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.

Good cos it was bloody awful 😖

I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought it was cringy.

I remember Take that were there, which didnt improve matters and I actually like Take that 🤣

They do, but they don't have any input into the design process of the engine so their cars will not be quite as well integrated with it as the factory cars will be. It's not insurmountable and it's a disadvantage that will diminish as time goes on and they gain experience with the engines, but it is a factor that will help Russell and Antonelli.

Thanks for the new thread @Brazilianadventure . Was a nice surprise to see it this morning.

Looking forward to the new season. I really want Lewis to win an 8th title but don't see it happening unfortunately. It will be interesting to see how 2 extra cars change things.

I can't believe Horner got a cbe for services to Motorsport in new year honours, that's just ridiculous
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/horner-awarded-cbe-in-new-year-honours-list-for-services-to-motorsport.5ZUEZ3U1koa1agjTkDHZu9

Thanks for the new thread!
I'm looking forward to having zbottas back.
Also expecting great things from Williams.

I see Zhou Guanyu has joined Cadillac as a reserve driver. Will Courtenay's switch from Red Bull to McLaren has also become effective, with Red Bull agreeing to release him a few months early from his contract with them.

@Wakemeuuuup the CBE was in 2023

@StarCourt DOH, stupid me not reading dates on articles. Thanks

F1 is dead to me after the way McLaren and the stewards rigged things against Piastri last season. He was robbed. (But I’m not expecting that to be a popular view on a U.K. forum!)

I agree with this and I’m from the UK. I don’t think FIA were against Oscar but I do 1000% believe McLaren wanted Lando to win because it fit their narrative. Zac can’t even hide his disdain for Oscar very well.

@SummerInSun & @SmoothOperatorCarlosSainz after 2021 no one believes the stewards act fairly. F1 history is littered with examples of teams favouring one driver over another.

WRT McLaren I can understand your perspective and in someways McLaren tripped themselves up trying to be absolutely fair to both drivers. I can understand Zac supporting Lando as he stuck with them through the bad times.

I also think Lando upped his game and Oscar in only his 3rd year did have some poor weekends.

I actually disagree with this. I don’t think the stewards rigged things against Piastri. The issue / challenge with the stewards is that it’s usually different stewards at each race (they’re selected from a pool of 20+ which includes those nominated by the local national sporting authority as well as former drivers) so their view of an incident/breach and their interpretation of the rules and the related penalties handed out can vary significantly and be completely inconsistent.

And of course ultimately the FIA Director has the overall decision making power and we know for sure after AD 2021 how shambolic rigged that can be.

I still haven’t got over AD2021

Silverstone - Norris’s home race - Piastri gets a penalty for going slightly off track in a place where no one has ever gotten a penalty for going off track, and rather than the standard 5 second penalty that would have left him in front of Norris, gets a 10 second penalty. Totally robbed.

And as for McLaren asking Piastri to give Norris a place back when the crew stuffed up a pit stop, that’s unheard of.

I’m keen. When does the season start?

He got the 10 sec penalty for excessively harsh braking behind the safety car, i thought ?(but both this and the 10 sec penalty in Brazil, were considered harsh by some commentators, and other drivers..) but he did have some poor races as well. Lando had a dnf for engine failure at one race..
I was gutted for Oscar at Qatar, but both drivers lost points there, and at Las Vegas, meaning MV was back into contention. Without those errors, (from the team not the drivers) Lando would potentially have won the WDC in Qatar.

Im pretty sure they had also swapped positions in a previous race (in 2024) which favoured Oscar.

Agree. Oscar’s penalty at Silverstone was for erratic braking behind the safety car (which is a breach of rule 55.15 and 10 seconds is the standard penalty for it unless the stewards agree there are mitigating circumstances). And even after this happening at Silverstone, Oscar was still leading the WDC so it was his championship to lose still…..

What about Ferrari asking Ruben’s to gift the win to Michael when Ruben had legitimately beaten him on track?

Sorry, but this is wrong on pretty much every count. Piastri's penalty at Silverstone was for behaving erratically behind the safety car: A drive through is the standard penalty for that offence so he actually got off pretty lightly.

As for the Monza pit stop incident, you are completely ignoring that Norris aided Piastri by allowing McLaren to pit him first in order to keep OP in front of Leclerc. Had Norris pitted first, as he was entitled to do, then he would have come out in 2nd even with a slow stop and Piastri likely would have been 4th instead of 3rd. Seems fair enough for McLaren to tell Piastri to give that place back, given that he only had it through Norris' help in the first place.

Just got tickets to see Zak Brown and Lando, for me and DS, at Hammersmith Apollo next month.
Zak was unbearable on team radio in Abu Dhabi, but I think (hope) hes more tolerable in interviews! And we want to see Lando. Ideally OP would be there too, but understand why he isnt!

Dd looked at this but the cost and times of travel are not realistic, especially as she has a 9am lecture in the north West the next morning.

I looked at it too but just thought Hammersmith on a Sun night in February…..cold, dark, will require leaving the house…so that’s a no from me. 😂 I’d have dragged myself out for Lewis and Fred.

It would be over 200 miles for Dd.

Joining too. Looking forward to the new season