Overview
- After Lewis Hamilton’s recent Barcelona victory, Mercedes drivers say Hamilton and Ferrari pose a renewed on‑track threat as upgrade timing narrows performance gaps.
- Ferrari will bring a power‑unit upgrade to the Austrian Grand Prix and rivals including Mercedes and Red Bull are introducing their own packages, with Red Bull warning that a full return to consistent wins will be hard to achieve.
- Teams are taking contrasting development paths: some like Aston Martin are defending a later, concentrated ‘B‑version’ summer package while others opt for frequent smaller updates to chase short‑term gains.
- Kimi Antonelli still leads the championship by a substantial margin, which puts pressure on front runners to convert update steps into steady points and on drivers to manage rising title tensions.
- At the 24 Hours of Spa the field of 70 GT3 cars will be shown in a free full livestream and a late stewarding decision excluded the GetSpeed Mercedes‑AMG from Superpole after illegal brake work, costing its Q3 times and forcing a deep drop in the starting order.