‘I won’t be going anywhere’: George Russell adamant he will stay at Mercedes
George Russell believes he “won’t be going anywhere” and is likely to have a new contract confirmed with Mercedes as he played down suggestions that he could lose his seat to Max Verstappen.As he prepared for this weekend’s British Grand Prix, Russell, whose contract with Mercedes has yet to be renewed, said he thought the chances of him not being with the team next season were “exceptionally low”.Verstappen, in turn, flatly refused to comment on the matter.The speculation came on a day when there was more flux at the top of the sport as a challenge emerged to the authority of the president of the FIA, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, with the news that the former FIA steward Tim Mayer will stand against the president in elections later this year.On Wednesday, there were unconfirmed reports that Verstappen’s talks with Mercedes have intensified and that a deal was close to being confirmed.
However, it is understood this remains entirely speculation and that Mercedes are still conducting consideration of advances made toward them from the Verstappen camp,Russell was considered more likely to lose his seat than his teammate Kimi Antonelli were a deal to be done with Verstappen, but at Silverstone the Briton was bullish about his position,“I’ve been focused on my side, I am loyal to Mercedes, so at the end of the day, everything will work itself out,” he said,“And the likelihood I’m not at Mercedes next year, I think is exceptionally low,“For me it’s nothing to worry about as I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere and whoever my teammate is doesn’t concern me either, so I’ll just focus on the driving.
There’s a lot of conversations behind the scenes that are not public and I know where their [Mercedes’s] loyalty lies.I’m performing better than ever, it’s as simple as that, performance speaks for everything.”Mercedes are unlikely to announce any decision until the summer break after the Hungarian Grand Prix on 3 August, which is the point when potential exit clauses in Verstappen’s contract would become applicable.The Dutchman did not deny the talks were taking place but declined to make any further comment.It also became clear on Thursday at Silverstone that Mayer will announce his candidacy to oppose Ben Sulayem for the FIA presidency on Friday morning in a press conference.
The 59-year-old American was a long-serving FIA steward, well-liked and respected until he was sacked last November after a dispute between the governing body and the organisers of the US Grand Prix, for whom Mayer was working in an independent capacity.Mayer claimed the dismissal had taken place because Ben Sulayem personally took umbrage at him and he was highly critical of how it had been handled.“In spite of the matter being resolved quietly and amicably, he’s still upset and decided to fire me,” he said.“After 15 years of volunteering my time as a steward, a decade teaching other stewards and hundreds of hours volunteering in other roles, I got a text from one of his assistants.” The FIA denied he had been told by text message.
Sign up to The RecapThe best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s actionafter newsletter promotionMayer, the son of the McLaren co-founder Teddy Mayer, has enjoyed senior roles in Champ Car, the International Motor Sports Association and the American Le Mans Series, and was a chair of FIA’s stewards,His standing presents a credible threat to Ben Sulayem’s position,The Emirati has overseen four years of highly controversial governance at the FIA but has already announced his intention to stand for re-election, the voting for which will take place on 12 December,It is understood Mayer already has the requisite selection of senior figures who would join him in key positions, which is required by any candidate, and now faces the serious task of winning support from the motor sport associations that will decide the vote in December,
‘A billion people backing you’: China transfixed as Musk turns against Trump
Few break-ups have as many gossiping observers as the fallout between the once inseparable Donald Trump and Elon Musk.The ill-fated bromance between the US president and the world’s richest man, which once raised questions about American oligarchy, is now being pored over by social media users in China, many of whom are Team Musk.The latest drama comes from Musk’s pledge to found a new political party, the America party, if Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill, which Musk described as “insane” passed the Senate this week (it did). Musk had already vowed to unseat lawmakers who backed Trump’s flagship piece of legislation, which is expected to increase US national debt by $3.3tn
AI companies start winning the copyright fight
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. If you need me after this newsletter publishes, I will be busy poring over photos from Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s wedding, the gaudiest and most star-studded affair to disrupt technology news this year. I found it a tacky and spectacular affair. Everyone who was anyone was there, except for Charlize Theron, who, unprompted, said on Monday: “I think we might be the only people who did not get an invite to the Bezos wedding. But that’s OK, because they suck and we’re cool
China hosts first fully autonomous AI robot football match
They think it’s all over … for human footballers at least.The pitch wasn’t the only artificial element on display at a football match in China on Saturday. Four teams of humanoid robots took on each other in Beijing, in games of three-a-side powered by artificial intelligence.While the modern game has faced accusations of becoming near-robotic in its obsession with tactical perfection, the games in China showed that AI won’t be taking Kylian Mbappé’s job just yet.Footage of the humanoid kickabout showed the robots struggling to kick the ball or stay upright, performing pratfalls that would have earned their flesh-and-blood counterparts a yellow card for diving
Whitehall’s ambition to cut costs using AI is fraught with risk
A Dragons’ Den-style event this week, where tech companies will have 20 minutes to pitch ideas for increasing automation in the British justice system, is one of numerous examples of how the cash-strapped Labour government hopes artificial intelligence and data science can save money and improve public services.Amid warnings from critics that Downing Street has been “drinking the Kool-Aid” on AI, the Department of Health and Social Care this week announced an AI early warning system to detect dangerous maternity services after a series of scandals, and Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said he wants one in eight operations to be conducted by a robot within a decade.AI is being used to prioritise actions on the 25,000 pieces of correspondence the Department for Work and Pensions receives each day and to detect potential fraud and error in benefit claims. Ministers even have access to an AI tool that is supposed to provide a “vibe check” on parliamentary opinion to help them weigh the political risks of policy proposals.Again and again, ministers are turning to technology to tackle acute crises that in the past might have been dealt with by employing more staff or investing more money
Musk vows to unseat lawmakers who support Trump’s sweeping spending bill
Elon Musk has vowed to unseat lawmakers who support Donald Trump’s sweeping budget bill, which he has criticized because it would increase the country’s deficit by $3.3tn.“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame! And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,” he wrote on his social media platform, X.A few hours later he added that if the “insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day”.With these threats, lobbed at lawmakers over social media, the tech billionaire has launched himself back into a rift with the US president he helped prop up
Gov.uk smartphone app to launch with limited functionality
A government app intended to “cut life admin” will be free to download by millions of UK citizens from Tuesday, but its functions will be limited and the cabinet minister in charge has admitted: “The design is not as we would like it to be.”The gov.uk app will be accessible on smartphones for people aged 16 and over and is intended to be the main mobile hub for many citizen interactions with the government, although not the NHS or HM Revenue and Customs.Peter Kyle, the secretary of state for science and technology, said the version launched this week would only steer users to existing government webpages, with more functionality to be added by the end of the year.A generative artificial intelligence chatbot trained on 700,000 pages of the gov
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