The Athletic | F1

After McLaren’s double disqualification, Max Verstappen has a real shot at a fifth title For most of the 2025 season, Max Verstappen refused count himself in the title race but, suddenly, he has a proper shot at a fifth crown

And Verstappen appreciates how hard he's had to work for this one...

📝 @madelinecoleman.bsky.social

A fifth straight title for Max Verstappen looked impossible two months ago. Now it's very much on.

McLaren's shock double disqualification in Las Vegas has opened the door just enough for the reigning F1 champion to slip through if he continues his strong run of form.

McLaren’s double disqualification makes it game on for the F1 championship Lando Norris leads the drivers' championship, but his position is far more precarious after disqualification in Las Vegas

Lando Norris sprayed champagne on the Las Vegas podium thinking he was 30 points clear, poised to win his first F1 championship.

Hours later: disqualification. Zero points. A stunning reversal. And Max Verstappen's back in the hunt.

@lukesmithf1.bsky.social on F1's must-watch season finale.

The Las Vegas GP trophy took a local designer, a blowtorch, and desert soul to get right It took five months to design and build the Las Vegas GP trophy, which reflects an evolving twist on one of F1's oldest traditions

Five months later: Molten bronze blowtorched to look weathered like Red Rock Canyon. Chrome-plated resin lit with LEDs to match the Strip.

📝 @madelinecoleman.bsky.social

Ken Ozawa grew up in Las Vegas.

So when F1 tasked him to design the Grand Prix trophy, he knew it had to capture the city's dual nature: a neon metropolis rising from desert sandstone.

Why Mercedes F1 is now worth more than Liverpool and most NBA teams Mercedes's dizzying $6 billion valuation shows just how far F1 and the team have come in a very short time

@lukesmithf1.bsky.social explains how (and why) Mercedes and F1 teams are making their owners wealthier and wealthier ⬇️

In 2008, Mercedes's F1 team was sold for just £1. Today? It's worth $6 billion.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz is its new co-owner, in a deal that values the team higher than Liverpool FC, Barcelona, and many NFL franchises.

Lando Norris surfs Las Vegas GP wet qualifying chaos to score pole, Lewis Hamilton last Lando Norris navigated wild and wet conditions to secure pole position for Formula One’s 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen second for Red Bull. Norris’ closest title rival, hi...

Lando Norris navigated wild and wet conditions to secure pole position for Formula One’s 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen second for Red Bull.

Las Vegas GP practice disrupted by loose manhole cover investigations A suspected loose manhole cover caused second practice for the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix to be halted, investigations followed

The second Formula One practice session for the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix was disrupted by a suspected loose manhole cover, which caused Thursday night’s running to be suspended before it was ended early by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc stopping with a gearbox problem.

📝 @lukesmithf1.bsky.social

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz becomes Mercedes F1 co-owner, team valued at $6bn The 55-year-old has acquired a 15% stake in the holding company owned by long-time Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff.

George Kurtz, the CEO and founder of the CrowdStrike cybersecurity company, has become a co-owner of the Mercedes Formula One team, it was announced on Thursday ahead of the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

More from @nauckas.bsky.social ⬇️

Former Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa has succeeded in keeping part of his £64million ($83.3m) legal claim alive, declaring it “a great day for me, for justice, and for everyone who loves Formula 1.”

🔗 theathletic.com/6823280/?sou...

It’s been nearly 4,000 days since a woman participated in a Formula One practice session.

But with no woman in F1 for over a decade, the F1 Academy series is building a pipeline to finally deliver female drivers back to the top.

📝 @madelinecoleman.bsky.social

🔗 theathletic.com/6805715/?sou...

The one-handed F1 driving trick that preceded DRS – and got banned In 2010, the sight of drivers racing one-handed become commonplace as they tried to catch up with a McLaren innovation which then got banned

This is an age that began in the 2011 season, but its legacy, and that of its precursor that arrived the previous year, in 2010, will live on.

As the 2025 F1 season ends, DRS will be phased out of F1’s collective lexicon.

DRS, the overtaking aid that involves a slot opening in a car’s rear wing to shed drag and boost speed on straights, is not included in the new car design rules coming for the 2026 season.

Brazil Grand Prix briefing: Norris wins, Verstappen fights back, Ferrari nightmare Lando Norris puts himself in a commanding position in the drivers' championship, while Max Verstappen gives a performance for the ages

Having stumbled so frequently in the early stages of the year, Norris is peaking at just the right moment — just when his rivals have suffered their own setbacks.

