2026 Pre-Season Testing

[TeamKoolGreen]

It is almost like , anyone who understood basic physics , knew this regs set was a disaster before a wheel was turned.

ALONSO: THE NEW ENGINE REGS HAVE KILLED RACING

"Last year we took Turn 12 at Bahrain flat out at 280 km/h. Today we go 50 km/h slower because we need to save electricity for the straight."

"Today in Turn 12 you can drive the car. The chef could do it."

200 kmh is almost safety car speed (180kmh)

[Emag]

Mclaren race sim is good, but not scary. Seem very capable of keeping those tires alive again, though.

It's not good at all actually. He was ~1 second per lap slower than Lewis in his first stint. The gap seems to persist in the second stint as well.

Of course it's still early days, so things might change next week, but at the moment McLaren hasn't shown anything that makes me believe they'll win in Melbourne.

[Seanspeed]

Piastri is being very conservative with energy deployment on the main straight, barely cracking 305kph, but also clearly using more up to T4, at least compared to Lewis on most laps.

I do think Mclaren is sandbagging on power a bit here.

[Seanspeed]

Mclaren race sim is good, but not scary. Seem very capable of keeping those tires alive again, though.

It's not good at all actually. He was ~1 second per lap slower than Lewis in his first stint. The gap seems to persist in the second stint as well.

Of course it's still early days, so things might change next week, but at the moment McLaren hasn't shown anything that makes me believe they'll win in Melbourne.

Well I was comparing to what Russell and Hadjar had done at the point of making my post. But that's also why I said it wasn't scary. Didn't look overly special. Last year we could tell from race sims in testing that Mclaren were very clear ahead.

Still, I think Mclaren are sandbagging on power/deployment here.

[Emag]

Piastri is being very conservative with energy deployment on the main straight, barely cracking 305kph, but also clearly using more up to T4, at least compared to Lewis on most laps.

I do think Mclaren is sandbagging on power a bit here.

They do have a different deployment strategy, as they reach higher speeds in the back straight, but perhaps they are holding a bit back right now. It's still almost a second to Kimi with the same power unit.

[Seanspeed]

Piastri is being very conservative with energy deployment on the main straight, barely cracking 305kph, but also clearly using more up to T4, at least compared to Lewis on most laps.

I do think Mclaren is sandbagging on power a bit here.

They do have a different deployment strategy, as they reach higher speeds in the back straight, but perhaps they are holding a bit back right now. It's still almost a second to Kimi with the same power unit.

Must be holding back. I've seen a couple laps now where Piastri doesn't even hit 300kph on the main straight. There's no way that's ideal for running in the race, nor for optimizing laptimes, even considering them using more deployment elsewhere.

[Cassius]

Very impressive consistency from Piastri on his hard stint.

[fourmula1]

Do we really have any idea of pecking order from the data? Safe to suggest the top 4 teams but is the data clear enough at all yet? Too many unknowns?

[Emag]

Do we really have any idea of pecking order from the data? Safe to suggest the top 4 teams but is the data clear enough at all yet? Too many unknowns?

I think it's going to be between Mercedes and Ferrari at Melbourne.

[f1isgood]

Would make a good comparison with George's simulation

[SoulPancake13]

Do we really have any idea of pecking order from the data? Safe to suggest the top 4 teams but is the data clear enough at all yet? Too many unknowns?

I think it's going to be between Mercedes and Ferrari at Melbourne.

I think Mercedes is a couple tenths ahead right now.

[Seanspeed]

Lewis stopped. Likely some planned situation, given the timing.

[Emag]

Lewis stopped. Likely some planned situation, given the timing.

He stopped on track so it's hardly planned. But it's interesting that the commentators suggested he might have run out of fuel.

[f1316]

It is almost like , anyone who understood basic physics , knew this regs set was a disaster before a wheel was turned.

ALONSO: THE NEW ENGINE REGS HAVE KILLED RACING

"Last year we took Turn 12 at Bahrain flat out at 280 km/h. Today we go 50 km/h slower because we need to save electricity for the straight."

"Today in Turn 12 you can drive the car. The chef could do it."

200 kmh is almost safety car speed (180kmh)

I dunno, I’m watching the onboard of Hamilton’s race run: it looks committed, fast, some (but not really that much) LICO, the lap times still waaaay faster than any other form of racing around here - I’m sure the drivers can tell the difference but for the average fan it kinda looks the same. If anything, the slightly (albeit not much) better noise, slightly (not that much) nimbler and more nervous cars add to the impression of speed.

I think we have to differentiate what’s fun for drivers vs what makes a difference racing - imho the previous cars, even 2017-2021, already looked slow and ponderous on track (despite being arguably the fastest cars ever ) - so while I think small, light, V10s give the best spectacle, I don’t know if this is actually worse than what we’ve had recently for the audience (even if it is for the driver).

[Cassius]

Do we really have any idea of pecking order from the data? Safe to suggest the top 4 teams but is the data clear enough at all yet? Too many unknowns?

I think it's going to be between Mercedes and Ferrari at Melbourne.

I think Mercedes is a couple tenths ahead right now.

A bit premature. There is nothing that supports this, also looking at Piastri's and Leclerc's stints. There is just no way we can already tell which of the top teams looks fastest.