Sign up now ><\/a><\/p>\n3-Peat?! – McLaren unveil 2026 livery | 00:38<\/p>\n
WHAT\u2019S REALLY HAPPENING IN F1\u2019S ENGINE WAR?<\/p>\n
The simmering debate over engine legality could boil over and into the open this week as put-out manufacturers attempt to have a controversial loophole closed.<\/p>\n
Mercedes is said to have found a way to increase its engine compression ratio \u2014 that is, how much the air and fuel is compressed in the engine cylinder \u2014 while running hot but to return a legal reading when the power unit is measured at ambient temperature.<\/p>\n
Ferrari, Audi and Honda have been pressing the FIA for answers for months.<\/p>\n
Closing the loophole, however, would require four of five manufacturers to agree. With Red Bull also said to be exploiting the loophole, there has been no prospect of a successful vote.<\/p>\n
Reports from The Race, however, suggest Red Bull has switched camps.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a fascinating and late development, especially considering apparent hints from the brand that thermal expansion was engineering 101. Either Red Bull Powertrains was misdirecting or has found that it\u2019s not able to achieve the higher compression ratio.<\/p>\n
If Red Bull were to switch, rule changes could be forced through for the start of the season to have the compression ratio measured hot, when the car is on track.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve spent a lot of time \u2026 discussing how we solve those issues,\u201d FIA single seaters director Nikolas Tombazis said. \u201cOur intention is to solve them for the start of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to have controversies. We want people to be competing on the track and not in the courtroom or in the stewards room. That\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
But closing the loophole now could have dramatic consequences. The compression ratio trick is believed to be fundamental to how the engine works. It would be impractical for a manufacturer to redesign the motor just weeks before designs must be locked in on 1 March.<\/p>\n
Changing the rules now, therefore, could risk the Mercedes-powered teams not competing in Melbourne, including defending champion McLaren.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t imagine that you wouldn\u2019t have Mercedes teams on the grid in Australia,\u201d McLaren CEO Zak Brown said. \u201cWe\u2019re not privy to those conversations \u2026 but we\u2019ll have all the Mercedes teams on the grid in Australia, I\u2019m sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
The engine manufacturers can\u2019t change the rules themselves; both F1 and the FIA have to agree too.<\/p>\n
Given Mercedes regularly consulted with the FIA to ensure its power unit is legal, it\u2019s hard to imagine the governing body suddenly changing its mind on the eve of the season. More likely is a 2027 clampdown is forced through.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s typical politics of Formula 1,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThe engine has been designed [within] and is totally compliant with the rules. That\u2019s what the sport is about.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is the engine is completely compliant, passed all its tests, and I think [Mercedes] HPP has done a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n
But self-interest rules in Formula 1. Expect the other manufacturers to keep thrashing in Bahrain.<\/p>\n
Cadillac F1 reveal 1st Livery for 2026 | 00:39<\/p>\n
WHAT WILL WE LEARN ABOUT THE FRONTRUNNING PACK?<\/p>\n
The first three days of a nine-day preseason program were never going to be about performance, but the opening test in Barcelona gave us some interesting first hints at how the teams are doing.<\/p>\n
Reliability was extremely good, shockingly even for Red Bull Racing and its first home-grown power unit. Most expected the inaugural Red Bull Powertrains effort to be problematic. It still could be, but so far it\u2019s collected a largely trouble-free 2901.3 kilometres.<\/p>\n
That, combined with very healthy mileage collected by the Mercedes motor (5313.6 kilometres) and the Ferrari unit (4633.7 kilometres) suggests last year\u2019s top four have a good chance of continuing in the frontrunning group this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is clear that there are at least three competitors \u2014 Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull \u2014 who have all got off to a good start,\u201d McLaren principal Andrea Stella said after Barcelona.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that the three teams I mentioned are equipped with three different power units is a first indication that there may not be extremely marked differences in terms of absolute performance, at least as far as some of the PU suppliers are concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cumulative mileage by team<\/p>\n
1. Mercedes: 502 laps (2337.8 kilometres)<\/p>\n
2. Ferrari: 440 laps (2049.1 kilometres)<\/p>\n
3. Haas-Ferrari: 391 laps (1820.9 kilometres)<\/p>\n
4. Alpine-Mercedes: 349 laps (1625.3 kilometres)<\/p>\n
5. Racing Bulls-RBPT: 319 laps (1485.6 kilometres)<\/p>\n
6. Red Bull Racing: 304 laps (1415.7 kilometres)<\/p>\n
