The Barcelona Shakedown offered a first chance for the teams and drivers to put some mileage in at the wheel of their 2026 challengers, ahead of a season in which a wave of new technical regulations come into effect.<\/p>\n
With this meaning that the new-look cars have a range of different features<\/a> \u2013 making them shorter, narrower, lighter and nimbler \u2013 as well there being new power unit rules, the drivers had plenty to digest as they reflected on their first laps.<\/p>\n So what are the 2026 cars like, according to the drivers? Well, let\u2019s get the verdicts of some of them\u2026<\/p>\n \u2018Fun to drive\u2019 and \u2018more powerful\u2019<\/p>\n First we go to reigning World Champion Lando Norris<\/a>, who explained to a select group of media including F1.com in the days after the Barcelona Shakedown that the new machine is \u201cfun to drive\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re good fun, because it\u2019s more power and less grip to a certain extent,\u201d said Norris. \u201cWhich means you\u2019re hustling, you\u2019re having to control the car a bit more, fight the car at times more.\u201d<\/p>\n The McLaren<\/a> racer also suggested that the car “certainly feels more powerful and quicker\u201d, while he believes that the changes will result in \u201cmore racing\u201d and \u201cdifferent strategies\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cYou’ll see more yo-yoing, more moves with extra speed. But then that person might have to defend more than what you’ve seen in the past and that will create more chaos, which is great for you guys,\u201d Norris explained.<\/p>\n Team mate Oscar Piastri<\/a> also shared his thoughts, with the Australian enjoying the opportunity to finally experience the MCL40 in Barcelona and discover that there are \u201cchallenges but not as alien as we might have feared\u201d.<\/p>\n Reflecting on his first impressions after driving the car, Piastri explained: \u201cSome things are a little bit different \u2013 the engine sound in the car was a little bit different, so that\u2019s probably the first thing to get used to.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then just how the power is used \u2013 when you\u2019re at full power out of a corner, you\u2019ve got a lot of power, more than we had last year, and less downforce, less actual tyre surface on the track because they\u2019re narrower. You\u2019ve got a lot of power and less grip.\u201d<\/p>\n Piastri believes that the new generation of cars are \u201cjust as impressive\u201d, adding: \u201cThere will be some differences, but I think fundamentally they\u2019re still the fastest cars in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n An \u2018exciting time\u2019 for F1<\/p>\n Over at Ferrari<\/a>, Lewis Hamilton<\/a> was left with a positive impression following his time at the wheel of the SF-26 in Barcelona.<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of just understanding the car and the balance, we have a lot less downforce than previous years,\u201d the seven-time World Champion said at the end of the shakedown.<\/p>\n \u201cThe car generation is actually a little bit more fun to drive \u2013 it\u2019s oversteery, it\u2019s snappy and sliding, but it\u2019s a little bit easier to catch and I would definitely say more enjoyable.\u201d<\/p>\n On the other side of the garage, Charles Leclerc<\/a> suggested that the challenge posed by the new cars is one that brings excitement.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an exciting time for Formula 1, where there\u2019s so much change that we\u2019ve got to adapt as drivers, we\u2019ve got to adapt as teams and try and find ways to maximise what is now our new package, and especially with this energy management that is so much more important compared to the past,\u201d the Monegasque said.<\/p>\n George Russell<\/a> has been left impressed by the power that the new engines provide, with the Mercedes<\/a> driver commenting early on at the Barcelona Shakedown: \u201cThere was obviously a lot of anticipation for these new power units, and so far, just generally on the whole, the amount of power they give is pretty impressive.<\/p>\n \u201cI think for all the cars I was watching today, with all the different power units, it\u2019s probably the quickest I\u2019ve ever seen an F1 car pass here in Barcelona, so that was pretty exciting to see.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the cars, you feel it being smaller, you can feel that weight reduction compared to previous years, so I think from that aspect as well it\u2019s gone in a good direction.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Super interesting\u2019 options for the driver<\/p>\n Kimi Antonelli<\/a>, meanwhile, feels that the new machines offer some interesting variety in terms of set-up options.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s fun to drive,\u201d the Italian reflected. \u201cObviously the car being a bit smaller, you feel it \u2013 it\u2019s more agile, especially in changes of direction and in slow-speed corners which is a nice feeling, plus we don\u2019t have bouncing anymore which is another good thing, so you don\u2019t have to run the car as low and you have a bit more room to play with ride heights.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have a bit more room to play with the set-up, to play with the car, which is super nice and super interesting as well as a driver, to also understand what compromises you can find set-up-wise.\u201d<\/p>\n Red Bull<\/a>\u2019s Isack Hadjar<\/a> echoed that sentiment, having suggested that it is \u201ceasier to play around\u201d with the 2026 cars and that \u201calso on the PU side, there\u2019s a lot more options for the driver to play with\u201d.<\/p>\n Similarly, Arvid Lindblad<\/a> \u2013 the rookie who has replaced Hadjar at Racing Bulls<\/a> \u2013 has already been thinking about the areas in which he can make a difference as a driver.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m enjoying it,\u201d Lindblad said of getting used to the 2026 car. \u201cObviously it\u2019s very different to drive, so it\u2019s exciting and it\u2019s fun also obviously to drive in F1 but you feel it\u2019s different.<\/p>\n \u201c[I\u2019m] thinking about, \u2018how can I make a difference, how can I get the best out of all the different parts of the car\u2019, because it is different to drive. But it\u2019s a journey for all of us because it is very different to what was there last year, so we\u2019re all learning together. I\u2019m enjoying the start of this journey.\u201d<\/p>\n Ollie Bearman<\/a> also took a similar view, the Haas<\/a> racer commenting: \u201cIt\u2019s good fun. It\u2019s my first time being in this situation with a regulation change where, as drivers, we can have so much impact on the end result, so it\u2019s a great prospect.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Barcelona Shakedown offered a first chance for the teams and drivers to put some mileage in at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-460148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}