With the Formula One season starting with the pre season testing in Barcelona on the 11th -13th February the teams are slowly revealing their cars on their selected launch days.
So far we have had 3 teams reveal their 2026 cars being Red Bull, Haas and Audi. Tomorrow we shall see Mercedes followed by Alpine and Ferrari on the 23rd so they are coming quickly now. The three remaining teams being Williams on the 3rd February the new boys Cadillac on the 8th February and Aston martin on the 9th February.
New teams like Audi (old Sauber teams) and Cadillac are the unknown factor this year and one just never knows. The two new teams are playing down their chances as they are starting from scratch with their new own built engines. Audi is part of the Volkswagen group and supplying their own engines much like Cadillac having a Ferrari supplied engine so at least Cadillac has one less thing to worry about for now. Audi have given themselves 5 years to be challenging for the world title so they do not expect much this season and hope to be competitive. Red Bull and Audi will be the first year they are using their own suppled and manufactured from scratch engines so they could hit the ground running or face issues from the start. These are all top engineers who are behind these engines and we should expect small issues and nothing major.
The challenge this year is that there is new regulations for all with regard to car specifications so the new teams will not be alone in the unknown factors as we have seen teams get their designs horribly wrong in the past.
This year there is no Drag Reduction System (DRS) available which was when the rear wing opened allowing for less d and faster straight line speed used for over taking on the straights. The cars now have a lighter set up with flat floors and active aerodynamics with moveable wings. The cars are approximately 30% lighter with less down force available which came from the previously complex intelligent flooring. The fuel used this season is 100% sustainable.
The moveable front and rear wings will allow drivers to manually reduce drag and increase straight line speeds so the drivers will have more to do than just drive the car. This year there is a boost button that allows drivers to increase the power output via the engine and battery pack which will allow up to 50% extra power. This will have to be harvested during the course of the laps and will not be available for every lap and used tactically.
The testing in Barcelona will be important as always as this gives the teams 3 days of track usage gathering the important data. Cadillac will be getting data for the very first time and why it could take them some time to settle in and what is in their favor is every team has a new car so the old data gathered from previous seasons will only help them so much.
The first race is in Melbourne Australia on the 8th March so the teams will have 3 weeks to fix whatever needs fixing once testing has been completed. This season may be more about the drivers than the cars with the new regulations removing certain advantages some teams had which is something to look forward to.