F1 Today: Verstappen expands racing career, Netflix cleans up Horner, and Colapinto fans are asked to stop

In exactly eight days, the 2025 Formula 1 season will officially begin with the Australian Grand Prix. With that comes exciting news and a championship battle. With the countdown almost over, more teams and drivers are sharing their 2025 plans. Max Verstappen recently launched a new foray into racing, Netflix made some interesting calls for season 7 of Drive to Survive, and Franco Colapinto’s manager asks Colapinto’s so-called “fans” to stop the hate.

In very exciting news for Verstappen, he has managed to expand his GT3 team adding Chris Lulham to his lineup alongside Thierry Vermeulen. Lulham will compete in both the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint and the Endurance Cup. This comes with the Verstappen.com team’s entry into the GT World Challenge Europe (where they will be driving an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo). Verstappen has expanded not only his GT3 team but has also expanded his Verstappen.com racing brand with a new training facility. The facility, Verstappen.com Racing Pro Simulation, features state-of-the-art simulators that allow the racers to race with both Formula series cars (F1- F4) and the GT series. Verstappen already has a sim racing team, Team Redline, but this expansion is a big deal for the four-time world champion as it is something he has always dreamed of.

In the seventh season of Drive to Survive trailer, you can see Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner and McLaren CEO Zak Brown setting themselves up for a fight. On brown’s side, he seems to be doing everything he can to make Horner break. On Horner’s side, things are clearer regarding where he stands. He says “Zak Brown is a Prick”. However, according to The Times, that was not what Horner originally said. This begs the question, why did Netflix censor Horner? The rumoured word to have been said was the curse word ‘c*nt’, which many deem highly inappropriate. They may have censored the word because the FIA are currently cracking down on inappropriate language within the Formula 1 realm of media. Another reason could be ratings.

Since his promotion to Alpine was announced, Jack Doohan has been under immense pressure. He has had to face online bullying and hate from people everywhere. Some of those people are fans of Franco Colapinto, who currently serves as a reserve driver at Alpine. Many Colapinto fans have taken to harassing Doohan in an attempt to get the Argentine a full-time seat at Alpine. Someone on his team has spoken out for the first time since Colapinto’s move from Williams to Alpine. Colapinto’s manager, Jamie Campbell-Walter, took to X's social media platform to speak out against the fans contributing to the online hate.

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