Thursday at the United States Grand Prix revealed plenty about the fallout from the previous Formula 1 race in Singapore, as well as a few drivers who’ve changed their tune on key matters about their future.
Norris faced consequences for Singapore clash
McLaren’s detailed analysis of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s first lap clash in Singapore has found the former to be at fault with some undetermined “consequences” for Norris.
We don’t know what those consequences are, but it could be that having to publicly accept blame is one consequence for Norris, who openly admitted, “the team held me accountable for what happened, which I think is fair”.
Or it could be that this is effectively a warning issued to Norris, who can’t afford a repeat of the Singapore clash, or there will be a far more visible consequence – perhaps next time, McLaren would invert the positions.
Norris says he won’t be any less aggressive in battle, but said a repeat of Singapore is “clearly something we want to avoid”.
As far as Piastri’s concerned, he at least projected a public image of being satisfied with the “very productive” post-race talks and he insists he won’t change the way he races.
He’s simply focused on turning the tables on Norris, given he’s had three consecutive weekends of seeing his championship lead eaten away. – Josh Suttill
Hamilton’s short shrift for latest Horner rumours
It’s clear that Lewis Hamilton is in no mood to entertain the latest round of speculation linking Christian Horner to Ferrari.
British publication Daily Mail Sport reported on Monday that former Red Bull F1 CEO Horner held talks with Ferrari about taking over as team principal, a team he was prematurely linked with following his dismissal from Red Bull – only for that suggestion to be snuffed out first time round when incumbent team principal Fred Vasseur had his contract extended.
And while The Race understands Horner had contact with a senior figure at Ferrari, this did not extend to conversations about a job, nor about replacing Vasseur.
Speaking in the pre-event press conference at the US GP, Hamilton said he didn’t know “where the rumours have come from” and that Ferrari had “made it clear where they stand in terms of re-signing Fred”, but admitted the speculation had been a distraction.
“These things naturally aren’t helpful,” he said. “I know everyone back at the factory is working incredibly hard, [is] focused, and these sort of rumours can sometimes be distracting.
“For me, it’s really trying to keep the focus on the goal that’s in front of us and building on next year’s car, really continuing to build a foundation on this year so that next year we can have better execution, better overall performance.”
Asked more pointedly whether he knew if there was any truth in the Horner rumours, and whether it would be a good idea, Hamilton replied: “I don’t. And I’m not going to entertain rumours.”
Question: Lewis, do you know if there’s any truth in the report that Ferrari are talking to Christian Horner? And do you think it’s a good idea, if he became team principal?
Lewis Hamilton: I don’t. And I’m not going to entertain rumours.
As for team-mate Charles Leclerc, he used a question about his own future and whether he’d ever look elsewhere to address wider speculation about Ferrari and say it was “not great” that the team is so regularly the subject of such talk.
“What I can say is what I’ve always said, and that’s very clear: I’ve always loved Ferrari so much, and my only obsession at the moment is to win in red, whether it’s now or in the future. And I want to bring Ferrari back to the top,” said Leclerc.
“And I would like to add there are lots of speculations around me but just in general around the team for whatever reason, I feel like there are too many people speaking things [that are] not coming from actual facts and it’s just a little bit annoying it’s always been like that.”
He added: “Whenever there’s those situations where the results are not there, then there are always those rumours around that come back.” – Jack Cozens
Antonelli feared losing his seat
Kimi Antonelli has admitted to feeling “a bit of doubt” during his tricky rookie F1 season before getting confirmed for 2026.
Going into this weekend’s race, Mercedes confirmed its driver line-up will stay the same next season. That was no surprise in itself though – George Russell’s been excellent this year while Antonelli has recovered well from an extended rocky spell mid-season.
During that run, and since improving, Antonelli has been quite open about his struggles, dealing with them, and his own limitations at different moments. Even though he was never truly worried about his immediate future, it is interesting that Antonelli started to have some internal questions.
“With all the up and down, especially the difficult periods, some doubt starts to kick in,” he said.
“I’m really happy to have the confirmation. It still kind of relaxes me a little bit a little bit more, because I know now for sure.”
That shows how much Antonelli has felt the pressure of a tough season at times. And while the plan at the moment is for Mercedes to continue with him beyond 2026 as well, Antonelli is still talking about taking it one year at a time, which shows he still has work to do. – Scott Mitchell-Malm
As if being in the 2025 Alpine wasn’t enough of a handicap, Pierre Gasly revealed that he’s been hamstrung by an additional problem over the past three races – some of the floor on his car “wasn’t working properly” because rebuilt parts weren’t up to the required standard.
“We obviously repair stuff, in terms of parts, we won’t have new aero parts every single weekend and you have some wear,” he replied when asked by The Race to expand on what he meant.
“You pick a weekend where you want to put new aero parts on the car. Unfortunately, we’ve done some repairs, like we do usually, on some parts that I’ve been using since Monza and I have something that didn’t feel quite right since Monza.
“We’ve tried to work on it but it took us some time to figure out. Eventually after Singapore we worked hard with the team and saw that a few aero components on the car weren’t working the way they should have. So this should be fixed for this weekend.”
Over those three races, Gasly hasn’t finished higher than 16th or started above 18th.
Getting the fresh parts plus Alpine coming to tracks Gasly thinks won’t penalise its weaknesses so much means he is slightly more optimistic about the rest of a season that he has completely written off while looking forward to a completely different car and Mercedes power in 2026.
“We’re not going to go from last on the grid to suddenly fifth fastest car,” he said of the rest of 2025.
