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Welcome back to Prime Tire, where today we’re looking ahead to the first of three seasons in this coming Formula One … season.

Because before we get to the 2026 championship itself — kicking off with the Australian Grand Prix on March 8 — there are two important portions of every F1 year to get through first.

Before you know it, official preseason will begin with testing in Bahrain in February (more on that later). But first it is launch season, when every team will reveal its new designs for the year ahead.

I’m Alex, and let’s get into this special time of the F1 year.

New Car Diary DatesWhat to expect from launch season

The start of every new F1 season is exciting. A new rules era turbocharges this feeling.

For fans of teams that have gone years (in some cases, decades) without title success, that “this is our year” feeling abounds in the freezing January air.

But with an all-new ruleset comes interest and expectation, as we still don’t fully know what the new designs will look like until they’re finally presented in carbon fiber car parts.

Spoiler alert: They won’t look quite as sleek and clean as the renders the FIA and the F1 organization pushed out just before Christmas.

Team engineers have been beavering away, clawing back downforce slashed in the new rule definitions for how cars need to look and behave. This often means there will be plenty of ugly aerodynamic parts that conform to the regulation wording, but utterly obliterate the spirit behind those new rules.

It’s just what F1 teams do — make cars as fast as possible within the rules and disregard aesthetics if necessary. A winning car is always beautiful, after all.

But there’s another twist to watch out for in launch season: With the five days of shakedown running at Barcelona from Jan. 26-30, being held behind closed doors (a first for the modern F1 era), several teams are choosing to first show off only their 2026 car liveries, rather than the new car designs themselves.

It’s important to stress that for commercial reasons, the Barcelona running isn’t designated as a full test. That honor, since 2021, has gone to Bahrain and the televised events F1 holds at the Sakhir International Circuit.

Here, all the real designs will fully break cover in the first official preseason test from Feb. 11-13. A second three-day test in Bahrain follows from Feb. 18-20.

It also is possible teams could attend the Barcelona running with cars that are designed just to prove concepts around the new engines, with race-spec chassis upgrades arriving in Bahrain. Mercedes did this in 2022 and Ferrari has already essentially said it will take this approach this year.

On the livery-only reveals coming before the Barcelona shakedown, back in 2022 and the start of F1’s last rules era, I remember Red Bull brazenly claiming to be showing off that year’s RB18, when in fact it was the team’s 2022 livery plastered on a show car. Luke Smith and I were baffled.

The show cars are life-size, real chassis that have been built to mirror the FIA/F1 renders, which teams can purchase to place in their factories, for hospitality events or use at the forthcoming launch events. Some will be sold off later to (extremely well off!) collectors.

These are therefore the key dates for 2026 launch season for all 11 teams, plus what they’ll be revealing in the coming weeks:

Red Bull: Jan. 15 (livery showcase only, but a full launch event in Detroit in partnership with Ford)
Racing Bulls: Jan. 15 (livery only, at the same event as Red Bull’s senior team)
Haas: Jan. 19 (car design and livery, online reveal only)
Audi: Jan. 20 (livery only, but a full launch event in Berlin)
Mercedes: Jan. 22 (car design and livery, online reveal only, with a full season launch to follow on Feb. 2)
Ferrari: Jan. 23 (car design and livery, with a full launch event at the team’s Fiorano test track expected, but so far not confirmed)
Alpine: Jan. 23 (livery only, but a full launch event in Barcelona)
Williams: Feb. 3 (livery only)
Cadillac: Feb. 8 (livery only, during a Super Bowl TV commercial)
Aston Martin: Feb. 9 (car design and livery, with a full launch event expected to be in Saudi Arabia, but not confirmed)
McLaren: So far, nothing has been revealed about the reigning champion’s launch plan …
PT Reader Rankings

How you voted for 2025’s best and worst drivers

On Christmas Eve’s festive edition of PT, I asked you to vote on F1’s best drivers of 2025. And, unlike Luke and Madeline Coleman in our F1 top 10 drivers feature, you got to point out who did a bad job, too.

Well, the results are in. You guys don’t like Pierre Gasly!

Max Verstappen
Lando Norris
George Russell
Charles Leclerc
Oscar Piastri
Carlos Sainz
Isack Hadjar
Fernando Alonso
Kimi Antonelli
Ollie Bearman
Nico Hülkenberg
Alex Albon
Pierre Gasly
Lewis Hamilton
Gabriel Bortoleto
Liam Lawson
Esteban Ocon
Yuki Tsunoda
Franco Colapinto
Lance Stroll
Jack Doohan

It’s a debate I love having every year — and, to be honest, throughout the season, too.

Everyone has their opinions and preferences when it comes to sports stars. On Gasly though — sorry! — but that’s a harsh average and down five spots from where Luke and Madeline ranked him. The Frenchman wrestled an awful Alpine to 11 Q3 appearances in 2025 and brought in 100 percent of his team’s points.

This does, however, handily highlight how tough it can be to shine in F1. 

The best drivers can be handicapped by their cars and teams, which here is also reflected in how we, and you, ranked Max Verstappen as the year’s best driver, but he missed out on that world title glory to Lando Norris.

Thanks to everyone who responded. And to the 46 people who gave Verstappen 1/10 and Lance Stroll 10/10: Top effort, but they still landed in the right spots in the rankings.

Now, onward to F1 2026!

Outside the points

🗓️ Haas actually moved its 2026 launch back from Jan. 23 to “avoid over-congestion of team launches,” per a team spokesperson. Good for fans and Haas’ marketing.

🏎️ Audi fired up its first F1 engine within its 2026 car chassis for the first time. (This is pretty standard procedure — and something teams have long highlighted on social media at this quieter time of year — but it demonstrates Audi’s car build is progressing as planned.)

🚨 Attracting new engine builders was the core aim in adopting the new engine technology F1 is introducing this year.

👨 Verstappen’s engineer — Gianpiero Lambiase  — is staying put for the foreseeable future. Reports emerged over Christmas linking Lambiase with a future move away from Red Bull, possibly to Aston Martin. That said, he could do a deal to move into an even more senior role with another squad once his contract concludes in 2027.

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