Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton

F1 Today: Leclerc and Hamilton united with Ferrari, Vettel eyes 2026 regulations

22:00, 17 Aug

bySavannah Lenz

Missed out on August 17th's Formula 1 news? Catch up here with the top stories today!

Leclerc adamant on united Ferrari

Speaking to GPBlog and others during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, Leclerc spoke about his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, and their goals for Ferrari.

Hamilton has recently said that he sent Ferrari a list of improvements or things he thinks should be changed. Leclerc said, “At the end of the day, we are both pushing to try and make Ferrari better. He’s preparing his points, I’m preparing my point,s and then we are doing big meetings where we are both inside the meetings, and then we speak about those points that we want to improve."

He also mentioned that this is not something new. They have both been trying to improve Ferrari since the beginning of the season. "I don’t think there’s anything standing out now. Maybe it’s the first time he said it, so that’s why it makes such a reaction, but it’s nothing particular to this moment."

Horner relaxes after being fired from Red Bull Racing

According to Croatian media outlet tportal, Christian Horner is in the Adriatic Sea enjoying a vacation with his family. Recently, Horner was relieved of his involvement with Red Bull Racing altogether.

This comes only a few weeks after he was replaced by Laurent Mekies as team principal and CEO at the Milton Keynes-based team. Horner is apparently now enjoying his time on a luxurious superyacht with former Spice Girl, Geri Halliwell. Halliwell and Horner have been married since 2015. She has been a staple in the paddock, especially in 2024.

Vettel critical of 2026 regulations

Sebastian Vettel cares grately about the enviorment and has brought forward many initiatives to the F1 Paddock. He is supportive of the attempts to make Formula 1 more electric but is also doubtful of the way the FIA is going about it.

The four-time world champion said to Auto Motor und Sport, "Regaining energy is great, but doing it only on the rear axle and ignoring the front axle doesn’t make sense to me.”

He believes that instead of going full steam ahead with being innovative, that they have scaled back to cut costs. He is apprehensive about their move to more sustainable fuels.

Vettel said it is a slippery slope and could go in the wrong direction if they focus on the wrong things. He had another criticism of the weight of the 2026 cars.

“The cars are far too heavy. They should actually be 200 kilograms lighter. That would save fuel and improve racing as a positive side effect.”