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.

Happy for Kimi, Lewis and Carlos.

Lewis back where he belongs and Ollie doing an amazing job in 5th.

Brilliant drive from Kimi. 🍾

Brilliant Kimi. & so pleased for Ollie’s drive today

Really pleased for kimi although he looked fairly uncontested for about 50 laps. It was more exciting to watch the ferraris scrapping for 3rd.
Really happy for Bearman and Gasley, and seeing Lewis back on the podium.

Japanese GP is 6am but the weekend the clocks go forward...so effectively 5am! If I have to wake up early and see another OP dns, I might cry!

That was a very happy podium! 😊

Happy for Kimi, he has a bright future, and seems lovely.
Absolutely ecstatic for Lewis. I could cry. Great to see him back on the podium, even better too see him go wheel to wheel with leclerc and come out on top. I know Charles doesn't get on well with Shanghai, but Lewis needed this, and as a massive fan, so did I!!

Lewis, Bono and Kimi on the podium.
Made my mother's day.

Only just finished watching the race. So pleased for Kimi but absolutely over the moon for Lewis. Good race

What a great race, but disaster for Oscar, Lando, Max and the Astons.
Delighted for Kimi and for Lewis.

Such a wonderful and indeed emotional podium today. Regardless of which team or driver(s) you support that was podium was the stuff of legend and will be hard to beat.

I loved that Charles and Lewis were racing each other so hard and openly said afterwards how much they enjoyed it.

I suspect George is quietly gutted but smart enough and enough of a gentleman to keep his mouth shut about how he feels.

Does anyone know why channel 4 weren't broadcasting from the Shanghai circuit? It was from the Williams base in the UK.

Just saw Jonathon Wheatley is leaving audi to be TP at Aston Martin. It came up on a Google feed....which are not always true, anyone else seen the same?

Yes it was confirmed earlier. Been rumored for a while. To allow Adrian Newey to get on the the technical stuff and give up the TP role.

They do that quite a bit for the races that are a long distance from UK. I assume it's because it's cheaper

That is an interesting move. I am not surprised as I’m sure Adrian wants to focus on development of the car.

Agree. It always seemed a bit weird that he took the TP role as he doesn’t seem like the sort of person who would enjoy a TP role. I suspect he wanted ultimate control over the technical side but not all the front-facing stuff so this change makes a lot more sense.

Looks like the mclarens are in the mix in FP1 and 2.....hopefully they can both start (and finish!!) the actual race .....

The fia put out a statement about some changes they were making to qualifying (after feedback from the teams and drivers) ....but i didnt understand any of it (technical stuff) 😂

Morning!

First day of the Easter Break and it feels too early to be up but at least it is light. s

Morning!
Tomorrow is going to be even worse getting up!
(I only saw Q3 this morning, as i needed to be up early-ish anyway, but will be up for the start tomorrow)

Glad the McLarens are in the mix again, will make it more interesting. I think the gap to Mercedes will close after the 5 week break, so the 2nd part of the season will becomes more competitive.

Tomorrow will be a tough wake up.

I really want Kimi to win tomorrow and go into the Trump war break leading the WDC.

That was a fairly average quali. It says a lot about how i feel about George that I would much rather have Kimi on pole.
McLaren disappointing again but let's hope they both finish in the points tomorrow.

I'm already mourning the loss of 2 races, a 6 week gap is a shame when I'm barely back in the groove. At least my garden will benefit 🙂

George can’t stop whining about everything

Is anyone not really feeling it yet this year?

it could be because I’m a Lando fan and also with the rubbish UK race times.

last year I couldn’t get enough even from the start of the year (I did have Abu Dhabi ticket too which may have helped).

But I lived and breathed it last year. Listened to numerous pos casts weekly, watched every FP, Qually etc without fail.

But i’m a bit ‘whatever’ so far this year.

I think hearing that the drivers aren’t keen doesn’t help.

@workingcockerI know what you mean. If it was George complaining that would be one thing. When it’s Max & Lando I take it more seriously.

I also think the gap between the teams will narrow thanks to the break. I’m still not convinced by FIAs changes. Maybe it’s too fundamental a shift.

They all moaned at the last regulation change as well. Remember the Mercedes porpoising.

Some drivers will adapt and some won’t. Hamilton just didn’t get on with the hig ground effect cars.

I can’t take driver moaning too seriously.