Ralf Schumacher told Sky Deutschland’s Backstage Boxengasse podcast that Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso should consider retiring “to give young people a chance” and urged Ferrari to promote Oliver Bearman. Schumacher framed the remarks as opinion intended to spark discussion about veteran drivers making way for younger talent and possible mid-season or end-of-season moves. Bearman, a four-year member of Ferrari’s driver academy who impressed during a loan at Haas, could already challenge, or even be better than, Charles Leclerc and, in Schumacher’s view, might offer more to the team than Hamilton.

Former engineer Aldo Costa said Hamilton’s bid for an eighth world title now looked unlikely, arguing drivers tend to decline at 41 and calling Leclerc an “extremely strong” teammate. Hamilton, 41, is in his second season at Ferrari after leaving Mercedes at the end of 2024 and earned his first Ferrari podium with a third-place finish in Shanghai earlier this season. He was outpaced by Leclerc in Australia, Japan and Miami and had won only one head-to-head with Leclerc so far this season; his Miami result ahead of Leclerc came only after Leclerc received a post-race 20-second penalty. After four rounds Hamilton trailed championship leader Kimi Antonelli by 49 points and sat eight points behind Leclerc. Leclerc has seven podiums and one pole this season.

Fernando Alonso will turn 45 in July, recently became a father and is out of contract with Aston Martin at the end of the season; he has said he will decide “sometime in the summer” whether to extend his contract or race elsewhere. Separate reports also noted Alonso had publicly called for Hamilton to consider retirement. The combination of veteran contract uncertainty, public calls for retirement and suggestions to promote young drivers such as Bearman has kept succession planning at Ferrari and the wider generational shift in Formula 1 in the spotlight.

Andrea Stella said McLaren’s strong Miami weekend reinforced the belief the team can still defend its drivers’ and constructors’ titles, but he urged caution, calling the result “a breakthrough” and warning “it was only the fourth race.” He stressed McLaren must keep developing the car and framed Miami as an important step rather than proof the title defense is assured, and he said the team “definitely” intends to defend its constructors’ crown.

McLaren’s recovery followed a difficult start to the season marked by reliability problems and a double non-start for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in China. The team introduced its first major upgrade package to the MCL40 in Miami, where Norris won the Sprint and the upgraded cars produced a double podium in the Grand Prix, finishing second and third. After four rounds McLaren sat third in the constructors’ standings on 94 points, 86 points adrift of leaders Mercedes, with Norris fourth and Piastri sixth in the drivers’ table.

Stella publicly backed his driver pairing, saying McLaren “probably fields the strongest driver pairing” in Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri and arguing that if they remain consistently together they could pose a major threat. He also praised 19-year-old Kimi Antonelli, noting Antonelli’s three wins in the opening four races, a Miami hat-trick, and a surprise points lead, and credited Antonelli’s driving, consistency and close work with his engineers. Stella acknowledged Mercedes’ W17 has outpaced McLaren’s MCL40 early in the year, underscoring the need to make the car faster to fully capitalize on McLaren’s driver strength.

Lewis Hamilton urged F1 and the FIA to give drivers a formal seat at the table as the sport rewrites technical and sporting rules, saying drivers currently lack stakeholder status and meaningful influence over decisions that affect their safety and competitiveness. He said regulators have acknowledged drivers’ input, including on planned 2027 power-unit changes, but that acknowledgement has not translated into decision-making power. Hamilton pointed to midseason tweaks this season and the specific adjustments made for the Miami race as examples, and singled out the Pirelli tyre program as an area where closer collaboration could improve product and safety outcomes.

The debate resurfaced after several drivers from Williams, Ferrari and Audi joined FIA working groups, prompting questions in the paddock about whether such participation could tilt rules toward particular teams. Williams team principal James Vowles defended driver involvement, saying trusted drivers such as Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz are motivated by the health of the sport rather than narrow team advantage, but he warned against biased agendas and said too many voices could complicate decision-making. Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto stressed the FIA remains the ultimate authority on regulations and framed current driver input as broader consultation tied to the regulatory rewrite, not an expansion of disproportionate power.

Fred Vasseur said drivers were not excluded from discussions, reiterated that drivers have always provided technical feedback, and praised the governance system that allowed unanimous midseason rule changes. Tensions have produced concrete interventions and criticism: F1 introduced engine-regulation tweaks ahead of the Miami Grand Prix that drew criticism from fans and drivers, including Max Verstappen, and F1 management agreed to alter 2027 plans by increasing internal combustion engine output from the near 50-50 split with electric power. Vowles reported that FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis had consulted GPDA director Carlos Sainz. Those criticisms, consultations and technical adjustments underline continuing questions about how technical changes are made and who should have formal influence over the sport’s governance as it implements major changes.

Max Verstappen’s decision to make his Nürburgring 24 Hours debut produced unusually high ticket demand and forced a complete sell-out of the event for the first time in its history, organizers said, with only a limited number of day tickets remaining. Verstappen is due to race on May 16-17, 2026, with the four-hour-plus start scheduled for May 16 at 15:00 local time (14:00 UK). He will drive a Mercedes-AMG GT3 for a Red Bull-linked Team Verstappen run by Winward Racing, alongside co-drivers Lucas Auer, Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella.

Verstappen’s recent outings on the Nordschleife helped spark the surge in interest. He raced earlier in 2026 in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie with Winward, took pole position and showed front-running pace before a potential win was lost after a technical infringement led to disqualification. Lando Norris said he was excited to see Verstappen at the 24 Hours and praised a specific action Verstappen performed during his previous Nürburgring run. Public and media attention has followed the Dutch driver beyond the Formula 1 paddock.

