In this article we take you through the F1 news of Monday 31 August 2026 so you are up to speed again. Loyalty is the theme running through Milton Keynes, Maranello and Aston Martin’s factory today, even as the people running those teams keep changing chairs underneath their drivers. Cadillac’s boardroom reshuffle sits right in the middle of that tension.
Mekies and Coulthard talk up Red Bull chemistry, but the numbers disagree
Laurent Mekies says Max Verstappen’s decision to extend with Red Bull until 2030 matters less for the cockpit than for the recruitment pitch it gives him with engineers eyeing the exit, a reading David Coulthard echoed by pointing to good chemistry between the team principal and his lead driver. Nice theory, except Red Bull has already lost Christian Horner, Adrian Newey, Jonathan Wheatley, Will Courtenay, Craig Skinner and Helmut Marko in recent seasons, with Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase now heading for McLaren too. One driver’s signature does not refill an engineering department, and Red Bull still sits fourth in the constructors’ standings while Verstappen is 130 points off the championship lead with 11 races still to run.
Bottas says he’s not worried about Cadillac, despite losing his biggest defender
Valtteri Bottas insists his seat at Cadillac is safe even though Graeme Lowdon, the team boss who once called a press briefing purely to defend him, was sacked during the summer break and replaced by Marcin Budkowski. His own words tell a different story: safe for now, safe for next year, then a very deliberate silence on anything beyond 2027. New management rarely feels obliged to honour promises made by the previous regime, and Bottas knows it better than anyone.
Alonso may stop racing, but he’s never actually leaving Aston Martin
Fernando Alonso says he is weighing whether to race a 25th season or call time at the end of his fourth year, but insists his future with Aston Martin in one role or another is already settled. That is a driver quietly negotiating his own succession while still talking about a third title as his ultimate dream, an admission that sits oddly next to where Aston Martin actually is on the grid. Retirement, for Alonso, looks less like an ending than a change of job title.
Perez says he’s lobbying Cadillac on hires, even without a say in who joins
Sergio Perez admits he has no formal role in Cadillac’s recruitment but has been pushing names of people he rates highly to the team regardless. It reads like a driver reminding everyone he still has value beyond a season without a single point, and with 11 teams now chasing the same pool of engineers, that contacts book might matter more than his results this year.
Alex Palou wins a fifth IndyCar title, matching a 20 year old record
Alex Palou has sealed his fifth IndyCar championship, his fourth in a row, with a race still to spare after Kyle Kirkwood failed to keep the title race alive at Milwaukee. That streak equals Sebastien Bourdais’ run of four consecutive US open wheel titles from the old Champ Car days, a mark nobody had matched since IndyCar reunified in 2008.
Buxton says Williams keeps overpromising while Audi quietly delivers
Will Buxton argues Williams has spent 2026 talking up ambitions it can’t back up, while Audi, the team Carlos Sainz turned down, has undersold and overdelivered by comparison. Williams sits ninth in the constructors’ standings with 11 points to Audi’s eighth on 16, which makes the marketing gap look worse than the actual points gap.
Hadjar says his wrist is healing in time for Monza
Isack Hadjar, who missed the Dutch Grand Prix after fracturing a bone in his wrist, says the injury is healing fast enough to have him back for Monza this weekend. Liam Lawson did a competent enough job standing in that Hadjar’s return is not entirely guaranteed to be automatic once Red Bull makes its call.
300 metres of cabling stolen from Madring before its F1 debut
Spanish police are investigating the theft of 300 metres of electrical cabling from the Madring circuit less than two weeks before it hosts its first Spanish Grand Prix. Back up systems reportedly cover the gap, but it’s an odd headline for a venue already being watched closely after its maiden test running.
Ocon says a fair overtake shouldn’t be erased by a late red flag
Esteban Ocon passed Alexander Albon legally at the start in Zandvoort, only to be shoved back behind him when a red flag for Verstappen’s crash reverted the order to the end of lap one. Ocon calls it an old school rule, and it’s hard to argue when a driver takes the risk of an opening lap move and still loses the place to paperwork.
Hamilton says Ferrari’s problem isn’t the car, it’s execution
Lewis Hamilton says Ferrari’s SF-26 is good enough to win, and what’s actually costing points is sloppy execution on race weekends: slow stops, muddled team orders, qualifying gone wrong. Translated, that’s a driver telling his own team politely to stop dropping the ball on Sundays, with the second half of the season now the test of whether anyone listens.
Monza hosts the next round from 4 to 6 September, and with McLaren’s high speed weakness about to be tested and Hadjar racing the clock on his wrist, the Pirelli Gran Premio d’Italia should answer plenty of open questions in one weekend. Full details sit in the F1 calendar.
