Formula 1 may be embarking on the annual Summer Shutdown. But while the grid will be quite for a few weeks until the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of the month, the news will not stop.
Here are four major storylines to watch during the F1 Summer Shutdown.
The annual driver silly season
A major storyline during the Summer Shutdown in most seasons is the driver transfer market.
That is certainly going to be the case this August, with an added twist we will cover in a moment. Starting with the current F1 grid, several drivers are without a contract for next season: Franco Colapinto at Alpine, George Russell and Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes, Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson at Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, and Yuki Tsunoda at Red Bull.
Extensions for Russell and Antonelli are likely going to be announced in due time, if not during the break, then shortly thereafter. While Toto Wolff admitted “conversations” were taking place with Max Verstappen, Russell’s form combined with Antonelli’s promise makes this a likely lineup for the near term at Mercedes.
As for the three drivers in the Red Bull family, Hadjar and Lawson seem to be in the best position right now. Lawson has shaken off the early-season struggles that led to his demotion from Red Bull, and Hadjar has been perhaps the best rookie this season, although Gabriel Bortoleto has made a late charge at that title.
Tsunoda might be the most under threat of the three for next year. After earning his long-awaited promotion to Red Bull, he has scored just seven points, and while the RB21 is not the dominant force on the grid, that is not the level of performance the team is hoping for.
As for Franco Colapinto, there have been rumors of Alpine moving in a different direction before the season ends, given the lack of production since he took over for Jack Doohan.
Now let’s turn to that transfer market twist for next season.
Will Cadillac announce their driver lineup?
When the 2026 Formula 1 season begins, the number of teams will have grown by one.
Cadillac joins the F1 grid next season, bringing an American manufacturer into the sport and opening up two new seats for the driver transfer market.
Will we hear who is getting those seats over the break?
That is a possibility, as the team has been in discussions throughout the season. Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez seem the likely contenders for those spots, but other drivers have been linked with the incoming team. Zhou Guanyu, whose manager Graeme Lowdon is the Team Principal at Cadillac, has also been mentioned as a possibility not just because of his relationship with Lowdon but also due to his experience with Ferrari, as he is currently a reserve with the team.
Before Cadillac’s power unit program is fully operational, they will use Ferrari power units.
Other drivers linked with the incoming team include Mick Schumacher and Colton Herta, who is currently driving for Andretti Global in IndyCar. Herta has been linked with a move to F1 before, but speaking ahead of the 2025 IndyCar season, he told the media, including SB Nation, that his focus was on that series.
While we might get Cadillac news over these next few weeks, it would also make sense for the team to save those announcements for the United States Grand Prix in October, when the grid is back in the United States.
All eyes on Lewis Hamilton
To hear Lewis Hamilton tell it, there was perhaps no one more excited for the Summer Shutdown to arrive than Ferrari’s newest driver.
The Hungarian Grand Prix was a house of horrors for Hamilton, despite the Hungaroring being a track he has dominated over his career. Hamilton has won the Hungarian Grand Prix eight times and been on pole position nine times, both of which are event records.
But this year Hamilton qualified 12th — after which he referred to himself as “useless” — and he finished 12th in the race, following which he indicated that he would be back after the Shutdown.
“Hopefully,” was the clarification he added.
Those remarks opened the door to speculation over Hamilton’s future, a doorway former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone was more than happy to walk through. Speaking with The Daily Mail, Ecclestone made the case that Hamilton is “tired,” and that “he should stop now.”
It goes without saying that Lewis Hamilton is not going to walk away from the sport during the Summer Shutdown. Not like this. Champions want to go out on top, on their own terms.
It is not always possible, and some great athletes push themselves too far, and hang on too long.
But Hamilton is not there yet. The love of racing is still there. The ability to see a gap, and the willingness to go for that gap, are still there. Hamilton has shown flashes this year, notably with his win in the F1 Sprint race in the Chinese Grand Prix and his P3 in the F1 Sprint race at the Miami Grand Prix. There is also his charge through the bulk of the field at the Belgian Grand Prix, when he started on pit lane and roared into the points, mastering the back half of the field as well as the changing weather conditions.
He may have sounded defeated at the Hungarian Grand Prix, and that resignation is going to be a massive storyline during the Summer Shutdown. But a driver with seven titles under his belt, and the burning desire to secure the eighth (described as his “unfinished business” by Toto Wolff), is not going away like this.
The 2025 F1 season is still in progress but for some teams — and perhaps more after the break is over — the emphasis is shifting to 2026.
Next year, significant technical and power unit changes are coming to F1, with the potential to reshape the grid and change the pecking order. Among the massive changes that are coming? New power units that feature a 50/50 split between electrical power and the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), fully sustainable fuels, moveable aerodynamics in both the front and rear wings, a new overtaking system similar to IndyCar’s “push to pass” where drivers can deploy additional battery power when they are within one second of the car in front of them, and lighter cars.
These huge changes have the potential to shake up the entire field, provided a team “gets the answers right” and begins 2026 on the front foot. As such, many teams are shifting their focus from improving their 2025 cars to developing their 2026 challengers.
For example, in the wake of George Russell’s third-place finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff indicated there would be no further aerodynamic improvements to the W16 this season.
“This result and our overall performance here at the Hungaroring give us a direction for the rest of the season. As our focus turns to 2026, we won’t have any more major aerodynamic upgrades to bring to the track. Nevertheless, there are refinements we can make as we look to optimise the car we have,” said Wolff in the team’s post-race report.
Tenth-place Alpine may have waved the white flag on this season, given what Flavio Briatore had to say after the Hungarian Grand Prix.
“A disappointing end result and a difficult weekend overall for the team, which has really highlighted areas of weakness in our car. It has been a tough season so far and the aim for the remainder of the year is to try and turnaround our current position,” said Briatore in the team’s post-race report. “It is a big challenge as all our focus is on 2026 and capitalizing on the opportunity of the new regulations. Now is a critical phase in our work for next year and I know the team at Enstone is making positive headway on that project. I expect everyone to come back from the summer break with a lot of determination and fighting spirit, giving it our all to finish the season as strongly as possible and make sure we’re ready for 2026.”
While teams are not allowed to work on their 2026 challengers over the break, with no races to cover, do not be surprised if more stories emerge regarding how teams are feeling about the progress being made towards next season. One of the worst-kept secrets in the paddock is that Mercedes may be on the front foot, at least where it comes to the new power units.
While we have to wait until next winter to see if that is indeed the case, expect more stories to come out about development over the next few weeks.
