Formula Fanatics: Looking Ahead to the Wild World of F1 in 2026

In this episode of Formula Fanatics, a subseries of the the Drive Thru News, the hosts dive into the latest Formula 1 news and provide analyses and predictions for the 2026 season. The discussion covers a wide range of topics including the current state and future performance of top drivers like Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, and emerging rookies. They also examine upcoming changes in car designs and engine regulations, speculate on team dynamics, and humorously discuss the performance expectations for new entries like Cadillac and Audi. Furthermore, they consider the impacts of team management and sponsorships on driver performance and fate. With enthusiastic banter and in-depth analysis, the episode not only recaps the past year’s highlights but also builds anticipation for the upcoming F1 season.

Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

• 00:00 Welcome to Formula Fanatics
• 00:39 Reflecting on 2025 Predictions & Lewis Hamilton’s Season Recap
• 02:31 Ferrari’s Future and 2026 Changes
• 04:02 Who’s moving to IndyCar?
• 05:05 Sponsorship and Branding in F1
• 07:28 New Tracks and 2026 Season Updates
• 09:04 Driver Lineup Speculations
• 12:42 Ferrari’s Decisions and Hamilton’s Performance
• 15:09 Predicting the 2026 Season
• 16:21 Haas vs. Audi: A Comparative Analysis
• 19:03 Driver Predictions and Team Strategies
• 23:29 Closing Thoughts and Lightning Round

Executive Producer Tania: [00:00:00] Welcome to Formula Fanatics, the high octane subseries of break Fix podcasts, drive through Motorsports News. This is your pit stop or all things formula one from breaking headlines and race recaps to insider analysis and paddock buzz. Whether you are a diehard to foso, a Red Bull loyalist, or just love the thrill of wheel to wheel racing.

We’ve got you covered with UpToDate F1 News delivered at full throttle. Strap in because the lights are out and we’re underway. This is formula fanatics.

Crew Chief Eric: All right, let’s talk 2026. Let’s do it. So let’s go back to our predictions. You’ve heard the last 11 months as we’ve ranted and raved about Formula One. So I wanna say, I wanna go back to the beginning. We battled back and forth last January about Formula One, and I made some pretty bold statements. None that I can’t [00:01:00] come back from because I think they all came true at the end of the day.

Did I or did I not say Third Race would lock in Lewis Hamilton for the rest of the year?

Crew Chief Brad: I don’t know what you said that would require me to listen to the podcast, which I don’t do, so

Executive Producer Tania: I’m sure you did, but I don’t think any of us said he was gonna win. No, but there was all this, but Louis, but

Crew Chief Eric: Louis, but Louis, but Louis.

Executive Producer Tania: Back marker. You can’t be considered a back marker to finish. Sixth. Overall, what did Ricky Bobby say? I

Crew Chief Brad: first July, my point, I

Executive Producer Tania: mean, so then there were 19 people in last place, and Lando was in first. Okay. Yes.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, so they, they were all tied for last.

Crew Chief Eric: So going back to Lewis for just a second, did you notice.

Like Midseason, the excuses started to peter off kind of when we settled into sucking, like there was no more the engine breaking. There was no more this, there was no more that, there was no more blah, blah, blah, blah. I did see a bunch of stuff on the internet about how oh, everybody should listen to what Lewis has to say.

Ferrari’s not listening to him, blah, blah, blah. And then you saw a bunch of social [00:02:00] media posts about how. Ferrari’s not gonna build that new F 40, you know, all this stuff. And I’m like, yeah, they were never gonna do that to begin with. I kind of wanna know what happened halfway into the later part of the season.

Did he just buckle down and say, that’s it, I, I, I got nothing else to add. Like even his interviews were really curt and short.

Crew Chief Brad: He may have gotten a call from Ferrari saying, Hey. Stop it. The car is great. Or maybe he just didn’t care anymore. He went right into full. I’m just gonna call it a paycheck. I don’t care.

Executive Producer Tania: They know the car wasn’t gonna do anymore, so what’s the point?

Crew Chief Eric: Do we think the next year’s car’s gonna be any better? At Ferrari?