📝 @lukesmithf1.bsky.social

Back-to-back victories for the first time since early July have ignited Lando Norris’s championship hopes.

But it was another miserable day for McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri that has truly swung the title race in Norris’s favour.

🔗 theathletic.com/6791965/?sou...

Lando Norris has won the 2025 Brazilian GP 🇧🇷

🟠 Lando Norris will be on pole for tomorrow's Brazil sprint.

McLaren willing to risk losing F1 drivers’ title over ‘playing favorites’ between Norris and Piastri Norris currently leads the world championship by one point from Piastri with four rounds remaining, with Max Verstappen 36 points behind.

McLaren is willing to risk losing the drivers’ championship to Max Verstappen by sticking to its racing principles instead of “playing favourites” between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

More from @lukesmithf1.bsky.social

Gabriel Bortoleto: The ‘dreamer’ on the path once taken by F1 legend Ayrton Senna Brazilian F1 fans haven't had a home hero to support in seven years. That will change when Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto arrives at Interlagos

🇧🇷 First Brazilian F1 driver to race at home since 2017

🏆 A junior career CV to match Piastri, Russell and Leclerc

🔮 What his manager and racing rival, Fernando Alonso, saw in his future

@madelinecoleman.bsky.social interviews rookie sensation Gabriel Bortoleto.

After the Singapore GP last month, Carlos Sainz said there was too much focus from the TV broadcast on “famous people and girlfriends.”

Last week, F1 opened up its Media and Technology Center, to offer a glimpse of how such productions come together.

🔗 www.nytimes.com/athletic/677...

EXCL: Aston Martin launches a collaboration with the Pixar film, Toy Story.

Thirty years since the movie that resonated across generations hit the big screen, the focus of the collaboration is on the overlapping theme of teamwork.

✍️ @madelinecoleman.bsky.social ⤵️
www.nytimes.com/athletic/676...

There will be a new team in Formula 1 next year for the first time since 2016.

But, unlike Haas, Cadillac is manufacturing its car completely in-house.

This required a leap of faith.

✍️ @lukesmithf1.bsky.social

🔗 theathletic.com/6760448/?sou...

Formula 1’s VIP joyrides are booming, and Circuit Of The Americas is building an Augusta-style private club for 2027.

But what about regular fans who want to experience what F1 drivers feel? COTA may have a solution for that.

✍️ @lukesmithf1.bsky.social

🔗 www.nytimes.com/athletic/675...

FIA reveals no F1 2024 cost cap breaches after wait for results Only Aston Martin, who committed a minor procedural breach but did not exceed the cost cap, failed to fully comply with the regulations.

The FIA has confirmed there were no spending breaches of Formula One’s cost cap through the 2024 season after completing its review of the entire grid.

Full story from @lukesmithf1.bsky.social ⬇️

Lando Norris: Leading F1 title race but boos reveal McLaren’s delicate position Norris took the championship lead for the first time since April, but he's only one point ahead of Piastri with four races left

And then, he was booed.

On a day their driver won, McLaren's situation got much more complicated.

📝 @madelinecoleman.bsky.social

Everyone's been talking about Max Verstappen's comeback and Oscar Piastri's form.

Meanwhile, Lando Norris quietly closed the gap and now leads the championship for the first time since April — one point ahead of Piastri with four races left. He dominated in Mexico, winning by 30 seconds.

Everything was finally coming together for Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari.

Third in qualifying. A podium finally in sight. Then a controversial penalty at Turn 4 sent him from third to 14th.

The rollercoaster continues.

📝 @lukesmithf1.bsky.social

🔗 theathletic.com/6752656/?sou...

Mexico City Grand Prix briefing: Norris wins, Bearman impresses, disaster for Hamilton Lando Norris wins the Mexico City Grand Prix to regain the drivers' championship lead, while Haas' Ollie Bearman has a day to remember

The McLaren driver entered the weekend trailing teammate Oscar Piastri by 14 points but reversed that deficit, winning by over 30 seconds.

📝 @lukesmithf1.bsky.social

Lando Norris delivered a commanding performance at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, converting pole position into an easy victory that handed him the championship lead for the first time since April by a single point.

🔗 theathletic.com/6751859/?sou...