Running the London Marathon with Sebastian Vettel. Plus: Pierre Gasly and a $200K sponsor scam

Share articlePrime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic’s F1 newsletter. Sign up here to receive Prime Tire directly in your inbox twice a week during the season and weekly in the offseason. Welcome back to Prime Tire, where today I’m looking forward to exactly seven days from now, when it’ll be the first day of Formula 1 track action at the 2026 Miami Grand Prix. The unexpected spring break has been a welcome change for many team staff, given the short offseason between 2025 and 2026, but it will be good to get back to racing soon enough — especially as the controversial new cars might be fixed for the next race. (Full disclosure, I remain hugely skeptical the changes will really change all that much.) I’m Alex, and Luke Smith will be along later. I live in London. And one of the best times to be in the city is London Marathon day. People just come together and cheer on the runners in a truly delightful fashion for a city with a rather grumpy reputation. Anyway, for the race’s 2026 edition this Sunday, there are two intriguing F1 elements: Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel will be taking part alongside Tom Clarkson — the F1/FIA news conference host. If you’ve seen “F1: The Movie”™ ™ ™, you’ve seen Tom in action with his microphone. Vettel — a 53-time GP winner who competed for BMW Sauber, Toro Rosso, Red Bull, Ferrari and Aston Martin — retired from F1 at the end of the 2022 season after 299 races. And at his final race in Abu Dhabi, he organized a farewell track run.  Luke and I took part (pleased to say I was victorious in this very tiny, meaningless contest Luke wasn’t even aware he was in!), when I snapped the left picture below. That we’re all on the move explains the blur … Vettel graciously held his pace back as he jogged with his friend Mick Schumacher (these days racing in IndyCar) and chatted to many of the few hundred people from the F1 paddock that’d joined him for his farewell tour, including Tom (right). That is until the final sector, when both German drivers positively shifted into top gear and shot to the front of the field. Vettel then clapped the stragglers over the finish line shortly after. It was a classy gesture from one of F1’s true greats. These days, he commits his time to causes he cares about — from promoting women drivers to helping bees and saving the Amazon rainforest. And now, 26.2 relentless miles of central and eastern London. I gave Tom a call to hear how their joint marathon venture came about. Tom, a few years back, you were talking about starting an F1 media running club. Now you’re running a marathon with a four-time world champion. How did it all happen?  💬 So it came about, Kali, at the Brazilian GP last year. I was doing a “Beyond the Grid” (the official F1 podcast) with Vettel. And just while the cameras were being set up, I said to him, “Mate, you’re looking very trim.” And he said, “Yeah, I’m the same weight as when I retired from racing. I’m doing a lot of running. Actually, I’d quite like to do a marathon.” I had just committed to running the London marathon for the Brain & Spine Foundation and the Grand Prix Trust, two fantastic F1-related charities. The Brain and Spine Foundation was founded by Professor Sid Watkins (the first F1 medical delegate), and the Grand Prix Trust helps anyone directly involved in Formula 1, whether it’s mechanics or anything, who are in financial need. I said, slightly flippantly, to Seb, “Well, I’ve just committed to run the marathon for these two great charities, I wonder if they’ve got a place for you, if you wanted to do it? Anyway, I didn’t think anything more of it until his assistant emailed me the following week and said, “Sebastian thinks you might be able to get him an entry to the London Marathon.” And that’s kind of how it started. Have you been in contact with Vettel much throughout the training? Have you been comparing plans and things? 💬 Not really. There’s been a bit of banter, but no, we haven’t really talked much. Because who is the first person in F1 you want to beat? Your teammate. There’s a little bit of that going on here, in a very friendly, lovely way, I should add. We’re going to meet on the start line. We’ve just been training away and waiting for the big day. Vettel’s former Ferrari teammate, Kimi Räikkönen, once entered a snowmobile race wearing a gorilla suit. Will you guys be emulating him on Sunday? 💬 Mate, if I was good enough to run in a bear suit, I would! No, I need all the help I can get, and that is not wearing too much kit. I’m just hoping not to get overtaken by a fridge. Have you been running the tracks at the first three races this year as part of your training? 