The biggest news story from the Zandvoort Formula 1 paddock broke last Thursday when Red Bull announced that its lead driver, Max Verstappen, had signed a new contract to remain with the team until at least the end of the 2030 season, making it the longest and strongest partnership F1 has ever witnessed. He had been promoted to the main Red Bull entry from the then Toro Rosso sister outfit partway through the 2016 season and will be 33 by the time his latest Red Bull contract ends.

All Formula 1 drivers and their management teams are always looking for opportunities elsewhere, just as all F1 team principals are always aware of the possibility of other key drivers becoming available. Verstappen has always indicated his preference to remain loyal to Red Bull as long as there were ongoing signs of more future success together, and after the four-time champion and his manager, Raymond Vermeulen, plus his father, Jos, had reviewed the whole situation and explored possible alternatives, they decided together that the best way ahead was to remain with Red Bull. In fact, at Zandvoort Verstappen revealed that he had been more likely to retire than join another team. A knock-on effect of this major development is that McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Mercedes’ George Russell will immediately feel far less under pressure about retaining their current seats, with Verstappen now committed to his long-time existing team.

In essence, Verstappen’s new contract is great news for him financially, not that additional money has ever been his key motivation, unlike winning more Grands Prix and titles, but it is also excellent news for the futures of both the Red Bull team and Formula 1 as a whole. Verstappen’s ongoing presence will give the team stability and help attract key personnel and sponsors, while Formula 1 Management well knows that it will help to ensure the sport’s ongoing and ever-increasing global popularity. The clearly delighted Red Bull team principal, Laurent Mekies, simply enthused about having secured the services of the best driver on the current grid, and one of the best ever, for many years to come, as they seek together to return to the top of the sport’s pecking order.

Meanwhile, Stefano Domenicali, Formula 1’s president and CEO, has indicated that decisions about the viability of the season-ending rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi in late November and early December will be made next month. It’s possible that one or more additional European venues may step in if need be, with Italy’s Imola and Portugal’s Portimão circuits being leading contenders. Currently, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, which are both already sell-outs, are confirmed rounds, but the volatility of the ongoing situation in the Middle East may force changes.

Still on the calendar front and looking ahead to next year, Bahrain is set to revert to hosting the season-opener after Australia’s Melbourne had been the venue for the last two seasons due to the timing of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix and the Saudi Arabian one had to be cancelled due to the conflict in the Middle East, but the former is now set to be held in Malaysia in early October.

Elsewhere, the Mercedes part owner and team principal, Toto Wolff, has made it very clear that if a negative situation develops between his current drivers, Kimi Antonelli and Russell, he wouldn’t hesitate to get rid of the driver he thought most to blame, as he did in the previously often toxic relationship between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at the same team. For now, his current duo have his backing, but they have both been warned about their future behaviour as they fight to become the next world champion. As an aside, the Wolff and Verstappen families spent time together on Sardinia during the summer break, but this was as friends rather than a further attempt to lure Red Bull’s lead driver to Mercedes.

The 30-year-old Thai-British driver, Alex Albon, has committed to continue racing for the still-struggling Williams team for another year after joining the squad back in 2022. Its other driver, Spain’s 31-year-old Carlos Sainz, who previously raced for Ferrari before being dropped to make way for the incoming Lewis Hamilton, has spent the summer break reviewing his options as he seeks to refresh his flagging career. However, he has announced that he too will remain with Williams on a multi-year basis, with a new contract that is understood to be both significantly more financially remunerative and to contain performance-related exit clauses, if needed.

Of course, talking of Spanish drivers, the 45-year-old veteran, Fernando Alonso, who last won a Grand Prix 13 years ago, is still contemplating whether to continue competing for Aston Martin next season or whether to retire gracefully from world motorsport’s top racing category. It’s also conceivable that he could remain with the Silverstone-based team in an ambassadorial role or renew his passion for endurance racing.

Marcin Budkowski, Cadillac’s shock new team principal

In other news, the American Cadillac team, which joined the Formula 1 grid at the start of this season, has shocked the F1 paddock by suddenly replacing its team principal, Graeme Lowdon, with Marcin Budkowski, a French-educated Pole, who has held many different roles within the F1 world during the last 25 years. The outfit arrived at Zandvoort sitting last in the Constructors’ Championship standings, still awaiting its first points, and, with the F1 world long known as the Piranha Club, Lowdon paid the price for this lack of success, if hardly unexpected so soon after its launch.

It’s difficult not to feel sorry for Lowdon, who is a likeable Northeasterner from Newcastle, whom I first came across when he was the CEO of the Virgin/Marussia F1 team. The decision to replace him at Cadillac was taken by the team’s American CEO, Dan Towriss, who explained that this wasn’t a mutually acceptable outcome for the man he’d just sacked and whom he’d only told of his immediate departure on the morning of the day his replacement was announced. Budkowski now faces a massive task to deliver car reliability and performance improvements far quicker than Lowdon might have done.

On a far lighter note, Mercedes’ Russell was delighted to announce during the summer break that he and his longtime Spanish partner, Carmen Montero Mundt, had become engaged after six years together. The driver from King’s Lynn has always found the support she gives him invaluable and particularly this season as he continues to struggle against his young Italian teammate, Antonelli, on track.

Meanwhile, on a similar theme, Ferrari’s Monégasque F1 driver, Charles Leclerc, and his wife, Alexandra, are expecting their first child this autumn. They were married in Monaco back in February of this year, having previously dated since 2023.