{"id":497773,"date":"2026-02-25T04:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T04:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/497773\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T04:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T04:12:14","slug":"big-questions-facing-f1-after-testing-plus-whats-your-2026-car-liveries-ranking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/497773\/","title":{"rendered":"Big questions facing F1 after testing. Plus: What\u2019s your 2026 car liveries ranking?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic\u2019s F1 newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive Prime Tire directly in your inbox twice a week during the season and weekly in the offseason.<\/p>\n

Welcome back to Prime Tire, where today I just want the 2026 Formula 1 season to get going.<\/p>\n

There are still 12 days until the season opens in Australia and that is, frankly, just too long. What can I say \u2014\u00a0the two tests in Bahrain<\/a>\u00a0got me excited for real racing.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Alex, and Madeline Coleman will be along later.<\/p>\n

Questions: The big storylines to follow next week<\/p>\n

I watched all 24 hours of testing action in Bahrain last week to produce our\u00a0live coverage<\/a>\u00a0of the event. Luke Smith provided fascinating behind-the-scenes insight from the paddock \u2014 including a Lewis Hamilton fan being so excited to get their hero\u2019s autograph that they promptly\u00a0burst into tears<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I was curious about what to expect from the new cars, especially after the remarks that came out of the first Bahrain test two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

There was the seven-time world champion Hamilton saying, \u201cit\u2019s like you need a degree to fully understand it all.\u201d Four-time world champion Max Verstappen said the new cars are \u201cnot a lot of fun\u201d to drive and called them \u201canti-racing<\/a>.\u201d And two-time world champion Fernando Alonso said \u201cthe chef can drive the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

What was this new F1?!<\/p>\n

Well, watching Charles Leclerc\u00a0throwing his Ferrari around<\/a>\u00a0the Bahrain track during the\u00a0entertaining final hours<\/a>\u00a0of the 2026 preseason was reassuringly familiar.<\/p>\n

The cars do sound weird at times, but overall, it\u2019s\u00a0still\u00a0F1<\/a>.\u00a0And, as the paddock prepares to leave for Australia, we can pick out the early narratives of F1\u2019s new era, fueled by what was captured in Bahrain last week:<\/p>\n

Which team really is the front-runner?\u00a0Is it Mercedes? McLaren? Ferrari? Red Bull? Because they all basically pointed at each other (mainly in a bid to stop the FIA clamping down on their performances\u00a0\u2014\u00a0more on this later).<\/p>\n

The suggestion is that all were obscuring their true hands to some extent, as is common is F1 testing. Seriously, CAN IT BE THE AUSTRALIAN GP ALREADY, PLEASE?!<\/p>\n

Will the Mercedes engine rule change vote be decisive?\u00a0The five F1 engine builders\u00a0will vote<\/a>\u00a0on a new test of the 2026 designs this week. This is aimed at restricting an advantage Mercedes is\u00a0thought to have found<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a suggestion that the manufacturers who want the loophole in question closed\u00a0might not vote<\/a>\u00a0for the new test, after\u00a0all that fuss<\/a>. Expect this one to run on even longer than seemed the case last week.<\/p>\n

Do Ferrari fans dare to believe?\u00a0Leclerc ended up topping the final test with a lap 0.8 seconds faster than Kimi Antonelli \u2014 next up for Mercedes. The car looks good on track, in terms of how it responds predictably to driving inputs (Ferrari\u2019s 2025 car very much didn\u2019t do that).<\/p>\n

So, can F1\u2019s most storied squad finally end a title drought that goes back to 2008? It\u2019d be some story, but Ferrari has been here before \u2014 in 2022 and particularly 2019, when it crushed things in testing with a car powered by a controversial engine before it threw things away when the season got going.<\/p>\n

Ferrari\u2019s starts also look\u00a0mega\u00a0so far in 2026, and its\u00a0new wing is nifty<\/a>. But history tells me it\u2019s too early to get excited.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s gone so wrong at Aston Martin?\u00a0Six laps and no time set on the final day of testing would be bad, if not unexpected, for an all-new team such as Cadillac. That it was the\u00a0resource-heavy Aston Martin team<\/a>, helmed by F1 car design legend Adrian Newey and led on track by Alonso, is shocking.<\/p>\n

Its Honda engine is being blamed, as the manufacturer ran out of parts to get through the final test. But the Aston car, for all its clever-looking aerodynamic parts, is slow even when it does run. This won\u2019t be a quick fix.<\/p>\n

How fast is Cadillac?\u00a0After making a\u00a0solid start<\/a>\u00a0in Bahrain\u2019s first test, Cadillac was another team that missed plenty of on-track time in the second.<\/p>\n

It fell from completing 320 laps one week (and beating the mighty-looking Mercedes\u2019 haul of 282), to logging just 266 the next. A series of difficulties \u2014 including malfunctioning sensors \u2014 was to blame.<\/p>\n

But, heading to Australia, there\u2019s no clear indication of where the newbie really stands in the pecking order. Is it ahead or behind Aston at the rear of the field? Or might it be quietly hoping to emulate Haas and score points on debut? Thankfully, we\u2019ll soon find out.<\/p>\n

