Friday F1 Briefing: Verstappen misses gala, Sky shuffles F1 off air, Honda drops a 2026 teaser, and politics hits full throttle
A strange, very 2025 kind of Friday in Formula 1. The new world champion celebrated in Abu Dhabi last weekend, yet his fiercest rival stayed home sick for the trophy handover. The UK’s dedicated F1 channel suddenly turned into wall‑to‑wall darts. Honda pressed play on the future. And the FIA pressed reset at the top while locking in the sport’s next chapter.
Here’s what you need to know.
Verstappen skips FIA prize-giving with illness
Max Verstappen didn’t make Friday’s FIA gala after coming down with the flu. It capped a bruising week for the Red Bull star, who lost the 2025 title by two points as Lando Norris — now the 11th British driver to be crowned champion — finally climbed the mountain in Abu Dhabi.
Drivers are expected to attend the gala, but illness is the one obvious escape clause. Given the combative year Verstappen and Red Bull have had, the optics were always going to be loud regardless. Fortunately for all involved, the calendar now grants a breath and a reset button before testing chatter takes over.
Sky F1 off air as darts takes over
If you switched on the Sky F1 channel in the UK and found tungsten instead of telemetry, you weren’t imagining things. Sky has temporarily rebadged its dedicated F1 outlet to showcase the World Darts Championship, a ratings juggernaut since Luke Littler exploded onto the scene.
The timing is… cheeky. Britain just celebrated a homegrown F1 world champion, and the specialist F1 channel vanishes for the off-season. It’s not unprecedented — Sky rotates pop-up channels — but it’s an odd look the same week McLaren’s title party is still echoing around Woking. Somewhere a graphics operator has replaced tyre blankets with flights and stems.
Honda lets the 2026 era sing — briefly
Honda offered a short audio clip of its 2026 power unit, the first real tease of F1’s next formula. Expect the sound to divide opinion like every rule reset does, but the headline items are clear: 50% electric deployment, fully sustainable fuels, active aero and a different way of going fast.
The Japanese manufacturer is gearing up for a fresh works tie‑up with Aston Martin from 2026. If you’re Fernando Alonso or Lance Stroll, that little snippet is the soundtrack to a lot of late-night dyno hours in Sakura and Silverstone. If you’re a rival, it’s a reminder that Honda doesn’t do half measures when it commits.
Ben Sulayem wins a second term
Mohammed Ben Sulayem has secured a second term as FIA President, returning for another stint after taking over from Jean Todt in late 2021. This election was all but a formality, with the incumbent effectively unopposed due to the federation’s quirks around candidacy timelines and nominations.
Continuity at Place de la Concorde means the same leadership will oversee the heavyweight transition to the 2026 regulations. It also means continued scrutiny — from teams and fans alike — on governance, stewarding consistency, and the FIA’s increasingly public dance with F1’s commercial rights holder.
New Concorde governance deal signed to 2030
The sport’s powerbrokers have inked the governance portion of the new Concorde Agreement through the end of 2030, with the updated terms kicking in for 2026. All 11 F1 teams, the FIA and Formula One Management are signed on, giving promoters and manufacturers a clear runway into the next rules cycle.
What does that mean in plain language? Stability. The bones of who decides what — and how quickly — are set, and that’s critical when you’re about to rip up the rulebook. It doesn’t stop the politics (this is F1; they never stop), but it does put everyone on a single track heading into the biggest technical pivot since the hybrid era was born.
The takeaway
A champion on the up, a rival under the weather, broadcasters shuffling the deck in the off-season and the future humming away on a dyno. It’s quiet for about five minutes in this sport. Then the next era starts whispering in your ear.
If you needed a sign the 2026 reset is already here, Honda just gave you one. And thanks to the new Concorde, the people in charge of stewarding it have signed their homework. Now we wait to hear who nails the first draft — and who gets caught out when the music stops.
