McLaren hires Matteo De Palo in F1 driver development programme with drops named, as Toyota firms Oliver Solberg for full-time WRC drive.
McLaren Racing today announced that Matteo De Palo has joined the McLaren Driver Development Programme, adding to its stable of young talent. Matteo, 18 years old, started karting in 2016, progressing through junior karting series with success across 60 Mini, OK-Junior and OK, with top finishes in WSK Super Master Series and the FIA Karting Academy Trophy. The Italian, from Rome, made his single-seater debut in 2023 with Campos Racing in the Spanish F4 Championship. A successful season saw him secure a race win and three additional podiums, finishing fifth in the Championship overall. He also took part in rounds of the Italian F4 and British F4 Championships. In 2024, he stepped up into the Formula Regional European Championship, with one race win and one second-place finish.
This year, Matteo competed in FRECA with Trident Motorsport, winning four races and visiting the podium on another seven occasions, securing second place in the Championship. He will compete in papaya at the 2025 Macau Grand Prix, before racing in FIA Formula 3 for the 2026 season. His involvement in the McLaren Driver Development Programme, led by Alessandro Alunni Bravi, sees him join the team’s talent pipeline, which has an overarching aim to help drivers progress towards Formula 1, INDYCAR, and the team’s upcoming World Endurance Championship entry.
The team also confirms that Ugo Ugochukwu, Martinius Stenshorne and Brando Badoer will not continue with the McLaren Driver Development Programme past the end of the year. With multiple wins and podiums across their time with the team, we thank them for their contribution to McLaren and wish them the best for the future.
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Chief Business Affairs Officer, McLaren Racing, said: “The McLaren Driver Development Programme is pleased to welcome Matteo. He is an exciting young talent who has made great progress over the past seasons, showing adaptability, consistency and growth. We look forward to supporting his development across driving, as well as the wider aspects of being a professional driver, within our programme pathway. We also thank Ugo, Martinius and Brando for their contribution to McLaren and wish them the best for the future.”
Matteo De Palo, Driver, McLaren Driver Development, said: “Joining the McLaren Driver Development Programme is a great honour. The team have a fantastic track record for developing talent, so I am excited to grow across all elements of being a racing driver. Thank you to Zak, Alessandro and the entire McLaren team. I am excited to get out on track in papaya.”
Toyota, Oliver Solberg –
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team will welcome more exciting young rally talent to its driver line-up for 2026, with Oliver Solberg stepping up to a Rally1 drive alongside Elfyn Evans, Sébastien Ogier, Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari. After a record-breaking 2025 season, having already secured a fifth consecutive manufacturers’ championship and with three of its crews still fighting for the drivers’ and co-drivers’ titles, the team will aim high on all fronts again next year, fielding five GR Yaris Rally1 cars on the majority of events.
Solberg, 24, and co-driver Elliott Edmondson are handed the opportunity to move up to Rally1 machinery after securing this year’s WRC2 title at the wheel of the GR Yaris Rally2 car and claiming a stunning overall win on their debut with TGR-WRT at Rally Estonia in July. The promotion of Solberg follows that of Pajari, the 2024 WRC2 champion, who will enter 2026 having gained a full year of experience at the highest level under his belt and put in promising performances along the way alongside co-driver Marko Salminen, including a maiden podium at Rally Japan.
Katsuta, the first graduate of the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program, will look to continue his growth next season after producing his strongest performances to-date in 2025 in Sweden and Finland, finishing second on both occasions with his co-driver Aaron Johnston. The team can also count on experienced and proven winners to lead its chase for the championship titles. Evans will go into his seventh successive full season with the team after one of his strongest and most consistent seasons to-date, where he and co-driver Scott Martin currently lead the fight for the title with one rally remaining.
After expanding his career win tally with multiple victories in 2025 and fighting for a ninth drivers’ crown, Sébastien Ogier will once more commence a partial programme at January’s season-opening Rallye Monte-Carlo that will include more than half of the season’s rounds along with co-driver Vincent Landais.
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal): “The 2025 season has been an incredibly successful one already for our team, and while we’re set for a thrilling conclusion to this year, we can also look forward to 2026 with excitement. It’s a pleasure to welcome Oliver to the driver line-up after the fantastic job he has done driving the GR Yaris Rally2 this year – and, of course, his amazing debut in our Rally1 car in Estonia. Along with Elfyn and Seb, who have both been driving extremely well in fighting for this year’s championship, as well as Takamoto, who’s shown this year that he can compete for victories, and Sami, who has been gaining valuable experience in his first full season at the highest level, we will once more have a strong driver line-up featuring a great mix of speed and experience. We have a wonderful team and with these drivers, our passion will be on show inside and outside the cockpit next year.”
Elfyn Evans: “I’m really pleased to be continuing with TGR-WRT for what will be my seventh successive season with this team. We’ve enjoyed quite a lot of success together in that time, and 2025 has probably been one of our strongest years yet – both for the whole team and also for me on a personal level. Even so, everybody in the team is working hard to keep improving all the time and I hope that we can achieve more great results in 2026.”
Sébastien Ogier: “I’m really excited to keep driving with this team again next year. We have been able to enjoy some very special moments together over the last six years, and this season has again been an amazing one for the team. Everyone is pushing together to succeed and I’m proud to be part of it. The plan next year will be the same for me as the last few seasons: to compete with a partial programme with the goal of helping the team to keep winning rallies and championships.”
Takamoto Katsuta: “I’m very happy to be part of this team again for next season. This year there have been some strong rallies for me where we have been able to fight for the top places until the finish. There have also been some tough moments but I am sure that these will just make me stronger for the future. Thank you to everybody who has been supporting me, and I hope that next year can be even better.”
Sami Pajari: “It’s been really exciting to drive with this team for a full season and I’m really thankful to them for the support and the chance to continue working together next year too. The main focus so far has been to gain the experience you need to really compete at this level, but we’ve still been able to show good speed in pretty much every rally. I know we still have a lot of hard work ahead to get where we really want to be, which is to one day be fighting for championships, but I’m really looking forward to trying to improve upon what we did this year.”
Oliver Solberg: “This year has been an absolutely incredible one for me as a part of the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing family. We achieved our main goal to win the WRC2 championship together and to do a fast and consistent season with the GR Yaris Rally2. Then we got the opportunity to do Estonia in the Rally1 car, which was simply an amazing week. Now I have this chance to come back to the top level of WRC, so a lot of dreams have come true for me this year and I’m really grateful to be part of this great team. We need to be realistic because we still have a lot to learn with the Rally1 car, but we’re going to have fun and do the best that we can.”
Other news –
Maverick Vinales return: https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2025/11/10/vinales-set-to-return-at-the-valencia-gp/821331
Jorge Martin return attempt: https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2025/11/10/martin-set-for-return-at-grand-prix-of-valencia/821346
[The story is as per press release]