Formula 1 is back this week, with the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
And while every new year begins as a voyage of discovery, 2026 is a more daunting voyage than ever before. F1 is implementing a sweeping new set of technical regulations, the biggest overhaul in the sport’s history, and that has led to more questions than answers ahead of the new year.
Here are the nine biggest questions ahead of the 2026 F1 season
Impact of the new regulations?
This season, F1 rolls out the biggest set of technical regulation changes in the history of the sport.
How is that going to impact what we see on the track, and in the standings?
In an effort to improve the racing spectacle, F1 implemented a host of new technical regulations heading into the 2026 season. These changes include alterations to both the chassis and the power units, making the cars both smaller and lighter. The wheelbase has been reduced by 200 millimeters, the width of the cars has been cut by 100 mm, the width of the floors has been cut by 150 mm, and the cars have been reduced in weight by 30 kilograms.
Among the new technical elements this season? A simplified hybrid system, which has removed the MGU-H component while increasing power to the MGU-K component, allowing for what F1 believes will be “enhanced overtaking and straight-line speed.” The power units now have approximately a 50/50 split between the internal combustion engine and battery power, and the cars will run on advanced sustainable fuel.
In addition, the days of the drag reduction system (DRS) are over. This year F1 shifts to active aerodynamics, with both a movable front wing and a movable rear wing. Those elements adjust in specific high-speed sections, designed for that F1 is calling “Corner” and “Straight” modes. According to a technical sheet from F1, this “enables strategic adaptability and maximizes full angle of the car’s power through greater on-track grip.”
If that was not enough, this year also sees the introduction of Overtake Mode and Boost Mode. With the former, drivers within one second of a car in front can deploy extra power to begin an overtake. This replaces the former DRS system, and gives the driver a strategic tool to aid on-track passing.
There is also Boost Mode, which is a “driver-operated energy deployment tool from the Energy Recovery System (ERS). According to F1, this new feature ”gives the driver maximum power from the engine and battery at the push of a button, no matter where they are on the track.“
Finally, drivers can also recharge the battery with recovered energy from braking, a feature that has already been a major talking point during pre-season testing.
So far, we have only seen these new elements in testing conditions, and while they have offered some intrigue — see Alpine’s new rear wing design, as well as Ferrari’s — we have yet to see them in racing situations.
That changes this week in Melbourne.
How will new faces shape the grid?
Every year, the driver transfer market changes the grid ahead of the new season.
While this new season did not quite match the stunning moves we saw for 2025 (led by Lewis Hamilton leaving Mercedes for Ferrari) there are certainly some new faces in new places, as well as a whole new team, to consider.
After years on the grid in the Red Bull Racing family, Yuki Tsunoda is in the garage, having moved into a reserve role with the team. Isack Hadjar, who enjoyed a stellar rookie campaign with Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, has taken his spot with the senior team alongside Max Verstappen. As for VCARB, rookie Arvid Lindblad begins his first season on the grid this weekend, paired with Liam Lawson.
Then there are two new teams.
First is Audi, which joins the sport as a works operation in place of Sauber. The two drivers are the same — rookie Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto, about to embark on his second-year on the grid — but Audi’s F1 project begins in earnest this season after years of preparation.
But the Four Rings are not the only new team on the grid, as this year F1 welcomes an 11th team in Cadillac. Billed as an “all-American” operation since the day it was announced over three years ago, Cadillac joins the grid with two veteran drivers leading the way: Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez. Both are former Grand Prix winners with championship pedigrees (Bottas with Mercedes and Pérez with Red Bull), and until Cadillac’s own power unit operation is up and running, the team will be using Ferrari engines.
Cadillac even used an “all-American” approach to their livery launch, doing so with a commercial during Super Bowl LX.
How will the new faces, and teams, shape the sport this year?
Did Mercedes really get it right?
Ahead of the new regulations, the worst-kept secret in the paddock was that Mercedes would begin the year on the front foot.
Until pre-season testing, that was purely a matter of speculation. And that speculation was perhaps based on what we saw in F1 the last time such sweeping regulation changes were made, with the start of the turbo-hybrid era back in 2014. The Silver Arrows won eight consecutive Constructors’ Championships following that new regulation set, and for many, a repeat performance is expected.