💬 I’ve always tried to run the tracks, partly to stay fit, and partly for professional reasons — to see if there’s been a change to the track layout or change to curbs, etc. It’s just quite an easy way to go and check out the tracks. This year I’ve been upping it. In China, I ran five laps. How are you feeling now the race is just around the corner? 💬 I’m quite happy to share that I’ve got ‘old man’s back.’ I’ve been told by a physio that if you’re old and you train too hard, quite often you get pain in your lower back. And that is exactly where I’m at. So, I’ve been doing quite a lot of swimming just trying to ease the lower back. Hopefully it will be fine come the race. Indeed! Good luck to Tom and Sebastian on Sunday. Now, over to Luke: Earlier this week, I made a trip to Woking to visit McLaren and check in with the team during this April break. We got the chance to tour the factory, looking at some of classic McLarens, as well as admiring the new trophy cabinet that was recently upgraded to house the team’s influx of new silverware over the last few F1 seasons. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri also took time to answer questions, which included getting their thoughts on Max Verstappen’s F1 future. The Red Bull driver has indicated he may walk away from F1 at the end of the year, given his frustration with the new generation of cars. “It would be a shame if that does end up happening,” said Piastri, who added it would be a “big loss” for F1 to lose one of its biggest stars and “not a great look” for the new cars. Norris felt Verstappen had earned the right to do what he wants. He has long respected the Dutchman’s abilities, but he said he would miss racing against Verstappen if the four-time world champion does indeed leave at the end of 2026. “You always feel like you want to race against the best in the world and he certainly is one of them,” said Norris. He added that he thought Verstappen would “stay longer than people say.” But Norris did see one small positive in the current saga: “If it gives me something to go watch — him in other (racing) categories. That’s also a good thing for me.” This week we published a really bizarre F1 story that I’ve been working on for a little while. Ever since I sat down for a chat with Alpine driver Pierre Gasly at the 2025 Las Vegas GP last November, in fact. Gasly is one of F1’s great characters. Forthright in his views, and he has the ability to back his words. Just look at how good he has been at the start of this season and so consistently over the last few years, despite with a succession of poor Alpine cars. It’s strange to think that had his time at Red Bull worked out differently, Gasly might’ve won far more than just the 2020 Italian GP for what is now the Racing Bulls squad. At the same time, although he was unceremoniously spat out the Red Bull driver program midway through 2019 — when he was demoted back to its junior team and Alex Albon rushed into his place alongside Verstappen that year — he might never have reached F1 without it. Red Bull had backed Gasly all the way toward F1, but just as it was about to finally promote him into the championship in 2017, it was having doubts. Or Helmut Marko — the ruthless now-former director of its junior program, was, anyway. As Gasly hadn’t won a race in what is now Formula 2 in 2015, Marko decided to apply both carrot and stick. And it led to this remarkable story. Essentially, Marko told Gasly he would be in F1 in 2017, if he won the 2016 GP2 title. But then he only gave him half of the $1 million budget he needed to secure a top GP2 seat. To seize his F1 moment, Gasly was willing to try whatever it took to find the money he suddenly needed. This included replying to a mystery email offering to plug his sponsorship shortfall by jumping on a plane with one day of notice … to Kampala, Uganda. As I say in the piece, “This is a story of gold, deceit and desperation on the path to F1. And a warning to those still treading it.” I hope you enjoy this mysterious tale, featuring a picture Gasly sent in of his rushed trip in a broken taxi: 🃏 McLaren has struck an exclusive deal with Fanatics Collectibles for Topps to produce the team’s official trading cards collection. ‼️ During Luke’s visit to McLaren’s factory on Wednesday, he heard team CEO Zak Brown launch another broadside against organizations owning multiple F1 teams. This currently happens with Red Bull and Racing Bulls, and with Mercedes recently emerging as a potential minority stakeholder in Alpine. 🧐 And F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali gave a remarkably tone deaf interview to “The Race F1 Podcast” about the criticism of the 2026 cars. “F1 has no problems” is the … gist. Patrick Iversen will get stuck into this topic when he’s back at the PT wheel Tuesday. 📫 Love Prime Tire? Check out The Athletic’s other newsletters. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms