2027 F1 Silly Season: Inside the Leaked Grid Where 17 Seats Are Open

Formula 1's 2027 silly season has arrived early. A seat-by-seat prediction of the 2027 grid, covering all 11 teams and every one of the 22 race seats, was published on 14 April, and the picture it paints reorganises the sport's pecking order from top to bottom. The framing number is striking in its own right: 17 of the 22 seats on the 2027 grid are still formally open. Max Verstappen's Red Bull deal runs through 2028 but includes a performance exit clause widely understood to trigger if he is not inside the championship's top two by the summer break. Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari contract is believed to run out at the end of this season. And Christian Horner — the man Red Bull dismissed last July — is leading an investor group attempting to buy into Alpine. Every prediction on the leaked grid hinges on a single domino: Max Verstappen leaving Red Bull for McLaren. The case for that move is stacking up in real time. Verstappen is currently ninth in the 2026 drivers' championship with 12 points from three races — 60 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli, the 19-year-old in a Mercedes that has so far looked untouchable under the new regulations. Mercedes nailed the rule change. Ferrari is handling it adequately. McLaren, the reigning constructors' champions, have dropped to third but remain in the fight. Red Bull is not in the fight. Grid Scope, the outlet behind the forecast, argues that the Ford power unit, which Red Bull built from scratch, is simply not delivering — and that the car's struggles with active aero cannot be solved by setup changes or a new front wing during a race season. "This is not a setup problem that a new front wing fixes. The engine needs months of work that cannot happen during a racing season," the analysis states. That is why Verstappen's contract has become the most-studied document in the paddock. If the performance clause activates at the summer break, McLaren is already positioning itself as the only destination that adds up on paper. The hiring trail is hard to ignore. On 9 April, McLaren confirmed Gianpiero Lambiase — Verstappen's race engineer through four world titles — as their new chief racing officer, joining no later than 2028. Will Courtenay, who ran race strategy for Red Bull during the Verstappen title runs, is already McLaren's sporting director. Rob Marshall, who designed the cars Verstappen won those championships in, sits at Woking in a senior technical role. Three of Verstappen's closest professional allies are now McLaren employees. Grid Scope's take is that the Lambiase appointment was not about 2028 alone. It was a statement of intent. Verstappen himself reportedly gave his blessing to the move, describing the McLaren offer as too good to refuse. Whether the rest of the predicted grid shakes out is another question. None of the subsequent dominoes — Hamilton's Ferrari future, Horner's Alpine bid, the second seats at Red Bull and McLaren — land without Verstappen moving first. But the forecast's central argument is that the trigger is already cocked. With 17 seats unsigned, a Red Bull that cannot fix its engine mid-season, and a performance exit clause with a known timeline, the 2027 paddock will not look like the 2026 one. For now it remains a prediction, published by one outlet and amplified across the paddock's commentary circuit. But it is a prediction built on contracts, standings, and hiring decisions that are already on the record. --- *Originally published on [NewsFormula One](https://newsformula.one/article/2027-f1-silly-season-leaked-grid-17-seats-open-verstappen-mclaren-domino). Visit for full coverage.*