Last Updated on February 8 2026, 6:05 pm

Just three more days to wait until the first official Formula One test of the 2026 season. Of course the teams have already completed three days ‘shakedown’ on track in Barcelona, but for political and financial reasons it is Bahrain who is credited with holding the first official test.

Unlike in the Catalan capital, the media are welcome In Bahrain with open arms – no more hiking around the outside of the circuits perimeter with long lenses whilst attempting to avoid the security guards. The secrecy enforced at the Barcelona ‘shakedown’ was in the end misplaced as all the teams with exception of Aston Martin racked up a significance number of laps.

Last time there was a big power unit regulation train it was a car crash, with the likes of Red Bull Racing completing just 27 laps over four days in Jerez. It was for this reason the FIA mandated the ‘shakedown’ be held behind relatively closed doors. Given the lack of media coverage and official timing, it has been difficult to understand exactly how the teams 2026 offerings compare.

 

 

 

Mercedes rumoured to have 4 seconds in hand

Yes, Mercedes clocked more laps than anyone else in their metronomic pursuit of mileage but on the final day it was Lewis Hamilton in his Ferrari who stole the headlines with the fastest lap of the week. Yet the seven times world champion’s best lap remained almost five seconds slower than the pole position time at the 2025 Barcelona Grand Prix.

Yet according to ex-F1 racer Juan Pablo Montoya, associates of his within the Mercedes team have revealed the team was running the car at the shakedown in a very conservative engine mode. “The times they were doing in Barcelona, from what I’ve heard, are between three and four seconds away from the car’s full potential,” Montoya told AS Colombia.

“To put that in perspective, when we’re talking about the car that’s far behind being two tenths of a second off the pace, when we go to Barcelona, you’ll see that the pole position will be around 1:12, and they’re doing 1:16.” Of course the track temperatures in January were cold and even were the cars not to evolve much over the next three months, come the Grand Prix in Barcelona in May, warmer climes will naturally see the cars go more quickly.

However, Montoya’s claims appear a little far fetched given the expectations at the FIA are that the cars will be 2-3 seconds a lap slower this year due to a big reduction in the overall downforce levels. One of the biggest differentiators this season between the teams in the early rounds, will be the way the drivers decide to manage their electrical energy.

New F1 era sparks safety concerns for the drivers

 

 

 

Toto Wolff spots energy management differences

Toto Wolff has now revealed the team were analysing the energy harvesting and deployment of their rivals in Barcelona. “I think the pre-investment in tools and in simulations and doing the correlation work will be beneficial,” says the Mercedes’ boss.

“But in the same way, the learning curve will be steep. Once we see what the others do, we will better understand. It was quite interesting to see on the Ferrari and on the Red Bull the way they were managing energy in Barcelona. It was different to us. It wasn’t better, but it was just different.”

This year the DRS is gone and has been replaced with an Indycar style push to pass system. Instead of the drivers only being able to deploy DRS in the designated zones, they will have an energy boost available for a fixed amount of time each lap which they can deploy wherever they see fit. For each of the circuits the teams will map back a base the best places to harvest energy along with those they believe offer the better opportunities to overtake

Mercedes’ 2nd engine “trick” reported

 

 

 

Mapping energy management will be crucial

“Learning from seeing the others, learning from the more miles we will be doing, the challenges in the races where we realise ‘hold on a minute, on Sunday, we haven’t mapped it in the way you’re winning races,” Wolff continues. “Maybe we’ve mapped it for a quick lap, and then suddenly you fall back. So the most clever guys in the car and on the engineering side are going to win.”

Once again concerns have been raised that Formula One racing will this year become an event focused on the race engineers instructing the drivers on how to drive the car in optimum fashion. Something else which caught the eye of the Mercedes team boss was the all new Red Bull – Ford collaboration on the power unit.

“When it comes to Red Bull, I think they’ve done a good job,” Wolff said. “Hadjar did 107 laps I believe on the first day and was running reliably, so you have got to give them that.” Both Audi and Ford have arrived for 2026 as new powertrain manufacturers, something which many have tried and failed at over the decades. The Mercedes boss.

Oscar Piastri: “McLaren madę significant mistakes”

 

 

 

Ride height concerns with new active front wings

”I think on the power unit side there’s some impressive things from some of our competitors and that’s quite surprising to be honest. But, I think, a lot of people anticipated the new power unit suppliers to be sort of struggling and whatnot and they’ve sort of had a good test as well. That’s good for them but for us, time will tell.”

One of the other features of the all new F1 racing this season is the active front wing, operated by the driver. On the straights the elements will lay flat to reduce drag and increase speed although some teams are already concerned about the effect it may have on the car’s ride height.

Esteban Ocon reported after the Barcelona shakedown: “If you can’t open your front wing for example, there’s more drag, so you’re going to burn more battery power, you’re going to be slower on the straights and the downforce is going to push your plank more into the ground at the front because you’ve got rake back, and you’re going to wear your plank out and you’re going to get disqualified.” In mixed weather conditions as with DRS, the front and rear wing adjustments will be frozen by the FIA.

 

 

 

NEXT ARTICLE – Zak Brown calls for FIA intervention over electrical deployment

Zak Brown confirms Horner “Frankenstein” F1 cars prediction – The much anticipated big F1 technical regulation changes are now upon us, with all the teams bar Williams having tested their all new 2026 cars and powertrains behind closed doors in Barcelona. From the scant information released by the teams, the big four Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari remain out front, although Aston Martin failed make it out on track until the dying sessions of the week.

However, despite the hundreds of laps being completed at the Circuit de Catalunya suggesting the all new power trains are on the whole reliable, big questions remain over how the new hybrids which are powered 50% from the battery and 50% from the internal combustion engine will perform during qualifying and racing.

Back in the summer of 2023 when the power unit specifications were broadly finalised, the then Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, raised concerns that the specifications were in fact impractical. Simulations delivered back in Milton Keynes projected at a number of circuits, the energy recovery would not be sufficient to recharge the battery leaving the cars lacking in power…. READ MORE