Friday practice at Monza produced one of the more revealing days of the Formula 1 season — not because of lap times alone, but because of what they exposed. Four drivers took to the track in Red Bull-affiliated machinery. The slowest was Liam Lawson. The fastest was Arvid Lindblad, an 18-year-old rookie in the junior car. Sandwiched between them, in a car he had barely had time to learn, was Yuki Tsunoda, driving for his career.
It set the tone for a weekend mixing sharp political theatre with a genuine sporting subplot: one of Red Bull’s drivers is running out of road in Formula 1. It is not the teenager.
Flavio Briatore’s Press Conference Gamble
The day’s headline moment belonged to Flavio Briatore. The Alpine boss walked into the team principals’ press conference carrying a printed photograph, named a judge from the International Court of Appeal, and accused him of behaving “like a prosecutor.” By the time he left the room, Alpine had lost a podium, McLaren’s Andrea Stella was left defending his team’s integrity, and the paddock had its story of the day.
The backdrop was the long-running Monaco saga. The Court of Appeal had just ruled that Pierre Gasly’s 10-second penalty from Monaco stands, restoring the podium trophy to Isack Hadjar and dropping Gasly to seventh. The pit-lane speed measurement in Monaco had genuinely been questionable, but the court’s 26-page ruling found the issue applied to several drivers, not just one, and that Alpine had been treated inconsistently when their time was handed back. The governing body itself was ordered to cover part of the costs — a sign the panel was not simply rubber-stamping the FIA’s position.
What Briatore did not mention is arguably the more important detail: every party sees the panel list before a hearing and can object to any judge in advance. Alpine did not raise an objection at the time, making the post-verdict accusation a very different matter to raising it through the proper channel. For now, nothing further is expected to come of the claim. The real winner of the episode is Hadjar, who drove to third on the road in Monaco, had the result stripped, and now has it restored.
Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren’s Friday Puzzle
On track, the picture shifted between sessions. Charles Leclerc led an emotional Free Practice 1 on the Schumacher tribute weekend, with Lewis Hamilton close behind as Ferrari tested its new power unit specification under full load for the first time. Free Practice 2 told a different story, with George Russell fastest and Leclerc a tenth back. Hamilton complained of losing significant time on the straights — likely a case of Ferrari running lighter fuel in the morning and more in the afternoon.
Long-run pace across the top three teams remains tight, but Mercedes still looks like it has the stronger power unit — significant at a track built around straight-line speed. McLaren struggled unusually on Friday: strong through Monza’s slow chicanes but losing time in the fast sections. It reads as a setup issue rather than a fundamental car problem, and Lando Norris is expected to bounce back into contention for a top-three slot in qualifying.
Verstappen’s Struggle and Lawson’s Quiet Session
Max Verstappen missed Free Practice 1 entirely, with Ayumu Iwasa filling in, before finishing Free Practice 2 down in 29th and venting on the radio about grip, brakes and the car bouncing over kerbs. The data tells a calmer story, though — his long-run pace was respectable, far from the five seconds off the pace his radio suggested.
Liam Lawson, by contrast, had a full day in the car and finished 13th, on a circuit regarded as one of the easiest on the calendar, where a mediocre car costs the least. Arvid Lindblad was the fastest of the four Red Bull-affiliated drivers across the day. It’s not one session that will define Lawson’s future, but it adds to a pattern. With no direct guidance from Verstappen heading into qualifying, Friday’s order may signal where Lawson sits in Red Bull’s internal pecking order — and it may not be above Tsunoda.
Yuki Tsunoda’s Audition and the Alonso Angle
Tsunoda is deputising in the Racing Bulls car while Isack Hadjar recovers from a wrist injury, and he’s doing the job well — quick on pace immediately in a car he had never driven before Zandvoort. Fernando Alonso went out of his way to publicly praise him, prompting paddock chatter about an Aston Martin swap. That reading looks unlikely. Alonso appears to be negotiating for his own future — reportedly seeking a two-year deal alongside equity, an ambassador role and influence over the team’s direction, echoing the model Christian Horner built at Red Bull. Praising a rival driver publicly may simply be Alonso reminding his own board that talent is available, and inexpensively so. Tsunoda’s more realistic path for 2027 is understood to run through Cadillac, with Aston Martin a longer shot.
Honda’s Honest Admission
Aston Martin brought its new-specification Honda power unit to Zandvoort with cautious optimism, but Monza — a pure power circuit — removed any hiding places. Alonso was two and a half seconds off the pace on Friday, an improvement on the four-to-five-second gaps of two months ago, but still evidence of a straight-line speed deficit. Honda’s trackside general manager, Shinto Orihara, was candid at Monza, saying the team had worked to improve engine drivability since the Netherlands and that the changes were “working as expected,” while acknowledging plainly that “our straight-line speed isn’t enough compared to our competitors.” It’s a drivability fix rather than an outright power fix — real progress, but not enough to close the gap at a track built for engine performance.
The Bigger Picture
Two threads now run through the rest of this Formula 1 season: whether Briatore’s public gamble costs him credibility in the paddock for nothing, and whether Liam Lawson can hold his position before Arvid Lindblad’s progress becomes impossible for Red Bull to ignore.
What’s your take — was Briatore right to name the judge publicly, and does Lindblad’s pace put Lawson’s 2027 seat at risk?
Watch the full breakdown and analysis in the video below:
Liam Lawson, Monza Grand Prix, Flavio Briatore, Red Bull Racing, Yuki Tsunoda, Arvid Lindblad, Formula 1 2026, F1 Driver Market
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