2026 F1 Cars - General Thread

[michl420]

HALO "wings" and airbox "horns"(ferrari,...) are back.

[mzso]

https://i.postimg.cc/R0RB7tQ0/Screensho ... -16-26.png

Feels like a repeat of that one year in the Clair Williams era, after which Paddy Lowe "decided" to leave the team.

[mzso]

Aston Martin won't be running their car before the first test?

[chlebekf1]

Aston Martin won't be running their car before the first test?

Aston is on the same level as Williams

[f1316]

I’m actually surprised that the reduction in size of the cars is so visible - it seemed to me quite a small change in length and width but it’s visually fairly noticeable. They look good.

[AR3-GP]

The similarities between the Mercedes and the Ferrari is very odd. They are almost the same car. There's no way that these designs have been developed independently.

The last time that I saw such similar designs was the Aston Martin and the Red Bull in 2022, after Dan Fallows left for Aston Martin. In this case it would appear that Loic Serra took some early concept of the 2026 Mercedes to Ferrari.

[johnnycesup]

The similarities between the Mercedes and the Ferrari is very odd. They are almost the same car. There's no way that these designs have been developed independently.

The last time that I saw such similar designs was the Aston Martin and the Red Bull in 2022, after Dan Fallows left for Aston Martin. In this case it would appear that Loic Serra took some early concept of the 2026 Mercedes to Ferrari.

By concept do you mean the mousehole? Everything else seems pretty different, from the front wing (number of fixed/moveable elements), shape of the nose (Merc is very slim indeed), front suspension (Ferrari runs multilink now?), cooling (more centerline vs more sidepods), floorboard/stays, radiator inlet (Ferrari still doing something very close to the chassis), sharkfin, Ferrari got the horns and something on the tea tray...

Yes, the shape of the sidepod undercut seems similar (the sidepod top surfaces are pretty different IMO, Merc looks a lot smaller), and they both have a hole on the floor.

[AR3-GP]

The similarities between the Mercedes and the Ferrari is very odd. They are almost the same car. There's no way that these designs have been developed independently.

The last time that I saw such similar designs was the Aston Martin and the Red Bull in 2022, after Dan Fallows left for Aston Martin. In this case it would appear that Loic Serra took some early concept of the 2026 Mercedes to Ferrari.

By concept do you mean the mousehole? Everything else seems pretty different, from the front wing (number of fixed/moveable elements), shape of the nose (Merc is very slim indeed), front suspension (Ferrari runs multilink now?), cooling (more centerline vs more sidepods), floorboard/stays, radiator inlet (Ferrari still doing something very close to the chassis), sharkfin, Ferrari got the horns and something on the tea tray...

Yes, the shape of the sidepod undercut seems similar (the sidepod top surfaces are pretty different IMO, Merc looks a lot smaller), and they both have a hole on the floor.

Ferrari will have tighter sidepods in Melbourne. It will be much closer to Mercedes.

Its also not just the sidepod undercut shape. The inlet is very similar. They both also have the “missing” front brake duct. I think two teams arriving with the same unconventional details is unlikely to arise independently. In my opinion, the same person has worked on both cars at different times because of changing teams.

[dialtone]

Ferrari will have tighter sidepods in Melbourne. It will be much closer to Mercedes.

Its also not just the sidepod undercut shape. The inlet is very similar. They both also have the “missing” front brake duct. I think two teams arriving with the same unconventional details is unlikely to arise independently. The same person worked on both cars at different times.

None of those are new concepts though.

Mouse hole was a staple of floors for decades, that brake duct is from the 80s even IIRC. While to some perhaps it may seem like they are researching these devices at random, so it seems weird that they have the same concepts on the car, to experts once you see a concept it becomes a tool to solve a problem or improve performance and you think about it when you need to solve that same issue or get that particular type of improvement.

[collindsilva]

Aston Martin won't be running their car before the first test?

Aston is on the same level as Williams

Their truck had already left for Barcelona couple of days back...

[SealTheRealDeal]

Aston Martin won't be running their car before the first test?

Aston is on the same level as Williams

*McLaren

[collindsilva]

What we know so far from the various news for the test;
- Mcl - To skip first Day
- Ferrari - to skip first day
- AMR -To skip first day
- Williams - to miss the test
- RBR - ??
- VCarb - ??
- Merc - ??
- Alpine - ??
- Haas - ??
- Audi - ??
- Cadillac - ??

[Vappy]

What we know so far from the various news for the test;
- Mcl - To skip first Day
- Ferrari - to skip first day
- AMR -To skip first day
- Williams - to miss the test
- RBR - ??
- VCarb - ??
- Merc - ??
- Alpine - ??
- Haas - ??
- Audi - ??
- Cadillac - ??

Williams missing the test altogether is wild