Author Archives: PressBox

Williams team principal James Vowles said the team’s F1 season has exposed fundamental organizational weaknesses, with the sport’s biggest regulation change punishing teams that lack strong systems and processes. He said the FW car is too heavy and has been difficult to build and deliver on time and within budget, adding that the car raced in Miami was effectively the version originally intended for Melbourne.

Vowles said a winter mistake left the car overweight, and that it was still in the wind tunnel in November while rivals had moved ahead. He said Williams is bringing Baku updates but is already shifting resources toward 2027, with next season expected to be easier under carry-over rules. He stressed that the issue is not a lack of effort, pointing to staff working six- and seven-day weeks and 16-hour days. Still, he said Williams must improve its output efficiency and is likely still two to three years away from being consistently competitive, with a title challenge far off.

Former Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer said Lewis Hamilton was “really good at the psychological games” in his Mercedes rivalry with Nico Rosberg, describing a series of tactics aimed at disrupting his teammate’s pre-race routine. On the High Performance Racing podcast, Szafnauer said Hamilton hid Rosberg’s football before races and also lingered in the drivers’ bathrooms, apparently trying to unsettle Rosberg before they went out on track.

Szafnauer said Rosberg used the football as part of his pre-race routine and said Hamilton’s tactics were very effective. He suggested Hamilton may have picked up similar mind games from Michael Schumacher, after hearing a story that Schumacher once made Rosberg wait to pee in a bottle in Monaco.

The comments referred to the 2013 to 2016 Mercedes rivalry that produced title fights in 2014, 2015 and 2016, along with on-track crashes and off-track clashes. Rosberg beat Hamilton to the 2016 Formula 1 title in Abu Dhabi and later retired at the FIA Prize Giving Ceremony.

Aston Martin is banking on the lessons of a difficult 2026 Formula 1 season to fuel a rebound in 2027, with ambassador Pedro de la Rosa saying the team has “strong confidence” it can recover after slipping toward the back of the grid. De la Rosa said the team learned a great deal this year and that a Hungary upgrade helped sharpen its understanding of how the new regulations translate into lap time, leaving it better placed for next season and beyond.

De la Rosa said the AMR26 has remained near the back of the field and that pre-season testing in Bahrain exposed major problems, forcing Aston Martin to lower its expectations for 2026. He said the downturn was shaped by the team’s Honda power-unit partnership and the underperforming chassis, and that the project started late because Adrian Newey arrived in March 2025, the new wind tunnel was not fully operational until a month later and Honda’s power-unit programme also began behind schedule after Honda’s withdrawal and return to Formula 1. Those delays left the team catching up, he said, and Aston Martin’s honesty about the problems helped it “surf the wave” of the season.

A substantial upgrade package in Hungary brought Aston Martin its first Q2 appearance of the season, while later development improved the car’s pace from its early-season baseline and Honda engine improvements reduced lap times. De la Rosa said Newey’s leadership, along with chief technical officer Enrico Cardile, has kept the organisation calm, united and focused as it works to turn 2026’s lessons into future performance. He said Newey is also working behind the scenes with 2027 in mind, and that the team has taken measures to recover and come back stronger.

Jack Doohan has taken another step in his bid for a full-time Haas Formula 1 seat in 2027 after testing the team’s car at Jerez this week. It was his first run in a Formula 1 car since his stint with Alpine ended after the 2025 Miami Grand Prix, and he said on social media that being back behind the wheel was an “incredible feeling.” Doohan drove Haas’s 2026 VF-25 in the Testing of Previous Cars session and thanked the team for the opportunity.

Doohan shared the Jerez test with Ryo Hirakawa and Sho Tsuboi, and the outing came after he joined Haas as a test and reserve driver ahead of the 2026 season. His run keeps him in the frame for the 2027 lineup, where Haas is still evaluating options for one seat. Team principal Ayao Komatsu said driver performance will be the main factor in the decision, with affiliations or sponsorships only likely to matter if candidates are very close.

Komatsu said no decision is expected soon, and he said many drivers are interested in the seat. Ferrari junior Rafael Camara and McLaren reserve Leonardo Fornaroli are among Doohan’s rivals, with both having taken part in Haas TPC evaluations earlier this year. Komatsu has said Oliver Bearman is expected to stay, while Esteban Ocon’s future at Haas remains uncertain.