If the 2026 calendar has taught the paddock anything so far, it’s that rhythm is a luxury. With long gaps between races — including that unplanned five-week standstill after Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were scrubbed — drivers have been left to manufacture their own sense of sharpness between grands prix.
Oscar Piastri, Alex Albon and Gabriel Bortoleto opted for the simplest antidote possible: go back to where it all started.
Over the weekend, the trio spent a day karting at Brignoles in France, knocking out laps together while plenty of the sport’s usual noise carried on elsewhere. Max Verstappen, for one, was busy at the Nürburgring 24 Hours. Piastri, Albon and Bortoleto chose something quieter, more familiar — and, in its own way, just as revealing.
The Brignoles circuit posted footage of the session, with Albon turning up in full Williams race gear, as if he’d decided there’s no point doing “race craft” unless you commit properly. Bortoleto has form there too, having visited the same track earlier in the year with Ollie Bearman. Piastri, meanwhile, put photos on social media describing the day as a return to his “natural habitat”, which is about as Piastri a line as you’ll get: dry, neat, and clearly pleased to be left alone with a steering wheel.
No lap times were made public and, honestly, that’s part of the point. This wasn’t a vanity exercise dressed up as training. It was three F1 drivers trying to keep their timing and instincts from going stale as the championship finally prepares to crank back into life at the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend.
Karting isn’t some nostalgic hobby for modern F1 drivers; it’s the closest thing they’ve got to a reset button. Strip away the engineering layers, the radio chatter, the tyre management lectures, and you’re left with braking, positioning and feel — the stuff that doesn’t benefit from time off. On a calendar that’s already been stop-start, you can see why a few hours in a kart starts to look less like play and more like basic professional hygiene.
It also says something about the current grid that you’ll see drivers from three different teams — McLaren, Williams and Audi — happily sharing track time away from the cameras that matter. This isn’t a clandestine summit or some shared sponsor day; it’s a reminder that, underneath all the competitive posturing, drivers still look for the same stimuli when they need to sharpen their edge.
The wider paddock has been leaning into that idea lately. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has spoken openly about the value of karting as a foundation, after taking Kimi Antonelli and George Russell to a WSK event simply to show support and stay connected to the sport’s grassroots.
“Kimi and George are karters,” Wolff said, describing WSK as effectively “like the World Cup” in that environment — the most competitive slice of youth karting, and the place many drivers still point to when they talk about the purest form of racing they’ve ever done. Wolff’s point wasn’t sentimental. It was practical: those early lessons are where race craft is built, and they’re often where it’s best maintained too.
That context makes the Brignoles day more than just a fun clip for social media. With only one round having taken place across the past eight weekends, and the season’s cadence repeatedly interrupted, there’s an argument that drivers are being forced to manage not just their bodies and preparation, but their competitive mindset. Simulator days and gym sessions will keep you fit; they won’t replicate the moment-to-moment judgement calls of running wheel-to-wheel, even if it’s only karts and kerbs in southern France.
Piastri, Albon and Bortoleto will arrive in Montreal having at least scratched that itch — having had to race someone, not just chase lap time. In a year already defined by disruption, that kind of self-made momentum might be the most valuable thing they can carry into the next phase of the championship.
