The Formula One season is just one day away from the cars hitting the track for the first time in anger. Yes a number of teams have already performed a ‘shakedown’ of their 2026 challengers using filming days (200km allowed) or a demonstration day – as did Ferrari (15km), but these outings a really just testing the systems are in order rather than pushing the car hard for the first time.

Unlike during a Grand Prix weekend where Pirelli decide on the tyre compounds used by all the teams, for testing the competitors can choose the compounds they require for their three days of running. Each team can run up to 25 sets of Pirelli tyres including the intermediate and the wet tyres which may be required later in the week given the weather forecast deteriorates from day to day.

The tyre selections reveal a significant amount of information as to how the various teams intend to conduct their various run plans over their days on track. Red Bull have remarkably elected to receive a whopping 18 sets of the soft compound, one of the medium and non of the hard. They have also selected four sets of the intermediate tyres and two of the full wet compounds.

 

 

 

Red Bull go all in on soft tyres

Clearly, the Milton Keynes based team have little interest in testing their car in Barcelona over lengthy race simulation runs. Their focus will be on how the aerodynamic components perform with a wide range of setup differentials but part of their decision may have been affected by the early time of year.

Formula One used to test in Barcelona in early February before they reduced the number of pre-season days on track and moved the test to the warmer climes of Bahrain. Some mornings at the Circuit de Catalunya the personnel would find ice on their cars as the temperatures in the Catalan region often reflected thos of northern Europe.

Of course the team’;s would have been forced to elect their testing tyre compounds some weeks ago, given the production schedule required for the Italian rubber manufacturer to produce some 1100 individual tyres would have begun some weeks ago. Tyres for the season opener in Australia were shipped boy boat back in early January.

It could be that Red Bull’s obsession with the soft compound tyre was also based on the fact they expected the track temperatures to be in single digits, but whilst some wet weather is expected later in the week the ambient temperatures are predicted to fluctuate  between a balmy 15 and 17 degrees celsius.

Will Aston Martin make the Barcelona test?

 

 

 

Mercedes set to grind out long runs

Red Bull have opted not to shake down their car using a film day and so the first proper running will be on day 1 tomorrow. That said, the team have a rolling road rig on which they will have tested the electronics and various other systems often tested during a shakedown and so the time they will lose in Barcelona over their competitors will be kept to a minimum.

Haas have elected to receive the most wet weather tyres, with six intermediates and two full wets as part of their allocation. This may well pay dividends when the rains fall in the district of Montmelo.

In stark contrast to Red Bull, Mercedes have stacked up with eight sets of hard compound tyres – the most of any team – which indicates they will be pounding out the miles during one race simulation after another. Durability and consistency are the focus of the engineers from Brackley.

The silver arrows have no sets of the medium tyre which leaves them with sufficient sets of soft tyres to play with when testing their aero capabilities of their package. Last time Mercedes revealed their car at a big new rules change, there were gasps from the F1 analysts as the zero-pod W13 was deemed to be a genius piece of F1 car design.

Briatore confirms ongoing talks with Christian Horner

 

 

 

McLaren a balanced Pirelli portfolio

Quite the reverse was true and despite the pleadings from Lewis Hamilton in particular, the team persisted with this design into the following season. Whilst the car looked stunning and appeared to have sleek over the top aerodynamic styling, underneath the car was where all the problems emerged.

There will be just ten of the eleven teams in Barcelona this week, given Williams announcement on Friday that they will not attend. Ferrari and McLaren have already indicated they will not run on Monday, their three days from the five on track will come later in the week.

The reigning papaya liveried championship team like Red Bull have opted not to use any of their filming days or demo days for a pre-test shakedown, but TJ13 has learned McLaren may use on of these days in between the Barcelona test and the later ones in Bahrain.

Aston Martin have not yet declared their intentions for the the Barcelona outing and rumours late last week appeared to suggest they like Williams have yet to pass a front nose FIA crash test.

Audi admits problems after first F1 shakedown

 

 

 

Barcelona test may not be that exciting

The ‘secret’ test in Barcelona as it has been billed has created a huge amount of speculation that the teams are concerned their radically new cars and powertrains may prove to be a flop. Hence the lack of media presence.

Yet in reality, Barcelona is all about the drivers getting up to speed with the massive changes in requirements for them to pilot these complex cars. And with constant set up changes for data gathering purposes, there may be long periods when there are no cars on track. Given the teams ca only run on three of the five days, its also possible there will be a day where no cars run at all.

This would be a challenge for the variety of media commentators, to blather on for hours over speculative issues which create more rumours than they would otherwise. There will be a small F1 media presence will the usual soft interviews and potentially some non-live recorded footage, although the recent announcement concerning this was unclear as to how widespread this will be broadcast.

 

 

 

F1 engine row to continue beyond Melbourne season opener

F1 engine row won’t be resolved before Melbourne as FIA fail to find agreement – A tale as old as time in Formula One Racing erupted just before Christmas as the teams geared up for huge new regulation changes for both chassis and powertrains. Unlike Indycar, Formula One is not a ‘spec’ series which means each of the teams takes on a tome of specifications issued by the FIA and designs its own interpretation of the rules.

From the ground effect cars of the late 1970’s, to the Williams genius designs with sophisticated electronic aids such as active suspension in the 1990’s and more recently the Brawn double diffuser (2009), McLaren’s “F-Duct” (2010)  and Red Bull’s exhaust blown diffusers (2010-2013), the F1 engineers with rocket science like vision a renown for finding loopholes in any new rules which can be exploited for their advantage.

With one of the biggest technical specifications rule changes in the history of the sport coming this season, its no wonder that once again certain teams will push the boundaries of the conundrum set for them by the FIA…. READ MORE