The Nürburgring 24 Hours began in 1970 and has hosted more than 30 drivers with Formula 1 experience. With four world championships and more than 230 Grand Prix starts, Verstappen is the most decorated and experienced Formula 1 competitor ever to enter the race. Past F1 world champions to race the event include Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet and Jack Brabham, and Lauda remains the only F1 champion to have won the Nürburgring 24 Hours, in 1973. The event’s record holders among former F1 drivers include Hans-Joachim Stuck, with 19 entries and three overall wins, Markus Winkelhock, with 16 starts and three wins, and Pedro Lamy, who has five overall victories. Observers and organizers framed Verstappen’s entry as the latest chapter in a long-running tradition of Formula 1 drivers crossing into endurance and GT competition.

Sergio Perez warned that Cadillac must find consistent on-track performance quickly and speed up development across departments or risk being left behind in the 2026 F1 campaign. He pointed to well-resourced rivals such as Aston Martin, which has invested heavily, including a new simulator and targeted hiring, as a particular threat to a newcomer. Cadillac entered F1 this season running Ferrari customer engines and only put its maiden F1 car on track on January 16. The team has not yet scored championship points. Perez said scoring points would likely require a chaotic race.

Cadillac has shown encouraging moments but only occasional promise in the opening rounds. The team looked competitive in Miami, splitting the two Aston Martin cars and benefiting from upgrades, with Perez running as high as 15th in the sprint and finishing 13th in the Grand Prix, close behind Fernando Alonso in both races. Persistent problems have included reliability issues and excessive tire degradation that has cost performance. Perez also said he would have chosen softs instead of the hard tire he ran in one race.

Across the early rounds the Cadillac was about 1.3 seconds off the Q2 cutoff, a gap that narrowed to roughly 0.3 seconds in Miami sprint qualifying before rivals were able to extract more pace. Operationally the team has made visible gains, pit stops improving from 25.793 seconds in China to 23.228 seconds in Miami, quicker than Ferrari, Haas and Audi that weekend but still behind Mercedes’ best of 22.042 seconds. Cadillac has also signed Valtteri Bottas. Perez said getting a better understanding of the MAC-26 ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix is a short-term priority, and the team frames short-term fixes and targeted upgrades as essential to closing the gap with established teams.

Ford publicly endorsed the FIA draft to shift next-generation Formula 1 power units from the 50/50 combustion/electric split introduced this season to a roughly 60/40 combustion/electric balance planned for 2027. Ford Performance boss Mark Rushbrook called the proposal “a good step” and said “we would love to see a V8 here.” Ford said it supports the FIA’s broader vision of returning to V8 power units, with FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem targeting a return by 2031, and expects to reconcile that direction with its comeback partnership with Red Bull Powertrains, pledging to commit full resources despite a difficult start to the season.

The FIA draft would increase fuel flow and combustion output by about 50 kW while reducing available electrical deployment by a similar amount, subject to technical and political approval. Rushbrook welcomed the greater internal combustion emphasis but warned it could create technical and packaging challenges, including fuel tank sizing, necessary chassis redesigns, and implications for the cost cap that teams and the FIA will need to manage.

Drivers criticized this season’s package for excessive battery management, reduced flat-out wheel-to-wheel racing, and unusual energy-harvesting tactics. Other manufacturers offered conditional support: GM president Mark Reuss said he liked the V8 sound while noting investments in current V6 hybrid units, and reports suggest Audi is likely less supportive.

The Miami-spec upgrade, intended for Race 1 but delayed by winter build issues and a missed Barcelona shakedown, finally debuted in Miami and began cutting weight. Williams expects a clearer turnaround in the final third of the season.

Miami produced Williams’ first double-points weekend of the year as Carlos Sainz finished ninth and Alex Albon tenth, lifting the team to eighth in the constructors’ standings and clear of Audi. Reports differ on the championship arithmetic: some outlets say Miami gave Williams its first points of the season, others say it added three points to an existing two, a shortfall traced to an overweight FW48 early in the year. Williams was sixth-fastest across the weekend.

Sainz said the package reached the competitive baseline Williams had targeted but remained well short of the team’s long-term goal, and he said Alpine was roughly 20 seconds clear. He warned a full recovery could take months, said there was no single silver bullet and noted more parts and small updates are due over the next rounds. Team principal James Vowles described Miami as a better weekend and said the team brought around 30 performance projects to the car, including a new floor, new bodywork, front-wing changes, modified rear suspension and exhaust-blowing work. He said further development is planned through the Canadian round and beyond and the team hopes to use the Miami breakthrough to build momentum into the latter part of the season while acknowledging rival development paths remain an unknown.

McLaren sporting director Andrea Stella publicly urged major changes to Formula 1 power unit regulations, calling for higher fuel flow to raise internal combustion engine (ICE) power, much greater electrical energy harvesting from roughly 350 kW toward 400-450 kW, and larger batteries to rebalance harvesting versus deployment. Stella asked that revised power-unit hardware and rules be finalized within two years, effectively by mid-2028, framing the request as a McLaren push to shift the balance between hybrid systems and ICE power ahead of the next rules cycle.

Multiple sources and technical analysts warned the substantive hardware changes face long lead times and design constraints, saying higher fuel flow would force larger fuel tanks and likely chassis redesigns. Manufacturers and teams have largely planned to retain their 2027 chassis, which makes meaningful implementation before 2028 unlikely.

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem signaled interest in a return to V8 engines in the next rules cycle, and McLaren driver Lando Norris joked that teams should consider ‘getting rid of the battery.’