Executive Producer Tania: They’re all gonna be different, so we don’t know. They’re shorter wheel based. They’re narrower. The wings are more adjustable. The MHU thing is gone. They’re what? V six. Twin turbo

Crew Chief Eric: hybrids, something or other.

I thought they were already V six twin turbos. Now. I don’t remember. They’re really small. Six cylinders, like one and a half liters or something like that. Something’s

Executive Producer Tania: changing.

Crew Chief Eric: No kidding.

Executive Producer Tania: Formula one’s 2026. Engine changes shift to a roughly [00:03:00] 50 50 combustion electric power split. Using a hundred percent sustainable fuel, significantly boost the electrical power for closer racing, eliminating the complex MGUH, whatever that means.

The motor generator unit. Well, I know what that is. Yes. Sorry, thought you said, I don’t know what that is. So who knows how the car, any of their cars are gonna be,

Crew Chief Brad: I predict Ferrari’s gonna be one and two

Executive Producer Tania: in a different racing

Crew Chief Eric: series. Lama.

Crew Chief Brad: That’s my bold prediction.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. Okay. I

Executive Producer Tania: have no idea. Audi one. No

Crew Chief Eric: kidding.

There is no way. No, they’re going to be terrible. Have they announced the second driver yet? Bto? No, they’re keeping it. Yeah. Holberg and Bline. Oh my God. That’s, they’re gonna be terrible. They’re, they’re terrible now.

Executive Producer Tania: Hey, you know Nico finished 11th, Gabrielle 19th.

Crew Chief Brad: Where did Anoa finish?

Crew Chief Eric: 17th? No, he finished an Indy car.

Yeah, because he’s out.

Crew Chief Brad: Eno’s gonna race in those movies with Jackie Chan. That’s where he’s gonna be.

Crew Chief Eric: Good lord. Well, he’s [00:04:00] joining Mick Schumacher over at IndyCar as well. IndyCar the place where Formula One drivers go to retire. They’re never coming back from that. There’s no way. I don’t think it’s actually confirmed

Executive Producer Tania: that he’s going to IndyCar,

Crew Chief Eric: so the way it reads is he’s going to be a reserve driver for Red Bull slash whatever they’re calling the other team this year.

What I also read was that he had a seat waiting for him in IndyCar. Yeah, I think you can be a reserve driver and still race in another series, because basically when you’re on reserve, they’re probably not gonna call you. Mm-hmm. What motors do they use in IndyCar? They’re still using, normally aspirated, or no, I’m sorry.

They’re using like turbo eights or Turbo sixes. Okay, so they do have Honda Motors.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, so the problem is possibly allegedly if he’s a reserve driver for Red Bull. He’s challenged to go to IndyCar because of the motors, because it’s not a Honda motor anymore in the Red Bull and there’s no Ford motor in IndyCar.

What’s that got to do with the [00:05:00] price of T? I don’t think he’s allowed to. I think there’s a sponsorship issue.

Crew Chief Eric: I’ve never seen Max, not in his sort of Red Bull uniform. You ever noticed that

Executive Producer Tania: they have to, they have to wear all their sponsorship stuff, like even to the point that they can’t. Be seen drinking something that isn’t, whatever their sponsorship is.

So like he has to be like seen holding a red Bull, like all of them are like that. I remember when I had the opportunity to meet Tony Stewart and run around like an idiot trying to find him branded whatever was his sponsored drink, like the bottle of water, like to get him a bottle of water, had to be Dasani because I think Pepsi was who the back sponsor was.

So it was like either you have like a cup that has nothing on it. Or you had to have something that was branded per the sponsorship. Like God forbid it was Aquafina

Crew Chief Eric: made by Coke. Yeah, the sponsorship

Executive Producer Tania: was gonna get upset.

Crew Chief Eric: So how does it work for BOTAs when he is like naked all the time and Lewis wears his own stuff?

Max is like a machine. I think he sleeps in his Red Bull uniform. Like that’s what I’m getting at. Like everybody else has their thing, right? But it’s craziness.

Executive Producer Tania: I [00:06:00] think whenever they have to do the promo stuff, though, they have to be in their sponsored gear. I mean, max really doesn’t do more than he has to.

