2026 - F1 Season

Lounge
42

That is bad news.

43

If their commercial engines are anything to go by, it’ll last 2 laps max. Seriously though, it might say “Ford” but who and where is it made? Ford in house or some Milton Keynes company who stick the badge on it?

Martin

44

There is a suggestion elsewhere that the car failed its crash test.

45

Just reading this on their App, its a shame I was hoping that they would be on point and mixing it with the rest at every test, hopefully its just a small blip and they are ready for Bahrain and ultimately Melbourne.

3 Likes
46

Being an optimist, I wonder if maybe they have found a Brawnesque loophole in the regs and want to keep this secret a bit longer. But the realist in me thinks the post by @Collywobbles is closer to the likely truth. I expect that at some point Williams will tell us exactly what has happened to cause the delay; until then, it is just guesswork.

One article I read online did suggest that Williams might not be the only team to miss shakedown running, and a couple of teams are planning on missing one or more days of it.

1 Like
47

SKY mentioned the crash test fail.

48

Interesting

  1. Red Bull Powertrains (based in Milton Keynes, UK) leads the manufacturing and full responsibility for the power unit.
  2. Ford provides expertise in areas like combustion engine development, battery/electric motor tech, control software, analytics, and advanced manufacturing support—but does not build the engines itself in the traditional sense
49

Ford has always done better in F1 when the partner with a specialist engine builder. It will be interesting to see if this collaboration is as successful as the Ford and Cosworth DFV and all it subsequent modified versions were. Something missed in the list about what Ford brings to the partnership is money, though this time, due to there being a cash limit to engine spend, it is resources that RB Engines can access and effectively hire from Ford, rather than having to purchase the equipment themselves, so keeping within the cost cap.

I agree it is an interesting partnership and one that could be very successful. It could equally go wrong depending on whether Ford allows the F1 engine experts employed by RB enough freedom to do their job without corporate interference, which is what doomed the Jaguar team. There has been a lot written about what went wrong with Jaguar, which was basically because Ford wanted to run the team as a part of the Ford Corp, rather than allow it to be an F1 team. Mercedes understood this when it purchased Brawn. Ford understood this when it funded Cosworth in the 60s. Will it remember this and follow Mercs or make the same mistakes it made with Jaguar?

1 Like
50

None of the above.

Redbull has been building its own engine/powertrain manufacture facilities (at its site in Milton Keynes) to build an engine since Honda announced its withdraw (since reversed) from F1. Ford has provided consultancy and design particularly the electrical side of the hybrid power system and software. Ford has engineers working at the Red bull site. Redbull has also tempted/recruited some engineers from F1 Mercedes to help.

Whether the power system is any good remains to be seen.

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51

Not sure if you’re aware but the first shakedown test is 5 days but you can only run 3 of those days (up to the team to choose which days they run). So technically all teams will be “missing a couple days” but not actually missing any testing.

52

I am aware of this. Running on day 1 does give teams more time to solve any teething issues, and if needed the could miss the next day or two and still get the full 3 days of running permitted. Mclaren have decided to miss day one and announced this. What I was sharing was that at least one journalist believes that other teams might miss the shakedown or enough of it that they won’t be able to have the full 3 days of running.

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53

Apparently McLaren have stated that they won’t run on days 1 or 2 and may have to extend that, so I don’t think that Williams not being ready is too big an issue at this stage of the 2026 season, if they don’t run at the first Bahrain test that’s a different matter.

My guess is that teams could well be at different stages in development of these very new cars, some may have a car that runs but be behind on aero or drivability, once the Japanese GP is over we should have a good idea of who is going to have to play catch up and who is in the running for honours at the end of the season.

54

I hope a team like Williams can pull a Brawn GP

2 Likes
55

Thanks, interesting stuff

Martin

56

Just watched “Williams & Mansell: Red 5” documentary available on Sky.

Well worth a watch and his comments ref Senna were interesting.

1 Like
57

Aston Martin is missing the first 3 days and will only run for the last 2 days of the shakedown.

58

Dimensions look a lot more racing car like again :slightly_smiling_face:

3 Likes
59

The NLS has been moved their second race a week forward so it no longer clashes with F1. Previously all races ahead of the 24h race were clashing with F1 races. While not explicitly mentioned by them, it’s pretty clear this is to make it possible for Max Verstappen to participate.

His Verstappen.com team is using Mercedes AMG-GT3 cars this season, instead of last years Ferrari, so he likely would want some practice in first. Supposedly Toto Wolff had some involvement in getting the dates moved around as it was politically difficult with also another championship having to move dates to free up that weekend for the NLS.

I guess last years rumours about Verstappen driving a Mercedes in 2026 weren’t completely wrong after all :wink:

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60

Today’s times:

Testing results from Day 1 (Barcelona)

  1. 1 Isack Hadjar Red Bull 1m18.159s 107 laps

  2. 2 George Russell Mercedes +0.537s, 93 laps

  3. 3 Franco Colapinto Alpine +2.030s, 60 laps

  4. 4 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +2.541s, 56 laps

  5. 5 Esteban Ocon Haas +3.142s, 154 laps

  6. 6 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +3.354s, 88 laps

  7. 7 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac +6.492s, 33 laps

  8. 8 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +7.137s, 27 laps

  9. 9 Sergio Perez Cadillac +7.815s, 11 laps

61

Great time from Hadjar! Even though I know you can’t say anything about the times right now… are the times from last year known?

I find it strangely satisfying comparing these kind of statistics :upside_down_face:

1 Like