F1 2026 - Watchalong Thread

[Brazilianadventure]

Happy New Year.

This is going to be an interesting year with the regulation change.

Rumours are Mercedes and RB engines are exploiting a loophole and so may have the most powerful engines.

AM will have a car with significant input from Adrian Newey.

Sauber becomes Audi and we have an 11th team, Cadillac.

Christian Horner seems very keen to get back into F1, preferably Alpine with Flávio - they deserve each other.

There is closed door testing in Barcelona then open testing from 11 February at Sakhir.

Edited for typo and thread title.

Wasn’t able to watch live (needed my sleep before a long haul flight) but caught the replay without spoilers. Have been watching in Italy but through Singapore Bein Sports which I subscribed to on my stopover. Surprisingly it’s been working the whole time with a VPN. Will be in Singapore for the race which be at 2.30pm Singapore time so much more civilised 🙂

George and Toto are quiet the smug pair 🤣

Well done to Hadjar.

Really pleased for Hadjsr and Arvid.

Interesting first quali. Testing suggested the Mercs would be fast. You always have to wonder where Max would have been.
Great show from the RBs and Hadjar.
Disappointing for McLaren and Williams.

So thrilled for Isack, he deserves to succeed I think. Rather disappointed about Max but that’s the way it goes sometimes I guess. Maybe he’ll do another of his zero to hero arcs over the course of the race, I’ll live in hope!
I don’t think I could bear it if Russell got WDC. He’s just unbearable to me 😂

Watching now, but need to go out imminently....was there any penalty to Mercedes for the parts that fell off Kimis car, and caused the red flag? (Q3)

Now I like George. He’s funny & I get his personality, it reminds me of aspects of my own family.

Watching on poor persons channel 4 now 😁. Really pleased to see Lewis had a decent session.

Yes - a fine for the team of €7,500.

The 3 drivers who did not set qualifying times (Max, Carlos, Lance) will be allowed to start the race.

7.5k is small change in F1!

oh, i completely agree - a fine of that size is absolutely pointless!

Another poor person here watching on C4. Well done to Mercedes. Delighted for Hadjar. Amazing for Lindblad

Im up and watching, tried to sleep beforehand so I can watch everything then go about my day as normal. We will see

Poor Oscar!

I am loving these new cars

Amazing start! Definitely more overtakes.

Charles v George love

How are the Ferrari fans here doing?

I'm a Hamilton rather than Ferrari fan, and mixed.
Obviously the car is good, (though not Mercedes good) but not pitting under the safety car????? I get that they would be unlikely to beat the Mercs but still.. I'll be interested to see if Hamilton starts to want to make more of his own calls going forward (telling them not to pit him on the same lap as Leclerc), as he questioned why they weren't pitting.
Overall positive though. Fingers crossed they can close the gap to Mercedes over the next 4/5 races.

Great race, well worth getting up for.

They should have at least split the strategy. I’m not even a Ferrari fan but it was just so frustrating to watch. Merc with their pace was always going to be able to be conservative with their tyre wear at the end,

Fantastic start for all the Brits being top 8. Lewis is in touching distance of that podium now.

Ferrari need to sort their strategy out. It must be so frustrating to be Charles and Lewis.

What a great race. 5 Brits in the top 8!
Great start for Ferrari. McLaren need to find some omph from somewhere. Gutted for Hadjar.
Really pleased with the new cars/regs so far 😀

It wouldn’t be Ferrari without shambolic strategy decisions. It was masked last year because their car was so bad that strategy didn’t matter but I suspect there are going to be more classic Lewis radio comments this year along the lines of “and have a cup of tea while you’re at it”.

...ive just watched the highlights. Gutted for Oscar - at his home race. Agree the Ferrari not pitting under a safety car seemed bonkers (twice!!) But good to see them both at the sharp end of the race. The first few cat and mouse laps with Charles and George were really exciting. It will be interesting to see how the ferrari start pans out on tracks where its harder to overtake.
I was surprised how spread out they were, Lando was 50+ seconds behind.

Ive deliberately not checked social media or news today, so it was a surprise.