You know what I mean? So I think that’s why we never see him in any other form, is because he wants to be left alone and just do his thing. Hmm.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s rich energy, right?

Executive Producer Tania: Maybe. No, that matters. I don’t know. I don’t freaking pay attention.

Crew Chief Eric: IndyCar, the most popular, not watched motor sport on television.

Crew Chief Brad: No, that’s rally.

Crew Chief Eric: Hey. Hey now. Hey, now don’t

Crew Chief Brad: start. Don’t start.

Crew Chief Eric: So Mick Schumacher on his way to IndyCar as well in 2026. That is interesting. Move there too. But good to see him behind the wheel of. Something,

Crew Chief Brad: not an Uber or delivery car.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s what he’s been doing in the meantime.

Crew Chief Brad: Exactly.

Crew Chief Eric: Speaking of that, you guys talked about Audi a little bit for 2026.

I mean, obviously we have Cadillac coming online. I am enjoying every social media post by BOTAs. They’re hilarious. Just some of the stuff he’s putting out there, like, do you see the goodbye to Mercedes? Thing that he did, basically the punch on is they strip him down ’cause they want all of his Mercedes logoed stuff back.

Like he’s not allowed to keep [00:07:00] it. So he ends up basically in his underwear at the end of this video and he’s like so sad. And then he like jumps in like a lake or something and it’s, it’s just. Totally bizarre, but it it was really kind of funny. It’s totally

Crew Chief Brad: bogus.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, exactly. But it, it was hilarious.

I’m glad to see him coming back and we’ll see how he does a Cadillac with Checko.

Crew Chief Brad: Oh, that’s right. Cadillac. Cadillac’s gonna be one and two.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. Okay.

Crew Chief Brad: Okay.

Crew Chief Eric: Maybe an IMSA but not, and Formula One. So we talked about changes to the cars, any new tracks. Coming? Yes to the schedule. Next year. What’s going on?

Crew Chief Brad: Maple Valley.

Crew Chief Eric: Maple Valley

Crew Chief Brad: backwards. That’s two thousands. That’s what they’re bringing back.

Crew Chief Eric: What was the one in Grand? Theres mode. That was like Apricot Hill.

Crew Chief Brad: Apricot Hill. What’s Apple? Teeny Valley.

Crew Chief Eric: What new tracks we have next year? Tanya, another one in Italy. They are bringing back. Portugal.

Crew Chief Brad: What? Oh yes. I love Portugal with that giant sweeping turn. That’s my favorite. [00:08:00] Yes. That means there’s hope.

Crew Chief Eric: Maybe we’ll get a French Grand Prix after all these years. Can we go back to Mag Core?

Like seriously, there’s some of the best races. We’re at that track. Oh, but it’s not coming till 2027. Oh, get outta here. Get outta here. Wwo. Yeah. What else is going on? Anything else changing that we know about yet other than Adrian Newie? Is gonna be team principal at

Executive Producer Tania: Aston. Well, there are rumors slurring about who sits in a corner.

Mr. Horner. Oh Lord. Perhaps there’s a

Crew Chief Eric: home for him at Alpine. I thought you were gonna say with Gunther Steiner over running motorcycles.

Crew Chief Brad: I wasn’t gonna say at Rikers

Crew Chief Eric: Alpine. Really? Rumors.

Crew Chief Brad: The rumor mill is a buzz.

Crew Chief Eric: What’s he gonna do with Kop? Pinto and whoever the other guy is. Gly? Yeah. I can never remember who drives for Alpine.

Crew Chief Brad: He’s already fired Gly once. He’s just gonna keep firing. He is gonna follow Gly around. Oh geez. Fire him throughout F1.

Crew Chief Eric: Poor [00:09:00] guy. He might quit. If Christian Horner comes back, he might just be like, I’m out. This is stupid. Other than what we talked about during the recap, do we know of any drivers that are stepping up outside of, you know, Checo and BOTAs and things like that?

Daniel Ricky Hardo? No, no, no. He’s done. That ship has sailed. Yeah. Who’s gonna be Lawson’s teammate? Guess somebody went for the money, then

Executive Producer Tania: they’re

Crew Chief Eric: gonna bring Duhan

Executive Producer Tania: back. No, they brought in a new guy. His name is Arid Linblad.

