Haas driver Esteban Ocon issued a warning with regard to overtaking with the 2026 Formula 1 cars, claiming it will be difficult based on what he experienced during the testing week in Barcelona.
Over the past years a main talking point in F1 was the ability for cars to race closely and overtake, which was the reason behind adopting the ground effect cars back in 2022.
That generation started well with overtaking being easier, but as the regulations matured, F1 engineers found ways around the rules to gain performance.
This meant the ground-effect cars started generating more wake (dirty air), and chasing cars suffered, losing performance and overheating, with their tyres getting punished.
With the new rules featuring overtake mode, boost mode, and active aero, the same question is being asked.
Will it be easy to follow and overtake?
Early signs are not encouraging, according to Ocon, based on what he has experienced while driving the Haas VF-26 in Barcelona last week.
The Frenchman said: “I’ve been following a few cars. You seem to lose quite a lot of front load, a bit more maybe than before, but we need to see. And the Overtake [Mode], yes, I played with it.
“I don’t want to give too early conclusions on how it’s going to be because obviously, you know, it needs to be adjusted, optimized, etc. for that to work in a perfect way.
“But so far, it looks to be difficult to pass. That’s my first thought about it, but I hope it’s going to get on the easier side,” Ocon concluded.
His teammate, Oliver Bearman, echoed his sentiments adding: “In terms of following and overtaking and everything, I didn’t really get a massive feeling on that; of course, it’s not a priority. I managed to do a few laps in and around other cars.
“I must say that it was a bit more challenging to follow, just given my relatively few laps I did,” he pointed out. “It picked up quite a big shift in balance compared to clean air, which seemed a bit more so than the previous generation of cars. But again, it’s very early days.
“I didn’t really get to use the overtake mode, but I was still able to try it just in clean air. We need to obviously see the difference in cooling and all of those things.
“So I was able to try it, but I wasn’t able to use it to overtake someone, if that makes sense,” Bearman concluded.