2026 Pre-Season Testing

[mzso]

Can't see a non-mercedes powered car finishing on the podium this year, but hopefully mclaren will be close enough there's at least a little intrigue

FFS with this oracle crap already. Why don't you give the drivers' final scores?

It's the same nonsense when people proclaimed Leclerc as a champion after three races in 2022. He was barely third in the final result (3 points in front of Perez) and 146 points behind, which is almost 6 race wins worth of points...
At least Red Bull and Ferrari seems just as solid. Also there's a good chance AM will pull themselves together during the year. Red Bull when lead by Newey did came back often during the year with updates.

Red Bull never "came back during the year" with Newey. Winning in mexico and maybe one other off week Mercedes decided to be generous is not "coming back during the year."

They most definitely did. One year they were way off and with an update around Hungary they came back to race winning contention.

[Rodak]

This new formula will be a nightmare for strategists come the race day

I for one wouldn't mind a new rule that the pits can't give any driving advice during the race.

[SB15]

I know it's preseason testing, I know it's too early, but I cannot lie that looked as effortless as a fastest lap as you can get.

[Seanspeed]

I know it's preseason testing, I know it's too early, but I cannot lie that looked as effortless as a fastest lap as you can get.

Yep, just like his lap at the end of last week. The car is basically on rails.

[Seanspeed]

Just saw PIA/MAX/HAM race sim times…I think Ferrari got them covered, not sure about Mercedes but Hamilton was a tenth or so shy of them but he did his run at 10C higher track temps (40.3C).

I have a feeling Leclerc tomorrow will throw down the gaunlet.

Ferrari didn't do a race sim.

[upsidedowntoast]

I know it's preseason testing, I know it's too early, but I cannot lie that looked as effortless as a fastest lap as you can get.

Yep, just like his lap at the end of last week. The car is basically on rails.

Does anyone know the context that the Mercs were running under today and yesterday? I'm assuming C3+setup testing, no full race stints?

Hard to tell because George wasn't anywhere close to the top earlier this morning, but he also didn't seem to be pushing / was just doing setup runs.

[Artur Craft]

I don't think anyone needs junk comments like this. You don't know anything about Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes or Red Bull performance.
You know even less about the Honda PU, since they barely ran any laps.

On the other hand your statement about Honda is factually wrong. They split with RB, resulting in them designing their own PUs. Honda then came back and partnered with Aston Martin.

After the first few GPs , we talk about this again.

[upsidedowntoast]

Does anyone have past data on how well preseason testing has correlated with in-season performance? Obviously it reveals a general tierlist + reliability, but how well do race sims and average times (I'm going to exclude single fastest lap glory runs) translate?

[Enstone]

Colapinto set a solid pace on hard tyres over a 17–20 lap stint.



If this pace is representative, Alpine could realistically be fighting as the 5th fastest team.

[AR3-GP]

Colapinto set a solid pace on hard tyres over a 17–20 lap stint.

https://www.autohebdo.fr/app/uploads/20 ... 24x436.png

If this pace is representative, Alpine could realistically be fighting as the 5th fastest team.

This is what Briatore said also. They are confident that they are 5th, behind the top 4 teams.

[TeamKoolGreen]

Should make for great racing, some variability in race starts would really help spice things up. Hopefully not as bad as these (someone not starting at all).

Russell spun his rears so that shouldn't be too hard to solve.

A cluster f*** at the start would be interesting but it is not good racing.

Max had a hard time overtaking Bottas in his Cadillac in attack mode today. It took 2 tries.

https://x.com/MV33Racing/status/2024594 ... 35588?s=20

(the tweet is wrong in that it says "they promised us better overtaking". No they didn't. Their only goal was to make an F1 car that could function with these power units. And they barely accomplished that. Overtaking or following was not a priority at all. They just gave it some lip service and thats it.)

[AR3-GP]

Should make for great racing, some variability in race starts would really help spice things up. Hopefully not as bad as these (someone not starting at all).

Russell spun his rears so that shouldn't be too hard to solve.

A cluster f*** at the start would be interesting but it is not good racing.

Max had a hard time overtaking Bottas in his Cadillac in attack mode today. It took 2 tries.

https://x.com/MV33Racing/status/2024594 ... 35588?s=20

(the tweet is wrong in that it says "they promised us better overtaking". No they didn't. Their only goal was to make an F1 car that could function with these power units. And they barely accomplished that. Overtaking or following was not a priority at all. They just gave it some lip service and thats it.)

Overtaking will be easy for the Merc powered cars against other manufacturer. That’s about it. Also, that's Hadjar, not Max.

[dialtone]

A cluster f*** at the start would be interesting but it is not good racing.

10s of millions paid per year to people that can’t avoid other objects while going at 50kph.

Start. From. The. Pit. Lane.

[TeamKoolGreen]

This is awful. I can't wait for a time when they get back to normally aspirated engines with sustainable fuel. Junk the turbo and electric power.

It's fine that you can't wait, because you'd be waiting your whole life. There's around 0% chance for it to happen.

This is not true at all. WRC got rid of hybrid and used sustainable fuel in 2025. Ben Sulayem has a lot of power and he supports the idea. He has already chaired meetings about it. So you are just wrong.

If you got rid of the MGU-H, you might as well not have hybrids at all. It was the one thing that actually made hybrids functional in F1. Even going back to the 2014 configuration with an equal displacement V8 would be fine by me.

[edu2703]

It's fine that you can't wait, because you'd be waiting your whole life. There's around 0% chance for it to happen.

Well above zero. What's currently being discussed for the next regulation change is precisely the return of the 2.4L naturally aspirated V8 and a reduction in electrification to around 220 kWh.

I would say that it's quite plausible that this will actually happen. A simpler, less complex, cheaper engine with less dependence on electricity and no turbo, running entirely on sustainable fuel. If the current engine proves to be bad, there will be a lot of pressure to introduce this new regulation before 2031.