Author Archives: PressBox

Audi has acknowledged its biggest weakness this season — poor race starts — stems from a structural flaw in the new power unit and cannot be fixed quickly by the FIA’s ADUO process. Acting team principal Mattia Binotto said fixing the deficit is a “top priority” but warned that “miracles are not possible.” The team notes ADUO provides structured concessions, ranging from a single immediate change for small deficits to larger allowances and extra dyno time for more serious shortfalls, but its quarterly checkpoints and long engine lead times make a rapid on-track cure unlikely. Reports vary on when the first ADUO review will occur; some suggest it could be considered at early-season rounds such as Monaco or Miami.

Audi engineers say the problem is hardware-related rather than down to clutch settings or driver reaction times. They point to a relatively large turbo compressor whose higher inertia delays boost arrival. That delayed boost forces the electrical part of the powertrain to cover torque shortfalls, burning harvested energy early in the lap and leaving the unit disadvantaged against rivals.

Rookie Gabriel Bortoleto was blunt: “starts have been terrible so far.” Both drivers lost places off the line in Japan — Bortoleto fell from P8 to P13 and Nico Hülkenberg from P13 to P19, turning promising grid slots into damage-limitation races. Binotto said Audi will pursue a staged recovery rather than chasing quick fixes and is targeting to be world-championship competitive by 2030; the team hopes only modest improvements may be possible during a five-week break and accepts that closing the gap to Ferrari and Mercedes will be a long-term programme.

Daniel Ricciardo said he was “grateful” that Red Bull and sister team Racing Bulls replaced him with Liam Lawson late in the 2024 season, speaking on Ford CEO Jim Farley’s podcast. He said the decision was taken out of his hands and that he felt relieved the team made the call because it would have been difficult for him to walk away on his own; the Singapore Grand Prix was his final race of the year.

Ricciardo’s exit closed a 14-season Formula 1 career with 257 starts; sources differ on whether he won seven or eight Grands Prix. He traced the end of his time in the sport to a difficult two-year period following the loss of his McLaren seat in 2022.

He returned mid-2023 to Racing Bulls by taking Nyck de Vries’s seat, but his comeback was interrupted by a broken hand in practice at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix. Racing Bulls retained him into 2024 before later replacing him; being let go twice in two years “had taken a lot out of me,” he said, leaving him “pretty exhausted” and prompting him to be honest with himself about stepping away.

Rival teams regard Red Bull’s new power unit as strong in the squad’s first year as an engine manufacturer, but the team’s 2026 slump has been traced inside the factory to persistent RB22 chassis problems. After three races the squad had just 16 points and sat sixth in the Constructors’ Championship — their worst opening sequence since 2008 — and engineers are privately debating whether the RB22 should be heavily revised or even scrapped.

Technical staff and drivers singled out the chassis rather than the power unit. Isack Hadjar described the RB22 as a “terrible” chassis, “just slow in the corners,” and warned the team currently has “no lead on how we can make a fast one,” while saying drivers can still “drive the car fast.” Team principal Laurent Mekies said the expected gap to Mercedes has widened to roughly a second and about half a second to Ferrari, that the squad has been “starting to scratch heads” since China, and that engineers are diagnosing complex balance and lift/extraction problems while carrying out targeted development work. The team plans to use an enforced five-week break to work intensively on the RB22 ahead of Miami.

Those technical setbacks have fuelled internal unease. Sources reported staff privately questioning whether the team were better off under Christian Horner, and long-serving mechanic Ole Schack resigned citing a changed working atmosphere. Horner still retains supporters within the factory after two decades and eight title-winning campaigns, but Mekies — who took over in July and initially helped reignite Max Verstappen’s title bid last season — now faces increased scrutiny over his leadership and technical direction. The situation has also heightened pressure on Verstappen, who has threatened to retire at the end of the season and has partly linked that threat to the 2026 regulations. Any decision to abandon or deeply rework the RB22 would carry major logistical and competitive consequences, and reports stress such moves remain internal discussions rather than confirmed decisions.

Ferrari has scheduled a focused April on-track program — a Mugello Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) session and a Monza filming day — explicitly to validate aerodynamic updates and energy-recovery systems, translate simulator gains into real-world feedback and keep cars and personnel race-ready ahead of the Miami Grand Prix. The activity fills a five-week gap created by the cancellations of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix and, Ferrari says, is designed to secure engine gains, protect the team’s positive start to 2026 and close the straight-line speed shortfall that rivals including Lewis Hamilton have highlighted.

The first element is a two-day TPC at Mugello using last year’s SF-25 under relaxed FIA rules. Test and simulator drivers Antonio Giovinazzi, Arthur Leclerc and Antonio Fuoco are set to run the car to convert simulator data into on-track feedback and to validate setups and driver inputs. Sources differ on the exact start date — reporting either April 1-2 or beginning April 2 — but all agree the outing will be carried out by Ferrari’s test outfit rather than regular race drivers.

Ferrari will follow Mugello with additional, limited on-track work: a two-day artificial wet test at Fiorano on April 9-10 and a 200 km filming day at Monza in late April (reported as April 21 or 22). At Monza Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton are expected to drive the SF-26 for up to 200 km to gather energy-recovery-system data, produce promotional footage and trial aerodynamic updates — including a revised “Macarena” wing earmarked for a Miami debut. Team statements and multiple reports describe Monza as particularly demanding for energy management under the 2026 rules, and Ferrari emphasized that all sessions will be conducted within the FIA’s TPC and filming-day limits as low-profile work to refine systems ahead of Miami.