New season, new regulations.
Should be interesting.
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Do you know whether all 22 cars are going to line up on the starting grid at each race or do we have a replication of that stupid situation from years back where only 20 cars were permitted to race and the slowest two in qualifying had to miss out on the race?
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Well, on the official F1 site it states 22 cars on the grid.
I’m really looking forward to this new season.
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If my memory serves me well. The regulations did, at one time, state that the maximum number of cars allowed on the grid for an F1 race is 26. But it has been so long since there have been that many teams that it could have been changed, but I do not recall this happening. I do remember the pre-qualifying era in the early 90s, I think, where the new entry teams had to compete to enter the main practice and qualifying sessions.
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It seems that 2026 regulations states that 24 cars would be the maximum number (paragraph A2.1.3). It use to be 26 for quite a long time but I did not check when this has changed.
The complete 2026 document (section A) can be found:
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There is of course a minimum speed to qualify. Is it 107% of pole or something like that?
The comparison is made against the fastest time set in Q1. There are also other conditions and drivers outside 107% might still be allowed to participate the race. Full rules for race qualifying session can be found from section B paragraph B2.4 of the regulation documents.
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Wow new team- Audi and Cadillac .
#77 returns for 2026 season to drive Cadillac. He has earlier connections to Audi too. It will be interesting to see which one of these teams regret their choices when season progress 
A terrific selection of pics from 2025 season. Great range.
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F1 2026 key pre-season dates
| Date | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| January 15 | Red Bull/Racing Bulls launch | Detroit |
| January 19 | Haas livery reveal | N/A |
| January 20 | Audi launch | Berlin |
| January 20 | Honda power unit launch | Tokyo |
| January 22 | Mercedes unveil renders | N/A |
| January 23 | Alpine launch | Barcelona |
| January 23 | Ferrari launch | TBC |
| January 26-30 | Shakedown Week | Barcelona |
| February 2 | Mercedes launch | Online |
| February 3 | Williams livery reveal | N/A |
| February 8 | Cadillac livery reveal | N/A |
| February 9 | Aston Martin launch | TBC |
| February 9 | McLaren launch | Bahrain/Online |
| February 11-13 | Testing 1 | Bahrain |
| February 18-20 | Testing 2 | Bahrain |
| March 6-8 | Australian Grand Prix | Melbourne |
Edit: McLaren now included in the table with some other dates too. (It seems that McLaren still withhold the information concerning their launch date)
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Very interesting and sensible podcast ahead of the new season. Autosport Number 64 Superforecasting. Link halfway down page below.
Watched the Red Bull launch video. It is very shiny. Although according to the Team Principal, probably not very fast.
“Red Bull say it would be “naive” to expect them to be able to compete at the very front in Formula 1 from the beginning of their new engine partnership with Ford this year.”
“Team principal Laurent Mekies said building their own engine with input from the US car giant was a "crazy challenge””.
They should continue w Honda..
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I think it was one of the clauses in Adrian’s contract that if AM wanted his services than they had to have exclusive use of Honda’s power unit. Money talks!
I thought the parting of the waves between Honda & Red Bull was due to the latters criticism of the formers engines prior to MV’s first championship season in 2021.
Following Honda’s disastrous return to F1 in 2015 (?) with McLaren, RB were in a position where the Renault engine, so successful in the Vettal era, prove less than competitive in the new hybrid rules from 2014 &, due to their performances not many engine suppliers were keen to tie up with them & Honda did not have a choice of F1 teams beating a path to their door.
The two parties were made for each other at the time. The split started when Honda engines initially appeared little better than those supplied to McLaren & RB felt that their chassis was far better than the engines made it look.
By the time MV, RB & Honda all reached the top of their game in, 2021, the damage had already been done & the seeds of discontent had been well sown.
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Adami out as Lewis’ race engineer
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That’s interesting. Ferrari did take their time though getting rid of him.
I wonder who’s going to get the big job and if LW will have any say on it.
Luca Diella was Hamilton’s performance engineer at Mercedes for 5 years. Has he got what it takes?
Typical Ferrari. The problem is Hamilton, but the blue collar worker/engineer gets punished.
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I think Vettel and Sainz also had “communications issues” with Adami.
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