Crew Chief Brad: Is that a name?

Executive Producer Tania: Arvid Lindblad. Sorry, what country is that? He’s a British motor sports racing driver.

I

Crew Chief Eric: was thinking Scandinavia,

Executive Producer Tania: but alright. Swedish father in Ah, there it’s mother of Indian heritage.

Crew Chief Eric: Okay. All right. That’s exciting. Some more rookies. I mean, we do seem to be having a changing of the guard in 2026 except for Alonzo. Apparently that

Executive Producer Tania: was Helmut’s Helmut’s last thing that he brought him on and then that guy got sacked.[00:10:00]

Crew Chief Eric: We were talking about that in Discord, where like it’s like. Helmut’s last race at Red Bull. Next week, Helmut starts at Aston because everybody leaving Red Bull is going to Aston, right? So it’s like, what are we doing? Daddy?

Executive Producer Tania: Warbucks got a lot of money. Daddy Warbucks, he can just make it rain.

Crew Chief Eric: They’re trying to put together a winning team at Aston.

Let’s just be real about it. They’re trying to make a competitive run. Oh, of course. They don’t have the manpower. I’m just gonna say it that way. To get there from behind the steering wheel. Who do they get rid of in 2026 to get them to the podium? There’s only one option.

Executive Producer Tania: One would argue they have half the manpower because they have two time world champion Fernando Lanzo in zero time.

World champion baby stroll.

Crew Chief Eric: Does daddy Warbucks want his son to be on the podium? Of course. Is it a tax write off? He

Executive Producer Tania: can’t go away.

Crew Chief Eric: Do you get

Executive Producer Tania: rid

Crew Chief Eric: of Alonzo? Yes.

Crew Chief Brad: Yes you do. Is that Hamilton’s next stop.

Crew Chief Eric: I was wondering that. Would Hamilton go to Aston? Would he do that?

Executive Producer Tania: What are we [00:11:00] doing here? We we doing another?

We’re just gonna jump ship every year we’re doing it. Danny, Rick, constantly be on like

Crew Chief Eric: the losing team. Is he gonna lose less at Ferrari or lose less at Aston? Let’s be real.

Crew Chief Brad: Is it a losing team because it’s a losing team or is it a losing team because of who’s on the team? The, the same thing keeps happening over and over to somebody.

Then that person’s usually the problem.

Crew Chief Eric: I mean, that’s sort of what SER was alluding to last year, right? Is

Executive Producer Tania: no, but he wasn’t referring to it that it was the driver’s fault because he was saying, we’ve changed the drivers, we’ve changed the car. Yes. We, I think what he was alluding to is we haven’t changed the upper management Ferrari.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh yeah. Well that, no, that’s for sure. Is this Hamilton’s last season at Ferrari? If he stays at Ferrari and nothing happens over the winter,

Crew Chief Brad: what’s his contract say?

Crew Chief Eric: I don’t know. It says month to month. Like his cell phone plan.

Executive Producer Tania: He has a bad relationship with them.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, from day one started off rough.

Executive Producer Tania: They don’t like him.

I don’t know what it is because it was very. Sad. The end of the race, his radio, if you saw [00:12:00] like the transcript from his radio communication with the team where he was like, thank you so much, you know, blah, blah, blah. And then there was silence and they didn’t acknowledge him and he is like, are you guys there?

And they’re like, oh yeah. Ha ha ha. We were talking. Yes, thank you. Great season. How do you act that way to your driver? Why did they hire

Crew Chief Eric: him in the first place? I don’t know. And that’s not a slight against Louis. No, that’s a slight against Ferrari. Why did you do this? You could have kept signs or was there so much friction between signs and LeClaire that wasn’t really being exposed, that it was sort of like, pick one of us, but neither of us is staying?

I don’t think so. Then why did they need to get rid of? Who knows? Why would signs go to Williams for crying out loud? He didn’t

Executive Producer Tania: have a choice. His contract was done. Ferrari’s choice to renew it or not.

Crew Chief Eric: He didn’t have a choice. But if I’m an analyst at Ferrari and I’m looking at the numbers and I look at how Hamilton had been doing.

