Hamilton RESPONDS to Ferrari's Upgrade Plan! 😳⚡

Alright guys, welcome back to Formula 1 News, one weekend on from a difficult weekend at the British Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc seemingly aligned on the direction that Ferrari need to take. Jerome D'Ambrosio and the rest of the team have said in technical meetings between the two men, they're not disagreeing on the development trajectory of this car. Hamilton says it needs a bit of his DNA in, certainly next year's machine, that is the intention and whether Charles Leclerc's ideas will be given less priority, given the seven-time world champion is now in the outfit, that is one of the big questions. But according to Ferrari, both of their direction ideas are pointing in the same direction. Whether Ferrari can actually deliver that remains the key question, whether their man in charge is the right man for the job. Very much looking forward to your thoughts in the comments, hit that like button if you enjoy, subscribe if you're new as always, I greatly appreciate it. I wanted to start here, this is Kadir. Now if you guys aren't aware of this, the Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia, which is currently held in Jeddah, which is an amazing track in many ways, but a pretty dangerous track as I've seen over the years, that is intended not to be a permanent fixture of the calendar by the Saudis. I think if the Saudis aren't their way, they would actually probably want two Grand Prix, that has been talked about, one in Jeddah, one in Kadir. But if you guys aren't familiar with the project they're building in Kadir, I think this city is going to be about two hours south of the capital in Riyadh, whereas Jeddah's over on the coast. And they're building, I mean effectively it's going to be like the Vegas of Saudi Arabia, it's going to be, you know, there's going to be theme parks, there's going to be water slides, I mean it's going to be insane. But also what they are building we think here is the Formula One track. If you guys aren't familiar with the plans of this, this is that famous corner that many talked about when it was finally revealed. Imagine Austin Turn 1, you go up a big hill, but imagine Austin Turn 1 but on stilts, right? So this is the intended design and they have the MotoGP simulated braking point, the Formula One simulated braking point, they reckon it's only going to be about a 100 metre braking zone from well over 200 miles an hour because you're uphill so you can brake more aggressively and push the limit to some degree. Of course there has been some discussion, how do we make sure that the F1 cars don't fly over the end, go down, you know, drop, I mean look at that, 64 metres is going to be the drop. So I mean look, it's going to be spectacular but I've not really seen any footage of it actually being built until the last couple of days so yeah, rust assured that as controversial as it may be and will continue to be, it is ongoing and I think they're intending to finalise this city within 3, 4, 5, I mean I think their timeline is going to be like 5 years to build it all so I think Jeddah will probably stay on the calendar until then but I don't know, maybe they can fast track it, I wouldn't be surprised. This actually is some more shots of the elements here right, so these elements that you see in those pictures are actually going to be parts of the track, so this is where the cameraman was and these are the elements, so he was kind of looking back at where that turn will be and then of course yeah, the rest of the track is going to be very interesting as well so we'll see how that goes but I wanted to share an update. Also an update on the situation at Mercedes, now just to clarify, this is not real but lots of people have been talking about oh maybe Max Verstappen is going to announce his move to Mercedes by doing a little bit of a track in the sky and then obviously people are going to look at it aren't they because that's what they do right now, tracking Max's jet, he had a quick 5 minute trip out to, or 5 hour trip sorry, out to Sardinia maybe to meet Toto Wolff, maybe not, who knows and then he flew back to Nice. So who knows what's going to happen, what we do know is that Christian Horner is no longer with Red Bull, does that help the case for Max Verstappen, it certainly helps the case for Joss and I think the Joss Verstappen question for many is very interesting, we've talked about whether Max to Mercedes makes sense, I think it makes sense for Max, like if I was Max and I had an open board I guess I would choose the McLaren but outside of that Mercedes is a sensible choice for Max for sure, like I don't think Red Bull's power unit next year is expected to be that great but of course if he was to choose a team he would want to choose on his own terms where he could go to Mercedes and sign a one year deal and then if they're crappy he can go to McLaren or Ferrari or whoever's dominating next year, that's maybe not an impossibility but it's pretty unlikely in reality right, if Toto says okay Max here we're going to do it and we're going to pay 100 million euros to buy you out, they're probably not going to settle on a short term deal so yes Mercedes makes sense for Max but also it might make sense to just stay put for a year and see what happens, it might