2026 Watch
- Thread starter Sportista
- Start date
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Cost of living is high though, lots of folks don’t want to live in a different country/culture and for a specialist engineer in F1 you’re probably earning “enough” anyway in the UK. I’m sure some people are well up for it, but if you work at Merc or RedBull, an exciting job offer from e.g. Aston doesn’t need you to change anything else about your personal life, so everyone would consider it, I’m certain the same isn’t true of an offer from Ferrari or Audi.
Because 22/23 races are not in the UK, and they don't just turn up for race day.
Ah, I was also considering the 90% of the team who don’t travel to races, but do influence performance, design engineers, manufacturing engineers, purchasing people etc. The people for whom, where their office is has a big impact on their life. To be honest even for the race team personnel, unless you’re single and childless, I still think it’s a consideration. Having done both, I can say that regularly travelling for work is very much not the same as making a life/home in another country.
This might be an early version, but I think this is the first car we’ve seen where evidence of some aerodynamic work is on display, especially in the side pod area. Maybe a sign that Merc already have a decent handle on their cooling requirements, such that they’re already ready to run with some optimisations on day one. I can’t think what that top surface would be trying to achieve though, so I’m going to assume the Aus car will look quite different in that area.
Footage of the Merc running at Silverstone today, it’s clearly a shakedown, but it’s running a bit harder than the footage of the RB at Imola that’s floating around from yesterday showed (I understand they were running again today and were doing a filming day too, so maybe something equivalent will come to light).
It’s not a V8/V10 but they do look and sound fantastic in comparison to the last couple of generations.
It’s not a V8/V10 but they do look and sound fantastic in comparison to the last couple of generations.
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I’m addicted (and eating alone in a restaurant) so I went hunting for more.
This one is the Alpine, front wing looks interesting compared to the other designs so far, much more bowl shaped. Another Merc car with fairly contoured sidepods, these look to be a downwash/inwash hybrid, not sure we’ve seen anyone else looking for inwash yet? The car is formally launched tomorrow, so we should get a better look then.
This one is the Alpine, front wing looks interesting compared to the other designs so far, much more bowl shaped. Another Merc car with fairly contoured sidepods, these look to be a downwash/inwash hybrid, not sure we’ve seen anyone else looking for inwash yet? The car is formally launched tomorrow, so we should get a better look then.
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Come on Ferrari, this isn't hard, just paint the damn thing red!
As a Williams supporter I am dissapointed , but we don’t know the reason yet .
Williams will not take part in next week’s Formula 1 pre-season test at Barcelona, the team has revealed.
F1 will reconvene next week at the Catalan track as the world championship’s new era begins, with overhauled technical regulations featuring active aerodynamics and a near-50:50 split between combustion and electric power.
F1 squads have been open about the scale of the challenge presented by the revamped rules, and Williams’ car development has been delayed to the extent that Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz won’t run in the Barcelona test. The event is scheduled from 26-30 January, with every outfit allowed three days of running out of five.
“Williams F1 Team has taken the decision not to participate in next week’s shakedown test in Barcelona following delays in the FW48 programme as we continue to push for maximum car performance,” a statement from the Grove-based outfit reads.
“The team will instead conduct a series of tests including a VTT [Virtual Test Track] programme next week with the 2026 car to prepare for the first official test in Bahrain and the first race of the season in Melbourne.
“We are looking forward to getting on track in the coming weeks and want to thank all our fans for your continued support – there is a lot to look forward to together in 2026.”
The hardship is reminiscent of the 2019 pre-season, at a time when Williams was in a dire financial situation. That year, the team missed its own planned shakedown as well as the first two days of the collective Barcelona test, completing limited running in the next two days.
The context is different nowadays, with the outfit well funded by owner Dorilton Capital, but equally there was no significant regulatory overhaul back in 2019.
The second pre-season test is taking place in Bahrain from 11-13 February, meaning Williams has plenty of time to meet that deadline.
Williams will not take part in next week’s Formula 1 pre-season test at Barcelona, the team has revealed.
F1 will reconvene next week at the Catalan track as the world championship’s new era begins, with overhauled technical regulations featuring active aerodynamics and a near-50:50 split between combustion and electric power.
