{"id":595894,"date":"2026-04-11T00:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T00:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/595894\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T00:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T00:33:12","slug":"this-f1-empire-continues-to-crumble-plus-toto-wolffs-soft-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/595894\/","title":{"rendered":"This F1 empire continues to crumble. Plus: Toto Wolff\u2019s soft side"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic\u2019s F1 newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive Prime Tire directly in your inbox twice a week during the season and weekly in the offseason.<\/p>\n

Welcome back to Prime Tire, where today we\u2019re considering the fall, and re-rise, of two modern Formula 1 superteams: Red Bull and Mercedes.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Alex, and Madeline Coleman will be along later.<\/p>\n

Red Bull Falling: Verstappen\u2019s engineer the latest big exit<\/p>\n

F1 news very much slows down when there are no races, as is currently the case with this unexpected spring break\u00a0gap in the calendar.<\/a><\/p>\n

But things went into overdrive when Europe woke up yesterday to the news that Max Verstappen\u2019s race engineer \u2014 GianPiero Lambiase, also Red Bull\u2019s head of racing \u2014 is leaving the team\u00a0to join McLaren<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Luke Smith explained<\/a>, there\u2019s a bit of contractual wrangling still to come, as McLaren hopes Lambiase can join as its chief racing officer before 2028, when his current Red Bull deal expires. But Red Bull is so far adamant he will continue in post until that point.<\/p>\n

(It\u2019s similar to how Will Courtenay had to work the full term of his last Red Bull contract as its old race strategy chief, before joining McLaren as its sporting director for 2026.)<\/p>\n

Courtenay and Lambiase will soon link up with ex-Red Bull chief designer Rob Marshall, who has been McLaren\u2019s chief technical officer and chief designer since 2024.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s already quite the list of senior Red Bull figures to have departed since its all-conquering 2023 season,\u00a0when the team won 21 out of 22 races and Verstappen swept the third of his four successive world titles.<\/p>\n

Then, when you add the rest, the list gets longer and the names get bigger.<\/p>\n

First, there was Adrian Newey\u2019s spring\u00a02024 decision to leave<\/a>\u00a0after that year. It came in the aftermath of the scandal over ex-team boss Christian Horner\u2019s behavior towards a female employee. Horner was later cleared by Red Bull.
\nIn August 2024, former Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley\u00a0jumped ship<\/a>\u00a0to Sauber\/Audi (he\u2019s now formerly of\u00a0that team, too<\/a>). Horner was himself fired by Red Bull in July 2025, while his former sparring partner\/fellow Red Bull F1 supremo, Helmut Marko, departed in late 2025.
\nMany more engineers and mechanics that made up the Red Bull dynasty \u2014 its second in F1, after Sebastian Vettel led it to four title doubles between 2010-2013 \u2014 have also moved on. One of Verstappen\u2019s long-time mechanics, Ole Schack, will also soon leave the team after a 20-year-plus stretch.<\/p>\n

There can be no doubt that the Horner scandal played a major role in this exodus of names \u2014\u00a0including his own<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But, really, the crumbling of the Red Bull F1 empire began when Red Bull GmbH co-founder, Dietrich Mateschitz, died in late 2022.<\/p>\n

Mateschitz created a near-perfect environment for a modern F1 team\u00a0to first flourish, then reach superteam status:\u00a0enough cash to wield cutting-edge resources, but an absence of the corporate meddling that has held back other teams in a similar position (particularly Ferrari and Renault\/Alpine).<\/p>\n

That precious autonomy \u2014 which Toto Wolff has at Mercedes\u2019 F1 team (more on this later) \u2014 ended when Mateschitz died and his successors gained power at the overall Red Bull corporation.<\/p>\n

This still has Verstappen as the jewel in its giant sports marketing crown. But for how much longer?<\/p>\n

He\u2019s already\u00a0contemplating leaving F1<\/a>, as a result of the new styles of racing and driving required by the new cars. Now, his right-hand-man will soon be gone.<\/p>\n

Verstappen has known of Lambiase\u2019s impending exit\u00a0for a while<\/a>, and it\u00a0could play a big role in whether Verstappen stays in F1 after 2026.\u00a0Not that Lambiase had a heads up about the Dutchman\u2019s choice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But a FAR bigger factor in that decision will be what F1 does about addressing the driver complaints over the new cars, where Verstappen has very much\u00a0led the charge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And the meetings that could decide his next career step have already begun.<\/p>\n

Over to Madeline to explain this critical process.<\/p>\n

Inside the Paddock with Madeline Coleman: Meetings on rule changes commence<\/p>\n