not be worth taking the risk. The other side of the coin is whether it makes sense for Mercedes, okay it could be 100 million euros to buy Max out of his contract, you'd have to pay him a salary greater than what George Russell is currently on, is it worth 150 million euros to get the Max performance rather than the George performance, George has been a very very top top driver this season, is he Max Verstappen, no, would Max be winning the championship in that Mercedes, I don't think so, would he win more races in that Mercedes, yeah I think you can argue that and if it's going to be a really tight race next season then you know maybe 150 million dollars for Max is certainly worth it, I think what you've also got to consider though is that you have to add on the Jos Verstappen tax, as important as Jos has been to Max's career and everything associated with it, there is no doubt that Jos Verstappen is involved and gets heavily involved in the actions of the team, he's obviously very close to Max as his father but he's far more involved than any other driver's parents seem to be to such a degree that Jos has been calling for Horner's head now for about 18 months and finally got his way and if you're Toto, if you're Mercedes, you've got to recognize that bringing on Max also brings on Jos and that can, you know, that can add some complications right, I think there are many teams out there that would want to stay away from Jos Verstappen but is it worth it to get Max right, I mean maybe, is the 150 million euros worth it maybe as well, I think there's a debate to be had, I think that's my point on it, I don't think it's a no-brainer that you go and get Max, I don't think it's a no-brainer that you keep George, I can see the arguments either way but I do think it's worth considering the Jos Verstappen factor in all this and Max also says that he wants to ensure that Mercedes would give him the opportunities to do more than just drive F1 cars and that is also a question for Mercedes to answer because we know that they were in conversations with Hamilton giving him some sort of ambassadorial role, they weren't very keen to do so surprisingly enough, Ferrari gave Hamilton everything that he wanted and he decided to go there instead, Max he'd want to do his sim racing stuff, he's going to want to go and drive GT3 cars at Le Mans, he's going to want to, or you know, at least at Spa and maybe test them, I don't know, he's going to want to drive Ferraris and other cars as well, that's something that he's done at Red Bull that might not be so possible at Mercedes because we know how Mercedes tend to be but equally they would have to find a way, you know, if they're going to commit to Max, you commit 100%, right, you say you know what, Max is our man and we're going to pay all the money, we're going to accept that Jos is going to come on board to some degree, maybe even Helmut Marco comes along for the ride as well and then we're going to accept everything that Max wants in terms of concessions, like if you're going to do it, you've got to go the whole way and make Max as happy as you can possibly make him because otherwise, you know, who knows, he just retires and does Le Mans for a couple of years or WEC or whatever, it's not an impossibility. The other question has been around Kimi, of course, if Max wants to join, who gets replaced, would it be George? I think it probably would be George but it's interesting for Antonelli because he's obviously had a difficult season, you know, he's been about three-tenths off George a lot of the time which is further away than Bortoletto has been to Hülkenberg and Behrmann's been to Wacon but George is a level above those guys in my opinion, certainly in terms of qualifying pace and Antonelli's still been solid, he's had his weekends but he's been a little, certainly in recent rounds, not all been his fault but he's been pretty underwhelming, he said a few times that, you know, he's trying not to do a Monza from last year when he came in for an FP1 session and been in the wall so and as a result of that, he's being a bit more cautious than he maybe should be and then by the time he really ramps it up at the end of the weekends, you know, he can make some more mistakes but he doesn't seem concerned and maybe this isn't a surprise but he does say, I'm sure the team is doing their best to provide for the future as well, obviously they're not just looking at next year, there's lots of talks going on but I'm happy about it and he says, I'm not too worried about myself, of course there's a lot going on, I'm just trying to focus on what I can do so, you know, he pretty much said he doesn't seem too concerned about it really and he talked about other teams and said, I got this opportunity in F1 with Mercedes, I'm not talking to other teams, no discussions elsewhere, happy with where I am and even Horner mentioned this before he got sacked and said that well, you know, Russell isn't really talking to anyone else but he is having a few conversations, Antonelli isn't really talking to anyone which makes sense to be fair but I don't think Antonelli is expecting nor his team are expecting him to be in any danger at all so it probably does become the Max Verstappen question. A couple of interesting things about that as well, Max was talking about Perez and