F1 news: Max Verstappen braced for huge offer as Mercedes face being humiliated by rivals

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Sebastian Vettel has revealed that he has 'plans' for F1 this year amid rumours linking him with a surprise return to the grid.

In an interview with sport.de, the German said he had been speaking with Toto Wolff regarding the open seat at Mercedes for 2025.

"We spoke on the phone, but not specifically about the fact that I could take the place, but rather that a lot is happening at Mercedes," said Vettel.

He went on to admit that he does 'flirt with' the idea of a comeback but added: "When I made the decision [to retire] back then, I had several reasons for it."

Discussing his 'plans' for F1, Vettel refused to go into detail other than to say he didn’t know 'whether that will take place'.

It was reported yesterday that Aston Martin are drawing up plans to offer Max Verstappen a lucrative contract in an attempt to beat Mercedes to his signature.

According to Auto Motor und Sport, team owner Lawrence Stroll is convinced he can propose a more attractive package than the Silver Arrows.

It is also said that Red Bull's technical guru Adrian Newey would join Verstappen at Aston Martin if the move goes ahead.

Former F1 driver Christijan Albers has laid the boot into Daniel Ricciardo following his disastrous start to the season at VCARB.

The Aussie is often seen around the grid with a beaming smile in spite of his on-track struggles, but Albers is not a fan of this mindset.

He told De Telegraaf: "What irritates me a little bit is that he keeps laughing and doing activities around driving Just focus on the racing. Only then can you start being funny again.

"As a driver you want to go into hiding until you have beaten the rest, and then you can show yourself again. With him it is the other way around. All those activities are just painful.

"I don’t understand what the fear is about this choice. I just don’t understand it. Let’s be honest: Liam Lawson beat Yuki Tsunoda in those few races and Tsunoda has consistently been stronger than Nyck de Vries and Daniel Ricciardo.

"I don’t see this going well with Ricciardo. He just doesn’t have it anymore."

Toto Wolff has conceded that Mercedes are going through a 'brutally painful' slump after being left behind in the pecking order by two of their biggest rivals.

"You see the progress that McLaren and Ferrari have made, this is the difference between last year and this year," said the Austrian.

"[Australia] was a pretty good weekend for us last year. I saw a clip because I forgot we were leading at the beginning in one and two.

"So, we've got to really dig deep because it is brutally painful."

Lando Norris has said that McLaren lose "a significant amount of time" in the low-speed corners compared to their rivals.

But the Briton is hopeful of another strong face at the Japanese Grand Prix after his P3 in Australia.

"If we look back to Suzuka last year, it was one of our best weekends: two cars on the podium, just the Red Bull ahead of us," Norris said.

"I think it is clear that Red Bull are maybe two steps ahead of us and Ferrari one step, but when you get to a track that suits us, then I think we can be confident.

"We are very strong in the high-speed corners, which is why we were good here [Melbourne], but we lose a significant amount of time in the slow-speed corners.

"If we can improve on that just a little bit, then most weekends I would say I would be confident that we could compete for podiums and good points.

"We are missing a few little things, but we are working and as soon as we do that, things will click."

F1 chief technical officer Pat Symonds says the new generation of cars from 2026 will be harder to drive because of more horsepower but less downforce.

“They will be, at the moment, cars with electrical power fully delivering 900 horsepower,” Symonds said on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast.

“We’re going to be over 1,000 horsepower with the ’26 car, [we] want more of it coming from the electric motor.

“At the moment turbo lag does not exist on these cars because we have an electric motor on the turbo. That’s going. [But] turbo lag is not what it used to be in the old days.”

His comments come after concerns that engines may run out of electrical power down the straights.

Christian Horner's accuser reportedly wants to return to work at Red Bull, regardless of the outcome of her appeal.

The suspended female colleague accused Horner of inappropriate behaviour but he was cleared of wrongdoing after a three-week probe by an external KC.

She has appealed that outcome after being suspended on full pay by Red Bull Racing.

The woman has also reportedly filed a complaint about Horner to F1's governing body the FIA.

A source is quoted as saying: “She remains resolute and is in it for the long haul. She’s holding her council for now and wants the matter dealt with privately.”

Sebastian Vettel says Max Verstappen has ‘no sporting reason’ to leave Red Bull following rumours he could ditch the team to join Mercedes.

The four-time world champion believes Red Bull remains the best place for Verstappen despite the unrest around the team in recent weeks.

Asked about the prospect of Verstappen to Mercedes by sport.de, Vettel said: “There is of course a lot of unrest at the moment, but I think from a sporting perspective there is currently no reason for him to think about anything else.”

He also spoke about Lewis Hamilton's move to Ferrari, which has also played a key role in the speculation Verstappen could head to Mercedes.

Vettel continued: “I thought that somehow another report would come from 'I don't know where' (to say it isn't happening), but then it was confirmed.

“I then wrote to him straight away and congratulated him. Of course, like many others, I was surprised because of the connection he had with Mercedes over the years. [but then there is] the urge or the will to maybe try something different.”

Toto Wolff has offered a new insight into the private conversation with Lewis Hamilton in which he was informed the 39-year-old would be joining Ferrari next year.

Wolff recalled: "He came back and said: 'Can we have a coffee?' He came for the coffee, that’s the normal thing we’re doing when the season kicks off.

"Then he said: 'I’m leaving to Ferrari'. And I said: 'Really?' Not that it shocked me, because we knew that we have a short-term contract, but the timing at the beginning of the season.

