Verstappen family cleans up off-duty as F1 pauses — plus McLaren’s sky-high valuation, Tsunoda’s team play, and Alonso vs. the Newey brain teaser
The calendar took a breath this Sunday, but the protagonists didn’t. While the F1 paddock cooled, the Verstappen household went racing anyway and promptly won… twice.
Max Verstappen dipped a toe into GT3 and cannonballed straight to victory at the Nürburgring on debut, sharing the car with sim-to-track talent Chris Lulham. Not exactly a gentle warm-up for a grand prix driver, but when has Verstappen ever done gentle?
Hours later, it was dad’s turn. Jos Verstappen sealed the Belgian Rally Championship with a round to spare after third place at the East Belgian Rally alongside co-driver Renaud Jamoul. It’s his first title in 17 years, the last coming back in 2008 in LMP2. Different surface, similar story: a Verstappen at the sharp end, delivering under pressure. If there was any doubt, the competitive gene didn’t skip a generation.
Elsewhere, the business of Formula 1 looks as relentless as the racing. McLaren’s latest minority stake sale has effectively valued the team at around $5 billion, and Zak Brown isn’t shy about what that signals. The CEO believes top-flight teams will keep appreciating, pointing to the sport’s global demand and a calendar that’s already stretched to 24 races.
“Every time there’s a record deal, everyone says it’s crazy,” Brown told Bloomberg. “Five years later, they’ve still gone up.” In other words: F1’s not peaking; it’s compounding. Whether you buy the number or not, the market does—and right now that’s the only scoreboard investors care about.
On track, Red Bull’s tone has been measured of late, but Yuki Tsunoda isn’t in the mood to talk down the fight. The Japanese driver says the team’s more confident about its form heading into the next run of races and made it clear he’ll do his bit for the cause—namely, supporting Max Verstappen’s title push if the situation demands.
“We’re not giving up on this season,” Tsunoda said. “If I can support him in some races, that would be good.” It’s a straightforward message and a timely one: team play wins championships as often as outright pace does. If Red Bull are to turn the screw again, the second car being in the right place at the right time will matter.
As for Verstappen’s longer-term future, his manager Raymond Vermeulen was refreshingly plain-spoken about the criteria: Max stays at Red Bull if Red Bull keeps giving him a car that can win. Simple. With the 2026 regulations looming—a potential reset for everyone—there’s no rush to ink anything beyond the obvious.
“It would be a fantastic story if he drove his entire Formula 1 career for Red Bull,” Vermeulen said. “But that will only happen if he has the equipment to win.” That’s not brinkmanship; it’s the reality for a driver who measures his career in titles, not contract length.
Speaking of 2026, Adrian Newey’s influence is already being felt at Aston Martin, and Fernando Alonso sounds like a man enjoying the homework. Alonso joked he has to use “all [his] brain capacity” to keep up with the sport’s most decorated designer in their early conversations about the car that will roll out under the new rules.
Everyone at Aston is learning, Alonso said—but you can picture the dynamic: a two-time world champion sparring with the mind that’s defined multiple regulations eras. It’s the kind of collaboration that makes engineers reach for a fresh notebook. If Aston are to vault into the title conversation when the rulebook flips, this is exactly the partnership that could get them there.
Put it all together and you’ve got a weekend that told you plenty about where the sport is heading even without a formation lap. The Verstappens are still winning in whatever they touch; McLaren’s valuation suggests F1 remains a rocket ship commercially; Red Bull’s drivers are aligned on the mission; and Newey’s next chapter is already rewiring minds in green.
The lights go out again soon. In the meantime, the silence was loud enough.
