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.

No it’s the team not Kimi. To be fair Kimi was on a faster strategy and other teams have done the same.

I always think about Ruben’s and Michael when Michael was already miles ahead in 5he Championship.

That’s a beautiful trophy

I think Kimi would have overtaken. But not swapping would have held Lewis off for longer.

if he’d have been closer to Lando the swop would have been understandable. But there was no way that he was going to catch Lando.

I don’t think it was truly about catching Lando I think it was about Kimi taking more points from George.

Yes, I agree. They are favouring Kimi getting more points.

The bottom line for every team is 1. WCC = £££ 2. WDC = PR

Which driver wins WDC is less important. Merc were winners from 2014 to 2021 (WCC). Kimi is miles ahead in the points making sense to prioritise him gaining points. Kimi is so young a WDC in his second year is fantastic PR.

I really feel for George but Kimi has delivered and seems unstoppable.

Currently I am pissed off with Ferrari, they should have told Charles to move over and not hold up Lewis as they were on different strategies. F1 is about milliseconds and the 2 or 3 seconds behind Charles cost Lewis but also Charles.

Everyone stayed that we could see. It did kill the Dutch vibe a bit, but the Hulk seems to be a strong second in their hearts.

Great day, delighted for Lando, can't see Kimi not winning the WDC now.
Red Bull/VCARB must be really pleased with their 3 remaining drivers.

Definitely.

I feel for Yuki, but like a lot of good drivers sadly there are just not enough seats.

I’m glad for Zandvoort as they deserved a full crowd for the whole race as it was their last for now.

Still lots of noise from my grandstand so I don’t think the vibe was damped too much. It was a very fun race to watch though so confusing of who had lapped who as it is so short.

Lando is now 24 points behind Russell and has a really good chance to finish P2 in WDC.

Are F1 fans the worst? Leclerc receiving all this abuse for not moving over to let Lewis past. The team never asked him to! They were going to pit him which he felt would compromise his own race but had he been told to let Lewis past, he may well have

I agree it was the teams fault for not asking Charles to let Lewis through. For me it was the dive on Lewis when Lewis was trying to overtake George after the VSC - I said on here at the time it fucked Lewis’ attempt as he suddenly had to defend.

The F1 threads on social media are absolutely vile and F1 community seems to change like the wind

A lot of social media F1 "fans" seem unhinged, and I notice a lot of homophobic comments as well

Lando has announced his own documentary which will be released next year.

Ferrari are playing tribute to Michael at Monza. Lewis is wearing a race suit with 7 stars to represent Michael’s 7 WDC but ironically also his own.

I can’t wait to see the livery on the car in the Monza sun.

Sadly I think SM generally just attracts the worst of people. DH and DS are very into our local football team and some of the comments are horrific.
You only have to look at some of the current threads on Active (mostly about a certain American actress/dutchess) to see how vile some people can be about someone they know nothing about, apart from what the press tells them.

You only have to look at the online abuse the Drivers girlfriends etc. get to know Social Media is toxic.

A real shame is the abuse that particularly Argentinian fans have sent to the Zandvoort stewards, who are volunteers, over Franco's penalty, which they'd actually been lenient on and given him a drive through rather than the 10 sec stop and go that the rulebook says they can give. Whatever you think about the stewards, they are ultimately volunteers that help allow the sport to run, and they were more than fair to him (and Arvid for that matter) during the race with the mitigating circumstances.

Argentinina fans are a law unto themselves in several sports. It is unacceptable.

A couple of years ago in Indycar they sent horrific abuse to Pourchaire and Ilott, including death threats. Canapino, their driver, then said that he didn't believe it was his fans responsible for it, even though they clearly were, but his manager was then found liking abusive messages to Pourchaire. Canapino told Pourchaire to "learn to live with hate messages". The whole saga led to McLaren terminating their technical partnership with JHR and Canapino being replaced. With how Colapinto's fans acted towards Doohan, Ocon and now the FIA stewards, even with his contract extension I think he's on shaky enough ground with FOM and the FIA for similar to happen to him.

I am a Lewis fan and DH gifted me a trip to the F1 in Monza as he felt this was Lewis’s best chance to win in Monza …….. how I wish for this to be true!!!!

Went to Monza last year and whilst I enjoyed the Grand Prix, as with the majority of Grand Prix, getting to Monza and back is a real pain. However if you are a Ferrari fan (I am a Lewis fan, not so much Ferrari due to sheer frustration) - it is an incredible place to be

Lucky you @Truetoself Ferrari are doing a tribute to Michael Schumacher at Monza, from the bits I have seen it should be amazing.

That's the one thing I was disappointed in at Zandvoort, there was very little to do.
I have only been to Silverstone before and there were loads of exhibitions and activities.
My parents went to Barcelona, Valencia, Silverstone and even Brands Hatch over the years and always seemed to have loads of entertainment.

More contract extensions - Lando staying at McLaren until 2030 and Lewis at Ferrari until 2028.

Lewis staying does block Ollie getting a Ferrari seat for several more years.