Up until that point, those last couple years, it wasn’t that great. He wasn’t great last year either. Why would you take [00:13:00] on somebody like that if you know your car is sorta eh, and you got signs who’s already accustomed to the car, renew his contract and he probably cost less. No, for sure. Then bringing on Lewis,

Crew Chief Brad: I think it’s delusion and ego.

I don’t think they thought their car was, nah. At least to start the year. I, I mean, not everybody goes in thinking they’ve got a good car. But I feel like Ferrari. Ferrari themselves, and they refuse to accept the fact that the car is the problem. I could believe there’s a certain level of arrogance.

That’s the word I was looking for. Arrogance.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, they are the only works team in Formula One. They are the only pure STEM stern. They provide their own motors in their own chassis. I thought that

Crew Chief Brad: Mercedes too. No, not McLaren. Mercedes. Oh, McLaren uses Mercedes. But I feel like Mercedes uses their own their own shit too.

Crew Chief Eric: But I think Mercedes, the chassis aren’t their as they’re made in England or something like that. But like the Ferraris are built by Ferrari. They are Ferrari through and through. They’re built in Martinello. They’re tested at [00:14:00] Fiorano. It doesn’t leave Italy like secret. Stay at home. You know what I mean?

I think Mercedes is a little bit more spread out. So it’s not a pure works team like Ferrari is. So Porsche’s the same way. I mean, other than the 9 63, which is a Delara underneath, but up until that point, Porsche’s a Porsche’s, a Porsche, right? I mean, it’s built by them. So Ferrari’s a similar way. They don’t wanna give up their secrets to anybody else.

I think they’re faced with the challenge of not being able to borrow, let’s say, technology from somebody else. They are sort of stuck in their ways. That presents a bigger challenge. But on the same token. I don’t understand. Their management moves to the bigger point here. And I think that is what Vassar was getting to.

You’re exactly right, Tanya. And maybe it’s a level playing field with all new cars.

Crew Chief Brad: We said that the last time they did this.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. And when was the last time, was it when they had the other Kimmy Reichen in? Right. It was the last time the Ferrari won. It was like 15 years ago now, or something like that.

It’s been forever. No, I,

Crew Chief Brad: I mean. The last time, like all the, the major car changes, we said it was gonna be a level [00:15:00] playing field and the usual suspects came out on top like they usually do

Crew Chief Eric: despite the spending caps, despite everything. Right. So, I don’t know.

Crew Chief Brad: Are we gonna predict?

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, go for it. What do you wanna predict?

Crew Chief Brad: I, I’m still hanging on a Cadillac. No, I think it, I think it’s gonna be Max’s year. And if Jar. Can stick with them. Red Bull will come in first. In Construc?

Crew Chief Eric: Yes. Because Haja will score higher than Sonota did by driving normally.

Crew Chief Brad: Although I, I will say personally, I don’t see why they got rid of Perez. ’cause I thought Perez was good.

I mean, he had a couple bad races here and there. Yeah, but I think for the most part I thought he was, I thought he did well. Well that’s a good thing.

Crew Chief Eric: Cadillac has ’em, so it’d be all right.

Crew Chief Brad: Him and Bodis

Executive Producer Tania: Red Bull probably wouldn’t have. Won the constructors, but they would’ve came in second instead of third if had he had had a teammate making any points.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, exactly.

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, 4 69 Mercedes 4 51, red Bull. I mean, that’s 449 points that were were

Crew Chief Eric: were max. That’s [00:16:00] true. That’s very true.

Executive Producer Tania: Which is sad because he beat. Ferrari, basically by himself. Yeah, with two drivers that were consistently in the points, let’s say. There were a couple races where there were DNFs, but for the most part they both did finish in the points almost every race and Max still

Crew Chief Eric: by himself.

Crushed it. All right. I’m gonna throw one out there. Haas is gonna do better than Audi next year. Excuse me. Volkswagen. Anya

Crew Chief Brad: has a look of confusion on her face.

Crew Chief Eric: I gotta hand it to Ocon. I talked about Beerman in the retrospective and how he’s one to watch out for, but Ocon being almost 30 or just turned 30 this year.