While pre-season testing times are to be taken with a grain of salt — more on those in a moment — Mercedes did look strong over the two public pre-season testing sessions in Bahrain. While there were some reliability concerns (to be expected from all the teams given the big changes), the Silver Arrows did cover a significant number of miles during the Bahrain testing session, completing the fourth-most laps out of any team.
Meaning they may very well be on the front foot when the lights go out this weekend in Albert Park.
While the Silver Arrows were fighting for second in the Constructors’ Championship a year ago, the other end of the table saw Alpine fighting for relevance.
After a dramatic finish to the 2024 season saw Alpine rise up the standings and ultimately finish sixth, thanks to a dramatic double-podium result at the São Paulo Grand Prix from Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, last season Alpine was at the back of the field. While Gasly did what he could with the A525, last season’s challenger, their early-season struggles saw the team quickly turn the page to 2026, scrapping most of their in-season development program to focus on the new regulations, and the A526.
While one could say that given where they were a year ago, Alpine had nowhere to go but up, they looked to be on much firmer footing during the two public pre-season testing sessions. What may have also helped, beyond an early focus on their 2026 challenger, was the switch to Mercedes power units. After years as a works operation Alpine is now a customer team of Mercedes, and if the Silver Arrows are on the front foot, that will also pay off for Alpine.
Ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, there are now many who believe that Alpine could be at the front of the midfield pack, a group of teams that includes Haas, Williams, VCARB, and Aston Martin.
Can McLaren defend their titles?
We have made it over 1,000 words into this piece and we are finally getting around to the defending Constructors’ Champions, and the defending Drivers’ Champion.
McLaren followed their surprising 2024 title with an emphatic championship last season, as they lapped the field en route to the 2025 Constructors’ Championship. From the beginning of the season they looked like the class of the field, and clinching a championship quickly became more a matter of formality than anything else.
The Drivers’ title however, ultimately won by Lando Norris, was something rather different.
Given the strength of the MCL39, McLaren needed to navigate a title fight between their two drivers, as Norris and Piastri battled for the championship from the season’s early stages. How the team managed that battle, perhaps, opened the door for a late-season surge from Verstappen, who put the pressure on both McLaren drivers down the stretch. All three drivers arrived in Abu Dhabi for the season finale with a chance to win, and while Norris ultimately emerged as the Drivers’ Champion, Verstappen’s late-season climb up the standings gave McLaren something to sweat in the fall … and something to think about all winter.
How will Team Papaya follow up last year’s performance, and how will they handle Norris and Piastri this season if it follows last year’s pattern?
What can we expect from Max Verstappen?
Let’s talk about Max Verstappen for a moment.
The four-time Drivers’ Champion made some news earlier during pre-season testing, when he blasted the new cars as “Formula E on steroids.”
But if we have learned anything about Verstappen during his career, it is that he can never be counted out, regardless of what it is he is driving. Last year certainly proved that, as he basically single-handedly dragged Red Bull to third in the standings — almost catching Mercedes for second — while turning the Drivers’ Championship race on its head over the closing stretch of the season.
He might not be fully satisfied with the cars this season, but it might not matter. Verstappen is, as McLaren boss Zak Brown described him last season, “that guy in a horror movie, that right as you think he’s not coming back, he’s back!”
We can expect him to be back again this year.
What can we expect from Ferrari?
This is the moment where Ferrari fans might want to turn away.
But … are the Scuderia cooking this year?
As we noted earlier, pre-season testing times are to be taken with a grain of salt. Teams run different programs, teams could be keeping their cards close to the vest — Verstappen in particular accused Mercedes of sandbagging during testing — and teams will bring upgrades to the track as early as this weekend.
But when the dust settled in Bahrain, it was Charles Leclerc atop the timing sheets. And that result comes after word that in the private testing session in Barcelona earlier in February, it was Hamilton who led the way.
Here’s a look at Leclerc setting that fastest lap in Bahrain:
There there is this: Ferrari may be on the front foot when the lights go out this week in Melbourne, literally. Take a look at Hamilton’s launch off the line during pre-season testing in Bahrain:
Under the new regulation set the MGU-H, the motor generator unit attached to the turbocharger, has been removed. Previously, drivers would rely on that element to spin up the turbocharger before the lights went out, allowing the cars to get up to speed quickly.
But with that component removed, getting the 2026 cars up to speed is taking a bit longer for some teams. But not for Ferrari. According to multiple reports Ferrari is using a much smaller turbocharger, which can get up to higher revs quicker than their rivals.
