The 2026 Formula 1 calendar has a rare open weekend, and the rumour mill has taken full advantage. Max Verstappen’s exit clause. Oscar Piastri’s future at McLaren. Christian Horner’s next chapter. A possible Yuki Tsunoda move to Haas. Bahrain quietly slotting itself onto the calendar, then possibly slipping off it again. Episode 80 of Away We Go Podcast runs through F1 silly season 2026, the rumours worth watching and the ones already looking shaky.
Host Dianne Bortoletto, calling in from Margaret River, is joined by regular co-host Ciara Gillan of Formula Life Pulse from Berlin for a between-races catch-up on where the driver market actually sits heading into Spa.
F1 silly season 2026: Max to McLaren, Oscar to Red Bull
The loudest rumour of the week has Verstappen triggering his performance-based exit clause at Red Bull and moving to McLaren, which would push Piastri onto the market. Mark Webber, Piastri’s manager, and McLaren CEO Zak Brown have both denied it. Bortoletto is not buying the denials, pointing out that Verstappen was reportedly seen leaving the McLaren motorhome after a meeting that officially never happened.
Gillan makes the counter case for Verstappen staying put. His Red Bull contract lets him race in his own GT team on the side, and at McLaren he would be sharing top billing with Lando Norris rather than sitting as undisputed number one. Bortoletto’s read is blunter: Verstappen would not be equal number one for long, and the Jos Verstappen factor would follow him into any new garage. Cameras caught Jos exchanging pointed words with Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies at Silverstone.
The Piastri-to-Red Bull half of the equation draws more skepticism from both hosts, who question whether Mekies can build a championship-winning car around him, and whether trading a McLaren seat for a Red Bull rebuild would be a career step forward or a gamble.
Christian Horner, Flavio Briatore and the shifting driver market
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has reportedly said Horner will return to Formula 1, without specifying when or in what role. Aston Martin, Alpine and Ferrari have all been floated. Gillan reads Horner as someone driven by power and vanity, and tips him to land at a team he can rebuild rather than in a governing role. Bortoletto is not ruling out the FIA option.
Alpine is complicated by Flavio Briatore, who is delivering results but who both hosts agree could not share a garage with Horner. Add Gucci’s new Alpine partnership to Louis Vuitton’s title sponsorship of the championship and the fashion politics in the paddock are about to get interesting.
Yuki Tsunoda is being linked to Haas, which has a Toyota partnership and a use for a Japanese driver, particularly one arriving with funding attached. Esteban Ocon has been outperformed by rookie teammate Ollie Bearman all season and is under real pressure.
The Piastri special helmet curse, and the F1 Academy question
Fellow Australian podcaster Josh from Second Seat Podcast surfaced a stat worth checking before Piastri debuts his next one-off design. Since entering Formula 1 in 2023, Piastri has raced with a special helmet 14 times, according to Second Seat Podcast, and the results include one DNF, one disqualification, two no-points finishes, six results of P4 or lower and three podiums, with no wins.
The conversation closes on F1 Academy. Ciara Battig, a 16 year old from Switzerland born in 2010, took pole as a wildcard at the Silverstone round and finished second in the feature race. Abbi Pulling has become the first woman to win a GB3 race. Dutch driver Nina Gadaman tested an Alpine E20 Formula 1 car at an airfield. The Silverstone weekend itself drew 564,000 fans through the gates, a Formula 1 record according to Bortoletto.
The frustration, on both sides of the call, is the missing pathway from F1 Academy up through F3 and F2. Susie Wolff has said the talent pool is not yet deep enough to expect a woman on the Formula 1 grid, which is exactly the problem F1 Academy exists to solve, if the ladder above it can be built quickly enough.
Also on the watch list: whether Bahrain gets slotted into the 2 to 4 October weekend between Baku and Singapore, and whether the deteriorating situation in the Middle East forces Formula 1 management to reshape the back end of the calendar entirely. Stefano Domenicali has said a decision will land before the summer break.
Full episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.