2026 Pre-Season Testing

[dren]

I'm hoping/expecting for chaotic races, at least early in the season before everyone converges.

[McL-H]

To me this is not F1 anymore. These regulations are extremely dull. Look how slow they are through the corners. Why why do they keep messing up this racing series so bad? All it needed was last year regulations with proper screaming V10 engine, bio fuel if they please. No no. Lada cornering is what we get.

Obviously we haven't seen them actually race yet, but a number of the traits of these cars look like they could promote good racing.

Yes, the teams will need some time to learn and optimise PU usage, and maybe they will tweak the regs on harvesting.

Yes, there is a danger that one team is ahead of the pack in this reg cycle.

However, "slow" through the corners is not all bad IMHO. They are slower because the cars have a lot less downforce. Drivers should no longer be able to just step on it and hold on through corners like Eau Rouge. They will be more on the edge, hopefully resulting in driver skill being a greater differentiator.

2025 cars were about 10 seconds faster than they were in the early 90's on many comparable tracks, were the cars rubbish to watch back then?

Also, due to lower DF, higher straight line speed, and lower mechanical grip from smaller contact patch, braking distances are longer. With longer braking zones, there is more scope for drivers to make moves under braking.

I am not yet convinced but I sure hope you’re right. The thing is, I can enjoy F2 and FE. They produce some good races. But to me F1 is about more than that. It is about seeking the edge of what is possible. This should be the pinnacle of motorsport. The speed (and sound) is what made F1 what it was. Sure, for safety concerns regulations should try to limit this somewhat, but this appears to be too much to me. We’ll see when the flag drops how things really stand.

[dialtone]

Driver interviews after testing.

[TeamKoolGreen]

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.

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 oduce this new regulation before 2031.

I think it is/was little more than a populist exercise. IMO the chance for it actually happenning is remote.
In F1 the manufacturers care about engine tech.

Almost every manufacturer in F1 is running a V8 or V10 in other series.

Ferrari, Audi , Ford , Mercedes and Aston Martin.

So again , you're wrong.

[TeamKoolGreen]

To me this is not F1 anymore. These regulations are extremely dull. Look how slow they are through the corners. Why why do they keep messing up this racing series so bad? All it needed was last year regulations with proper screaming V10 engine, bio fuel if they please. No no. Lada cornering is what we get.

Obviously we haven't seen them actually race yet, but a number of the traits of these cars look like they could promote good racing.

Yes, the teams will need some time to learn and optimise PU usage, and maybe they will tweak the regs on harvesting.

Yes, there is a danger that one team is ahead of the pack in this reg cycle.

However, "slow" through the corners is not all bad IMHO. They are slower because the cars have a lot less downforce. Drivers should no longer be able to just step on it and hold on through corners like Eau Rouge. They will be more on the edge, hopefully resulting in driver skill being a greater differentiator.

2025 cars were about 10 seconds faster than they were in the early 90's on many comparable tracks, were the cars rubbish to watch back then?

Also, due to lower DF, higher straight line speed, and lower mechanical grip from smaller contact patch, braking distances are longer. With longer braking zones, there is more scope for drivers to make moves under braking.

These regs weren't designed to promote good racing. They exist for one reason, to make the power unit work. The 2022 chassis regs were only 4 years old. The chassis and aero wasn't supposed to change.

They sacrificed everything they learned about following with the 2022 car , to make the new engine regs work.

The whole concept of a DRS train didn't even exist until 2022. Only after 2022 could the cars could follow behind each other. It is funny how ppl started to think this was normal , as if a pack of cars from 2005 to 2021 could follow each other front wing to gearbox for laps on end. That era is over and we won't be seeing cars follow like that unless or until ground effect comes back.

[chrisc90]

Anyone who watched testing, especially the "power hour" when Norris, Leclerc, Verstappen were on quali runs cannot call these laps dull. They were exciting, on edge, cars have too much power at corner exit and move around, etc.

Do you know what time they were doing these runs? Might go back and watch as I’ve seen about 45mins of testing

[FittingMechanics]

Anyone who watched testing, especially the "power hour" when Norris, Leclerc, Verstappen were on quali runs cannot call these laps dull. They were exciting, on edge, cars have too much power at corner exit and move around, etc.

Do you know what time they were doing these runs? Might go back and watch as I’ve seen about 45mins of testing

About 1h 30 minutes before the end of the session.

[mzso]

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.

Well oduce this new regulation before 2031.

I think it is/was little more than a populist exercise. IMO the chance for it actually happening is remote.
In F1 the manufacturers care about engine tech.

Almost every manufacturer in F1 is running a V8 or V10 in other series.

Ferrari, Audi , Ford , Mercedes and Aston Martin.

So again , you're wrong.

So? In F1 they didn't want NA, and wanted hybridisation. So, again I'm not wrong.
You didn't even address what I said, you just provided an irrelevant factoid.

[AR3-GP]

Are there any details of the "test tire"?

[AR3-GP]

Anyone who watched testing, especially the "power hour" when Norris, Leclerc, Verstappen were on quali runs cannot call these laps dull. They were exciting, on edge, cars have too much power at corner exit and move around, etc.

I don't think it was dull, but remember that Bahrain flatters the cars in terms of harvesting. AUS will be on the opposite end.

[erudite450]

Here are the race sims from today. Audi is impressive in the mid pack.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBnKn3pXUAA ... name=large

That's almost frontrunning pace by the Audi !

[AR3-GP]

Here are the race sims from today. Audi is impressive in the mid pack.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBnKn3pXUAA ... name=large

That's almost frontrunning pace by the Audi !

My own calculations suggest that Audi is down about 25hp compared to the leading manufacturers. So they appear to have a very good chassis. Paddock is going to take note of their aero concept.

[AR3-GP]

Comparison of Leclerc and Piastri in the morning of day 3, test 2:



Piastri experiences very high degradation.

[organic]

Are there any details of the "test tire"?

Supposed to be the same as the C3 but it's manufactured in the turkey plant. They're testing it to determine whether drivers/teams think it performs similarly to determine how feasible it is for the turkey plant to step in to manufacture for Pirelli if they ever need that capability

[FittingMechanics]

Are there any details of the "test tire"?

Test tire (prototype) is C3 but built in a different factory (Turkey). They wanted to validate it has the same exact performance.

Little I saw from teams was that they felt prototype C3 is slightly faster/better.