F1's summer break shopping list - Part 1

We did it, gang! We made it to the summer break built into the F1 season, the innovation that gives team members from top to bottom a much-needed break in their astoundingly hectic calendar.

So far no such break has been suggested for writers covering the sport. Probably an oversight. We’ll definitely get one next year, right?

Since we’re here though, let’s have a look at the things that the teams have been writing their letters to Father Summer Break for. This is a two-parter, and you’ll get the rest of the grid shortly. Spoiler warning: it isn’t especially kind to Alpine.

This article is from our brand new GPFans newsletter. We’ll be with you pre-race, post-race and in between with things you may not find on the website. This article is a taster for things to come so be sure not to miss out on all the others by subscribing below.

McLaren

What do you get the team that has everything? Here’s an idea: Any other interesting major storyline that fans can see play out.

McLaren have come under a lot of scrutiny for the way they let their drivers race, or not race, or their strategy calls, or...let’s just say: McLaren are under a lot of scrutiny.

Almost all of this scrutiny is absolutely tinfoil hat, mind control in the water, royal family are lizard people unhinged. There are elaborate theories about the team favouring one driver or the other based on who their social media accounts use more pictures of that day. There was uproar about Oscar Piastri getting screwed out of the Hungarian Grand Prix victory by the team giving him what they, and he, believed was the best strategy. We are not dealing with rational people here.

What do McLaren really need for the next few weeks? Something more interesting to pop up, so that more people than necessary don’t start reading the end of the world into every interaction between two teammates who, by all accounts, are about as amiable and professional as two drivers involved in an intra-team fight for a championship in F1 history. Please.

Red Bull

Sign Max Verstappen to a new contract without all the exit clauses, even if it means you don’t add any years to the deal.

Sign Max Verstappen to a new contract without all the exit clauses, even if it means you don’t add any years to the deal.

Sign Max Verstappen to a new contract without all the exit clauses, even if it means you don’t add any years to the deal.

If we’re sick of it, and we are, imagine how everyone at RBHQ feels.

Mercedes

Toto Wolff has been a cheeky scamp in this, a year with relatively little in the way of pressure for results for the Silver Arrows.

Is it important that they don’t descend to the bottom half of the championship? Yes. Will their last season before the new regulations be made or broken by a couple of extra podium finishes scattered through the season? Absolutely not.

That wiggle room in expectations allowed Toto Wolff to spend what appeared like half his summer flirting with Max Verstappen, to the extent that even the least possessive partner would start throwing out flags about.

Max, it turns out, is staying with his spouse. That makes a contract for George Russell the most important thing the team can get through the door this summer, especially as their second driver is a struggling rookie and Russell himself is starting to sound less than entirely sanguine about his treatment.

Ferrari

To quote Lisa Simpson: ‘An absence of mood swings and some stability in my life’.

It feels like Ferrari have been a different team at every race weekend this year. Can you believe it was only last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix which set Charles Leclerc on a 12-race run of fifth place finishes or above? Eight of those were podiums finishes by the way, including wins at COTA and Monza.

The 2025 version of Ferrari doesn’t seem set up to do that. Leclerc himself hasn’t fared that badly (9/14 in the top five, five podiums, no wins), but last year he had Carlos Sainz claiming podiums and wins alongside him. This year he has Lewis Hamilton (5/14 in the top five, no podiums, no wins) alongside him, and the vibes are atrocious.

The seven-time world champion is beloved for his frankness in interviews, but yo-yoing back and forth between ‘we’re having lots of productive meetings, we’re building a winner here’ and ‘I’m useless, absolutely useless...they probably need to change the driver’ is a horrendous energy to bring to a team in your first year, when the staff are still getting to know you.

Stability. Please. Then we’ll talk.

Williams

I’m not a scientist but, seriously, can Williams time-travel back to the early March region of 2025 and start riding that high again?

Hell, even the end of May would do it – the team putting the bow on their fourth straight double-points finish would make for a lovely warm feeling after a 2024 season which saw them fail to finish above seventh in a race.

Since then, it’s been three points finishes total in six races. Back-to-back-to-back retirements for Alex Albon. Carlos Sainz not even being able to start the race in Austria. 14th and 15th place finishes at Hungary to enter the break.

Time machine. Please. Just don’t go 975 years in the future and come back to tell me that you fancy my great-great-great-granddaughter.

This article is from our brand new GPFans newsletter. We’ll be with you pre-race, post-race and in between with things you may not find on the website. This article is a taster for things to come so be sure not to miss out on all the others by subscribing below.

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