A New Round of Verstappen to Mercedes Reports Hit the Paddock
Plus: F1’s press tour of the century and no one’s doing it quite like Aston Martin
Welcome to The Undercut, a weekly newsletter round-up of the top storylines in racing brought to you by your favorite motorsport and enviro journo, Olivia Hicks. If you’re wondering “What the f*** is Formula 1?” Ask away! Leave a comment or send me a message with your burning questions.
“People Will Make Up Headlines Again,” Verstappen Says After Merc Rumors
It seems that anytime F1’s 20 drivers are snugly settled into their seats, a new game of musical chairs starts up again. Red Bull’s second seat, measured against lead driver Max Verstappen, is typically the center of trade talks. However, over the past two seasons, Verstappen’s potential departure from the team has routinely made headlines. Mercedes has remained the top contender.
This past week, Sky Sports Italy reported that the four-time World Drivers’ Champion entered advanced talks with Mercedes and a possible trade for George Russell was in the works.
Staying true to his typical tight-lipped self, Verstappen deflected the rumors.
“I’m going to say no, because if I say yes, people will make up headlines again, and that’s not what I want,” Verstappen told reporters on Thursday when asked if he could imagine driving for another team.
“I always said to the team it would be ideal, and I think they think the same way, to finish off my career in Formula 1 with one team. I think that would be something amazing, and that’s what we are still trying to achieve.”
Verstappen, who has said he never had a chance at the title this year against McLaren, is looking further away from claiming the trophy after he didn’t finish the Austrian Grand Prix last Sunday. Red Bull has splintered ever since team principal Christian Horner faced sexual misconduct allegations ahead of the 2024 season and a handful of top figures left the team. The team’s once-dominant race pace has dropped off, with Verstappen only winning two of 11 races this season. In comparison, Verstappen had won six races this time last year.
However, it still feels premature to underestimate the Dutch driver. After all, ESPN wrote ahead of the season, “betting against him often feels like betting against the sun rising.”
Former Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton weighed in and suggested the team and Verstappen could make a good pair, but Russell shut down swap rumors: “The likelihood I’m not at Mercedes next year, I think, is exceptionally low.”
With two new seats on the grid in 2026 — meaning 11 teams and 22 drivers — and a new set of technical regulations, “silly season” is anticipated to shake up the field, even with several drivers having multi-year contracts.
Who Doesn’t Want an Iced Matcha Latte and Gel Manicure With Their Racing?
Over the past two years, there has been somewhat of a trend in Formula 1: Teams who aren’t performing at the front of the field are making up for it off the track. For Williams, this has looked like winning over fans via podcasts highlighting driver personalities when performance lacks. For VCARB, meme-able TikToks and a very on-brand chronically online energy seem to be the team’s MO. For Aston Martin, this week showed it is filling a gap in the women’s merchandise market.
Ahead of the British Grand Prix, Aston Martin showed it knows exactly who its fastest-growing audience is: young women who like to spend their disposable income on matcha lattes and would rather show their team loyalty in subtle ways instead of a team kit. The team launched a nail polish color in the automotive brand’s signature emerald green, as well as partnered with a London-based matcha cafe for a drink pop-up over the race weekend. The team is calling both marketing campaigns “FanMade” and crediting the sport’s female fanbase for the ideas.
I’ve previously written about the lack of merchandise geared toward female fans in the sports industry and most women’s top complaint was that an ill-fitting pink t-shirt wasn’t cutting it. As women and girls now make up nearly half of Formula 1’s audience, they have real purchasing power. In a fan survey published this week by Motorsport Network and Formula 1, 39 percent of Gen Z respondents and 41 percent of surveyed women said they are more likely to consider a product tied to a Formula 1 team.
“This survey isn’t just a snapshot – it’s a signal to the marketplace,” Werner Brell, CEO of Motorsport Network, said. “Gen Z, women and U.S. fans are driving an always-on, connected and culturally powerful era for F1. It points to how we can better serve fans, connect them with partners and seize the biggest commercial opportunities for the sport’s future.”
“F1” Is on the Biggest Press Tour of the Year
I’m not typically one to gatekeep. In fact, I like to share the things that I love with the people around me. I will gladly tell a stranger the exact perfume or pair of shoes I’m wearing and where to buy both on clearance. I’ve also spent most of my motorsport journalism career interviewing and writing about newbie female spectators who reject traditional racing fans’ exclusionary ways.
So when my phone lit up with a string of texts from family, friends and acquaintances (and even my landlord) who had no prior interest in Formula 1 before buying a ticket to “F1: The Movie,” I should have been excited. Instead, I felt a bit unreasonably protective of the sport amid what is the beginning of arguably the biggest press tour of the year. The movie already broke Apple’s record with a $144 million opening weekend and a new wave of fans are talking about the sport on social media.
Between every major news outlet publishing a think-piece on the film, cinephiles on LetterBoxd tearing the script to shreds, bookstores setting up whole Formula 1 sections and non-fans on social media looping the film into current pop culture fads (Labubus, this season’s “Love Island” references and those pistachio Dubai chocolate bars), the sport is on the cusp of becoming mainstream in less of a post-“Drive to Survive” way and in more of a cultural zeitgeist sense that comes with a Hollywood blockbuster. (Exhibit A: A friend told me yesterday that a man she met on a dating app got into Formula 1 through Tate McRae, a singer on the movie’s soundtrack).
In reality, Formula 1’s growth can only spell good things. I’ve spoken to people who have gotten into the sport through their grandfathers and fans who started watching races because of a romance novel. I know engineers-turned-grand prix attendees and others who bought a grandstand ticket after watching a TikTok edit of Lando Norris. Their entry points may be different, but they all ended up in the same place.
I wrote about my thoughts on the film for The Drive this week and broke down just how “F1” aims (and threatens) to change the very sport it highlights.
"It seems that anytime F1’s 20 drivers are snugly settled into their seats, a new game of musical chairs starts up again."
I love this sentence very much.
is it even the beginning of the silly season if max isn’t rumoured to move to mercedes