In this article we take you through the F1 news of Wednesday 9 September 2026 so you are up to speed again. Ferrari gets a rare bit of good fortune while Mercedes quietly tightens the screw, and further down the paddock a title challenge in another series comes to a complete stop.
Leclerc escapes a penalty his crash looked certain to cause
Charles Leclerc will not carry a grid penalty into Madrid despite a violent Parabolica crash at Monza that Ferrari feared had wrecked his power unit. Only a gearbox casing needs replacing, and early checks at Maranello found nothing pointing to lasting engine damage. It is a stroke of luck Ferrari badly needed, though the team’s wider engine-penalty headache for the rest of the season has not gone away.
Mercedes readies an upgrade Ferrari can do without
Mercedes is preparing an ADUO-based engine upgrade at Brixworth, and Ferrari’s title hopes take another hit before it has even arrived. Mercedes already has the strongest power unit on the grid, and reinforcing that lead while Ferrari fights straight-line disadvantage looks less like caution and more like a team going for the kill. The likely introduction point lines up with George Russell’s next required grid drop, which tells you Mercedes is playing this strategically rather than defensively.
Verstappen finally says the quiet part out loud
Max Verstappen has openly stated Red Bull is not in a title fight this year, dropping the diplomacy he usually reserves for exactly this kind of admission. Sitting sixth in the standings, well off the pace set by Antonelli and Norris, he is reframing 2026 as a learning year rather than pretending otherwise. That kind of honesty from Verstappen usually means patience is running thinner than the public statements suggest.
Ogura’s title bid is effectively finished
Ai Ogura has withdrawn from the San Marino Grand Prix, sidelined again with the thumb injury that already cost him Aragon. He was a plausible title contender only a month ago; now he sits fifth and loses more ground before he is even fit to ride. Trackhouse runs Raul Fernandez alone this weekend with no deputy available.
Pirelli guesses at a circuit nobody has raced
Pirelli has nominated its Madrid compounds using three years of simulation and zero laps of real data. The tyre choice itself is conservative, C2 to C4, but the bigger story is how much of race weekend strategy will effectively be a live experiment.
Only two aero zones for a track compared to Jeddah
The FIA has confirmed Madrid’s new street circuit gets just two active aero zones, putting it level with the Netherlands and Japan rather than higher-overtaking venues. The signature banked corner sits in a locked-out sector, so whatever passing happens there will be down to pure grip, not the wing.
Stella wants the Right of Review rebuilt
Andrea Stella has called for an overhaul of the FIA’s Right of Review process, days after McLaren used that system to strip Gasly’s Monaco podium. Winning the case and criticising the process in the same breath is a curious combination, but it does put genuine pressure on the FIA to speed things up.
Hartog details the rescue that went viral
Loek Hartog has given his fullest account yet of pulling Ollie Millroy from a burning Ferrari in Shanghai. He plays down the heroics and focuses instead on a safety gap he wants addressed, which is arguably the more useful outcome of the whole episode.
Madrid hosts Formula 1 for the first time this week when the TAG Heuer Gran Premio de España gets underway on Friday 11 September, with qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday 13 September; check the F1 calendar for full session times.
