2026 Season Preview

cuke2u

cuke2u

cuke2u

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I don’t think this thread has been posted, so thought I'd start things by linking to the changes for 2026. Mods, if any objections please delete if you feel it's premature.
www.bbc.co.uk

Formula 1 in 2026: What are the key things to look out for next season?

BBC Sport runs down the key things to look out for in the 2026 season, including fresh regulations, a new team and a British rookie joining the grid.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk
www.formula1.com

F1 - The Official Home of Formula 1® Racing

Enter the world of Formula 1. Your go-to source for the latest F1 news, video highlights, GP results, live timing, in-depth analysis and expert commentary.
www.formula1.com www.formula1.com
www.skysports.com

F1 launches: All 2026 cars and liveries revealed so far and schedule ahead of new season featuring revised regulations

Check out all the cars and liveries revealed so far for Formula 1s new rules era and vote for your favourite 2026 look; Cadillac, McLaren and Aston Martin still to reveal liveries before Bahrain test; watch every round of the 2026 Formula 1 season, live on Sky Sports F1
www.skysports.com www.skysports.com
www.fia.com

2026 FIA Formula 1 Regulations Hub

A New Era of Competition: FIA showcases future-focused Formula 1 regulations for 2026 and beyond The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) today showcases a more competitive, safer and more sustainable future for the FIA Formula One World Championship with the presentation of the much...
www.fia.com www.fia.com
 
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Feels really tough to predict whats going to happen; a lot of the pundits seem to think Merc might be at the front but they ballsed up the last set of regs so I can't say I feel any more confident they will do better this time - would have to bet on them having the best engine though (that said Honda's hasn't exactly been struggling and they have huge experience of engine building too).

I suspect Red Bull might fall back into the category they often were with Renault; great chassis but the engine potentially holding them back; that said they've invested a lot (as have Ford) and they will have learnt a lot from Honda over the last few years too; some top engine people at Red Bull Powertrains as well, a lot of ex-Illmor/Merc staff.

Beyond that its hard to say; I hope McLaren can stay in the title fight and it would be nice to see Ferrari at the front but I'm not holding my breath on that one..... I hope that we end up with a closer midfield as there's been some great battles toward the end of this era as the gap from say 3rd best to 9th best has been really narrow this year... and then Alpine 10th have looked horrendous!!

Very interested to see if Newey can really sprinkle some magic on Aston Martin, especially if the Mercedes engine proves to be the best of the field, I'd love nothing more next season than to see Fernando Alonso at the very least get another F1 victory before he likely retires.

I expect very little from Cadillac, I think they will likely be lucky to be off the back of the grid unless an existing team spectacularly screws up (looking at you Alpine...)
 
The Honda building Aston's engine is a different Honda to the one that built Red Bull's. That engine will be Ford badged for next season.
 
chrismscotland said:
Feels really tough to predict whats going to happen; a lot of the pundits seem to think Merc might be at the front but they ballsed up the last set of regs so I can't say I feel any more confident they will do better this time - would have to bet on them having the best engine though (that said Honda's hasn't exactly been struggling and they have huge experience of engine building too).

I suspect Red Bull might fall back into the category they often were with Renault; great chassis but the engine potentially holding them back; that said they've invested a lot (as have Ford) and they will have learnt a lot from Honda over the last few years too; some top engine people at Red Bull Powertrains as well, a lot of ex-Illmor/Merc staff.

Beyond that its hard to say; I hope McLaren can stay in the title fight and it would be nice to see Ferrari at the front but I'm not holding my breath on that one..... I hope that we end up with a closer midfield as there's been some great battles toward the end of this era as the gap from say 3rd best to 9th best has been really narrow this year... and then Alpine 10th have looked horrendous!!

Very interested to see if Newey can really sprinkle some magic on Aston Martin, especially if the Mercedes engine proves to be the best of the field, I'd love nothing more next season than to see Fernando Alonso at the very least get another F1 victory before he likely retires.

I expect very little from Cadillac, I think they will likely be lucky to be off the back of the grid unless an existing team spectacularly screws up (looking at you Alpine...)
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I do hope we see a resurgence from Lewis, I've read that as the 2026 cars have a return to a so-called 'step-plane' cars, with a flat bottom either side of the central chassis reference plane, with a diffuser at the back. A design that Lewis has excelled with in the past due to his driving style.
We can only keep our fingers crossed.
 
Feels like quite a change at both the regulatory but also personnel level.

RedBull are going through a pretty dramatic management overhaul, at Merc, Toto is slowly extricating himself, and Ferrari are well, doing what Ferrari historically do.

I dont think Aston are going to do that well even with Newey, and who knows what the engine changes will do, it's a bit like the tyre wars of the past when most teams were on Michelins, most folks have mercs, so whether the merc PU is good or bad most teams will move in lockstep. Redbull and Ferrari obviously the outliers but gut says Mercedes and McLaren will be close to each other, Ferraris chassis is due to be decent next season (3 year rule) but the engine might be terrible. Redbull will have a decent chassis but who knows about the engine.

If I were to guess Merc, McLaren=RedBull, Ferrari will be the early pecking order.
 