7. McLaren-Mercedes: 290 laps (1350.5 kilometres)<\/p>\n
8. Audi: 243 laps (1131.7 kilometres)<\/p>\n
9. Cadillac-Ferrari: 164 laps (763.7 kilometres)<\/p>\n
10. Aston Martin-Honda: 66 laps (307.4 kilometres)<\/p>\n
11. Williams-Mercedes: 0 laps (0.0 kilometres)<\/p>\n
\u201cI think at the moment it does look like Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and [Mercedes] are all quite close within one another,\u201d said George Russell, the bookies\u2019 favourite for the championship, reflecting the Mercedes opinion.<\/p>\n
But the variables in testing are huge. Engines are run in a turned-down state and fuel loads vary. No team wants to give too much away too soon.<\/p>\n
There was no real pushing of car or engine in Barcelona. With so much testing to come \u2014 and in Bahrain, in far more representative conditions than chilly wintertime Spain \u2014 most teams are spacing out their programs<\/p>\n
But that will begin to change this week, when experiments with set-up will give us some clearer clues about performance as drivers nudge closer to the limit.<\/p>\n
By the end of the week we\u2019ll start to get the vibe of Formula 1 in 2026.<\/p>\n
Hamilton sets fastest lap at F1 testing | 01:09<\/p>\n
HOW FAR BEHIND IS WILLIAMS?<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no team for which the next three days of testing is more important than Williams.<\/p>\n
The British team failed to turn up in Barcelona, citing snowballing production delays. Though it attempted to limit the damage of the missed test by running a full-rig car simulation at the factory, there\u2019s no substitute for time spent at the track.<\/p>\n
The team is more than just three days behind the rest.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s down three days of data plus the almost two weeks since the opening test, during which time all its rivals were crunching the numbers, developing a deeper understanding of their strengths and weaknesses and making decisions about their next steps.<\/p>\n
To have any hope of recovering that time without burning through too many of the opening races, Williams will need to hit the ground running \u2014 and it will need to keep running and running.<\/p>\n
Any serious problems will hurt more keenly in Bahrain than they would have in Barcelona. Teams don\u2019t get to choose three days in a five-day window this week, and they\u2019re also much further from home, meaning spare parts can\u2019t be shipped as quickly to the track.<\/p>\n
And the spotlight will be harsh if any problems do arise \u2014 none of the Mercedes-powered teams encountered any major issues in Barcelona, strongly suggesting the engine is solidly reliable \u2014 because Grove has become a serial offender for turning up late with underdeveloped cars.<\/p>\n
In the past that\u2019s been the result of chronic structural issues resulting from years of underinvestment. Vowles has been attempting to rapidly modernise the team in recent years, so the specific cause is different this time.<\/p>\n
But if the result is the same and Williams ends up having squandered the first year of the new rules \u2014 a year it had talked up as being its chance to move up the grid \u2014 then there\u2019ll be some painful questions asked.<\/p>\n
Williams will be compared directly to Alpine all season given both are Mercedes engine customers and have similarities in their size and objectives for the season. Alpine completed 349 laps (1625.3 kilometres) in Barcelona, the fourth highest lap total of the test. Williams will be targeting at least as many laps.<\/p>\n
The bottom line for Williams is that it needs to be able to keep its head down and rack up kilometres.<\/p>\n
Mercedes confident in new W17 Challenger | 01:30<\/p>\n
HOW GOOD IS ASTON MARTIN\u2019S \u2018POSSIBLY\u2019 AGGRESSIVE CAR?<\/p>\n
Aston Martin turned up in Barcelona, but only just.<\/p>\n
The team rushed to be ready by Thursday, with the unpainted car leaving the garage only in the final hour.<\/p>\n
That hour was decidedly inauspicious, comprising just five laps and an on-track stoppage for Lance Stroll.<\/p>\n
Fernando Alonso took the wheel on the next day and set a reasonable 66 laps, but none were at a representative pace. That\u2019s partly because the team\u2019s program had the car running at limited speed down the straights. The reason for that approach hasn\u2019t been explained.<\/p>\n
It means Aston Martin will still be looking for answers to some fundamental questions.<\/p>\n
One of them is the Honda motor. The Japanese marque has talked openly about being behind with its internal combustion engine, and reliability remains a question mark given the lack of running. Honda is supplying no other teams, so its fate is linked directly to Aston Martin.<\/p>\n
Perhaps most intriguing, though, is the car design, which looks dramatically different to the others in the field.<\/p>\n
Most teams see the team\u2019s interpretation of the rules as aggressive. Managing technical partner Adrian Newey says that\u2019s only \u201cpossibly\u201d the case, but it\u2019s impossible not to note how much it stands out among the cars we\u2019ve seen so far.<\/p>\n
