a target to take Audi’s second seat, though it remains to be seen whether he would be willing to take such a role.

Christian Horner expects the 2024 Formula One season to be considerably more competitive after Red Bull’s recent successes.

Following Max Verstappen’s comfortable success in the driver’s championship and Red Bull’s constructor’s championship, many expect the team to dominate once more next year.

However, Horner is anticipating a far more tricky campaign, telling Sky Sports: “We had a small update in Singapore, because of the lack of wind tunnel time that we have, we obviously focus a lot onto next year’s car at a relevant stage. It’s all about optimising what we have now between now and the end of the year.

“We had a small update in Singapore, because of the lack of wind tunnel time that we have, we obviously focus a lot onto next year’s car at a relevant stage. “It’s all about optimising what we have now between now and the end of the year.”

Lando Norris believes that Aston Martin have made their car ‘slower’ over the course of the season.

The McLaren star is hoping to guide his team to third in the championship, despite remaining 80 points behind Ferrari.

Speaking about the competition, Norris said: “I think we’re in a good rhythm. It’s been clear that Aston… I don’t know, they seem to have managed to make the car slower and slower with every upgrade that they’ve bought.”

McLaren chief Andrea Stella has provided his team with a vote of confidence in what remains of the season, despite the remaining Grand Prix’s not being high-speed circuits that see the MCL60 to best effect.

Lando Norris has claimed that his first victory may have to wait until next season, though Stella is hopeful that McLaren can land a blow in the coming weeks.

He told motorsport.com: “We are realistic that this season is not like we have going to have any magic in terms of car development to actually add the lap time or add the improvement from a tyre degradation point of view that will change things around significantly.

Following Lewis Hamilton’s disqualification last weekend, Toto Wolff has insisted that Mercedes will ‘learn’ from the incident rather than dwelling on not receiving points from their podium finish.

He said: “Austin was a weekend of mixed feelings. The positives are that the upgrade looks to have given us a step forward in terms of performance. Our pace was strong all weekend and it was encouraging to be in the fight for victory. 

“The negative was of course failing to capitalise on our pace with the result. Losing a podium finish hurts and is not a position we want to find ourselves in. 

“The complexities of a sprint weekend and a bumpy circuit caught us out. But rules are rules. We will learn from this and improve. Now we move on to the next race.”

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has revealed that he would rate see Sprint races removed entirely rather than F1 continuing to tinker with the concept by making radical changes, such as reverse grids.

He said: "I'd rather have no sprint races than if you start to meddle. Even more with reverse grid races, we are going towards junior formulae where sport follows entertainment, while entertainment should follow sport.

"Creating artificial gaming around the sprint race on a Saturday is not the way that I would favour personally. But that's my opinion.”

Lewis Hamilton has called for Mercedes’ pit stop crew to improve as they are lagging behind their competitors.

The Brit believes that he is capable of rivalling Max Verstappen for championships further down the line but pit stops, among other issues, is limiting his speed.

Mercedes were ranked as the third-slowest on the grid last year, and Hamilton wants to see improvement in that department. He explained: “We’ve got to have the package, not only the car but we’ve got to be operating better in our pit stops. There’s so many areas we’ve got to be levelling up to match the champions.

“Our mindset in the last 12 years, we don't need to be world champions in pitstops. We need to avoid very slow pitstops. And it's coming to a situation now where we realise that it has got so competitive, and we just need to ramp up our game up there.”

Former F1 manager Peter Windsor has taken aim at Max Verstappen following his expletive rant aimed at engineer Gianpiero Lambiase during the United States Grand Prix.

Verstappen repeatedly shouted down his engineer on team radio to moan about noise in his ears while in the braking zones as he was dealing with an issue on the car.

Windsor said: “Max, you’re the triple World Champion, you’re not allowed to do that. They bleeped it, obviously, but lots of young kids watching Formula One these days.

“I think there should be some sort of code of conduct to do with language. Because even young kids today know what a bleep is, don’t they? So we don’t need any more of that.”

Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz has spoken out about a ‘rumour’ within the paddock that Sergio Perez may not see out his contract with Red Bull if he does not secure second spot in the Drivers’ Championship.

The Mexican finished P5 over the weekend, and he must improve over the coming weeks if he is to land the one-two for Red Bull.

Kravitz explained: “There is a rumour around the place that has it that, if Checo does not manage to seal out P2 in the Drivers' Championship, which is something that Red Bull Racing have never done and something that Christian Horner and Helmut Marko value very highly this year, then they will have to have a serious think as to whether Checo indeed does stay within his contract for next year. Or, whether they have a proper conversation with Checo about whether he is actually going to be able to improve for next year.”