In four months, Formula 1 teams will bring their First recurrence of all-new 2026 cars For an end-January Shakedown Test in BarcelonaBut to streamline the development process, those east-seasons are yet to be predicted to predict.
The huge measure of regulation with new rules on both chassis and power unit sides means that they are certainly ready for the most challenging regulation change in F1 history. Teams are being quite replaced by new chassis, which is vastly converted, highly efficient hybrid engines, which facilitates the division of 50/50 between electrical energy and combustion power – a much larger electrical component than current hybrids.
Each team has focused a complete development at 2026 for some time. But when the January deadline crawls on 11 squads, the rapid rate of aero development behind the curtain means that teams are still chasing the moving goals, when they rock in winter testing, they predict downforce levels as they put virtual cars in the simulator today.
“The car develops a week-by-week and as the car changes, changing the results of simulation,” said Andrew Showavalin, director of Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering.
“There is an element where it is a moving goal that is trying to ensure that the chassis package is adapted to the engine and power unit package. So we are creating complexity there, but it will be a difficult year.
“You have received a virtual representation of the car that we can run in a simulator. But you are trying to guess where we are going in four months time in terms of downforce levels, because there is no point in doing all your work that will never work on the track.
F1 2026 fia car render
Photo: FIA
“You want to do something that you are going to roll out with.”
With a modified power unit and ECU, and the chassis rules that move away from ground effects and provide active aircraft, tire supplier Pireli is also presenting narrow tires, while the weight range is coming below 800 kg to 768kg – despite the increase in battery weight. F1 is also switching to durable fuel, and still remains to work Exact engines nails To reduce concerns on how the 2026 F1 cars will be able to run each other.
Given a large number of variables and normal smoke and mirror clouding padock gossip, knowing who will be in a good position as a 2026 season kick in Melbourne, will be clear on two official winter tests in Bahrain in February, as the teams are still in various stages of that development process.
He had a signal Charles Lakeler entry in July That he was completely disliked how 2026 Ferrari He tried to operate the simulator, which was indicated by Williams boss James Walls that it was an indication of how soon the Scuderia was at that level compared to his team in its development cycle, or at least the virtual model was how long before the lakeler took the sample.
Showowalin suggested that Pireli is also at the end of some gamemanship as the teams are reporting their downfores level to help the manufacturer to settle on its construction and compounds.
“Pireli is saying that they are receiving all kinds of various suggestions, where the cars are going to the end-based load,” Sholin said.
Charles Lakeler tested Pirelli tire in Mugelo, in which lower downforce Ferrari Mule Car
By photo: Pirelli
“But we are all developing our cars in isolation. Nobody has seen anything, and these days you really hear anything from any other teams how they are happening, so essentially the most variety that you probably see that everyone removes their car.
“The reality is that some will be doing better than others and a case may be that people who are doing exclusively well, want to fall down where they are. Some people can present where they feel that they will receive, others can present where they are today.”
But Showavalin did not bought in concerns that cars would have a huge performance difference in the beginning of 2026 as the power unit would have a difference in the ability to land down for performance, aerodynamics and a strict weight range.
He said, “The way the rules are, I suspect that the differences will not be huge when we roll out,” he said, making similarities with the current rules, which was initially considered very descriptive, but there is a lot of space for innovation at a more elaborate level.
“You may probably be in a similar boat that we have now found, where you can see one car from another. If you have all painted them the same color then you might tell which was.
“There are some areas of the car that will all look very familiar because the rules do not have a great deal of freedom. And then over time teams exploit more and more areas and you start in more detail.”
