2026 Pre-Season Testing

[CjC]

Oh my days. 3 days of ‘behind closed doors’ testing and 1 day of semi open to the public testing and we’ve already had the quote ‘best driver’ dropped in the forum.

[FittingMechanics]

Oh my days. 3 days of ‘behind closed doors’ testing and 1 day of semi open to the public testing and we’ve already had the quote ‘best driver’ dropped in the forum.

One Toto mindgame and Red Bull fans predict bigger domination than in 2023.

[upsidedowntoast]

Honestly considering that Merc is still having trouble with hot weather and suspension 4-5 years on....

Or they went to the storrage and got their sandbags out again?

Sandbagging is meaningless here if Mclaren were at the top with the same engine.

[chrisc90]

Honestly considering that Merc is still having trouble with hot weather and suspension 4-5 years on....

Or they went to the storrage and got their sandbags out again?

Sandbagging is meaningless here if Mclaren were at the top with the same engine.

Any of these teams could have gone out and knocked in the fastest lap of the day.

Says nothing.

Need to dive deep into the panties, data, throttle traces to get a picture of order

[carisi2k]

These 26 cars look horrible in the slow speed corners and not much better in the medium ones either. In the medium turns I am noticing a lot of late turn in and avoidance of the apex.

[FittingMechanics]

Honestly considering that Merc is still having trouble with hot weather and suspension 4-5 years on....

Or they went to the storrage and got their sandbags out again?

Sandbagging is meaningless here if Mclaren were at the top with the same engine.

Mercedes PU engineer can probably mandate lower engine mode, especially if it is for the greater good (avoiding a penalty).

[AR3-GP]

Don't write off Alpine.

[upsidedowntoast]

Or they went to the storrage and got their sandbags out again?

Sandbagging is meaningless here if Mclaren were at the top with the same engine.

Any of these teams could have gone out and knocked in the fastest lap of the day.

Says nothing.

Need to dive deep into the panties, data, throttle traces to get a picture of order

True, but my point is that multiple Merc people (Toto, Shovlin, and George) have gone out and admitted that they were having problems with balance, setup, and the heat. Even if they are sandbagging, it looks like those problems are real, problems which Mclaren did not report they struggled with. And on the engine front Mclaren would have just as much incentive to sandbag as Mercedes.

[SB15]

Oh my days. 3 days of ‘behind closed doors’ testing and 1 day of semi open to the public testing and we’ve already had the quote ‘best driver’ dropped in the forum.

One Toto mindgame and Red Bull fans predict bigger domination than in 2023.

It's working

[AR3-GP]

https://i.postimg.cc/hG89h7Yg/Analysis-V70a9i-Xq.jpg

The "long runs" from Lando, Charles and Max today.

Does the insights hub calculate gear ratios?

Not at the moment. I can try to estimate it but I am not sure if anything meaningful will pop out considering the low sample rate of the data.

Are the Speed and RPM data that bad? iirc, because there are so many data points, one might still be able to extract a gear ratio from a messy sample. I might do this manually. I thought it would be interesting to compare Mclaren's gear ratios to Mercedes with same PU, and then to compare Merc PU to the others to see the preferred RPM band.

My initial hunch skimming the data is that RB has slightly longer gears than Merc/Mclaren.

[Badger]

Does the insights hub calculate gear ratios?

Not at the moment. I can try to estimate it but I am not sure if anything meaningful will pop out considering the low sample rate of the data.

Are the Speed and RPM data that bad? iirc, because there are so many data points, one might still be able to extract a gear ratio from a messy sample. I might do this manually. I thought it would be interesting to compare Mclaren's gear ratios to Mercedes with same PU, and then to compare Merc PU to the others to see the preferred RPM band.

My initial hunch skimming the data is that RB has slightly longer gears than Merc/Mclaren.

When you have more deployment you need longer gears

[Zynerji]

Isn't longer gears due to the electrical torque delivery?

[TeamKoolGreen]

Verstappen has been testing the following functions:

- Lowering the brightness level of the dashboard

- Turning off the radio before corners

- Activating dark mode on the screen

- Deactivating secondary button functions

- Drinking 2 litres before getting into the car to avoid using the hydratio

[Seanspeed]

Don't write off Alpine.

Are you saying this for any particular reason?

[AR3-GP]

Don't write off Alpine.

Are you saying this for any particular reason?

Yes the team probably spent more time than anyone on their 2026 car. They had the highest windtunnel and CFD allocation. Rumor is they are very happy and are not chasing headline times. They have teething issues but it might be a very strong car when it is running.