Paddock notebook: Leclerc’s Antarctic plan hits a snag, Cadillac lines up Zhou, Haas coy on Tsunoda, Bearman bites back, Gasly looks to 2026
Charles Leclerc had a New Year’s plan that didn’t involve a simulator or a fitness camp: Antarctica. That detour is on ice. The Ferrari driver’s boat suffered a “technical problem,” forcing him to scrap the South Pole trip before it began. Not the worst drama he’ll face this winter, but not the ideal start either for a driver gearing up for his eighth full season in red in 2026.
Leclerc’s off-season normally tilts toward structure and repetition; this time, Mother Nature and mechanics conspired to remind everyone that even F1’s most meticulous operators can’t plan for everything. He’ll shrug it off. Ferrari need him focused, and if his 2025 flashes are any guide, there’s still a sharp edge waiting under that calm exterior.
Cadillac turns up the volume on Zhou rumors
Over in the expanding world of new-badge F1, Cadillac teased an “imminent driver announcement” on social media, which promptly sent the rumor mill into overboost. All roads point to Zhou Guanyu taking up the reserve driver role for 2026.
Zhou left Ferrari at the end of 2025 after a season serving as the Scuderia’s reserve. The dots connect neatly: he’s managed by Cadillac team boss Graeme Lowdon, and a driver with recent top-team systems knowledge is exactly the sort of low-risk, high-usefulness signing a newcomer wants on its bench. No official word yet, but you don’t post a teaser unless there’s something in the oven.
Haas not closing the door on Tsunoda for 2027
Yuki Tsunoda’s next chapter remains unwritten. Demoted to a Red Bull reserve role at the end of 2025 after a bruising season alongside Max Verstappen, he’s now a high-profile free agent-in-waiting. Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu isn’t slamming the door—far from it.
Asked whether Tsunoda could be under consideration for 2027, Komatsu wouldn’t rule it out. That’s not a promise, but it’s also not nothing. Haas were linked to Tsunoda before they ultimately signed Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon for 2025, a pairing that gave the team both raw speed and a reliable read on car development. If Tsunoda uses his reserve year to reset and sharpen, the market will remember the driver who can make a car dance on a quali lap. The question has always been consistency—and how teams weigh it against pace.
Bearman takes aim at the “scum of the earth”
Bearman, meanwhile, is done mincing words. The Haas driver condemned the online abuse hurled at Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the closing weeks of the 2025 season, calling the trolls “the scum of the earth.”
Antonelli found himself in the crosshairs after the Qatar Grand Prix—a flashpoint that ultimately fed into the Lando Norris–Max Verstappen title fight. The young Mercedes driver received death threats. He later apologized to Verstappen after Norris clinched the championship in Abu Dhabi. It shouldn’t need saying, but Bearman—and a number of drivers across the grid—are saying it anyway: criticism is fair game, targeted abuse isn’t. This sport runs on emotion; it doesn’t need bile.
Gasly sees light for Alpine after a long 2025
Pierre Gasly didn’t sugarcoat Alpine’s 2025. He called it “a very long tunnel.” The scoreboard was unforgiving: Alpine finished last in the Constructors’ Championship with 22 points, 48 behind ninth-placed Sauber. In that kind of season, even bright Sundays feel like candlelight.
But the 2026 reset—and a switch from Renault to Mercedes power—has Gasly talking about “light” again. It’s not blind optimism; it’s the reality of a hard reboot when the regulations flip. Alpine’s job now is to pull as much learning as possible from a lean year and make a clean break with a sharper package and a better baseline. The Enstone group has rebounded before. The new rules give them a scoreboard that starts at zero.
A quick rewind on the major players
– Ferrari: Leclerc heads toward 2026 still carrying the banner, the focus on converting pace into points with fewer “what ifs.” His aborted Antarctica trip is a footnote, not a storyline.
– Cadillac: New face, familiar names. If Zhou is indeed the reserve signing, it’s a pragmatic move for a newcomer that’ll need clarity in the simulator and composure on standby.
– Haas: Quietly building. Bearman’s voice off-track matches his growing confidence on it, and Komatsu’s Tsunoda posture shows Haas want options as the 2027 market begins to simmer.
– Alpine: Pain absorbed, reset engaged. The Mercedes PU switch is the headline, but the 2026 car concept has to be the difference-maker.
The offseason always promises reinvention. This one also feels like a hinge. A champion crowned in Abu Dhabi, a rookie weathering the worst of social media, a multiple race-winner recalibrating his winter, and a manufacturer with Detroit muscle teasing its F1 hand. The next lap is already forming up.