He’s doing pretty good. He’s always sort of in the middle. He is fighting, they’re, they’re actually pretty clean racing compared to Ocon of the past where just taking people out like a missile. And the reality is, I think the Haas have gotten better, the Williamses have gotten better. There was some exciting racing happening in the middle where TV coverage just watching, you know, [00:17:00] Lando or Oscar or Max just lapping like they’re at an HPDE, there was nothing exciting really happening at the front.

There were no real battles. The real racing was happening in the middle. I feel like if Haas keeps going, and it’s been this long, arduous journey for them since the days of rich energy and whatnot, I think they’re gonna do better than Audi next year. Which breaks my heart because Volkswagen’s putting all the cards on the table to be able to afford the Audi program for next year.

But it’s just gonna be terrible. Is it going to be Audi or is it

Executive Producer Tania: going to be the drivers?

Crew Chief Eric: I would’ve driver changed already. Maybe that’ll still happen. There’s still time. That also makes me wonder, is it going to be a whole Audi production or is it gonna be Audi supplying stuff to Salur? And it’s more of the same, just like when it was Alpha Romeo, or it’s always been Salur for like the last millennia.

But if it’s a ground up Volkswagen program and they’re putting their back behind it,

Executive Producer Tania: so Audi, so according to the all knowing interwebs. They’re providing their own power unit. Are they providing their own [00:18:00] chassis? I knew they were providing their own motors. So Audi is partnering with the solver team for their 2026 Formula one entry with the Swiss teams hidden wheel facility, developing and building the actual car chassis and handling race operations.

While Audi develops the power unit in Germany, they’re effectively becoming a factory team. Chassis development is happening at the former Solver headquarters in hin Will Switzerland with significant collaboration and integration with Audi’s Power Unit development in Germany.

Crew Chief Eric: Is Haas gonna be deeper in with Toyota?

Are they ditching the Ferrari motors? Are we gonna have a Gazoo power plant in the Formula One car?

Executive Producer Tania: No, they’ll still have the Ferrari Power Unit. Ugh.

Crew Chief Eric: So we’ll have three teams with Ferrari motors out there running. Okay. It’s gonna be an interesting year.

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t know what to make predictions of. I mean, I’d love to see Audi at the top.

I’d love to see Audi at least in the upper half, if nothing else. ’cause that would be pretty impressive on a debut. Season, I don’t know that I have the confidence in the

Crew Chief Eric: drivers. See, and I think a way to prove that would be take last [00:19:00] year’s cars, the 2025 cars and switch all the drivers around. So you put the back markers in, the fast cars and the fast guys and the slow cars and see what happens if you put Hulk Inberg in Tappin’s red.

Or in Oscars McLaren, he’d still be like, 14th, max still wins, right? You put Max in in the Haas or Williams or whatever and he’s gonna be in the front. I’m telling you that’s how that plays out.

Executive Producer Tania: Uh, yeah. I don’t know. It’s gonna be interesting to see. It’ll be interesting to see. Cadillac too, right?

Everybody’s gonna be thinking they’re gonna be hot shit. Are they? I mean, at least they have seasoned drivers. So like BOTAs and Sergio will be able to drive Cadillac’s coming in with a brand new car, air quotes, brand new car, blah, blah blah. It’s whoever they’re copying and pasting with last year’s Ferrari motor modified seasoned drivers.

So I’m not worried about the drivers. And then you’ve got Audi coming in totally brand new and with like. Eh, well, with one rookie, basically, because Gabrielle’s [00:20:00] first season was this season, and he did crap. Basically, you effectively still have one rookie seat, and then Nico’s been around the block.

Crew Chief Eric: Nico’s like the longest running rookie in Formula One. He drives like a rookie. How

Executive Producer Tania: old is that guy?

Crew Chief Eric: He’s must be 37. He’s old. He looks old. 38. I, I called it, called it. Dude needs to retire. He might as well be Alonzo

Crew Chief Brad: without the the winning.

