The Official F1 2026 silly season *contains speculation*

[vaud]

ThingsBehindTheSun said:

Muzzer79 said:

ajprice said:

Lindblad coming in leaves 1 RB seat for Tsunoda and Lawson. One of them has to go

EFA

100%, it is pretty clear that Red Bull were forced to take Tsunoda to get the Honda engine. I believe that Helmut has never rated him, so now they no longer need the Honda engine they can get rid of the Honda driver.

"Marko was Lawson's boss as a Red Bull advisor, who oversaw his career and relationship with the Red Bull junior programs, including the Racing Bulls team and the parent Red Bull Racing team where Lawson was demoted after a short stint in 2025."

[vaud]

SpudLink said:

If the car s great, they ll put everything behind Alonso to get the best result possible. That s also likely to attract a top driver to replace him.

Lance s best chance to be #1 is if the car is so bad that no decent driver wants to be there.

Maybe not 2026 but a strong younger driver might consider it a risk after seeing the car in 2026.

[vaud]

Wild guess, he will end up in WEC.

[vaud]

Maybe he only wanted a one year deal, it cuts both ways.

My question is who has signed options at Ferrari for 2027+

[vaud]

carl_w said:

Horner is on gardening leave until next summer

Most rumour sites suggest early to mid 2026 rather than the full year.

[vaud]

carl_w said:

Certainly no reason to get rid of Andy Cowell now though.

Oh, agreed.

[vaud]

hondajack85 said:

Sounds like the sort of coded message they use in f1 to confuse a driver mid race lol.

Ferrari driver "Are we on plan K?"

Response "We are checking... possibly X-ray or Zulu..."

[vaud]

hondajack85 said:

I think Red Bull are looking good for 2026. It cant be that hard to produce and engine with approx 450-500hp.

Yeah super simple. Which is why the engine manufacturers are spending so much over a long period…

Your skills are clearly missed in an F1 team (as are mine)…

[vaud]

Newey now TP at Aston. Have to say I didn’t see that coming…

[vaud]

InformationSuperHighway said:

Or he took the job to keep Horner out of it.

Horner wants to be a ceo and have control and/or equity. He doesn’t need a TP role

[vaud]

ThingsBehindTheSun said:

I can't imagine who else Red Bull would put in the second seat. Surely Yuki is going to be without a drive next year, especially as Red Bull won't have Honda engines anymore.

Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad to take the Racing Bull seats

Yuki to WEC at a guess.

[vaud]

MiniMan64 said:

bks, fked that joke up good and proper didn t it?

Shame.

Blame puberty. I am still at 50+

[vaud]

Is that base pay or including win bonuses, points etc? And all private sponsor pay as well?

[vaud]

Supersam83 said:

This is salaries for 2026, so when he's actually driving. I don't think Mercedes gave him anywhere near $3m to just sit around all year.

Ok so a bunch of wild stabs in the dark.

[vaud]

PRO5T said:

There can't be much actual proof in any of that can there? George Russel looks money well spent.

Of course not, but we are now in the off season where blogs and sites need click bait.

The things like:

LEWIS RETIRES!!!!
from the party to go to bed.

or

12 things you never knew about Max and Lewis
Click to subscribe.

Having worked with journalists we are now into 3 weeks of pre-canned crap to fill blogs/column inches.

[vaud]

Milkyway said:

F1 needs some new young blood... quite a few of them are knocking on a bit now.
(In comparison).

Possibly, but F1 had a good intake of rookies this year, some very promising.

[vaud]

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/17Ec14M28K/?mibex...

F1 actually have a sense of humour…

[vaud]

Tea? In Italy?

Intravenous espresso maybe…

[vaud]

Well that is quite the demotion…

[vaud]

thegreenhell said:

I wonder how much they've offered Bono to move there from Mercedes.

I doubt he would move; he knows enough about the politics.