"I said: 'Why at the beginning of the season?’ He said he just wanted to have it out and not have it as a burden, emotional burden.

"And then you've got to stay pragmatic after five minutes [of] shock and disbelief. It was like: 'Okay, what are we doing for the announcement, what are we doing going forward into the season?’

"And he said: 'Well, the announcement is a tricky thing because I think it’s leaking'. So it didn’t give me lots of options."

Aston Martin are preparing a huge offer to tempt Max Verstappen away from Red Bull at the end of the season, according to Auto Motor und Sport.

It is said that Red Bull's technical guru Adrian Newey would also make the switch to Aston Martin if the move goes ahead.

Team owner Lawrence Stroll reportedly believes he can offer more attractive package to Verstappen than Mercedes, who have made no secret of their interest in his services.

Verstappen has a long-term contract at Red Bull but is thought to have a break clause that would allow him to leave early if Helmut Marko departs the team.

Dutch racing driver Tom Coronel believes Ferrari should move heaven and earth to partner Max Verstappen with Lewis Hamilton next season.

Charles Leclerc recently signed a long-term extension with the Italian outfit but Coronel wants to see Frederic Vasseur push the boat out to bring Verstappen in.

He said: "The only thing Vasseur has to do to be disruptive and to be better known and bigger than the Pope is to send a blank cheque.

"[Send it to Verstappen’s manager] Raymond Vermeulen. Just blank. ‘You fill it in, but he drives for me'."

Pierre Gasly has conceded that Alpine may need to wait until the end of the season to recover from their current slump, which has seen them plummet to the bottom of the pecking order

"I think we know, compared to last year, exactly what is worse and what is the same," said the Frenchman.

"It’s mostly about taking these steps and seeing where it places us. I think we’re not looking ahead to two or three weeks, but rather over four or six months.

"We’re trying to work out a package that is stronger for the end of the year."

Mercedes technical director James Allison says the Silver Arrows are still trying to figure out what caused Lewis Hamilton's power unit to fail during the Australian Grand Prix.

The 39-year-old ground to a halt on the edge of the track after just 17 laps, capping off a miserable weekend in Melbourne.

"All we know is the symptoms at the time, which was a rapid loss of oil pressure followed by a shutdown of the engine to protect it," said Allison on Mercedes' official YouTube channel.

"When you know you've got catastrophic loss like that, the best thing you can do for the future is kill it there and then.

"Then you have not just got like a load of molten metal. You have normally got a fairly clear evidence chain of what caused it and then that lets you work better for the future.

"So, we do not know yet. Brixworth and HPP will do in short order and no doubt as soon as we know then they will jump in with their characteristic energy to make sure that any risk that happens on any other engine is mitigated as best we can."

Former F1 team principal Christijan Albers has warned Red Bull that signing Fernando Alonso to partner Max Verstappen would be a mistake.

Alonso has been linked with a move to Red Bull after entering the final year of his Aston Martin contract but Albers believes the reigning champions should steer clear.

He told De Telegraaf: "This is just an emergency plan from Christian Horner in case Verstappen leaves. You absolutely cannot put the two side by side.

"That won't go well at all. Everyone can say Alonso has calmed down but that really won't work out. Alonso is really not going to let himself be beaten in his last year of driving F1."

Liam Lawson has suggested that he could look to leave the Red Bull family if he is not offered a full-time F1 seat in 2025.

The 22-year-old was overlooked in favour of Daniel Ricciardo when it came to deciding who would partner Yuki Tsunoda at VCARB this year.

Speaking to Fox Sports, Lawson said: "Obviously, for me, the dream is to drive with Red Bull and I've been with them now for more than five years.

"They're the most competitive team in Formula One right now, so if I could choose, I would drive for them.

"But my dream is to be in Formula One and if it can't be with them, then obviously, I need to try and make that happen with somebody else."

Toto Wolff has revealed he has changed the way he communicates with his Mercedes team in order to relieve the pressure on the struggling Brackley-based outfit.

"As an Austrian, we very much wear our hearts on our sleeves and we say things very direct," said Wolff.

"An Austrian says: 'That's really s***', and a British person would say: 'That's interesting'. So I had to adapt the way I communicate to not create even more pressure in the team because it would break us.

"It's not because of a lack of trying that we are not competitive, so I'd rather be helpful and encouraging than say: 'That's not interesting'."

Charles Leclerc says he is relishing the 'challenge' of going up against Lewis Hamilton in the same car ahead of the latter's move to Ferrari next season.

When asked by Fox Sports if he will take on any knowledge from his incoming team-mate, Leclerc replied: "Of course, I will learn from Lewis.

"It's also an opportunity for me to show what I'm able to do, which I take as an exciting challenge. I think it's going to be great.

"I knew [for] quite a few months that it was a possibility, that it was on the table. It was still a surprise to learn that there was [an] opportunity of this happening."

Sky Sports commentator David Croft has apologised to George Russell after fans suggested a 'commentator's curse' ended his race at the Australian Grand Prix.

Russell's late crash in Melbourne happened shortly after Croft had said: "You can hear the cheers of the crowd."

It turns out Croft uttered exactly the same phrase just before Russell hit the wall on the final lap in Singapore last season.

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, he wrote: "Oh dear, has the commentator's curse struck again?!!! I'm so sorry George. Got to say though I’m impressed with the research here!"

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