Crew Chief Eric: Other motor sports disciplines beckon, Mr. Kinberg, just saying,

Executive Producer Tania: oh, I saw something that, I don’t know if it was fake or not, but it was basically implying a potential LeMans team.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, here we go for

Executive Producer Tania: staffing. Alonzo and Charles, what it probably was like a clickbait bullshit thing, but nonetheless, we know that Alonzo’s done Lamont before.

Crew Chief Eric: He’s already won it with Toyota,

Executive Producer Tania: and we know Max has interest in all that endurance racing stuff, and I’m sure Charles would be [00:21:00] interested too. So that would be an interesting combination.

Crew Chief Eric: I can’t really see the three of them getting along as teammates.

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t think there’s any bad blood between Max and Charles though. ’cause I think they were sort of buddies through Go-karting.

Crew Chief Eric: Notice how you left Alonzo out of this.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, I was starting with those two. Ah yeah. And then I don’t know that Max has any bad blood with Alonzo either.

’cause like who is Alonzo to him? His grandpa, his older brother.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s no, no. Alanzo. Get him outta here.

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, they’ve never really. Had to go head to head ever. And they’ve never been teammates. So there’s time.

Crew Chief Eric: There’s time

Executive Producer Tania: in theory. He’s just like, oh, it’s two time world champion Alonzo. Yeah, you were good 20 years ago,

Crew Chief Eric: back in the days of Schumacher when Schumacher was at Mercedes and he was done.

But yes, those guys at Lamont. So speaking of Franz Herman, like I am excited to see what happens in,

Executive Producer Tania: so he’s been racing, man, never stops racing as they say. Like he’s been [00:22:00] test driving a Mercedes.

Crew Chief Eric: Mercedes, like GT three. GT three. Oh yeah. He’s been doing laps. Did you see the video he did with Chris Harris?

I don’t know if it was in Austria or in Australia. We went by really fast on the Instagram reel and he’s in one of the new dark horse mustangs. Oh yeah. I watched the, the whole thing, Chris is like chatting his ear and, and Max is just driving and he is like zero personality, right? Because he just cares about the driving.

And at one point Chris Harris asked him like, what does he think about the car? And he’s like. It’s, it’s pretty good as he’s like power sliding through a turn. Completely like unfazed by what’s going on.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah. I watched that whole thing. That’s the video and that’s the, or the interview thing where he made the comment that front wheel drive was Ah, okay.

Uncool. And then, yeah, they go out because now he has to promote and everything Ford, because Ford’s the new engine for Red Bull and they, yeah, they took the Mustang out and it actually started raining while they were doing the laps.

Crew Chief Eric: When do the cars get revealed? When do we get to see them look exactly like they [00:23:00] did last year?

Crew Chief Brad: It’s usually around February, I think. Around February. Okay. So we have to talk. They start in February,

Executive Producer Tania: isn’t Cadillac, aren’t they gonna debut? I wanna say it was gonna be during the Super Bowl is when they’re gonna reveal the Cadillac car. Makes sense. Still February.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, that makes sense. Well, for our very first.

Formula fanatics of the 2026 season as this is abbreviated because we don’t have a ton of news yet, but we’ll be keeping up with these as we go along, as we stay glued to our Apple TV subscription. Can’t wait for that to kick in. Let’s do this as we close out this formula fanatics episode, lightning round.

Team driver, who are you rooting for? 2026 Go. Brad

Crew Chief Brad: Cadillac Boas.

Crew Chief Eric: Tanya Audi, neither driver

Crew Chief Brad: Audi for stopping.

Crew Chief Eric: If you couldn’t tell by what I’m wearing, I’m gonna go with Ferrari, the car versus stopping the championship, that’s where my heart lies to be disappointed and broken yet again.

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, yes. I mean, I want Ferrari to win.

I wanna see Audi do really well. And that’s where it lies. And if [00:24:00] Max Fortin wins the championship, I don’t hate him as much as I used to. So same. It’s okay. Same.

Crew Chief Eric: You know what? There is hope there is somewhere. Ferrari is gonna win next year. Mark my words. Forza. 24 hours of Lama 4, 9, 9 p hitting in the world.

Four times the road. Let’s go. Ferrari. Ooh. Can they four? Pete,

Crew Chief Brad: team and driver, you’re rooting against. Oh,

Crew Chief Eric: Lando.

