Will Apple shake up F1 coverage? What you missed at the Hungarian GP

A new contract for Fred Vasseur and commitment to Red Bull from Max Verstappen took the wind out of the sails of a few storylines heading into the Budapest weekend, but there are a number off-track topics still unresolved heading into the summer break.

More love for Mekies

In last week’s column I flagged the fact that Toto Wolff had invited Laurent Mekies down to Mercedes for a meeting in Belgium, and it turned out he was not the only one who wanted to spend some time with the new Red Bull CEO and team principal.

Fred Vasseur had done similar at Spa-Francorchamps, and then Zak Brown also sat down with Mekies on Sunday morning at the Hungaroring. From Brown’s point of view, he couldn’t recall a time he had done similar with Christian Horner during his Formula 1 career so far, while Mekies says he has received very strong support from all of the teams within the paddock.

Although the loss of Horner as a character has been noted, Brown believes a more positive relationship between the teams will not necessarily come at the cost of on-track needle, even if he acknowledges it is a different way of going racing if the teams are on better terms behind the scenes.

Vowles juggling home life with work

As the final race before the summer break, there was a little bit of end-of-term feel about the paddock in Budapest, with some of the more headline-grabbing topics being covered off early. Not that Fred Vasseur’s future had been a focal point for a number of races, but Max Verstappen’s certainly had been and both were confirmed as staying put in 2026.

Williams added to the atmosphere for a few of us with a pub quiz ahead of the weekend, that was hosted by James Vowles. And the team principal was in a particularly strict mood with some of the punishments he handed out during the evening.

Having ensured some of the participants were a bit worse for wear, Vowles then made his leave at an early hour because it was his best opportunity for a full night’s sleep as a father of a newborn.

Juggling family life and home life can be particularly challenging for many who work in F1, and while Vowles’ usual plan of arriving at a venue on a Thursday morning and leave again on Sunday night is not out of the ordinary, the fact he does so for races as far away as Australia makes for a tough schedule.

The intent then is to spend the entirety of the operational spell of a race weekend on-site, but avoid completely changing his body clock to the local timezone so that he is quickly back on UK time when he returns home. He’s far from the only one, but a good example of just why there is a mandatory shutdown over August, to ensure team members actually get quality time with their families amid such a busy 24-race season.

A whole new pit straight

It’s hard to believe the work that has been done at the Hungaroring since last year’s race. Only a few days after the teams rolled out of the paddock on their way to Spa-Francorchamps (this back-to-back ran in the opposite order last season) there were bulldozers on track demolishing the old pit building and removing the main grandstand.

Returning 12 months later, an entire new complex is up and running. Fans have a plush new grandstand to sit in along the pit straight, while the teams and race control can enjoy a far more modern working environment in a much bigger pit and paddock area.

Fernando Alonso summed it up well when he said the Hungaroring had shown the way to go for traditional venues in the future, pairing a classic circuit with modern facilities.

The upgrade was described as “state of the art” by Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane, while McLaren‘s Andrea Stella wanted to find a word that was bigger than just “impressive” given the level of investment and improvement involved. With bigger garages, the teams say they are operating without limitations.

The redevelopment is not yet complete, with plenty of work still to take place internally, but it’s certainly a sign of venues being able to invest when given the solidity of a long-term contract, with the Hungaroring confirmed on the calendar until 2032. It also addresses the need for more space in 2026, when Cadillac will join the grid.

South African interest still disorganised

Thailand remains the most likely new venue that will join the Formula 1 calendar in the near future, despite the potential slowdown in progress that I mentioned in last week’s column due to the political situation in the country.

That’s not to say it is the only country still pushing ahead with plans to join the schedule, but it is the most organised bid at this point.

The South African sports minister paid a visit to F1 recently to discuss his hopes to bring the sport to the country, and the desire certainly remains there from F1’s side to have a race on the African continent. But the main stumbling block at this point is the lack of a coherent plan, with multiple venues still trying to position themselves as the best option.

Finger pointing between rival bids are not helping matters, and F1 is keen to see a strong, well-prepared project emerge that it can then properly analyse if it wants to add the race to the calendar.

Finding space could also be seen as a potential challenge, but McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown retains his stance that a core 20 events could be permanently on the schedule, with a further eight operating on a rotating basis, with four of the eight featuring in any given year to keep the overall number per season at 24.

US TV rights could be a sign of F1’s priorities

The next television broadcast deal for Formula 1 in the United States is yet to be agreed, but appears to have been reduced to a bid from Apple to take the rights on a new platform, and an extension under new terms with ESPN.

F1 has to weigh up whether it wants the reach and existing stability that ESPN offers – particularly in the way that there could be more secondary income from sponsors and partners based on overall viewership numbers – or if it wants to explore a new dynamic with Apple.

There are a lot of other platforms and mediums that Apple can activate beyond the US broadcast rights if it becomes such a partner, given the number of different products and apps it offers on a global scale. And if it is Apple that gets the nod, then it could have an impact on other broadcast deals in future, given the shoulder content that could follow.

Broadcasters in other countries will be watching with interest to see the direction that F1 takes in America – still viewed as a key growth market – to try and understand if it will impact their own future positioning.