The big-spending team has equally big ambitions, but it struck a more conservative tone during its launch. Star driver Fernando Alonso made a point of saying the team shouldn\u2019t be judged on its early results but on where it ends up at the end of the season.<\/p>\n
Is that gamesmanship or does the team know it\u2019s in for a tough time? We\u2019ll get a better sense this week.<\/p>\n
Norris confident of going back-to-back | 00:51<\/p>\n
CAN THE NEW TEAMS KEEP UP?<\/p>\n
Cadillac, Formula 1\u2019s only brand-new team, ended the Barcelona test in what could be described as acceptable shape.<\/p>\n
It completed the fewest laps of any team that attended for three days thanks to the extensive troubleshooting required to get the car going, but it wasn\u2019t dramatically off the pace, as some had feared \u2014 though it\u2019s hard to say whether it\u2019s truly in the ballpark given the closed nature of the test.<\/p>\n
The team hasn\u2019t shied away from the mountain it has to climb to be even a respectable backmarker this year, but it also left Barcelona feeling encouraged it was on the right path \u2014 after all, the more established Williams and Aston Martin teams struggled to turn up at all.<\/p>\n
But things will ramp up this week when the established teams will begin to push harder to find lap time.<\/p>\n
It will be an act of faith when Cadillac begins to push its car to the limit. Can it go faster reliably? And how much faster?<\/p>\n
This week and next will be decisive in setting expectations for what\u2019s likely to be a tough first season in Formula 1.<\/p>\n
Audi, the former Sauber team, also has work to do with its brand-new home-grown power unit.<\/p>\n
The German marque has never before competed in Formula 1, and expectations are low for its new engine.<\/p>\n
The trouble is that Red Bull Powertrains has raised the bar with its own debut motor \u2014 and Red Bull is hardly a giant of the automotive world.<\/p>\n
The Audi engine completed a respectable 243 laps (1131.7 kilometres) at the first test, but they weren\u2019t all smooth. Some of those problems will have come from the chassis side of the equation, but team boss Mattia Binotto has been open about the \u201cvery, very long list\u201d of work that needed to be done after Barcelona.<\/p>\n
The trajectory at least was positive \u2014 its last day of the first test was by far its most productive \u2014 but in Bahrain it\u2019ll need to prove that was sustainable rather than just a fluke in what many are still tipping to be a troubled transitional year.<\/p>\n
CAN I WATCH IT?<\/p>\n
Testing in Bahrain takes place this week from Wednesday to Friday between 6pm and 3am (AEDT).<\/p>\n
You can watch the last hour, plus a post-session analysis program, live on Fox Sports and Kayo from 2am on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Formula 1 preseason kicks up a gear this week with a second round of testing in Bahrain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[240803,2074,13273,240790,1724,64,63,689,936,937,23062,56356,81129,240807,84696,220229,225886,2055,240788,240806,16214,240796,240801,38763,240809,2057,817,845,813,816,240797,240811,240804,3875,2093,2105,240789,16200,37234,1737,21772,16201,228929,647,234673,120031,53374,677,240815,228935,240798,240805,18923,228944,240810,240787,240813,233881,12022,240814,14444,240792,16193,231324,240795,240799,240793,94251,240808,3595,2020,85,240791,240794,239771,240812,225050,240802,240800,660,12000,9657],"class_list":["post-472065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-absolute-performance","tag-adrian-newey","tag-andrea-stella","tag-apparent-hints","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-bahrain","tag-barcelona","tag-british-team","tag-car-design","tag-chassis-side","tag-chilly-wintertime","tag-combustion-engine","tag-compression-ratio","tag-compression-ratio-trick","tag-constructors-championship","tag-drivers-nudge","tag-engine-compression-ratio","tag-engine-customers","tag-engine-cylinder","tag-engine-legality","tag-engine-manufacturers","tag-engine-works","tag-europe","tag-f1","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-fuel-loads","tag-full-rig-car-simulation","tag-fundamental-questions","tag-george-russell","tag-german-marque","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-home-grown-power-unit","tag-honda-motor-company","tag-japanese-marque","tag-lando-norris","tag-lap-time","tag-ltd","tag-managing-technical-partner","tag-melbourne","tag-mercedes-confident","tag-motorsport-news","tag-nikolas-tombazis","tag-oceania","tag-on-track-stoppage","tag-opening-test","tag-performance-envelope","tag-post-session-analysis-program","tag-power-unit","tag-power-units","tag-preseason-kicks","tag-preseason-program","tag-preseason-test","tag-promising-testing-session","tag-province-of-barcelona","tag-put-out-manufacturers","tag-question-mark","tag-real-pushing","tag-regulation-changes","tag-representative-conditions","tag-representative-pace","tag-seaters-director","tag-self-interest-rules","tag-serial-offender","tag-snowballing-production-delays","tag-southern-europe","tag-spain","tag-sports","tag-sterner-questions","tag-stewards-room","tag-team-livery","tag-testing-preview","tag-thermal-expansion","tag-turned-down-state","tag-typical-politics","tag-victoria","tag-western-asia","tag-zak-brown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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