2026 Pre-Season Testing

[gearboxtrouble]

There will be some value to getting at least some wet weather running in for all the teams. These cars have very different traction profiles and you're not likely to have any rain to work with in Bahrain.

[basti313]

Very positive signs from this first half of the first test. Night and day to what RedBull had to go through with Renault in 2014.

Yes, I would say for all these teams. Being above 20 laps for everyone, all within a reasonable test time, new engines, even newcomer Caddy....this is a good result for everyone running today.

Agreed, we're back to the competition it being an engine formula again with little else to differentiate the cars.

Looking at the sidepod solutions I would not dare to say this. Diffusor area is surprisingly similar, but how they guide the air round the car will be substantially different for most likely the next two years.

There will be some value to getting at least some wet weather running in for all the teams. These cars have very different traction profiles and you're not likely to have any rain to work with in Bahrain.

I do not think this is useful time once it is wet. I think they just prepared for really bad conditions to get still some running time with the full wets, which will most likely be never used as in the past.

....
Wednesday has some scattered rainclouds, but they're focused on the south-western part of the province. It's likely the track remains dry for the whole day.
.....

Friday seems relatively "safe". If it rains, it will rain on the early morning hours and in the late afternoon.
....
So what do you know, it does pay dividents to get on track early. Monday might turn out to be 1 of the 3 days not impacted by weather. We know McLaren and Aston are a bit late, but it's a weird choice by Ferrari to not run the car today honestly.

Yes, I agree. Ferrari had their shakedown on Friday...so first I thought, they might have had issues to get the car to Barcelona because of weekend driving restrictions. But Haas had the shakedown on Saturday and managed to get the car to Barcelona? No idea how they did it, but not an explanation why Ferrari is not running today.

And: The question will be how the track dries up. Wednesday will be cold, so the track will be at least damp most of the day if it rains in the night.
I also think from the forecast Friday is good, but if clouds shift a bit it may have the same issue.

[FrukostScones]

[Martin Keene]

There is some very impressive mileage covered for the first morning of a completely new regulation set.

[Jambier]

Especially for cars with new engine, like Audi

[gearboxtrouble]

There is some very impressive mileage covered for the first morning of a completely new regulation set.

Indeed - I think we're already well past the total lap count from day 1 in 2014. I see no reason why this should have been a private test.

[Alo_Fan]

There is some very impressive mileage covered for the first morning of a completely new regulation set.

Indeed - I think we're already well past the total lap count from day 1 in 2014. I see no reason why this should have been a private test.

Probably an exclusive contract with the Bahrain GP for pre-season testing

[JRodrigues]

ACTUALIZACIÓN DE TIEMPOS

1⃣ Hadjar - 1'18''835
2⃣ Russell - 1'18''942
3⃣ Antonelli - 1'20''700
4⃣ Colapinto - 1'21''348
5⃣ Lawson - 1'21''513
6⃣ Ocon - 1'22''920
7⃣ Bottas - 1'24''651
8⃣ Bortoleto - 1'25''296

https://x.com/SoyMotor

[SB15]

So I wanted to move this topic about the zero-pod concept and why it didn't work as a "concept" because of sidepods we've seen from the RB22. Someone mention something that the concept had a lot of drag because the amount of outwash/front tyre wake that was hitting the rear tyres and other aerodynamic parts.

That got me thinking? Would the concept still fail regardless because of the 18 inch tyre? And is the 18 inch tyre one of the biggest reasons why the ground effect cars failed?

[Hoffman900]

So I wanted to move this topic about the zero-pod concept and why it didn't work as a "concept" because of sidepods we've seen from the RB22. Someone mention something that the concept had a lot of drag because the amount of outwash/front tyre wake that was hitting the rear tyres and other aerodynamic parts.

That got me thinking? Would the concept still fail regardless because of the 18 inch tyre? And is the 18 inch tyre one of the biggest reasons why the ground effect cars failed?

That theory was from a rudimentary fan done CFD concept that didn’t have the correct geometry and they would have no way of knowing if their CFD even correlated even if it was the right goemetry. However this nuance take, grounded in engineering reality, makes you a bad guy from the internet hype machine and mods here playing favorites.

Not saying it isn’t wrong, but I’m quite sure it missed a lot of the nuances of the design and how it worked. The top speed issues seemed to come from the fact the car was porpoising terribly and thus causing drag as the car bottomed out and the air over and under the car varied with the bouncing. So no one can conclusively say it was that. Even the rudimentary fan done CFD showed more exposed floor area made for more downforce (assuming parts gave infinite stiffness which may have been some it), but as Newey stated, and he knew this from Indy Car in the 1980s, it’s better to have a wider operating downforce ride height range than a higher peak downforce that only works at narrow ride heights.

[edu2703]

[Badger]

[Paa]

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday have rain in the forecast. That would be very disruptive. I don't think teams have that many intermediate tires even if they wanted to run.

Can the teams cherrypick the days as they go? Like the ones ran today can skip tomorrow and put an ad-hoc schedule, like go on Wednesday, then Friday?
Or did they have to decide earlier and stick to the schedule? I assume they can play with the days, but I did not find anything specific about the run-plan.

[LM10]

So I wanted to move this topic about the zero-pod concept and why it didn't work as a "concept" because of sidepods we've seen from the RB22. Someone mention something that the concept had a lot of drag because the amount of outwash/front tyre wake that was hitting the rear tyres and other aerodynamic parts.

That got me thinking? Would the concept still fail regardless because of the 18 inch tyre? And is the 18 inch tyre one of the biggest reasons why the ground effect cars failed?

That theory was from a rudimentary fan done CFD concept that didn’t have the correct geometry and they would have no way of knowing if their CFD even correlated even if it was the right goemetry. However this nuance take, grounded in engineering reality, makes you a bad guy from the internet hype machine and mods here playing favorites.

Vanja, the fan you’re talking about, predicted the high drag on his CFD model. Later it was confirmed by Toto. What a coincidence, right?

What a shame he left the forum.

[Luscion]

Short montage of testing