saying that, you know, he gives him his vote of confidence basically, potentially the Cadillac team, although there was a recent rumour that Cadillac are now less interested in Perez and more interested in Bottas, we'll see where that goes and just to kind of round off on this talking point, what next for Horner? There have been quite a few rumours around the paddock lately where he might go, not even around the paddock because the paddock hadn't existed since Horner got sacked, you know what I'm saying? Around the Formula 1 community, is Horner going to go to Cadillac? Is he going to go to Ferrari? Is he going to go to Alpine? I think Alpine is maybe the most expected and possibly likely option here. Jeremy Clarkson actually mentioned this in an article that he did and said, the clever money is saying that it'll go to Alpine but next year they will have Mercedes engines which means Christian would have to work with Silver Arrows boss Toto Wolff and as those two don't really get along, I can't see it happening. Ferrari, possibly that would mean going to Italy which is a big deal but it's also Ferrari and dealing with Hamilton so, you know, there's all sorts of arguments and angles here. Even the Aston Martin option, if he went there he's got to deal with Adrian Newey who he worked with successfully for many years but of course they came to blows somewhat and Newey has ownership of that team, he's confirmed that. Horner would want ownership of that team but if that happened and Laurence Stroll did it then I think he would be happy to make that happen but Andy Cal seems to be doing a reasonable job at the moment over there and himself is incredibly experienced as well. We know that Horner wants a lot of power and he was given that at Red Bull and he took it when it was given to him, he wanted to dominate every single facet of operations, that's how he feels like you can run a Formula One team best and also taking on ownership helps that be the case. There aren't too many teams where that might be possible, we know that Alpine is very political, you know, we've called them the French Ferrari before, that may change in due course. I think what's interesting about Alpine is that there is the possibility of them breaking away as in that team is, of all the teams out there, probably the most likely to be sold unless Haas were to be sold to Toyota or something like that, that's maybe not impossible but Gene Haas has said he's not really interested in that but Alpine, Luca Di Maio, their Renault CEO just got fired, he got sacked basically off the board in the same way that Horner recently did. Alpine, they've shut down their engine program, right, like it feels like they are moving towards an opportunity where Alpine might be available, in which case could you imagine a world where Horner gets some investors together, takes on some ownership, I don't know, I think Alpine as an entity, it's not impossible that Horner can actually think about trying to own that team in some form over the coming years if the Renault situation continues to devolve because right now it's very political, Flavio Briatore's over there, like is he going to want to give up all the control to Horner and just stick him in the team? Probably not, so I think there's a few reasons why Horner's preferred approach in running a team is not easy to find out there outside of Red Bull and Ferrari, unless they dramatically change their approach over the next couple of years, they're not going to be like, oh yeah, Horner, I'll give you 30% ownership in the F1 team, like Toto's got a Mercedes, good luck with that at Ferrari, right, like it's going to be a very different circumstance and of course it would require him to go to Italy as well, which is something to consider, but as we know, the attraction and the allure of Ferrari has, let's say, seduced many a successful man in many a year and also many fans as well, to recognise that all this team does is let the fans down decade after decade. Of course, the Hamilton-Horner question would be particularly interesting because we know that Hamilton and Leclerc are big fans of Fred Vasseur, the idea of replacing him with Christian Horner would send shivers down the spines of many and Ted Kravitz says, you know, he just doesn't see that being the case. I don't say I would rule out Horner to Ferrari, but I don't expect it to be his next team, I think it's possible, I mean, you've got to realise Horner's only like 51 and he's been a team boss at Red Bull for 20 years, right, so like he's still potentially got a long career still left in this business, but where and when is a big question. Now let's talk about Ferrari, can they turn their year around? Drone Ambrosio said a few interesting things, he talked about what happened back in Austria, you guys remember when Hamilton was not very happy about the strategy, he wanted the one stop, they didn't do it and look, to be fair at the time, it's understandable, I do think that Ferrari are generally speaking too conservative with their strategies and I think Hamilton is right to criticise and say, look, we should have taken more risk. In that particular instance, it was either third or fourth, or fourth and third, right, like it didn't really matter, so D'Ambrosio says, you know, look, we were just going to consolidate, it is