F1 has now implemented a new start procedure — given drivers a five-second warning before the starting procedure so they can spool up their turbochargers — much to Ferrari’s dismay.
“Without the MGU-H, it was clear that turbo lag would become a factor to manage, from drivability to race starts,” Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur said to Autosport. “This has been known from day one. When evaluating choices in defining the guidelines for a power unit, it’s not just about pure power, other aspects matter as well, and one of these is the start.
“That’s why we made certain decisions, and the FIA has been quite clear from the beginning about not wanting to change the starting procedure, so I was surprised when this topic resurfaced in Bahrain.”
Still, when the lights go out in Melbourne, Ferrari might be at the front of the pack.
Whether they stay there, however, is the bigger question.
As mentioned earlier, Cadillac joins F1 as the 11th team on the grid.
How will F1’s newest team fare in their first season?
Cadillac opted for a pair of veterans in Bottas and Pérez, drivers with championship backgrounds, Grand Prix victories, and years of experience. The team also opted to begin as a Ferrari customer, before their own power unit program can become fully operational, which could give them a bit of an advantage as we just discussed with the Scuderia.
A completely new team could struggle out of the gate, and Cadillac was at the back of the pecking order during pre-season testing. But with Ferrari power and a pair of veterans, they could make some noise.
And as we will see in a moment, they were not 11th during testing …
Is Aston Martin already in trouble?
Lawrence Stoll had a vision.
He was going to turn Aston Martin into a championship team.
Stroll lured former Drivers’ Champion Fernando Alonso to the team from Alpine. He forged ahead with a state-of-the-art facility in Silverstone, the first all-new F1 factory built in the United Kingdom in decades, complete with a brand-new wind tunnel.
And perhaps the biggest part of the plan? He lured Adrian Newey, perhaps the greatest engineer in the history of the sport, away from Red Bull. Newey started last March, with an eye on the new regulations in 2026.
That vision worked, for a while. Aston Martin got off to an incredible start in 2023 and was at the front of the field. But they faded down the stretch, ultimately finishing fifth behind McLaren. 2024 saw the team again finish fifth, at the front of the midfield, but last year Aston Martin dropped to seventh, behind both Williams and VCARB.
No matter, right? Newey’s first full design for Aston Martin, the AMR26, would save the day.
That has yet to materialize.
Aston Martin moved to Honda power units for the 2026 season, after years as a Mercedes customer team. But those power units have been unreliable during pre-season testing, to say the least. The team’s fastest lap in Bahrain — a 1:35.974 from Lance Stroll — was at the bottom of the table, behind even Cadillac. Aston Martin completed just 334 laps in Bahrain as they dealt with reliability issues (more than 200 laps behind Cadillac), and at the end of the week they completed just short runs, as they were down to one battery.
Let’s now turn to BBC Sport for a summary of how testing went:
Several sources told BBC Sport this week that Newey said at Wednesday’s meeting of the F1 Commission – a rule-making body comprising all the teams as well as F1 and the FIA – that the Honda power-unit could not even recover energy at the lower limit of 250kw, let alone the higher one of 350kw, which comes into force under certain circumstances in the highly complex rules.
Reliability was so bad that by the start of the final day of the test, Honda had only one battery left, and took the decision to limit running to only short runs. A statement said that was to allow them to study data in between track outings, but in the end Lance Stroll did only six laps all day.
The problems with the engine make it difficult to make any judgement on the car. There is no question it was slow in the corners – but the Honda is running so badly that it’s hard for the team to work out where the car is, and therefore how to improve it.
This is exacerbated by the fact Aston’s first in-house gearbox – they have bought them in previously – is not communicating with the engine properly, and keeps behaving oddly, making life even more difficult for the drivers.
How bad is it for Aston Martin? A report Monday from Motorsport Italia indicates that due to the issues with the Honda power unit, the team might just complete a “minimum” number of laps in Melbourne to get to the starting grid, and then shut things down when the lights go out. According to the Italian outlet, the team is set to arrive in Australia without a sufficient number of parts and components due to the breakdowns in pre-season testing, and even considered skipping the race completely.
But given that would lead to a potential penalty under the sport’s Concorde Agreement, the plan is to “complete the minimum distance needed to line up for the race and stop after a few laps.”
Whether that is true or not remains to be seen, but as things stand, Aston Martin looks to be at the back of the pack.
