Verstappen Praises Kubica's Endurance Racing Triumph

Max Verstappen doesn’t hand out compliments lightly. So when the triple world champion pauses to talk about Robert Kubica, the paddock tends to listen.

“Robert was a fantastic driver, and of course he still is,” Verstappen said, reflecting on a career that was ripped apart in a rally crash in 2011 and then rebuilt, piece by painful piece. Fourteen years on from that accident, Kubica stood on the top step at Le Mans in 2025, winning the endurance classic in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari Hypercar alongside Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson.

An F1 career once tipped for titles, gone in an instant. A new life forged in endurance racing, completed by victory at the biggest 24-hour race of them all.

“If you ask anyone here in the paddock, or people who used to race against him, I think everyone will say he was destined to achieve much more in Formula 1,” Verstappen added. “Unfortunately, then that accident happened.”

Kubica’s story hangs over this generation as a reminder: talent is never the only variable. Timing, luck, and the fragility of a racing driver’s body all play their part.

Norris wrestling a “unique” McLaren

While Verstappen looks back, Lando Norris is still getting to grips with the present.

The McLaren driver, and reigning champion, admits this year’s car feels like a different beast entirely compared to last season’s machine.

“I certainly think this year’s car is different to last year by quite a long way, and again, you have to adapt to that,” he said. The word “different” keeps coming up around McLaren. It has for years.

Norris leant into that reputation. “I still believe it is [different], because it has been since I’ve been part of McLaren. Everyone who’s driven a McLaren has said how odd and unique a McLaren is to drive, and there’s been a good number of drivers who have said that and tested other cars at the same time.”

So what’s changed? The driving style, for a start.

“You have to drive it in a very different way, and there’s a lot of things I’ve had to adapt to at the beginning of the year to understand this year’s car,” he explained. He stopped short of declaring whether the quirks are a “McLaren thing” or simply a trait of this era’s machinery. “I don’t think I have the ability to differentiate if it’s a McLaren thing or so.”

The answers may start to come in Baku.

McLaren’s big Baku gamble

McLaren arrive in Azerbaijan with what they describe as their most significant upgrade of the season. It is not a tweak. It is a swing.

The car has struggled in fast corners, a weakness that bites hardest on modern layouts that punish any instability at high speed. To fix it, McLaren are rolling out a new floor and a raft of aerodynamic changes, headlined by the return of the rotating “Macarena” H-wing.

That unusual rear-wing concept, which caught the eye earlier in the year, had to be removed in Madrid because it didn’t suit the downforce levels required there. In Baku, with its long straights and tricky mix of slow corners and flat-out sections, McLaren believe the reborn H-wing can finally show its worth.

If it works, Norris may find a car that feels less “odd” at the limit. If it doesn’t, McLaren’s search for a consistent identity under this rule set will drag on into the summer.

Red Bull play the long game with Hadjar

Across the paddock, Red Bull have been playing a very different kind of game. One that has nothing to do with upgrades and everything to do with patience.

Team principal Laurent Mekies has been adamant for weeks: Isack Hadjar would not be rushed back from his wrist injury. Not for a title fight. Not for convenience. Not at all.

F1 has already seen what happens when a driver tries to tough it out. Lance Stroll famously hauled himself to sixth place just two weeks after breaking his wrist in pre-season training in 2023. The result was heroic; the aftermath was brutal. Chronic pain, a second corrective surgery, and a missed race anyway.

That caution has framed Red Bull’s approach with Hadjar. After a strong debut season and an impressive start alongside Verstappen this year – including a podium and, crucially, no sign of the psychological collapse that has claimed several of Verstappen’s previous team-mates – the Frenchman’s stock is rising fast. Risking long-term damage for a short-term gain would have been reckless.

Instead, Red Bull shuffled their line-up over three race weekends, causing no end of logistical headaches but protecting a driver whose career is clearly on the up. Now, the wait is over.

Hadjar has been cleared to withstand the brutal loads that travel through a driver’s wrists at 200mph, and he will return to his Red Bull seat for this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

“Oracle Red Bull Racing is delighted to welcome Isack back this weekend,” the team said in a statement. “Having made a successful recovery from his wrist injury, Isack will return to action at the Baku City Circuit on Thursday.”

The statement also paid tribute to Liam Lawson, who stepped in under pressure and in the full glare of scrutiny.

“The team would like to sincerely thank Liam for his professionalism, dedication and hard work over the past three races. Stepping in under challenging circumstances, he delivered some impressive performances and made a valuable contribution to the Team. We wish him all the very best as he returns to Visa Cash App Racing Bulls.”

Hadjar gets his seat back. Red Bull keep their long-term prospect intact. The decision may look even smarter in a few years’ time.

Mekies hits back at Rosberg over Lawson

Not everyone has been as generous about Lawson.

Nico Rosberg, never shy of a strong opinion, has questioned whether any of Red Bull’s current or potential Verstappen team-mates truly meet the standard the team are chasing.

Speaking to Sky F1, the 2016 world champion framed the dilemma bluntly. “They do need to decide at some point,” he said. “The thing for Red Bull, though, is they're looking for the next Max Verstappen and the next Sebastian Vettel. Everything else is just not good enough.”

Lawson, in his view, has not yet shown he belongs in that bracket. “At the moment, I'm not sure that Liam Lawson would be considered at that level with what he's been producing so far,” Rosberg said, while adding that Arvid Lindblad and Isack Hadjar remain “possible” options in the discussions.

Mekies was having none of it.

“I think he's done a very good job,” the Red Bull boss replied when asked about Lawson’s performances. Thrown into a different team, in a different car, Lawson finished sixth in Spain and 14th at Monza, and Mekies stressed how hard that is to judge from the outside.

“I think we all know how difficult it is to jump to a different team, to a different car, and I think that he has done that to the best of what could have been our expectations,” he said.

“He has taken some very important points today with the P6. He did the same in Zandvoort and in Monza he would have done something similar without the contact with Nico [Hulkenberg] and the front wing damage.

“So, I think he did a very good job, again very different pictures compared to the first two races of 2025 when he was in the team so we are thankful and happy with that.”

For all the noise, Lawson leaves this stint with points on the board, praise from inside the garage, and more evidence that he belongs at this level. Whether that ever turns into a full-time Red Bull seat is another story.

F1 signs off on shorter, harder-hitting races

While teams juggle drivers and upgrades, the sport itself is about to change shape.

After the latest F1 Commission meeting, the FIA confirmed a series of significant tweaks for next season. The headline: races will be shorter, but potentially more intense.

The long-standing rule that a grand prix must be completed within two hours of running time inside a three-hour window is being scrapped. That shift gives organisers more flexibility when a race is interrupted, reducing the risk of anticlimactic, clock-limited finishes.

At the same time, the standard race distance will drop from 305km to 290km. Monaco stays at 260km, as ever its own anomaly.

This isn’t just a calendar quirk. It ties directly into the new power unit structure already agreed for next year, a response to heavy criticism of the 2026 regulations. The shorter distance is expected to allow drivers to run at full throttle more often per lap, with less need for extreme energy management.

One more technical chain comes off: gearbox homologation is being removed for next season. The Sporting Advisory Committee says the move will “preserve supplier development freedom”, opening the door for more innovation – and potentially more divergence – in how teams handle one of the most stressed components on the car.

So the grid heads to Baku with a recovering star back in a Red Bull, a champion wrestling a “unique” McLaren, a veteran’s Le Mans triumph still echoing in Verstappen’s praise, and a sport quietly rewiring its own DNA.

The question now is simple: who adapts fastest to a championship that is changing almost as quickly as the cars themselves?