2026 Pre-Season Testing

[FittingMechanics]

Interesting to see McLaren's ultra-short gearing. They are basically 15 kph behind Ferrari on the main straight with the same rev number in 8th. And Ferrari's 8th is kind of middle of the pack in terms of ratio, same as the factory Mercedes gearbox.https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBIlhMpXAAA ... =4096x4096

IIRC McLaren in 2025 didn't have greatest top speeds, they focused more on being fast in the corners. Could be a similar thing here, especially if most cars harvest at end of straights.

Maybe McLaren is willingly sacrificing a bit of one lap pace to have more acceleration in the races? Or they know their car is more draggy so doesn't need longer gears.

[upsidedowntoast]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but wouldn't it be better to sacrifice corner speed for better straight speed here? Since you'll be slowing down to harvest in corners anyway, and meanwhile you want to be as efficient as possible on the straights to avoid as much clipping as possible. Or otherwise have a very high ceiling top speed for straights that you don't always need to use if you're deploying energy more smoothly over that length.

[AR3-GP]

You can more or less hear the difference between the Ferraris who use gear 2 exclusively in low speed vs RBPT that is using gear 1 and maintains higher RPM.

[Badger]

Interesting to see McLaren's ultra-short gearing. They are basically 15 kph behind Ferrari on the main straight with the same rev number in 8th. And Ferrari's 8th is kind of middle of the pack in terms of ratio, same as the factory Mercedes gearbox.https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HBIlhMpXAAA ... =4096x4096

IIRC McLaren in 2025 didn't have greatest top speeds, they focused more on being fast in the corners. Could be a similar thing here, especially if most cars harvest at end of straights.

Maybe McLaren is willingly sacrificing a bit of one lap pace to have more acceleration in the races? Or they know their car is more draggy so doesn't need longer gears.

McLaren previously had longer gear ratios than Mercedes despite being slightly draggier, so I'm not sure that logic holds.

For me it's quite surprising what they have chosen. It may be similar to RB and Audi that they are trying to keep the revs high on the downshifts for extra harvesting, but since Mercedes has not gone for this option it could be suboptimal for that engine. Theoretically having shorter ratios could benefit the acceleration phase, but with a 350 kW MGU-K and severe traction limitations on the rear you're not really lacking power during acceleration. It could be that the gear ratios are optimised for race running on the average track (which is more energy starved than Bahrain), and that they are sacrificing some performance in higher energy situations (quali mode, boost mode, overtake mode, certain tracks).

[mzso]

We have underestimated how much more efficient the venturi floor is. Pound for pound of downforce, the venturi cars were less sensitive and/or had a smaller wake. These flat floor cars either release even more dirty air, or the aero is just far more sensitive to even the smallest amount of turbulence.

The best solution might have been to make smaller venturi cars so we would get the benefit of smaller cars and less downforce, while retaining the better following characteristics. Following in 2025 was bad only because the cars were allowed to generate too much downforce.

I know somewhere team kool greene is having an "I told you so" party

I don't think your theory of "ability to follow largely depends on level downforce" holds much water. Not while aerodynamic downforce is a major part of car performance.
I think it's overwhelmingly about "dirty" air and sensitivity. And they dirtied up the air really well, and removed the less sensitive venturi tunnels.

The issue with 2025 was field convergence. Everyone except McLaren were in a 2 to 3 tenths bubble at the front. You just cannot pass with that delta. Qualify well or go home basically. All again thanks to the FIA being lenient with dirty-air generating components and falling from Toto's plot on safety, resulting in more and more bodywork downforce as the regulations progressed.

Delta is only needed because of the inability to follow well. Cars being close should be a lot better for racing.
And I don't think the myth of Toto has any merit, it was harmful for drivers' well being the way it was in 2022. There was too much potential to create dirty air and teams developed to create more and more of it. The issue is FIA neglect.

Not sure I follow. If cars are close in performance, you simply cannot race wheel-to-wheel consistently. You need either different strengths or performance delta that comes from tires or something else to race. If you look back at early 2022, the racing was good also because Ferrari and Red Bull had very different strengths. As regulations mature the gaps close up much more as all cars converge more or less towards one specific successful formula which makes it a qualifying contest. Cars being close in performance is only good in theory, not in reality. It's nothing new though. The only way racing happens is if the driver in front makes some error from time to time. And nowadays I think drivers have gotten pretty good.


Toto literally chose to run his team's car low enough so that it bounces to make a point. I don't think for once he complains about safety if the W13 was actually fast.

You can't because of inability to follow closely. Which mainly means "dirty air". Also the cars being over long doesn't help.
The performance delta from tires, etc is a crutch to rely on, because of this fundamental problem.

The actual qualifying contest happens when there's significant gap in car performances. Different car characteristics help, but not a lot if they can't get close enough.

[mzso]

Holding RPM for practice starts:

12500 - Audi
12100 - Mercedes (excluding Mclaren)
11650- Ferrari
11300 - RBPT
9900 - Honda (likely not the real thing)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2h7BWx25lU

Probably something is not working right. You hear rumors of vibrations. Whether it's the motor or gearbox or they just don't work together is unclear, if it's true at all. It remains to be seen if they can fix their issues for the season start.

[Luscion]

[nitrotech]

Given that Mercedes has had difficulty in keeping their tyres on softer range of compounds, it's a strange choice of tyres for testing. We may not see headline times from them in the second test. It appears that Ferrari has a good choice of tyre selection.

[AR3-GP]

Given that Mercedes has had difficulty in keeping their tyres on softer range of compounds, it's a strange choice of tyres for testing. We may not see headline times from them in the second test. It appears that Ferrari has a good choice of tyre selection.

I think these tire allocations would have been selected months ago so that Pirelli can meet the production requirements.

[AR3-GP]

Mercedes has placed their onboard camera such that the steering wheel is fully obscured at all times. Mclaren is by far the worst, with very clear steering wheel display in the onboard camera. Competitors will need to think about this as it gives their rivals a lot of insight into how much energy they have in different parts of the circuit.

[organic]

Looking at car behaviours from the first test day 3 (when teams had dialled in setup a bit) my ranking would be Merc Ferrari McLaren red bull

Fully believe that mercedes have been massively sandbagging with their engine. Their car behaviour looks very settled, good turn-ins.

[AR3-GP]

Mercedes rear wing flexes like a pool noodle compared to Ferrari and Alpine when the DRS closes. It's specifically at the instant when the DRS closes. The Mercedes endplates exhibit a very large distortion. Alpine and Ferrari are relatively rigid.

[upsidedowntoast]

Mercedes rear wing flexes like a pool noodle compared to Ferrari and Alpine when the DRS closes. It's specifically at the instant when the DRS closes. The Mercedes endplates exhibit a very large distortion. Alpine and Ferrari are relatively rigid.

I'm not an aero expert; can you explain what this might mean or the potential results? Or possible reasoning behind each design choice?

[organic]

Mercedes rear wing flexes like a pool noodle compared to Ferrari and Alpine when the DRS closes. It's specifically at the instant when the DRS closes. The Mercedes endplates exhibit a very large distortion. Alpine and Ferrari are relatively rigid.

That's wild. Should reopen flexiwing thread / make a new one for the new regs

[dialtone]

Mercedes rear wing flexes like a pool noodle compared to Ferrari and Alpine when the DRS closes. It's specifically at the instant when the DRS closes. The Mercedes endplates exhibit a very large distortion. Alpine and Ferrari are relatively rigid.

Why is it like this every year… all teams can make wings that don’t bend but somehow there’s a team that has a different version of physics and why is it always Mercedes…