Author Archives: PressBox

Liam Lawson will race alongside Max Verstappen for Red Bull again at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix in Monza, with Isack Hadjar still ruled out as he recovers from a wrist injury suffered during the summer break. Red Bull said Hadjar is making encouraging progress but will not be rushed back, and the team is taking no unnecessary risks with his return. Yuki Tsunoda will stay with Racing Bulls, while reserve driver Ayumu Iwasa is set to take Verstappen’s car in Friday practice.

Lawson’s latest chance at Red Bull follows his late call-up at the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort, where he qualified eighth, finished seventh and scored his first points for the team after adapting to the RB22. He said the extra weekend would help him build on that experience. Red Bull reused the same temporary lineup from Zandvoort, with Lawson replacing Hadjar again and Tsunoda moving into the Racing Bulls seat.

The Monza drive comes as Lawson tries to strengthen his case for a longer-term place in Formula 1. He is ninth in the standings with 49 points, has scored in nine of the 12 Grands Prix he has raced this year and has also scored in two sprint races. Tom Clarkson described him as one of the drivers of the 2026 season and said he should stay in F1 in 2027, while Lawson said Helmut Marko’s departure from Red Bull has helped him because he no longer feels he has to watch for Marko’s judgment. Former Haas boss Guenther Steiner also said Lawson looks mentally tougher and has benefited from more experience and less pressure.

Lando Norris launched LN4 Fusion, a junior single-seater racing team, and the LN4 Legacy Programme near Monza before the Italian Grand Prix, saying the project was built to create an environment that can develop drivers for Formula 1. Norris described the venture as one of the biggest things he has been involved with outside Formula 1 and said it was his own co-founded race team across the junior categories.

LN4 Fusion will begin racing in 2027 in Formula 3, the Formula Regional European Championship and Italian Formula 4, with plans to run a British Formula 4 testing program and enter Formula 2 later if its application is approved. The team acquired selected assets from AIX Racing and is backed by an investment group led by Dan Richards. Rene Rosin will oversee the team day to day as team principal, while Dan Hazlewood will lead the UK operation from a base in Cambridgeshire. The main headquarters will be in Veneto.

Norris also unveiled the LN4 Legacy Programme, a separate fully funded driver development scheme run by ADD Management and led by Julian Rouse. The programme is intended to identify talented young drivers who lack financial backing and provide coaching, mentoring, performance support and career support.

Haas is bringing a major upgrade package to Monza as it tries to arrest a slide in the 2026 Formula 1 season, but team principal Ayao Komatsu said the team is not abandoning the VF-26 and shifting all attention to 2027. Komatsu said Haas needs to identify and solve the car’s fundamental problems, not move on too early, after rivals overtook the team’s unexpectedly strong early start and the gap to the front grew to about two seconds from Haas’ side. He said the smaller team had expected the sweeping regulation change to be difficult and that larger rivals were developing faster.

The Monza package is Haas’ first major update since Canada in May, after the team said it had introduced no significant upgrade for months and scored only two points since then. Haas had points in the first three races, including Oliver Bearman’s fifth place in China and Esteban Ocon’s ninth in Monaco, but has not scored since Ocon’s result in June. Komatsu said the Montreal upgrade helped in some areas but hurt drivability, and he said Haas needs to maximize practice and data gathering after a frustrating weekend in Zandvoort, where Bearman finished 12th and Ocon 15th.

Bearman said Haas has been overtaken and is now the 10th-best team, and he said new parts may not matter unless the VF-26 becomes consistent. He also said Haas has seen downforce discrepancies comparable to an upgrade’s worth of performance, though he still expects the team to beat Aston Martin at Monza and believes Haas can move up to ninth in the constructors’ standings. Komatsu and the drivers said the updates are aimed at getting the team back into the midfield fight, while Haas said it remains focused on finding more performance from the VF-26 in the second half of the season.

Argentina’s push to bring F1 back to Buenos Aires gained momentum as President Javier Milei met FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem at the opening of the 2026 FIA American Congress. Milei urged both F1 and the World Rally Championship to return, saying Argentina has “absolutely everything” needed to host top-level racing again. He pointed to the country’s motorsport legacy, including Juan Manuel Fangio’s four world titles, Argentina’s 20 Grands Prix at the Autódromo de Buenos Aires Oscar y Juan Gálvez, and the renewed attention around Franco Colapinto, who became the country’s first top-flight F1 driver since 2001 and drew large crowds in Buenos Aires in April 2026.

The bid is being supported by a major upgrade to the Buenos Aires circuit. The Autódromo Oscar y Juan Gálvez is undergoing a $150 million renovation that is reported to be 60% complete. The work includes a new pit building and a circuit extension designed to help accommodate more than 150,000 fans. Buenos Aires leader Jorge Macri said Argentina is investing heavily and wants F1 back, while Milei said his administration is creating the stability needed for venue upgrades and a place on the racing calendar.

Ben Sulayem said Argentina has the ambition, support, history and fan base to be considered, and said the FIA wants to build on that heritage. He also noted that F1’s 24-race calendar is full through at least 2028, with no available space until 2029 at the earliest. Any Argentine bid would still need a business plan, investment and a formal review, with FOM making the final decision on race locations and the FIA handling regulatory approval.