2026 Watch
- Thread starter Sportista
- Start date
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| Team | Number of laps |
| Mercedes | 500 |
| Ferrari | 440 |
| Haas | 391 |
| Alpine | 349 |
| Racing Bulls | 319 |
| Red Bull | 303 |
| McLaren | 291 |
| Audi | 244 |
| Cadillac | 164 |
| Aston Martin | 65 |
| Williams | 0 |
Summary of lap counts per team.
You have to say that the test couldn’t have gone better for Merc or Ferrari and Haas and Alpine will also be very pleased I think.
McLaren the outlier really as a Merc/Ferrari powered big team that’s not accumulated big mileage and is a chunk behind the best customers, but they also did 166 laps on Friday, so it seems ended the test in a good place.
The RedBull powered cars seem a step behind and it’s notable that they never had a really big day, like the teams above them. Verstappen did 118 laps on Friday in what seemed like a patched up car, so maybe they were getting there in the end or maybe they still have a bit of work to do?
Audi did 145 laps on Friday, so looks to have got on top of their initial issues.
Aston I think have avoided disaster, 60 laps on their first day is comparable to many midfield runners, so I expect them to catch up quite quickly in Bahrain.
For the record in the meaningless time stakes times continued to fall on Friday and Hamilton topped the test at 1m16.348s in what looked like a bit of a glory run (new tyres, 3 lap stint at the end of the day).
Just over a week and a half till Bahrain, looking forward to some testing in more representative conditions and with live timing available.
Couple of other things, that came to mind.
Pole last year was a 1:11.5, these cars are expected to be an average of 2 slower, but this is a relatively short lap, so maybe 1:13.3 is a good benchmark? So we’re now within 3 seconds of the ultimate pace, with some of that deficit likely being track temp, so maybe about another 2.5s to find?
I also remembered that the FIA had said you didn’t have to run synthetic fuel at this test, which suggests someone asked and took “advantage” of that. Will be interesting to see if anything changes in Bahrain once they have to use homologated fuel.
Pole last year was a 1:11.5, these cars are expected to be an average of 2 slower, but this is a relatively short lap, so maybe 1:13.3 is a good benchmark? So we’re now within 3 seconds of the ultimate pace, with some of that deficit likely being track temp, so maybe about another 2.5s to find?
I also remembered that the FIA had said you didn’t have to run synthetic fuel at this test, which suggests someone asked and took “advantage” of that. Will be interesting to see if anything changes in Bahrain once they have to use homologated fuel.
I am a bit surprised that they were given that option as they will only be allowed to use the homologated fuel from now on. Surely the engines will have been running on the synthetic fuels on the dynos? Maybe I could understand using 'normal' fuel on the first couple of days but surely they would want some mileage on the synthetic fuels to help correlate their models?
I agree it seems weird, I’d be surprised if you can exchange the two fuels with only engine mapping changes, rather than needing to modify hardware and as you say it seems like you’d be learning something irrelevant. If someone didn’t ask though, why is this a rule?
Interesting vid about the compression ratio stuff - mechanical and engineering stuff:
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Watching that piston getting printed was like watching sci fi.
FIA meeting with the teams to work out future testing system to check compression ratios during engine running. Sounds like it will be allowed for 2026 but new tests in 2027 on.
Yes but they couldn't come to a conclusion. I think todays meeting is the first of 2!!
I think "Ched" cleared up the confusion.
Sadly I am now wondering if 2026 will be dominated by Merc and Redbull whose engines seemingly will have an edge, unless the others can play any kind of catch up. Not long before we will see.
Hope we are surprised.
By the sound of it they seem to be talking of 15 to 20bhp extra from the ice at 536 bhp. OK so every little helps as Asda say
but it's very small difference, maybe 4%.Actually after working that out 4% extra power on the same fuel flow is significant!
Red Bull seem to be staying quiet - maybe that's just Mekie's way of working. I have read that the Red Bull 18:1 compression engine isn't actually race ready.
One week today proper testing starts with, proper timing, speeds, and cameras.
Williams managed to get a filming shakedown run at Silverstone today. So they should have a little bit of real data to analyse for the next week.
Williams officially confirmed the FW48 weighs 772.4kg, debunking rumors that it was significantly overweight (nearly 30kg over the 768kg limit).
Williams officially confirmed the FW48 weighs 772.4kg, debunking rumors that it was significantly overweight (nearly 30kg over the 768kg limit).
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If true, it would likely mean we have Merc, RedBull, McLaren fighting for the championship, and Russell, Piastri, Norris and Verstappen going for the drivers title - if that’s what we get, I’d be pretty happy and it would probably the best (most contenders) season for 15 years? Other than adding Ferrari and Leclerc on top I honestly don’t know what more one could wish for?
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