BEYOND THE TOP THREE: WHY OSCAR PIASTRI IS JAMES HINCHCLIFFE’S BIGGEST 2026 SNUB
James Hinchcliffe has revealed his top three drivers for the 2026 F1 season, and 2025 standout Oscar Piastri didn't make the cut.
James Hinchcliffe isn’t picking Oscar Piastri for his top three drivers in F1’s 2026 season, even though he’s backing Piastri’s McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, to be right up there.
Last year, Piastri almost grabbed the drivers’ championship for the first time. He had a pretty solid lead, 34 points ahead of Norris and 104 over Verstappen, with just nine races to go. But things took a bad turn late in the season. He slipped down to third, while Norris took the title and Verstappen jumped to second. Both McLaren drivers finished the year with seven Grand Prix wins each, but in the end, Piastri was 13 points behind Norris, who only edged out Verstappen by two points.
Now, with the big regulation changes coming for 2026, Hinchcliffe thinks Norris, Verstappen, and George Russell from Mercedes are in the best spot to take advantage. In his eyes, Piastri is probably fighting for fourth in his fourth F1 season.
Hinchcliffe is especially confident about Russell. Mercedes is convinced they’ll have the upper hand with their new engine in 2026, thanks to F1’s big changes to the power units. The electric side of the equation jumps from 20% to nearly 50%, and the MGU-H is gone for good.
Since McLaren gets its engines from Mercedes, Hinchcliffe figures that’ll help Norris stay in the title fight. But he still can’t ignore Verstappen; he’s proven he belongs in any championship conversation.
Hinchcliffe put it this way to F1’s official website: “2026 is shaping up to be one of the wildest, most open seasons we’ve seen. With all these rule changes, teams need to nail the car, the engine suppliers have to get it right, and the drivers have to pretty much relearn how to get the best out of the car. Mercedes looks strong again, so I’m putting Russell in my top three. Norris is on the list too; he comes in with a champion’s mindset and that Mercedes power. And with how tricky the new energy management is, I just have to include Verstappen. He always seems to have that extra brainpower when he’s driving.”
Now, don’t count Piastri out just because he stumbled at the end of last season. That tough finish in 2025 could be exactly what pushes him to come back fighting in 2026. He’s had the winter to hit reset and work through it, so he shouldn’t be dragging any of last year’s baggage into the new season.
Hinchcliffe isn’t the only one pointing out that the new 2026 engine rules might play to Verstappen’s strengths. Drivers will have a lot more to juggle with all that extra electric power, and Verstappen already showed he’s got a knack for it in testing. He was the first to push the new Red Bull Powertrains unit with a high-revving style in Bahrain, squeezing out extra energy. He even used lower gears in corners to recover more, even when it made the car sketchy to handle.
Still, Piastri has his supporters. Franz Tost, the ex-Toro Rosso boss, thinks Piastri is ready to go toe-to-toe with Verstappen, especially after what he learned last year. Piastri handled the heat pretty well when he was fighting Norris for the 2025 title, at least at first. But things started to unravel after McLaren told him to give second place back to Norris in Italy. After that, the mistakes piled up: crashes in qualifying and the race in Azerbaijan, plus trouble in the US Sprint.
So yeah, Hinchcliffe is leaving Piastri out of his top three, but there’s still plenty of reason to believe the Australian could bounce back and make some noise in 2026.
IMMEDIATE CANCELATION: PIRELLI CALLS OFF BAHRAIN TIRE TEST AS MISSILE STRIKES HIT MANAMA
F1 personnel are being evacuated from Manama after an Iranian missile strike hit just 30km from the Sakhir circuit during Pirelli testing.
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Pirelli just called off its scheduled two-day wet tyre test at the Bahrain International Circuit because of rising tensions in the Middle East.
The company pulled the plug for security reasons, especially after an Iranian missile strike hit nearby Manama. That’s only about 30 kilometres from the track.
Things escalated fast. President Donald Trump announced “major combat operations in Iran” had started, and missiles hit a US naval base in Bahrain in retaliation. The strike landed in the Juffair area of Manama, not far from where F1 teams and staff were staying.