“I think we’re still going to be struggling but I want to believe that hopefully we can challenge for Q2 and be more in the mix because the last few races just felt like we were suffering and not really part of any battles.” – Matt Beer
Russell’s changed his tune
George Russell’s tune has changed now his new Mercedes contract is fully sorted, and there’s a good reason why.
“I’m here with a smile on my face because I’m very happy with the offer,” Russell said of the final deal done with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.
“And he could have been much tighter if he wanted to be.”
Russell went on to insist that money and marketing days aren’t his sole driver, what matters most is being in the most competitive car – and he thinks he’s done that by staying at Mercedes for the start of the new rules next year.
He’s been quite borderline confrontational at times this year, like referencing how little control he had over his destiny and raising the Max Verstappen factor of his own accord.
When asked by The Race if he had been able to do anything to get more control of his situation in the future, Russell said “driving fast to be honest”. But as we then said – he’s been doing that this year, and it still dragged on.
“That’s how we’ve got to this position [a new contract],” Russell insisted. “Toto’s always been incredibly good at rewarding those who he feels deserve it and he’d always said ‘you do the job on track and leave the rest to me’.
“And he to this day still has never let me down in that regard. So I’ve got to continue to put my faith in him.
“Throughout all of this speculation, the truth is all of that was coming from you guys and it was a nice story and it made exciting news and whatnot, but the reality was quite different.”
It’s probably not surprising that, contract in pocket, it’s now the media getting a bit of a push instead for “annoying” questions about his future week in, week out. To borrow Russell’s own phrase – “that’s how the game goes”. It has sometimes been in Russell’s interest to try to stir things up a little this year; now it isn’t.
He doesn’t want or need to rock the boat. All’s well that ends well for him and Mercedes as far as these talks go – hence Russell had little interest in discussing what happens in 12 months’ time and his future beyond 2026. – SMM
Backlash over ‘poorly chosen’ team radio
King of team radio Fernando Alonso is among those calling for F1 to be more reserved when picking which pieces of that radio to broadcast.
He says they’re “99% misunderstood”, often “poorly chosen”, and it’s “very sad” that they often become the highlight of the show (“the protagonist”) when the racing is dull.
You could certainly make a case that Alonso’s mix of sarcastic brilliance and unfiltered rage proved that in an otherwise lacklustre Singapore GP.
And Alonso isn’t alone in calling for change on radio broadcast choices, with Haas driver Ollie Bearman believing “it should be cracked down a little bit”.
But it’s tricky to see how things could change given that team radio continues to be one of F1’s biggest lightning rods for discussion – whether it be Piastri’s Singapore displeasure or the routine Alonso comedy gold or Ferrari strategy bafflement. – JS
…but Sainz caveats his broadcast gripe
Another broadcast-related talking point post-Singapore was the TV direction, with Carlos Sainz telling Spanish radio station El Partidazo de Cope, “they go overboard a little, showing the celebrities and girlfriends”.
F1 released its own statement, maintaining that on-track racing was always the key focus of its broadcast.
But on Thursday in Austin Sainz said “I didn’t need an answer. I think like always, my comments were a bit blown out of proportion.
“The fact that I mentioned the girlfriends or the WAGs, however you call them, it brought a bit of spiciness to the comments and went a bit more viral worldwide and maybe what it should have been [was] just a simple critique about…I think it’s clear that in Singapore, the broadcast didn’t do a good job.
“There’s other races where they do an incredible job and they show us incredible things and incredible track action. For me, Singapore was not good, but the same thing [applies]: I have good weekends in my life where I perform at a very high level and other weekends, I don’t do a good job and you guys analyse it, you give me a rating, I did a four out of 10 and then by the time you tell me I did a 10 out of 10. And obviously, everyone’s in their own right to say it.
“For me, Singapore was just not good enough and they missed way too much track action.”
Sainz stands by his criticism of the ‘not good enough’ Singapore coverage but rowed back on his suggestion that TV directors were focusing on drivers’ girlfriends instead.
“At the time, I mentioned girlfriends; looking back at it, they were not being shown too much and it was more they were very focused on Lando and Max like there was going to be an accident or there was going to be an overtake,” Sainz explained.
“When you look at it, there was never going to be any action. But I hope they didn’t take it personally or I hope they didn’t take it too hard because it was just a simple critique of…Singapore was not good enough.” – JS
Hadjar’s curious change of stance
Isack Hadjar is the overwhelming favourite to partner Max Verstappen at Red Bull’s senior F1 team next year.
And he’d always maintained 2026, not some point this season, would be the right time for a promotion from Racing Bulls – both in terms of his preparedness for that step, and because the rules reset next year should eliminate Red Bull’s longstanding second-car problem.
But supposing, hypothetically, he got the chance to race the Red Bull at the final three rounds of the current season; would he take that opportunity?
“Yeah, definitely,” Hadjar replied. “I think that I would be…I don’t know, but if I’m 100% sure, and I get the opportunity to take some advance [on 2026], then yes.
“But at the same time, it’s a completely new car next year, so it’s also pointless in a way.”
But what about the opportunity to get to know the team around him and his engineers ahead of schedule?
“Definitely helps,” he added. “Yeah. I didn’t think about this, to be honest. But it’s interesting. It’s a good idea.”
For the avoidance of doubt, there’s no indication yet that such an opportunity will come his way. Red Bull’s timeline for a decision on whether Hadjar or incumbent Yuki Tsunoda partners Max Verstappen next season is still thought to include this double-header, the US and Mexico weekends. (Even if it does appear to be leaning one way.)
But it’s still something of an about turn from Hadjar. But perhaps another sign of his growing assuredness – not just in himself, towards the end of what’s been an impressive rookie F1 season, but in securing that prized 2026 seat. – JC
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