I think Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes will be strong next season. Red Bull will probably be the 5th fastest team behind McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and Williams. As for the others it could be any order. Actually could be Aston Martin 4th fastest with Williams behind them, or the other way around.
 
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I think Mercedes will produce the best engine which means a likely Mercedes vs Mclaren showdown.

Alpine can only improve with a Mercedes engine surely.
 
On top of figuring out the new aero, I’m expecting Season 1 of the new “50/50” powertrain era to be a smorgasbord of unreliability and poor design choices - think of the Mercedes no side pod concept, but much worse.

I’m hoping the new engine allowance gets loosened up for 2026 as it’s likely that some teams will be running through engines like bog roll after visiting Taco Bell.
 
smr said:
Lando shortlisted for Sports Personality of the Year Award 2025. Will be getting my vote!
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Motorsport Off Topic Thread

:p But something very like that driver-engineer relationship anyway. As much coaching as the rules allow, and patient enough to sit through a diatribe or six while Lewis blows off steam. Lewis does need/like a lot of hand holding by his engineer, not that he's the only one. You look at Charles...
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk
 
I was reading a article the other day that claimed that drivers were saying that they may have to shift down a gear in a straight to build up the battery charge. I really hope the statements of that and drivers crawling around because they have run out of charge don't come true because if it does this will be a disaster of a regulation change.
 
I'm in Australia at the moment, local media are reporting Oscar is looking to leave McLaren. Not sure if it's local chit chat or more credible. Not sure if it's being reported in the UK.
 
ChrisD. said:
I'm in Australia at the moment, local media are reporting Oscar is looking to leave McLaren. Not sure if it's local chit chat or more credible. Not sure if it's being reported in the UK.
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I think we'll see a lot of this kind of rumour next year when we see who the top teams are. Could be a lot of movement in 2027, I can imagine Piastri will be on a lot of teams lists.

That said you have to wonder what seats might actually open up in 2027; presumably Ferrari if/when Hamilton retires although if Leclerc stays I get the feeling Bearman would be likely to get the vacant seat. Mercedes seem pretty set for the next few years with Russell and Antonelli unless Toto punts one for Max... Aston Martin might be a decent destination when Alonso presumably retires after 2026 but its hard to see other options unless someone like Audi throws a lot of money at someone (and they look like they might challenge).

If Max left Red Bull though they would likely be on the lookout for a "top" driver (not one of their juniors) to lead the team, Piastri would be a good shout for that role potentially.
 
ChrisD. said:
I'm in Australia at the moment, local media are reporting Oscar is looking to leave McLaren. Not sure if it's local chit chat or more credible. Not sure if it's being reported in the UK.
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There's some gossip but in reality where would he go? Even if he could end his contract early there isn't another team, one that is comparible to McLaren's performance, so I rather think this is just yet another media myth like the one he's been treated differently from Lando, which even Oscar's dad has stated is not true.
 
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I think 2027 could see another proper silly season of driver line up changes - we've got a few drivers hovering around that age where they'll be considering retiring soon along with contracts ending.

F1 driver contracts: Which year does each driver’s deal expire?
*Denotes options for further years
**Denotes publicly unknown end dates, but summarised based on contract extension details.

Team Driver Contract expiry
Alpine Franco Colapinto 2026
Alpine Pierre Gasly 2028
Aston Martin Fernando Alonso 2026
Aston Martin Lance Stroll 2026**
Ferrari Lewis Hamilton 2026
Ferrari Charles Leclerc 2027**
Haas Oliver Bearman 2026*
Haas Esteban Ocon 2026
McLaren Lando Norris 2027**
McLaren Oscar Piastri 2028**
Mercedes Kimi Antonelli 2026
Mercedes George Russell 2026*
Racing Bulls Isack Hadjar 2026
Racing Bulls Liam Lawson 2026
Red Bull Yuki Tsunoda 2025
Red Bull Max Verstappen 2025
Sauber Gabriel Bortoleto 2026
Sauber Nico Hulkenberg 2026
Williams Alex Albon 2026
Williams Carlos Sainz 2026*
Click to expand...

Considering drivers like Lewis, Alonso and Hulkenberg are also late 30s / early to mid 40s, then I think there could be a few open seats for 2027 that trigger a bit of a reshuffle, especially if the established order of things changes and people are looking to move somewhere that look to have better cars (i.e. if Newey has somehow crafted an unbeatable Aston and Alonso leaves, something like that).
 
Yeah, a big change at the end of next year seems pretty likely. Hamilton retiring seems possible -- although I'm hoping he can turn next season around -- and Alonso retiring seems plausible. Aston are increasingly owned by interests who are going to lose patience with Lance eventually. The re-retirement of Hülk seems likely if, as I expect, he gets battered by Bortoleto next season, and I also expect to see at least one of Gasly, Colapinto, Ocon, and Lawson canned. That's a lot of potential movement and seats opening up.
 
ChrisD. said:
I'm in Australia at the moment, local media are reporting Oscar is looking to leave McLaren. Not sure if it's local chit chat or more credible. Not sure if it's being reported in the UK.
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I think he’d be mad to bin McLaren as they probably stand the best chance of delivering a competitive car next year.

As other have already posted, where would Oscar go?
 
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