F1 news: Lewis Hamilton doubles down on FIA request as Max Verstappen warned over comments

That's all from us today, but be sure to check back tomorrow for all the latest F1 news and build-up to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Jenson Button seemingly is not happy with his former side after they "forgot" his efforts while racing for them.

Last month the Brit was omitted from a team social media graphic celebrating 500 podiums, before he returned the favour at the Las Vegas GP.

“There are two teams that stand out," he told Sky Sports F1. "One is this orange colour, can’t remember what their name is!

“They forgot that I raced for them, so I’m not going to mention them! They’ve done an amazing job in terms of their performance, and the other one is Williams.”

Lewis Hamilton has suggested Red Bull are getting bored of their success - because of Christian Horner's radio messages to Max Verstappen after he wins a race.

The Briton has not won a race since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and has picked up on how less excited Horner is than back in the days Hamilton and Verstappen were going wheel-to-wheel for titles.

The Mercedes driver told Channel 4: “When you have so much success, no matter how hard you try it’s hard to keep things in perspective.

“I even hear it in Christian Horner’s voice when Max wins, he doesn’t know what to say. He’s like: ‘Here we go again. Good job, Max. Good job.’

“The excitement goes, but when you first get that win it’s amazing. But if you have it all the time [it’s not the same].

“Of course, I want to win again. I do feel like when we do win again, the feeling is going to be even greater because everyone’s struggled.”

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has suggested that he does not care too much about his team's battle with Ferrari at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The final race of the season will be a winner-takes-all for second place in the Constructors' Championship, but Wolff is more interested in winning titles.

"To be honest, it’s good to have P2 as a positive to finish the season," he said. "But P2, P3 for me, there is little… it doesn’t make me particularly cheery anyway. How do you say – it doesn’t make [this year] better for me.”

Max Verstappen has been warned that his comments slating the Las Vegas Grand Prix will not have gone down well with F1's owners.

The Red Bull driver repeatedly hit out and stated his dislike for the spectacle surrounding the race, which David Coulthard believes will be an issue for Liberty Media.

“Of course, they won’t like it," Coulthard told Channel 4. “They will just think about bottom-line investment. They are cold, hard business people, at the end of the day.

“One shoe doesn’t fit all. If Max fits into the grumpy, 85-year-old ‘Freaky Friday’ - if that’s who his character is, then be true to yourself.”

Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle has called for the FIA to make a change to their rules.

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz was adjudged to have been given a harsh 10-place grid penalty at the Las Vegas Grand Prix and Brundle wants changes to ensure that it does not happen again.

“There are hundreds of pages of rules in the International Sporting Code and the specific F1 Sporting and Technical regulations, but nothing which can allow the Stewards to legally turn a blind eye if something just doesn't seem fair,” Brundle wrote.

Lewis Hamilton has continued with his pleas for Formula One to hold a race in Africa.

It is the only continent not to hold a F1 race currently, after Las Vegas became the third to be held in the US last weekend.

“I think so, but it’s not my job to decide how many races there is [in America],” Hamilton told Sky Sports. “But we definitely don’t need anymore! We definitely don’t need any more races.

“There’s one more race we need and that’s going to be Africa. We have all the other continents and why not there? So that’s the one I’m working on pushing right now.”

German F1 reporter and Michael Schumacher's friend Florian Konig has opened up on how questions regarding the legend's health get the "same answer".

Schumacher has been out of the public eye since his skiing accident in 2013 and Konig has been peppered with queries over the seven-time world champion.

He told German broadcaster ARD: "Whenever someone speaks to me, at the airport or elsewhere, the question often comes up: 'Do you know how Michael is doing? Do you know what's going on now?'

"I always say the same thing: I don't ask the family at all. I absolutely respect the fact that they only gave very sparse information, and I think that's right. I notice from these questions that people are still interested and that they still share in his fate."

Red Bull driver Sergio Perez was brutally told that he made a mistake that a 13-year-old would not have made at the Las Vegas GP.

Perez was beaten to second place by Charles Leclerc surprisingly on the final lap, an error that Le Mans winner Richard Bradley has lambasted.

He said: "There was one race when I was 13 where I was really stupid and knew I’d made a mistake afterwards and I didn’t block in a very similar way to Perez on the last lap when I was leading and five karts went by me – I learned some new words when I watched that video back!