what it is, but I do think that Ferrari need to listen to Hamilton when it comes to taking a bit more strategic risk with higher rewards because Ferrari don't seem very good at that, they seem happy to settle with what they've earned rather than trying to take a gamble to get something maybe they haven't earned but they would deserve if they took the right call at the right time without too much downside risk, they don't tend to do it all that often. This was the big one though, Leclerc has his preferences from the car, Hamilton's been very clear in recent weeks, he's driving a car that not Charles Leclerc's designs but it's a car that Leclerc has moulded to his style over the last few years, he understands how it's going to behave, Leclerc likes to go for a particularly extreme setup under which the car seems to be in its best window but it's not necessarily the setup that Hamilton would prefer, they, of course, incredibly talented drivers, they can drive a number of different things but there's no doubt that this year's car has failed to deliver expectations and therefore Hamilton's been making statements like, look, I didn't have any input in this car, I want my DNA to be in next year's car and I'm going to work with the team to make that happen. Now what's interesting here is Loic Serra, the head guy now from the technical side, Andrew D'Ambrosio, both have lots of experience working with Hamilton at Mercedes, they joined Ferrari relatively recently before Hamilton came over in that kind of time frame. Fred Vasseur, of course, also lots of experience with Leclerc but also with Hamilton back in the day, so there is a feeling that Hamilton might, I don't want to say get his way precisely, but I think it is inevitable given what's happened this year and the fact that Leclerc, as incredible of a talent as I do believe that he is, you know, the underperformance of Ferrari, does Leclerc have any part to play in that in terms of development and these other things? Probably not a very large part but it could well be relevant and I do think that at the end of the day Ferrari didn't pay $100 million a year to Hamilton to not listen to it, right? Like they are at least going to trust what the seven-time world champion, 105-time race winner is going to have to say on many of these topics and what D'Ambrosio does say is actually Hamilton and Leclerc are very well aligned on many of these and conceptually in meetings they ask for similar things, which is a few things, shows that they're pretty, you know, similar in terms of their approach, that they also understand the limitations of this current machine, but also that they're listening to Hamilton as well. It's not like Leclerc's the number one man, it's not like Hamilton's the number one man, but I don't think there's any doubt that Hamilton's thought process will be given serious consideration and if anything probably preferential treatments going into 2026 because otherwise why bother getting him in the first place? Loic Serra and D'Ambrosio, as I say, two of the real top guys over there, and Fred Vasseur all have very long-standing successful relationships with Lewis Hamilton, so something to think about anyway. Hamilton's been talking about just wanting a more stable car, something with some actual balance over race stint would be nice, but for 2026 that's really where some of the key conversations are going to lie. So very much intrigued to your thoughts in the comments. I'll just mention this for you guys, I thought it was pretty interesting. As of today, Leclerc is the driver with the most pole positions these are pole positions of drivers and as you can see every driver with more poles than Leclerc, 104 for Hamilton, 68 for Schumacher, Verstappen 44, Senna, Vettel, Clark, Prost, Mansell, Rosberg, Fangio and Hakanen, Hakanen at 26. All of these guys won the championship at least on one occasion. Leclerc with 26 poles has not done that, maybe that's not done that yet. I don't know, Hulkenberg has one of the worst records in Formula One. Nobody wanted the stat of most races without a podium, but this is another pretty big one, right? Most poles without a championship is another pretty hefty, let's say something on your back and it's maybe equally challenging, more challenging to win a championship with Ferrari than it is to get a podium with a Sauber. So very much intrigued to your thoughts, as always, and all this stuff in the comments below. Just thought this is pretty nice to see as well, Goodwood Festival that's been going on the last few days. There's been lots happening there actually, lots of F1 drivers there. I saw Bottas in a W13, it was cool to see that car again, of course, you know, with the zero pods and all that, that they stuck with throughout that season that were like, let's say, causing chaos in the F1 community at the time. And this is Adrian Newey, he was actually wearing a Red Bull cap, so people were like, oh, here we go, you know, he's going back. No, he's not going back, he's got an insane bag over by Aston Martin, and of course he's committed to that project, but it was cool to see him in action anyway, you know, behind the wheel. So very much intrigued to your thoughts, as ever, hit the like button if you enjoyed, subscribe if you're new on the Verge of ADK, take care, and I'll see you next time!