As the year goes on I figure we’ll have a bundle of 2026 topics to discuss and it will make sense to keep them separate to the ongoing season news. First thing of note is that in order to prepare for the new rules, we get 3 test sessions next year. The first runs from 26th to 30th Jan in Barcelona - teams can choose three of the five days to run. This is a behind closed doors event. Two more traditional sessions then in Bahrain, 12-14 Feb and 18-20 Feb. Power units have to be Homologated by 1st March.
Good shout to have this thread! The PU chat in particular will be key- do we know what the rules are around improving engine performance after they are homologated? My admittedly light reading across the web in the last year or so seems to suggest… Red Bull power trains- lots of talented people have joined, but Horner has said it might have teething problems before bearing fruit. It’s an enormous project for RBR. They’ll definitely get it right at some point but question is can they deliver first time up? If they do it will be very impressive but Horner has played it down. Audi PU is apparently behind the others. I suspect that they will be a slow burner and is why Sainz turned them down. Mercedes HPP- confidence does appear to have been emanating from there in recent months. I suspect they’ll be close to if not the benchmark. Ferrari- I haven’t heard much yet on this front. Honda- some media reports I think misquoted the boss and suggested they were behind. However- a very trusted -Honda source over at the F1 Technical forum quashed that and indicated they are pretty advanced now and on track. He’s been an awesome source of info since they were fixing the original PU problems with the McLaren back in 2015 and was very confident ahead of 2021 and 2022, so il keep an eye out for further rumblings!