Crew Chief Brad: McLaren.

Crew Chief Eric: Done. Not Aston Martin. No, that’s gonna be like an episode of the Three Stooges. Like I’m just waiting. It’s like Keystone cops over there. Just, just wanna see what happens.

Crew Chief Brad: I mean, I’ve got two drivers I’m rooting against.

I’m definitely rooting for stroll to completely just f everything up just ’cause I, I don’t like Daddy Warbucks back there funding his entire fantasy that he doesn’t deserve. But also Russell, I’m rooting against Russell ’cause I think Russell is a tool bag.

Crew Chief Eric: That guy gets under my wanker skin.

Crew Chief Brad: He’s a bloody wanker.

Crew Chief Eric: And those eyelashes. Too. Oh, like snuffle up against, like they really kind of freak me out a little bit.

Crew Chief Brad: He [00:25:00] just looks like someone I wanna punch in the face. So you said driver team, driver or team, like it would, whatever. I don’t know what team I’m rooting against.

Executive Producer Tania: No, I’m saying Eric, his original question.

So you’re not rooting for Antonelli?

Crew Chief Eric: I am. I am. But I, I wanna see Max come back and win and put McLaren in their place.

Executive Producer Tania: Do we think Ferrari

Crew Chief Eric: No. Is

Executive Producer Tania: ruining. Not signing into Nelly. An Italian driver.

Crew Chief Eric: Yes.

Executive Producer Tania: In an Italian car.

Crew Chief Eric: Yes. Or an Australian with a Italian sounding name. They should have hired Piore, you know, adopted him as a, as an Italian, it would’ve been all right.

Actually. I think Piore would be a good fit at Ferrari. He’s got that sort of stoic, kind of like a Schumacher. He dries very clean. He’s very professional. He is very consistent. I could see him eventually making a transition there. If Lewis gives up his seat, because Charles ain’t gonna do it. If Charles leaves Ferrari, I think he’s gonna leave Formula one [00:26:00] period.

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t know where he would go. I mean, his dream was Ferrari and that’s where he is and it’s not panning out yet. Turn into a nightmare. That is sadly the meme about his life.

Crew Chief Eric: All right, Tanya, so as we close this out, who are you rooting against? Audi and

Executive Producer Tania: against? No, I’m not rooting against Audi. I’m not, I don’t know that I’m even this season was actively rooting against any team.

Crew Chief Brad: McLaren. You can pick a driver.

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t mind. McLaren. I would’ve loved to see Oscar win it. Yes,

Crew Chief Brad: I agree.

Crew Chief Eric: I agree.

Executive Producer Tania: So I have no problem with McLaren. Like, I don’t like Liam Lawson, so I won’t be hurt if he doesn’t do well.

Crew Chief Eric: That guy is a punk.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah, I don’t know. The rooting against is hard. Like I don’t like George either.

’cause he is a whiny little baby.

Crew Chief Eric: Just say that you don’t want Lando to win again. Just say it.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah. I mean, I’m okay with that. I mean, it’ll be interesting to see how he does. Like, is he a [00:27:00] one hit wonder And that was it.

Crew Chief Eric: On that other disappointment, I think we’re good.

Executive Producer Tania: The drive-through is our monthly news episode and is sponsored in part by organizations like Collector Car guide.net Project, motoring Garage Style Magazine, the Exotic Car Marketplace, and many others. If you’re interested in becoming a sponsor of the drive-thru, look no further than www.motoringpodcast.net, click about, and then advertising.

Thank you again to everyone that supports the Motoring Podcast Network. Touring Motor Sports, our podcast, break Fix and all the other services we provide.

Formula Fanatics, the high-octane sub-series of Break/Fix Podcast’s Drive Thru Motorsports News! This is your pit stop for all things Formula 1 — from breaking headlines and race recaps to insider analysis and paddock buzz. Whether you’re a die-hard tifoso, a Red Bull loyalist, or just love the thrill of wheel-to-wheel racing, we’ve got you covered with up-to-date F1 news delivered at full throttle. Strap in, because the lights are out and we’re underway — this is Formula Fanatics!