With a week to go until the race cars hit the track again, there are a lot of eyes on what to expect in the last 10 races of the season.
From teammate Toto Wolff to a potential Red Bull reveal, here are your headlines:
Toto Wolff names Jerome d’Ambrosio as a backup player
With the F1 calendar seemingly growing every year, Wolff has been open about wanting to run some races this season in order to protect his mental health.
Wolff missed a few in 2022, including the team’s victory in Sao Paulo, but if the Austrian misses any of the races this year it will be former Virgin and Lotus driver Jerome d’Ambrosio in his place.
“Whenever I miss a race weekend, Jerome will take my place,” the Austrian told Auto Hebdo magazine. “It is true that in 11 years this has only happened three times, but this is a situation we have to expect.
“Now, he has to gain credibility within the team and in the ring, he still has plenty of time, but in case I can’t be there, he’ll be in my place.”
Read more: Toto Wolff names his replacement as Mercedes team boss
Max Verstappen gives a hint to Red Bull 2026
While the focus remains on the rest of the 2023 season, there is one or two looks towards the years ahead.
Naturally, teams will start to focus on 2024 but with regulatory changes in the power unit coming up, many will also be keeping an eye on the 2026 season, particularly engine suppliers.
While it is difficult to gauge how tall each of the six suppliers is, Max Verstappen may have given a hint about the state of the Red Bull project.
“I’m not sure how many people are fully aware of what it looks like,” he said of the Red Bull project, hinting at more progress than is publicly known.
Read more: Did Max Verstappen accidentally reveal Red Bull’s key feature in Formula 1 2026?
Red Bull prospect Liam Lawson makes a big crash
While F1 is taking a break, there is still movement on track around the world including Japan with Super Formula.
One driver in that series to watch out for is Liam Lawson, a junior driver at Red Bull who is strongly linked to a potential seat at AlphaTauri in the near future.
While the New Zealander has impressed so far, he hopes Helmut Marko wasn’t mindful when he caused a massive crash at Motegi.
Attempting to overtake his teammate, Lawson swerved off the track before losing control and crashing into Tadasuke Makino and Yohei Sekiguchi.
Read more: Red Bull begins a series of horrific crashes in Japan
Charles Leclerc urged to avoid ‘traditional Ferrari driver story’
While there may not have been the lows of last season yet, it hasn’t been a great year for Charles Leclerc and Ferrari.
With the car certainly looking slower than the leaders Red Bull, more speculation has been set about the future of Leclerc whose contract expires after the 2024 season.
Monégasques, widely described as one of the best drivers on the grid, has been warned he is heading for a “traditional Ferrari driver’s story”.
“If I may say it sounds a bit like a traditional Ferrari drivers’ story, where you come in with great hope and then it starts to go down a bit,” said F1 business expert Mark Gallagher.
READ MORE: Charles Leclerc recounts his career as he descends into the ‘traditional Ferrari driver’s story’