"For a 13-year-old that was some mature language, but I deserved it and [Perez’s] was identical. That shouldn’t be happening when you’re 13 years old, let alone when you’re in Formula One."

Tennis legend Serena Williams has insisted that Lewis Hamilton should have as many as nine world championships.

The Mercedes star has won the Formula 1 title seven times officially, but there have been contentious moments in the past - specifically Max Verstappen's first win in 2021.

Responding to Toto Wolff's backing of Hamilton to try and win an eighth title next year, Williams said: "He should have had 9 already. But...lemme be quiet."

F1 pundit David Coulthard believes that Red Bull team principal Christian Horner will have stepped in after Max Verstappen repeatedly slated the Las Vegas GP.

The Dutchman was not happy that the spectacle was allegedly overshadowing the race, but later backtracked following his win on Sunday.

“Of course, they won’t like it," Coulthard told Channel 4. “They will just think about bottom-line investment. They are cold, hard business people, at the end of the day. One shoe doesn’t fit all.

"If Max fits into the grumpy, 85-year-old ‘freaky Friday’ - if that’s who his character is, then be true to yourself. I’m sure he [Horner] would have had that conversation (having a word with Verstappen). But Max believes in freedom of speech.”

Aston Martin insist they will not target McLaren at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Aston were in front of McLaren for most of the 2023 Constructors’ Championship.

However, they have recently been overtaken by the Woking-based outfit.

The excellent form of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri has seen McLaren outperform Fernando Alonso.

But Mike Krack says Aston will simply focus on getting the most positive possible result rather than focusing on leapfrogging McLaren during the final race.

“For me, it doesn't change anything, compared to two or three races ago,” he said. “We can only influence what we do ourselves.

“The first bit is we have to have a fast car in Abu Dhabi, because we are behind. So it's something that we are not on the defence, we have to go flat out, and then we see. We have to do the best possible, and then we see what is the result.”

Lewis Hamilton could risk a fine if he does not attend the FIA end-of-season gala.

Hamilton has not shown up for the past two years.

He was fined for not attending in 2021, having controversially lost the world championship on the final lap of the year.

Drivers who place in the top three of the drivers' championship are expected to attend.

That ruled Hamilton out of a fine when he was absent from the event last year.

But having finished third in the championship this year, the Mercedes star will expected to be present.

Fans will eagerly await to see if the seven-time world champion attends the gala.

Max Verstappen has called on Red Bull to analyse' the tyre issues that limited his performance in Las Vegas.

Verstappen was at odds with the medium tyres and soon changed them, although did go on to claim his 18th victory of the season.

"We have to analyse why that was," Verstappen said. "Because in the long runs on Thursday, they were fine.

“I think the hard tyre was just a bit more robust against the graining, because that was my problem on the medium. The tyre just started to open up and then you lose a lot of grip. So that’s what happened.

“And then on the hard tyre I didn’t really have that problem for a long time. So that was definitely helping me.”

Carlos Sainz has described the grip levels at the Las Vegas Grand Prix start as “absolutely shocking,” blaming the oil dumped onto the grid by the parade cars, as well as the low track temperatures for his lap-one collision with Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.

The Ferrari star said: “Apart from the dirty track already being there, on top of that, we put cars that are leaking oil into the track one hour before the race – it’s unacceptable. That probably caused a lot of the crashes into Turn One.

“You never expect it to be so bad. I just touched the brake, not even hit it and the tyres were locked. I didn’t even brake that late, I braked around the 100-metre board but [I was] arriving 100kph slower than on a quali lap. The cold tyres probably also played a role. It was absolutely shocking, lap one, and I think we all struggled.”

These comments were backed up by Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate George Russell, who said: “It's not the first time we've seen these historical cars dropping oil. It was pretty shocking to see how bad it was. But they did a good job to clear it up for the race."

Christian Horner said Max Verstappen’s criticism of the Las Vegas Grand Prix was ‘refreshing’.

Verstappen has criticised the event and called the street circuit ‘boring’.

Many figures within Formula One have disagreed with the Dutchman.

But the Red Bull chief said: “Max would’ve thoroughly enjoyed that race because that is what he loves and that is what he is here for.

“The fact he won it in an Elvis Presley suit and was singing Viva Las Vegas on an in-lap, whilst you have to respect that it doesn’t sit comfortably with him, some of the razzmatazz that goes around F1, it is quite refreshing that he is prepared to speak and give an honest opinion.”

