Baku bruises, a $82m throwback, and Verstappen’s weekend job: your midweek F1 briefing
From one Ferrari man to another. Lewis Hamilton’s first season in red has barely cooled after Baku, yet Felipe Massa’s long pursuit of what he sees as the 2008 title that slipped away is heating up fast. Elsewhere, untelevised radio has revealed why Charles Leclerc sounded so sour on Sunday night, Juan Pablo Montoya has weighed in on Oscar Piastri’s wobble, Max Verstappen is off to the Nordschleife with a GT3 Ferrari, and the FIA election race is moving into gear.
Massa doubles down on 2008 case ahead of London hearing
Felipe Massa isn’t easing off. The Brazilian says he’ll take his legal challenge over the 2008 championship “to the very end,” with a High Court hearing in London set for next month. He’s seeking up to $82 million in damages and framed the push as a quest to “achieve a just and fair outcome.”
Seventeen years on, the stakes are still emotional and financial. It’s a saga with layers and few easy answers, and it will drag some of F1’s most sensitive history back under the spotlight just as the 2025 fight hits its decisive stretch. Hamilton—now in Ferrari red—won’t be a participant in the legal wrangling, but the optics alone ensure the story won’t stay in the background for long.
Leclerc’s unseen radio on the Hamilton swap: “Stupid” and “not fair”
Ferrari’s post-race debriefs tend to be thorough; this one will also be awkward. Unbroadcast radio from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix captured Charles Leclerc calling Lewis Hamilton’s botched team-orders swap “stupid” and “not fair,” after a late position trade unraveled in the sprint to the flag.
The instruction was simple in theory: swap positions back in the closing laps. In practice, the timing and pace checks didn’t click, Hamilton didn’t back off enough to give Leclerc the spot across the line, and the Monegasque signed off with a barbed, “He can enjoy that P8.” Ferrari will insist the page has been turned. The paddock will file it under “watch this space.”
McLaren tension: Montoya’s take on Piastri’s Baku spiral
McLaren’s title picture tightened in Baku, and not in the way Oscar Piastri needed. The Australian’s first retirement since the 2023 United States Grand Prix cut his lead over Lando Norris to 25 points with seven rounds to go, a reminder that momentum doesn’t take kindly to assumptions. Piastri had looked like the overwhelming favorite after Norris retired at Zandvoort; now the edge feels thinner.
Juan Pablo Montoya believes a change of approach may have nudged Piastri off balance last weekend, suggesting the sort of micro-adjustments that separate domination from damage limitation might’ve gone the wrong way. McLaren has been ruthlessly efficient this year—according to the 2025 Formula One World Championship entry list, it’s the Piastri-Norris pairing steering the charge—and Baku won’t break that. But the margin for error is vanishing as the flyaways loom.
Verstappen heads back to the ‘Ring for GT3 duty
Max Verstappen’s weekends don’t have off switches. The Red Bull driver is returning to the Nürburgring Nordschleife for a four-hour race, lining up with Chris Lulham in an Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3. Different paddock, different tire warmers, same instinct to push.
It’s another data point in Verstappen’s steadily broadening endurance CV, and a reminder that the sport’s best are increasingly multi-platform athletes. GT3 cars reward precision, patience and racecraft in traffic—skills that never hurt on a Sunday. The only eyebrow-raiser is the badge: Verstappen driving a Ferrari, even a GT3, is enough to make the memes write themselves.
FIA election trail: Villars lays out the manifesto
FIA presidential candidate Laura Villars has circulated more of her platform ahead of December’s vote, setting out a “Zero Death by 2035” target, a stronger push toward carbon neutrality, and governance reforms. She’s the third declared runner, up against incumbent Mohammed Ben Sulayem and long-time administrator Tim Mayer.
It’s a consequential ballot for a federation grappling with everything from calendar sprawl to sustainability promises, junior-ladder health and the political tightrope of modern F1. The talking points sound lofty; the execution will define the next era.
What it all means
– Ferrari’s internal dynamics just got a stress test. Team orders are only as good as the choreography.
– McLaren’s title fight is alive. Seven to go. Twenty-five points is a lead; it’s not a cushion.
– Verstappen can’t sit still, and that’s part of why he’s Verstappen.
– The FIA race is more than slogans—it’s about who sets the guardrails when the sport is expanding at full tilt.
– And yes, Massa vs 2008 is back on the docket. Seventeen years is a long time to hold a line. He’s not moving.
The calendar will take care of the noise soon enough. Until then, the off-track stories are doing their best to match the on-track pace.
