2026 Pre-Season Testing

[HungarianRacer]

Massive improvement for Mercedes-powered cars at race starts.

Hopefully we'll get acceleration figures, but Norris looked best of all there.

[SoulPancake13]

Looking at what I charted, I think LEC's first 10 laps on C3 in the morning are around what Norris did in his (I have a 39.04 for Charles and 38.94 for Norris). I guess I thought the times were stronger than they were. Norris's next stint is a 38.34 on 15 laps compared to 38.68 for Charles on 13.

[AR3-GP]

Massive improvement for Mercedes-powered cars at race starts.

Hopefully we'll get acceleration figures, but Norris looked best of all there.

Mclaren has shorter gear ratios to the other Mercedes cars. So it can allow them to keep the revs higher and avoid the turbo lag after they let the clutch out.

[Emag]

Unless McLaren are heavily sandbagging, I think they’re at least 2 tenths down on Ferrari at the moment. Mercedes is hard to read, they’ve been rather cryptic in their runs.

I stand to my first prediction regarding the pecking order.

It’s Mercedes/Ferrari (and I would bet for Ferrari in Melbourne at the moment), then McLaren/RedBull.

The gaps in Australia could give us a sense of how realistic a 4-team fight would be later in the season.

How do you reach this conclusion? Norris had very little running today, he immediately entered into a qualy sim, did 3 runs and ended up 2 tenths slower than Leclerc on a lap where he had multiple oversteer moments in S1.

Leclerc on other hand had the whole day, did more C3 runs in the evening and had many more C3s than Norris.

Honestly, to me Norris being 2 tenths off at the same time on same tire on the day like he had today is very positive sign for McLaren.

At least in qualifying trim. Race sims I couldn't really follow as I haven't been at home, but it was a McLaren strength last year.

Because "quali sims" are hard to read. I already predicted McLaren could do 32s and possibly 31s by extrapolating from guesstimated fuel loads last week. It came true today with Ferrari, but we have no idea how much more left they had in the tank.

When it comes to race sims, it's been much tougher to read than last year because teams for some reason haven't been able to set a proper full race sim. Even those who did had interruptions (which ruins comparisons even if you assume all other parameters are realistic due to tire heat cycles changing with red flags).

In any case, from those samples we had, Leclerc was mighty today with a very very hot track. The fact that McLaren only matched Ferrari's first stint while being 3-4 tenths faster on the second stint on a track which was 15C cooler, immediately sets them back by at least 5 tenths (and probably more actually). Then you factor in the fact that Ferrari had less deg with a 47C track than what Lando had now with a 27C track, then I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see the best McLaren finish 20 seconds behind the best Ferrari in Melbourne.

[AR3-GP]

In any case, from those samples we had, Leclerc was mighty today with a very very hot track. The fact that McLaren only matched Ferrari's first stint while being 3-4 tenths faster on the second stint on a track which was 15C cooler, immediately sets them back by at least 7 tenths (and probably more actually). Then you factor in the fact that Ferrari had less deg with a 47C track than what Lando had now with a 27C track, then I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see the best McLaren finish 20 seconds behind the best Ferrari in Melbourne.

hold your horses. Mclaren is overweight and will have weight reductions in Melbourne. I don't believe that is the case for Ferrari or Mercedes. viewtopic.php?p=1328489#p1328489

[organic]

In any case, from those samples we had, Leclerc was mighty today with a very very hot track. The fact that McLaren only matched Ferrari's first stint while being 3-4 tenths faster on the second stint on a track which was 15C cooler, immediately sets them back by at least 7 tenths (and probably more actually). Then you factor in the fact that Ferrari had less deg with a 47C track than what Lando had now with a 27C track, then I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see the best McLaren finish 20 seconds behind the best Ferrari in Melbourne.

hold your horses. Mclaren is overweight and will have weight reductions in Melbourne. I don't believe that is the case for Ferrari or Mercedes. viewtopic.php?p=1328489#p1328489

The quote says that you can make weight reductions even when you are already at the limit

Stella:

The weight reduction operations of the car never end, even when you are within the limits.

The full quote reads to me that they're not overweight, but will find balance benefits from reducing further

[AR3-GP]

In any case, from those samples we had, Leclerc was mighty today with a very very hot track. The fact that McLaren only matched Ferrari's first stint while being 3-4 tenths faster on the second stint on a track which was 15C cooler, immediately sets them back by at least 7 tenths (and probably more actually). Then you factor in the fact that Ferrari had less deg with a 47C track than what Lando had now with a 27C track, then I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see the best McLaren finish 20 seconds behind the best Ferrari in Melbourne.

hold your horses. Mclaren is overweight and will have weight reductions in Melbourne. I don't believe that is the case for Ferrari or Mercedes. viewtopic.php?p=1328489#p1328489

The quote says that you can make weight reductions even when you are already at the limit

Stella:

The weight reduction operations of the car never end, even when you are within the limits.

The full quote reads to me that they're not overweight, but will find balance benefits from reducing further

Autoracer previously reported that Mclaren is overweight. So I don't think they are at the weight limit.