Bahrain was fine for the new cars, but what of Melbourne?\u00a0As Luke\u00a0explained here<\/a>, the engines powering the new cars are extremely complicated. This is mainly because of the increase in power coming from the hybrid systems.<\/p>\n

In Bahrain, the big and many braking zones at that track meant the cars had no trouble replenishing their electrical energy, as converting braking force into electricity remains part of how the engines work.<\/p>\n

But in Australia, not only do the drivers spend 78 percent of the lap\u00a0on full throttle<\/a>, the braking zones are much shorter and less severe. That could be a problem that leaves drivers running out of energy at critical points. Expect outbursts if they do.<\/p>\n

Will fans grow tired of new rules chat?\u00a0That I\u2019ve even had to include the question demonstrates that things are still rather uncertain with these new rules. And broadcasters will have to dedicate significant chunks of every session for the opening races explaining how the cars work.<\/p>\n

This will only increase if the racing in Melbourne is very different from what has come before. F1 has always been about complexity, given the nature of high-speed machines. But for decades now, it has been a made-for-TV product. In broadcasting, simplicity rules. Let\u2019s see how this pans out.<\/p>\n

Now, over to Madeline for a word on F1\u2019s regular streaming offering, \u201cDrive to Survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside the Paddock with Madeline Coleman: Why \u2018Drive to Survive\u2019 is shorter in 2026<\/p>\n

After I finished watching \u201cDrive to Survive\u201d Season 8, which is out on Netflix on Friday, I was left with mixed feelings and a few questions, including one that many of you will likely ask: Why are there only eight episodes this time? After all, the seven previous seasons featured 10.<\/p>\n

It felt as if many rich storylines were left out this season, such as Isack Hadjar\u2019s first podium, and others were under-discussed and lacked context, as Luke and I\u00a0explained here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It just felt as if the magic of the earlier \u201cDrive to Survive\u201d chapters was missing.<\/p>\n

Tom Rogers, the show\u2019s co-executive producer, was recently asked if there was a reason for the episode count dropping. He told reporters at preseason testing in Bahrain that DTS is \u201cnot constrained by episode numbers or durations. The episodes can be whatever length feels natural.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed out how the episode that included Romain Grosjean\u2019s fiery crash in Season 3 ran to 51 minutes long, \u201cwhich for a \u2018Drive to Survive\u2019 episode is incredibly long,\u201d Rogers said. The Season 8 finale is also 51 minutes, while the opener is 50 minutes.<\/p>\n

As for the number of episodes, Rogers said, \u201cPrevious seasons have naturally felt their strongest at 10 episodes. This season naturally felt strongest at eight episodes. And what we wouldn\u2019t want to do is put out two episodes that we didn\u2019t feel were as strong just to hit the numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back to you, Alex.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s Rank Car Liveries: And have your say about our list<\/p>\n

Madeline and Luke spent the last few weeks evaluating each team\u2019s car color schemes for\u00a0this season, and ranked each\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0As I\u2019ve covered\u00a0in Prime Tire before<\/a>, I love a subjective F1 debate. And this one is following in\u00a0fine tradition<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0The Athletic.<\/p>\n

Ranking all the car liveries has been made slightly more complex in 2026, as the lonnnnng\u00a0launch season<\/a>\u00a0and the first test being held behind closed doors combined to mean we couldn\u2019t compare them properly for a whole month.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s from Red Bull and Racing Bulls revealing their liveries in Detroit\u00a0in mid-January<\/a>\u00a0to the start of the first test in Bahrain two weeks ago. At the Barcelona test before that, many teams opted to run in one-off special liveries and keep their real colors under wraps until they officially launched their 2026 campaigns.<\/p>\n

Really, we shouldn\u2019t have expected anything other than more of the same from Aston Martin and McLaren \u2014 and Luke and Madeline have rightly lambasted the very corporate creations in their\u00a0ranking<\/a>\u00a0as a result.<\/p>\n

I think they were harsh placing Audi last, but that\u2019s the great thing about this debate \u2014 it breeds analysis of another F1 area, and I\u2019m all here for it.<\/p>\n

But what do you reckon?\u00a0Click here<\/a>\u00a0to rank the 11 car liveries\u00a0yourselves\u00a0and we\u2019ll share the results in Friday\u2019s PT.<\/p>\n

Outside the points<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddea Mercedes only provided its\u00a0latest specification of engines<\/a> to its works team during the second Bahrain test, which means customer squads McLaren, Alpine and Williams should gain performance when they finally use it in Australia next week.<\/p>\n

\u274c In the new DTS season, ex-F1 driver Jack Doohan revealed the death threats and other awful abuse he was subjected to before he was replaced at Alpine by Franco Colapinto just six races into the 2025 season. Madeline has the full story\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb Love Prime Tire? Check out The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic\u2019s F1 newsletter. Sign up here to receive Prime Tire directly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-497773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497773","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=497773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}