Yesterday,\u00a0the first of four\u00a0<\/a>meetings<\/a>\u00a0took place to discuss possible changes to the 2026 regulations, and how the cars perform from now on. This initial discussion featured the FIA and technical experts from the engine manufacturers and teams.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the FIA described the meeting as having \u201ccovered a raft of topics as part of the natural evolution of the 2026 F1 technical and sporting regulations\u201d and that the dialogue was \u201cconstructive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement continued: \u201cIt was generally agreed that although the events to date have provided exciting racing, there was a commitment to making tweaks to some aspects of the regulations in the area of energy management.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the first three 2026 events, many drivers criticized the regulations and the ways the cars need to be driven as a result of their restrictions and instructions. Even Ollie Bearman\u2019s high-speed wreck at Suzuka seemed inevitable to some in the paddock, given how the new engine systems mean there are often big, and sudden, closing speed differences between cars.<\/p>\n

The specifics of yesterday\u2019s meeting were not revealed by the FIA, but three more meetings are scheduled ahead of May\u2019s Miami Grand Prix. Discussions concerning the sporting regulations will take place on April 15, and the next tech-focused meeting will be the following day.<\/p>\n

The FIA statement said that come April 20, \u201ca high-level meeting\u201d between representatives of all the stakeholders will be held, and \u201cit is anticipated that preferred options jointly proposed by the technical teams will be considered and a consensus sought on the way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back to you, Alex.<\/p>\n

Wolff\u2019s Management: And a warning for George Russell<\/p>\n

Wolff recently spoke to\u00a0Peak<\/a>,\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s desk covering the mental side of sports, on his management style and thoughts on leadership, and life, in general.<\/p>\n

You can read the full interview\u00a0here<\/a>, but four things really stood out to me.<\/p>\n

The first\u00a0is this that Wolff\u00a0\u2014 the Austrian has led the Mercedes team since 2013 \u2014\u00a0claims he \u201cfired\u201d Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg for a few days after their spectacular intra-team crash in the\u00a02016 Spanish GP<\/a>. It\u2019s quite a line!<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s this:\u00a0\u201cEverybody needs somebody to love, something to do and something to dream about.\u201d Too right!<\/p>\n

The third\u00a0is another quote, about how Wolff expects his new F1 standings leaders \u2014 Kimi Antonelli and Russell \u2014 to keep things clean after his bruising experience leading Hamilton and Rosberg:<\/p>\n

\u201cI completely understand that you\u2019re a competitor. You need to beat your teammate. You need to beat all of them out there. And I can\u2019t expect a puppy outside of the car and a lion in the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe accept you racing out there and racing each other out there as long as you respect our values and don\u2019t crash into each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the fourth\u00a0is how that point, one Wolff has been pretty firm on since 2016, reinforces an argument I made in\u00a0this column<\/a>\u00a0this week.<\/p>\n

That Russell would be wrong to \u201cget his elbows out<\/a>\u201d to beat Antonelli this year, as 13-time-F1-race-winner-turned-TV-pundit David Coulthard said recently. This followed Antonelli, a second-year F1 driver, surging past 2026 preseason favorite Russell in the early season standings.<\/p>\n

For Wolff, any efforts to destabilize the atmosphere at Mercedes \u2014 a tactic many famous and successful drivers have used to defeat a teammate in a one-team tie fight \u2014 would be akin to the two W17s crashing. And he\u2019s clear on what he thinks about that possibility.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s spent too long investing in both Antonelli and Russell, via Mercedes\u2019 junior program, as well as waiting for Mercedes to finally get back to the top, to not act if things get ugly.<\/p>\n

Plus, although the two sides\u00a0aren\u2019t currently talking<\/a>, we know deep down Wolff would\u00a0still like to sign Verstappen<\/a>\u00a0if he were to suddenly become available after all \u2026<\/p>\n

The lesson for Russell, for me, is: \u201cKeep the peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, if you don\u2019t already subscribe,\u00a0head here<\/a>\u00a0to sign up for Peak\u2019s excellent newsletter.<\/p>\n

Outside the Points<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfce The Formula 2 championship will replace its\u00a0lost races<\/a>\u00a0in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia with rounds in\u00a0Miami and Montreal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 The replacement races potentially stop 2026 Cadillac test driver and F2 racer\u00a0Colton Herta<\/a>\u00a0from making a one-off Indianapolis 500 \u2014 possibly for Andretti \u2014 with the Canadian GP\u00a0controversially taking place<\/a>\u00a0on the same day (May 24).<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6 Aston Martin\u2019s Lance Stroll is making his GT racing debut in the GT World Challenge Europe season-opening race at Paul Ricard, France. He\u00a0spoke to Verstappen<\/a>\u00a0about how to arrange his entry with the Comtoyou Racing team that fields an Aston Vantage AMR GT3 EVO car.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb Love Prime Tire? Check out The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic\u2019s F1 newsletter. Sign up here to receive Prime Tire directly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-595894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}