by It was another busy day of F1 news as the sport’s merry-go-round continues to whirl in a busy week off the track.
We have another exclusive interview for you today, in addition to further reactions to the dismissal of Nyck de Vries and the possible future of the Red Bull drivers.
Anyway, there’s plenty to get through, so let’s get started.
Red Bull ‘dream team’ reported for medium term
A report from Italy claims that Formula 1’s owners, Liberty Media, are urging the top teams in the sport to put two top drivers on the field at once, so that if one is dominant, there can be a fight all the time for the world championship. away through the season.
With Red Bull occupying that spot at the moment, attention has turned to what their line-up could look like in the coming years, with both Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc having claimed by Formula1a.uno that they are being considered to partner Max Verstappen to be from the 2025 or 2026 season.
The report claims that Red Bull even held preliminary talks with Ferrari driver Leclerc at the end of May, with his deal with the Scuderia expiring at the end of 2024.
Read more: Liberty pushes ‘dream team’ for Red Bull as candidates emerge to partner Max Verstappen
Sergio Perez responds to rumors about his future
While his future at Red Bull has come under the spotlight after a typically ruthless move to replace Nyck de Vries with Daniel Ricciardo at AlphaTauri is coupled with a five-race run without a Q3 spot for Sergio Perez, the Tongues have begun to wag about whether or not the final 12 races will effectively see the Australian ‘audition’ for his seat for the 2024 season.
As for the Mexican, he accepts that he needs to get back to the form he showed at the beginning of the year, but the conversations others are having about the seat he currently holds doesn’t bother him in the slightest.
“To be honest, I don’t care,” he told Motorsport.com.
“I have been in Formula 1 for 13 years and have seen it all. I’m not worried about that. My main focus is to finish my season and make sure I continue to enjoy it.
“The whole team is behind me and they know what I can do. They know my potential and they support me.”
Read more: Sergio Perez responds emphatically to rumors of Red Bull’s impending demise
Exclusive: Valtteri Bottas talks to PlanetF1.com about what the future holds
Valtteri Bottas sat down for a candid interview with PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher at Silverstone, where he revealed his intentions to stay with the team until Alfa Romeo’s move to Audi in 2026.
In addition, he gives his opinion on how current drivers are doing at former team Mercedes, and much more about what he and his current team need to do to push themselves further up the field.
The Finn is in good form as he chats about what has been a generally frustrating season so far, one that he hopes will turn around soon.
Read more: Exclusive Q&A: Valtteri Bottas on Alfa Romeo’s weakness, 100% F1 commitment and holding out for Audi
Mercedes is giving more details about upgrade plans for this and next season
After Toto Wolff warned the media, including PlanetF1.com, at Silverstone that Mercedes would have “no choice” but to quickly turn full focus to their 2024 challenger, technical director James Allison said some parts still need to be put on the W14 come.
But even more than that, given that the 2024 regulations look relatively stable at the moment, Allison said the team may be able to carry over some of the knowledge of what they’re putting on this car into next year – so adding upgrades to the W14 will have benefits beyond the short term.
He then said: “Whether it all settles down for the last sort of quarter, a third of the season, we’ll see. Hopefully we will have our nose in front and we can have a strong second half of the season.”
Read more: James Allison weighs in in the upgrade race amid Toto Wolff’s 2024 warning
Max Verstappen addresses fans’ concerns about his invincibility
Now, for all the hard core Max Verstappen fans enjoying every minute of this Formula 1 season, others are starting to worry whether the Red Bull driver will be beatable in the RB19 at all at this point.
With a run of six consecutive victories and a lead of 99 points after 10 races – the highest number of points at this stage of a season in Formula 1 history – he is on his way to a third consecutive world title.
Not that he cares much about that though.
When asked by Channel 4 about fans worried about his dominance, he replied: “Ultimately it’s Formula 1. I mean, it happened before in F1.
“You only occasionally have a season or one or two seasons in a row where maybe a few more teams are competing. That is very, very rare in the sport.”
Read more: Max Verstappen responds to fan disappointment that he can’t be beat
