Reports say Gianpiero Lambiase will leave Red Bull at the end of 2027 to join McLaren in 2028. Multiple outlets credited Lambiase as a central technical and strategic figure across Max Verstappen’s four drivers’ championships and Red Bull’s 2022 and 2023 constructors’ wins, and say he has agreed to a McLaren contract described by some sources as an “astronomical” or “huge” sum, many times his current wage. Sources also report Lambiase told reporters he will not serve as a race engineer for another driver.

Media reports say McLaren beat rival interest from teams including Aston Martin and Williams to secure Lambiase, and that the team would reunite him with former Red Bull colleagues Rob Marshall and Will Courtenay. De Telegraaf reported Lambiase recently received a promotion to head of racing at Red Bull and that he turned down an Aston Martin team principal role. Some coverage speculates McLaren could install Lambiase in a senior leadership post, and that the move has raised questions about Andrea Stella’s future, with reports linking Stella to a possible switch to Ferrari.

The planned departure has been cast in the context of a wider exodus of senior Red Bull figures, with reporting naming moves such as Adrian Newey to Aston Martin and Jonathan Wheatley to Audi, along with the exit or dismissal of Christian Horner and references to Helmut Marko. The timing and reported financial terms prompted a strong social media reaction, with fans and commentators interpreting the news as having major implications for Verstappen and team dynamics. At the time of publication, neither Red Bull, McLaren nor Max Verstappen had issued formal statements and the reports remain unconfirmed.

Juan Pablo Montoya publicly urged Audi to hire “somebody like Christian,” praising Christian Horner’s record and warning that “people may underestimate what Horner achieved.” Sources credit Horner with eight drivers’ championships at Red Bull, and reports vary on his number of constructors’ titles (some outlets say six, others seven). Horner was sacked in July 2025 and replaced by Laurent Mekies after the British Grand Prix. He has publicly sought a comeback to F1 and is reportedly evaluating options, including buying the 24% Alpine stake controlled by Otro Capital. He has said he would only consider a role with full control and shareholding and is reluctant to relocate.

Jonathan Wheatley stepped down between the Chinese and Japanese Grands Prix after roughly a year overseeing the former Sauber/Audi operation and is reportedly set to join Aston Martin. His departure left Audi with an immediate leadership vacuum. Mattia Binotto, Audi’s project head, has taken interim team principal duties and said he will keep the role for now but needs extra support at race weekends while he focuses on a factory transformation program. Montoya argued Audi will still need a senior, hands-on leader to support Binotto.

Sources describe several possible routes for Horner’s return, including buying the Otro Capital stake, a target also said to interest Mercedes, and say Horner insists on full control and shareholding as part of any leadership role. He faced controversies in 2024–25 that he denied and was twice cleared of. Audi has presented leadership clarity and organizational alignment as immediate priorities as it aims to compete for world championships by 2030. The team has also flagged early-season power-unit issues and recorded a points finish on its Australia debut.

McLaren said it accelerated the testing and development of 21-year-old Italian Leonardo Fornaroli after he did not secure a 2026 race seat, signing him over the winter as a reserve driver for 2026. Fornaroli, the reigning FIA Formula 2 champion who won consecutive FIA F3 and F2 titles without prior backing from an F1 junior program, will share reserve duties with IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward. Regulations require teams to give rookies two FP1 sessions, and McLaren expects Fornaroli to make his official F1 debut later in 2026.

Fornaroli completed his first on-track F1 tests in McLaren’s 2023 MCL60 recently at Barcelona and Silverstone, covering more than 900 kilometers in total, with 112 laps (512 km) at Barcelona and 68 laps (393 km) at Silverstone. McLaren described the Silverstone outing as a full-day session and an evolution of the earlier program. The tests focused on long stints with lower fuel and evaluations on hard and soft tire compounds to simulate race conditions; Fornaroli said the sessions helped him try different setups and build comfort with F1 machinery, and he reported noticeable improvements after the longer runs and setup work. McLaren noted the Silverstone run included 16 more laps than F1 drivers managed at last year’s British Grand Prix.