[SoulPancake13]

In any case, from those samples we had, Leclerc was mighty today with a very very hot track. The fact that McLaren only matched Ferrari's first stint while being 3-4 tenths faster on the second stint on a track which was 15C cooler, immediately sets them back by at least 7 tenths (and probably more actually). Then you factor in the fact that Ferrari had less deg with a 47C track than what Lando had now with a 27C track, then I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see the best McLaren finish 20 seconds behind the best Ferrari in Melbourne.

hold your horses. Mclaren is overweight and will have weight reductions in Melbourne. I don't believe that is the case for Ferrari or Mercedes. viewtopic.php?p=1328489#p1328489

I mean, yes, but how much weight can McLaren lose to reduce a deficit like that... they have a pretty massive deg problem right now IMO, you can't just fix that with weight reduction although it will help

[AR3-GP]

In any case, from those samples we had, Leclerc was mighty today with a very very hot track. The fact that McLaren only matched Ferrari's first stint while being 3-4 tenths faster on the second stint on a track which was 15C cooler, immediately sets them back by at least 7 tenths (and probably more actually). Then you factor in the fact that Ferrari had less deg with a 47C track than what Lando had now with a 27C track, then I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see the best McLaren finish 20 seconds behind the best Ferrari in Melbourne.

hold your horses. Mclaren is overweight and will have weight reductions in Melbourne. I don't believe that is the case for Ferrari or Mercedes. viewtopic.php?p=1328489#p1328489

I mean, yes, but how much weight can McLaren lose to reduce a deficit like that... they have a pretty massive deg problem right now IMO, you can't just fix that with weight reduction although it will help

Lando Norris explained the degradation problem:

Things worked better, and then we could drive quicker. At the minute, we're a little bit off. So to match the race pace of some of the others, we have to push a bit more, and then we have more degradation.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/land ... /10798914/


I don't know where Mclaren will be in melbourne, but in theory they will be a little bit better if they can lighten the car.

[FittingMechanics]

To me it looks like McLaren unlocked a lot of speed in second Bahrain test. In first test they looked decent, pace was easy to find but here I think they are really stepping it up. This is why all those earlier comments (like the one above) are probably somewhat misleading.

Mercedes (Russell) and Red Bull (Verstappen) couldn't beat Lando's lap today and that was on a day he was compromised and had only 2 hours of running.

[SoulPancake13]

To me it looks like McLaren unlocked a lot of speed in second Bahrain test. In first test they looked decent, pace was easy to find but here I think they are really stepping it up. This is why all those earlier comments (like the one above) are probably somewhat misleading.

Mercedes (Russell) and Red Bull (Verstappen) couldn't beat Lando's lap today and that was on a day he was compromised and had only 2 hours of running.

The push laps are really nothing to write home about, they have never truly mattered in pre season testing. What is more representative is the long runs, where McLaren has consistently showcased quite bad deg. I do think they are more compromised than the other 3 big teams due to their dominance last season, but I think they will need a couple races to remove some weight and add some load.

[Emag]

hold your horses. Mclaren is overweight and will have weight reductions in Melbourne. I don't believe that is the case for Ferrari or Mercedes. viewtopic.php?p=1328489#p1328489

I mean, yes, but how much weight can McLaren lose to reduce a deficit like that... they have a pretty massive deg problem right now IMO, you can't just fix that with weight reduction although it will help

Lando Norris explained the degradation problem:

Things worked better, and then we could drive quicker. At the minute, we're a little bit off. So to match the race pace of some of the others, we have to push a bit more, and then we have more degradation.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/land ... /10798914/


I don't know where Mclaren will be in melbourne, but in theory they will be a little bit better if they can lighten the car.

We have no idea how overweight McLaren are though. If it's 10kg then that's significant. If it's 5kg then not so much. In any case, this test has been much harder than last year to take things away from. There's also this huge question mark looming over the whole thing with regards to the Mercedes PU. If what Max said last week about them potentially hiding 20 HP in this test, then that could change the picture significantly for the Mercedes-powered teams when we start proper racing.

[dialtone]

Looking at what I charted, I think LEC's first 10 laps on C3 in the morning are around what Norris did in his (I have a 39.04 for Charles and 38.94 for Norris). I guess I thought the times were stronger than they were. Norris's next stint is a 38.34 on 15 laps compared to 38.68 for Charles on 13.

How can it be 39.04 for LEC? I think I remember most of his times to be in the 1:38.5 in his first stint this morning and only marginally lower with the 2nd stint. LEC also had practically no deg in either so he was probably driving to a delta given the balmy 44C.

[McFAN]

To me it looks like McLaren unlocked a lot of speed in second Bahrain test. In first test they looked decent, pace was easy to find but here I think they are really stepping it up. This is why all those earlier comments (like the one above) are probably somewhat misleading.

Mercedes (Russell) and Red Bull (Verstappen) couldn't beat Lando's lap today and that was on a day he was compromised and had only 2 hours of running.

The push laps are really nothing to write home about, they have never truly mattered in pre season testing. What is more representative is the long runs, where McLaren has consistently showcased quite bad deg. I do think they are more compromised than the other 3 big teams due to their dominance last season, but I think they will need a couple races to remove some weight and add some load.

Their S2 performance has been quite strong throughout both tests so I don't think it's load that they're missing.

[upsidedowntoast]

Did Merc just do short stints and setup runs again? I didn't see them do any full race stints even before Kimi had the pneumatic pressure issue