Verstappen did not enjoy the razzmatazz around the event in Sin City, despite winning Sunday’s Grand Prix.

"This is the Eredivisie, while Monaco is the Champions League," he said, referring to the Dutch football’s first division relative to the sport’s top European competition.

"There's nothing wrong with the Eredivisie, by the way, but everyone wants to win the Champions League, right?

"How [the event is put together] and how it looks, there is nothing wrong with it, but [the Champions League] is top of course."

Daniel Ricciardo is the latest driver to dig out Max Verstappen for his criticism of the Las Vegas Grand Prix glitz.

Verstappen was unhappy with the glamour in Sin City and held talks with F1 bosses over his disdain.

Lewis Hamilton took exception to Verstappen’s comments and Ricciardo, who drives for Red Bull sister team AlphaTauri, has now make a swipe at the Dutchman.

“A few drivers have been a little bit ‘whatever’ about it,” Ricciardo told guests during a Q&A in the Qatar Airways Paddock Club suite Saturday.

“I think they’re just trying to rebel. Deep down they really like it, they just don’t want to admit it.”

Lewis Hamilton admits taking a peek at other Formula One cars to gain an advantage for Mercedes.

Hamilton has been impressed by the floor on Daniel Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri.

The tips are all fed back to the Mercedes garage.

Asked by Channel 4 if this season has been better than the previous year, Hamilton responded: “I don’t know. I mean, last year, we had a race win in Brazil, but it doesn’t really mean it’s necessarily getting better – we still started the season a second and a half down in Bahrain.

“You know, it’s nice definitely to be progressing and we have seen progress with this car, so fingers crossed for winter.

“But I’ll be staying. I’m in touch with the head of aero and I’m just checking up on him every week like: ‘How are we doing and what have you tried? Where’s the progress? Have you tried this?’

“I take snapshots of every car. I saw underneath the AlphaTauri the other day and I went back and was like, ‘hey, they’ve got these things on their floor.’ You know, you’re just trying to find everything that you can pass on, [but] they know most of the stuff anyway.”

Max Verstappen aired his frustrations in a crunch meeting with an F1 delegate, De Telegraaf claims.

Verstappen was extremely vocal in his disliking of the dramatic show put on ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The Dutchman said the glamour left him feeling like 'a clown'.

It has been claimed that these frustrations were also made directly to F1 bosses in a meeting with a delegate.

Max Verstappen has shot back at Lewis Hamilton after the Mercedes star complained about ‘negativity’ at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Verstappen had moaned about the glitzy show put on by Las Vegas bosses ahead of the weekend’s racing.

The Red Bull ace said he felt like ‘a clown’ among bright lights and A-list celebrities.

After the race, Hamilton appeared to take exception to Verstappen’s complaints. He said: “I don’t know how much of a spectacle it was for people to watch but there was so much overtaking - it was like Baku but better. I really wasn’t expecting the track to be so great.

“To all those who were so negative about the weekend, saying ‘it’s all about show, blah, blah, blah’, I think Vegas proved them wrong.”

Verstappen has now shot back, claiming that certain drivers get a kick out of disagreeing with him.

“Some drivers do but I think some find it fun to say the opposite of what I say,” the 26-year-old, who won in Sin City, said.

“I’m not gonna drop names, but yeah…”

Lewis Hamilton will step aside for Mercedes starlet Frederik Vesti for FP1 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this weekend.

Teams must allow a driver with fewer than two Grand Prix races to take part in at least two sessions per season.

Mercedes have only done that once in 2023, with Vesti stepping in for George Russell in Mexico. The 21-year-old Dane will now step in for Hamilton, with the Briton’s place in P3 in the world drivers’ championship confirmed after the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

"Driving in FP1 in Abu Dhabi is another step in my career. Getting my first experience of an official session on an F1 weekend in Mexico was a big moment," said Vesti.

"I learnt so much, and it was great being able to support the team and work with Lewis and George. I'm looking forward to building on that experience at Yas Marina.

"It's a track I know well and that will no doubt make it easier to get up to speed in the one hour of practice.

"I'm extremely excited to get back behind-the-wheel of the W14 for FP1 and then the post-season test. Once again, I want to say a big thank you to the team for giving me this opportunity."

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