The team called the outings part of a structured Driver Development Program that pairs on-track work with simulator sessions at McLaren’s Woking base and trackside exposure, including attendance at the Japanese Grand Prix. Sporting director Alessandro Alunni Bravi said Fornaroli “made fantastic progress throughout” and showed consistency and a quick ability to learn. McLaren said he will have additional track outings across a variety of circuits and will support the team both trackside and in the simulator, providing significant seat time and data on how he adapts to the MCL60 under varied fuel and tire conditions.

Martin Brundle warned that autonomous, self-learning energy deployment in the new 2026 Formula 1 cars may be breaching Article 27.1 of the sporting regulations by undermining driver control and making race decisions for drivers.

Speaking on The F1 Show and Sky Sports F1, Brundle said the power units appear capable of overriding driver inputs and argued regulators must examine whether that behavior contravenes the rule that the driver must drive “alone and unaided.”

He called the current power delivery architecture “fundamentally flawed” and said “drivers should not be surprised by a car’s behavior.”

Mercedes and McLaren will run a two-day Pirelli tire test at the Nurburgring on April 14-15. The outing will bring current-era F1 cars back to the circuit for the first time since the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix.

Pirelli describes the sessions as a technical tire program and the test has been promoted informally as a “Spring Break” Mercedes test. One report named Mercedes drivers as George Russell and Kimi Antonelli and McLaren drivers as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, split across the two days; another source said drivers had not been confirmed, though both teams are expected to divide duties across the test days.

The sessions will run on the Nurburgring’s GP layout and are scheduled as non-competitive tire work to provide data for Pirelli’s development program. Several sources said the work will focus on dry compounds after recent Pirelli running at Suzuka, but Pirelli has not formally confirmed whether sessions will target wet or dry tires and can artificially wet the surface if required. The GP layout’s 17 corners, large run-off areas and advanced monitoring make the track well suited to precise data gathering as teams evaluate tire behavior, car setup and long-run performance to inform future compounds and construction.

The Nurburgring outing replaces a planned pre-season wet trial in Bahrain and fills on-track time lost after the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix and the Bahrain test were canceled. Reports linked those cancellations to missile strikes tied to the US and Israel offensive on Iran. Organizers and supporters hope the return of top-level cars will strengthen calls to reinstate the Nurburgring on the official F1 calendar, and the work will give drivers preparation ahead of the championship resuming at the Miami Grand Prix on May 3.

Alpine issued an open letter rejecting social‑media sabotage claims and condemning online abuse, calling the allegations “completely unfounded” and “illogical and counterproductive.” The team stressed it would not intentionally handicap itself and said the statement was meant to defend its drivers and quash rumor‑driven speculation. It added both cars run the same equipment apart from some small, low‑performance parts used in China after a gearbox‑component switch.

The letter followed a string of on‑track incidents and hostile fan reaction. At the Chinese GP in Shanghai, Franco Colapinto finished 10th, 49 seconds behind teammate Pierre Gasly, after a collision with Esteban Ocon; Alpine said Ocon accepted responsibility. Some Argentine fans publicly suggested specification differences, used pejorative language about Colapinto’s car and directed death threats at Ocon. Colapinto said the team needed to “understand a few things on the high‑speed corners” and to source missing parts after the incident.

Alpine also addressed the high‑speed crash at the Japanese GP at Suzuka involving Colapinto and Haas driver Ollie Bearman. Bearman reportedly experienced a 50G impact after taking avoiding action for an estimated 45 km/h speed differential while Colapinto was harvesting energy. The team said “abuse of any kind is unacceptable,” confirmed it actively moderates its channels and is coordinating with F1 and the FIA, which has said it will examine the speed differential and will not issue immediate penalties, and will participate in planned April meetings to review regulations. Alpine urged fans to engage respectfully, highlighted driver welfare and fan conduct as immediate concerns, and said internal procedures and social‑media moderation are being used to address misconduct.

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.