F1 squads have been open about the scale of the challenge presented by the revamped rules, and Williams’ car development has been delayed to the extent that Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz won’t run in the Barcelona test. The event is scheduled from 26-30 January, with every outfit allowed three days of running out of five.
“Williams F1 Team has taken the decision not to participate in next week’s shakedown test in Barcelona following delays in the FW48 programme as we continue to push for maximum car performance,” a statement from the Grove-based outfit reads.
“The team will instead conduct a series of tests including a VTT [Virtual Test Track] programme next week with the 2026 car to prepare for the first official test in Bahrain and the first race of the season in Melbourne.
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“We are looking forward to getting on track in the coming weeks and want to thank all our fans for your continued support – there is a lot to look forward to together in 2026.”
The hardship is reminiscent of the 2019 pre-season, at a time when Williams was in a dire financial situation. That year, the team missed its own planned shakedown as well as the first two days of the collective Barcelona test, completing limited running in the next two days.
The context is different nowadays, with the outfit well funded by owner Dorilton Capital, but equally there was no significant regulatory overhaul back in 2019.
The second pre-season test is taking place in Bahrain from 11-13 February, meaning Williams has plenty of time to meet that deadline.
Latest from Autosport .
The specific reasons for Williams pulling the plug on its attendance at Barcelona are unknown. Some media outlets have been reporting that the FW48 failed its crash test, but this is understood to be speculation dressed up as fact. It would be highly unusual to be subjecting monocoques to crash testing this late in the day, since this is the first section of the car to be defined.
Indeed, it is known that Ferrari, Audi and Mercedes, to name but three, successfully put their 2026 cars through the crash-testing process at the beginning of December. The monocoque is a long lead-time item so testing its crash-worthiness is not left until the last minute.
The specific reasons for Williams pulling the plug on its attendance at Barcelona are unknown. Some media outlets have been reporting that the FW48 failed its crash test, but this is understood to be speculation dressed up as fact. It would be highly unusual to be subjecting monocoques to crash testing this late in the day, since this is the first section of the car to be defined.
Indeed, it is known that Ferrari, Audi and Mercedes, to name but three, successfully put their 2026 cars through the crash-testing process at the beginning of December. The monocoque is a long lead-time item so testing its crash-worthiness is not left until the last minute.
I get the attraction of a pure red paint scheme, but - aside from the HP blue - I quite like it. It reminds me of the late 70’s Ferraris.
Williams, really hope this isn't a rerun of the Paddy Lowe era.
Just caught up on all the comments, very interesting to read. Some of the technicalities are interesting and thankyou to those with an engineering background. One or two you have I believe.
TBH the livery doesn't interest me much but the sound of these new engines, after the previous years, is a delight.
How is Crofty going to cope with this era?
Just caught up on all the comments, very interesting to read. Some of the technicalities are interesting and thankyou to those with an engineering background. One or two you have I believe.
TBH the livery doesn't interest me much but the sound of these new engines, after the previous years, is a delight.
How is Crofty going to cope with this era?
Not sure what kind of information we’re going to get from next week, I believe there’s no timing, so lap times and counts seems unlikely. I guess info like if teams breakdown on track or take big gaps in their running, will leak out - so we hopefully will start to build a picture of initial reliability.
It’s brave of Alpine, McLaren, RedBull and especially Aston to have not shaken their cars down, I wonder whether any have something to hide that will come to light next week. McLaren seem to be suggesting their plan is to just run their Aus spec from the off, and save development budget for after they’ve had the chance to absorb what others have done. Some teams have clearly gone basic for this test and aren’t following that route, but we might see another fairly refined car that that suggests a similar approach?
It’s brave of Alpine, McLaren, RedBull and especially Aston to have not shaken their cars down, I wonder whether any have something to hide that will come to light next week. McLaren seem to be suggesting their plan is to just run their Aus spec from the off, and save development budget for after they’ve had the chance to absorb what others have done. Some teams have clearly gone basic for this test and aren’t following that route, but we might see another fairly refined car that that suggests a similar approach?
Haas Running at Fiorano, on a filming day. It looks like at points they are running the PU reasonably hard, which is good news for Ferrari teams, because until now only Merc have looked willing to push on a bit. I’m now a bit concerned for RedBull/RB that after a day and a half they still seemed to be running very low revs.
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