With all this happening, Pirelli decided to cancel its plans at Sakhir and evacuate its personnel as soon as possible. McLaren and Mercedes had both supplied mule cars for this test, which was supposed to run for two days.
Pirelli told PlanetF1.com, “The two days of development tests for wet-weather compounds, scheduled for today and tomorrow at the Bahrain International Circuit, have been cancelled for security reasons following the evolving international situation. All Pirelli personnel currently in Manama are safe in their hotels. The company are working to ensure their safety and arrange their return to Italy and the UK as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile, the FIA and Formula One Management are watching the situation closely. The Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prixes are both coming up in mid-April, so the stakes are high. With all the uncertainty, paddock staff are already looking for new travel routes to next weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, since a lot of flights usually go through the Gulf.
For now, both Middle Eastern races are still on the calendar. The sport’s governing bodies are keeping a close eye as everything unfolds.
Formula One Management told the media, “Our next three races are in Australia, China, and Japan, not in the Middle East, and those aren’t for a few weeks. As always, we’re keeping a close watch on situations like this and working with the relevant authorities.”
WHO ADVISED HIM? THE MYSTERY FIGURES BEHIND ALEX PALOU’S FAILED MCLAREN F1 JUMP
Palou admits "bad advice" led to McLaren lawsuit. Get the full story on the $20M contract breach and the final 2026 settlement.
McLaren and Chip Ganassi Racing have finally settled their long-running dispute after the London High Court sided with McLaren against Alex Palou and CGR.
Back in January, the court ordered Palou, a four-time IndyCar champ, to pay McLaren over $12 million. That came after a five-week trial last year. The whole mess started when McLaren sued Palou for about $20 million, claiming he broke his contract. Both McLaren and Ganassi wanted Palou for their 2023 IndyCar lineups, and things got messy when they both staked their claims.
Eventually, everyone agreed Palou would stay at Ganassi and test for McLaren’s F1 team, with the idea he’d join McLaren’s IndyCar squad in 2024. But when the time came, Palou decided to stick with Ganassi anyway. He said he’d lost faith in McLaren giving him a shot in F1. McLaren, not thrilled, sued to recover what they said they lost in sponsorship, driver salaries, performance bonuses, the works.
Now it’s finally over. On Friday, McLaren CEO Zak Brown said, “I’m very pleased we’ve reached a final settlement with Chip Ganassi Racing after a UK judge ruled in our favour in January. Huge thanks to our team for sticking with it so long and to everyone who supported us. Now we can get back to the real business of racing.”
During the court battle, Palou argued that Brown led him to believe an F1 seat was possible in 2024, even after Oscar Piastri arrived as Lando Norris’s teammate. Palou claimed, “Zak told me it wasn’t his call to hire Oscar,” and that Piastri’s performance would be measured against his, with 2024 in mind. Brown flat-out denied that, calling the idea "ludicrous". Supposedly, Piastri even laughed about Palou’s comments.
After the court sided with McLaren, Palou changed his tune. He accepted the decision and said McLaren had honoured all their commitments. “Back then, I was being pulled in every direction and had the wrong people advising me,” Palou said. “I got bad advice or none at all. Looking back, I wish I’d just talked to Zak directly. McLaren and Zak did everything they promised. I was never misled, and I respect how they handled things. I also want to thank Chip, my teammates, and everyone at Ganassi for their support. I’ve learned a lot from this. I’m glad it’s settled and grateful to everyone who helped reach this point. Now I just want to focus on racing, where both teams can compete on track.”
Palou admitted it’s been a tough stretch; he put both teams in a hard spot, and he regrets it. Ganassi, for his part, said, “I can’t condone what happened, but I’m glad it’s over. Hopefully, Alex has learned to keep good people around him, so we don’t see a repeat of 2023. Thanks to Zak and McLaren for helping us move on and get back to racing.”
Now, Palou’s chasing his fifth straight IndyCar title, starting this weekend at St Petersburg.
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