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.

I can't do the maths but there must be chance Kimi can have the championship in the bag before he turns 20 at the end of August. I think that would mean Lewis has to have a crappy run though?

@Pricesandvices you my be right.

Alpine are appealing.

and crucially Pierre’s penalty was applied after the race so it CAN be rescinded unlike penalties served during the race.

I do hope Alpine are successful.

Two pieces of news SkyF1 are reporting RB have the fastest engines. This means Merc (2% behind) get 1 upgrade this year but Ferrari, Audi and Honda get 2 upgrades (4% behind). The same applies to 2027.

Poor Max inadvertently showed the world via the live feed of the drivers parade where he and Charles now live. I hope they are left in peace.

Im in 2 minds regarding PG penalty, because would that be fair to the others who did serve their penalty at the time, and it impacted their result (especially GR who had the drive through penalty)
The speeding in the pit lane caught a lot of drivers out so it could be deemed unfair if his was rescinded but the others - because they were served at the time - weren't?

I saw somewhere that (if I understood correctly) the pit lane was either longer, or started in a different place to accommodate the new team, this year, so the parameters where they measured the speed from were different. The tolerances were extremely harsh though I think one of PGs speeds was 0.01 over the limit

Kim K helped herself to Kimi's towel off a pedestal clarly marked with a number 1 on it. Who does she think she is?

😲 What did she even need a towel for??

To wipe her brow by the look of the video.

As well as her snubbing Martin Brundle did you see the video of her and her entourage barging Michael Mcintyre out of the way mid interview.

I have never watched any Kardashian shite, but they seem to have few redeeming features.
I have no idea what Lewis is doing with KK.

Apparently checo had been complaining (since lap 9!) several times during the race over team radio about the state of the track on the last corner. There was also a radio message from OP talking about it - even though Zak said he hadnt mentioned it
They are making a decision/reviewing PG penalty tomorrow afternoon.

Alpine's right of review is proceeding "FOM, as Official Timekeeping Supplier to the Competition, provided evidence that the distance used in calculating the F1 Official Timing (and hence the pit lane speed) was inaccurate and overestimated the speed of Car 10"

Dd and I worked out what the standings woud have been had none of the speeding penalties been imposed and George will have been right royally shafted if it shown to be inaccurate.

@Comefromaway you are right if they find in Gasley’s favour then George will rightly be furious.

Race week again - yay.

I imagine there will be a lot of chat about RB having the best ICE - I bet that surprised RB and Max.

Because others served their penalties they can't reinstate Pierre's place surely? Even if the sensors were wrong.

Thats what I thought?
They cant surely rescind his but not others....
It would be particularly harsh to George and Hadjar who might lose his podium?

But how were all the other drivers aware (of their penalties) and not PG? Surely part of the blame lies with Alpine themselves for not keeping him informed at the time?

You can choose not to serve it during the race if you have already made your mandatory pit stop, it is then applied after the race (I think) it's bad they didn't tell him until he thought he had finished on the podium

Gasly has been reinstated

Yes, the reason he didn't serve it during the race was because he had already made his pit stop when it was imposed.

This is SO unfair to the others, especially George who lost a third place and vital points.

Oscar would have stayed in 4th place regardless.

George would still have been third even with his 5 sec penalty if his team had served it correctly.

Can any of the other teams also appeal, in light of that, or has the time frame for appeals passed? It would make no odds to Lewis, but agree its really unfortunate for George

I’m happy for PG tho the whole issue is embarrassing for the sport. And Alpine were the only team who could appeal. This isn’t the best way to make Monaco interesting 🤨

I don't think they can because the penalties were served. In George's case it is even more complicated as it is not justadding on the 5 seconds, but calculating the time he lost from the drive through. (We estimate it at about 20 secs lost)

So Gasly has had his penalty withdrawn and been reinstated to 3rd place. Although I am happy for him it really does not seem fair on the other drivers who received penalties and served them.

Also how does it take 5 days to make that decision?

Also how does it take 5 days to make that decision?

It was a two stage process

Alpine first put in a right of review which they did after collecting their data and they had to show they had significant new information. This was accepted earlier in the week and so the hearing happened yesterday.

McLaren are apparently appealing this decision.

Just saw that McLaren are also appealing. OP has already gone on record saying the decision was unfair so I’m not surprised.