Verstappen Signs to 2030, and Answers the Question on the Morning of His Last Home Race
Max Verstappen has extended his Red Bull contract to the end of 2030, ending a transfer saga that had run since the spring and closing the most valuable vacancy on the grid before it ever opened. The previous deal ran to 2028 with performance clauses that could have released him early; reports in June of meetings between his camp and McLaren gave the story its legs. He announced the new one on Thursday morning, in the week he races at Zandvoort for the last time.
"The team is like a second family for me and I feel very at home," Verstappen said, adding that he wanted "to continue this journey with the same team that I have been with my whole career" and citing a "clear vision" under team principal Laurent Mekies. That vision is being built without Christian Horner and without Adrian Newey, both gone inside the last two years, and around a power unit formula Verstappen himself has spent eighteen months criticising in public.
The timing is the interesting part. The four-time champion is winless in 2026 for the first time since his debut season in 2015, sixth in the standings on 109 points, in a car that has spent the year watching Mercedes leave. Seventy-one grand prix wins have bought him the right to leave whenever he liked. He has signed for four more years instead, and gets to tell a home crowd about it on Sunday wearing a helmet painted in Delft Blue.
He will do it alongside a different team-mate. Isack Hadjar, eighth in the championship and scoring in seven straight grands prix, was ruled out on Wednesday with a wrist injury picked up during the shutdown — the BBC reports it happened while boxing, which Red Bull has not addressed. Liam Lawson steps up from Racing Bulls, eighteen months after the same seat was taken away from him, and Yuki Tsunoda comes off reserve duty to fill the vacancy he leaves.
IndyCar Takes the National Mall, and Palou Can Start Counting
The Freedom 250 runs on Sunday around the National Mall, on a temporary 1.7-mile layout that is almost entirely 90-degree left-handers with a single right turn, for 147 laps and 250 miles. It was not on the schedule published last September; it was added by executive order in January for the country's 250th anniversary, with the course laid out in a fortnight and permits fast-tracked. Both practices and qualifying are crammed into Saturday to keep the city moving.
"You're going to feel like you're in a bit of a washing machine," said Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin, who has not won in 32 races. Alex Palou arrives 133 points clear of Kyle Kirkwood after finishing fourth at Markham, with four rounds left; a good enough Sunday puts the fourth consecutive championship inside touching distance before Milwaukee. The favourite, on a circuit nobody has ever driven, in a race nobody has ever run.
Around the Paddock
A farewell, a first sprint and rain in every forecast
The last Dutch GP is also the circuit's only sprint weekend: sprint qualifying Friday 16:30 local, sprint noon Saturday, qualifying 16:00, race 15:00 Sunday. Twelve rounds and 300-plus points remain.
Hadjar out with a wrist injury, Lawson back in the big car, Tsunoda back on the grid
Three seats moved on one announcement. Lawson, ninth in the standings, returns to the team that demoted him after two races in 2025; Tsunoda partners Arvid Lindblad at Racing Bulls. No timescale given for Hadjar's return.
Fifty-six points cover the top six, and next stop is Marc's track
Aprilia hold the first three places, but Márquez has seven MotorLand wins and has never lost there on a Ducati. "Aragón can give us an indication of who the true title contenders will be," says Massimo Rivola. Round 13, August 28-30.
Ericsson ends a 63-race drought at the inaugural Markham race
The Swede beat Romain Grosjean — second again — with Will Power third, for a first win since the 2023 St Pete opener. "It's been long enough."
Two races left to settle the Chase, and one of them is Daytona
Shane van Gisbergen holds the cutline with a buffer that means nothing at a superspeedway. Denny Hamlin arrives at New Hampshire as top seed on an 8.5 average finish; Larson and Byron are still winless.
BMW close to within five points of Toyota with four rounds to go
The #15 car's São Paulo win and a pointless Toyota weekend flipped the manufacturers' fight; René Rast and Robin Frijns lead the drivers' table level on points. COTA is next, September 6.
Evans defends a 30-point lead on gravel in Encarnación
Round 11 runs August 27-30 over 22 stages and 359 competitive kilometres, with Sami Pajari second after his home win in Finland and Takamoto Katsuta third.