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| Written by Keith Collantine
Drivers reported their new cars for the 2026 Formula 1 season feel very different after the first day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Seven teams joined the track as the five-day test began on Monday. F1 officially refers to the test as a “shakedown”, though most teams conducted shakedown runs of their new cars in filming days prior to this week’s running.
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Pre-season testing has begun earlier and will last longer than usual this year as teams get to grips with the first cars they have designed for F1’s new rules. These include overhauled power units, simplified under-body aerodynamics and moveable front and rear wings.
Valtteri Bottas, who is returning to F1 with Cadillac this year, said there is “definitely a big difference to before.”
“The cars handle different, you have a bit less load especially in the high-speed corners,” he told the official F1 channel. With the PU [power unit], you have so much more torque out of the corners, but then you have the battery to manage.”
The previous generation of cars relied heavily on shaped floors to produce a ‘ground effect’ and generate more downforce. However drivers often complained this created unpredictability in the cars’ handling.
New Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar said this trait in the cars’ handling has improved.
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“There’s definitely a lot less load in general,” he said, “and it’s a bit more predictable compared to the previous generation of cars. They are more simple, it’s easier to play around with them.
“Also on the PU side there’s a lot more options for the driver to play with. I already started to work on it today so that was very interesting.”
Mercedes split their first day of running between George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Russell said he was impressed by the straight-line performance of the new cars.
“The amount of power they give is pretty impressive,” he said. “For all the cars I was watching today with all the different power units, it’s probably the quickest I’ve ever seen an F1 car pass here in Barcelona, so that was pretty exciting to see.”
The new rules have also reduced the dimensions of the cars and specified a lower minimum weight limit. “The cars do generally feel like you feel it being smaller,” said Russell. “You can feel that weight reduction compared to previous years. So I think from that aspect as well, it’s gone in a good direction.”
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- Aston Martin to miss at least one day of running as seven teams begin testing
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- First pictures: Red Bull reveals its new RB22 F1 car for 2026
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- Williams confirms it will miss first test of 2026 next week
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Andy (@andycz)
27th January 2026, 10:31
And they also look much better. Nimbler. I hope the racing will be fun this year.
tielemst
27th January 2026, 10:45
Minus 20 cm in length and 10 cm in width doesn’t sound like much, but could make a lot of difference, especially around tracks like Monaco and Singapore. Due to safety concerns there might be not a whole lot more possible but every centimeter reduction is welcome.
Cranberry
27th January 2026, 11:16
There is still so much empty floor visible from the top-down view it is ridiculous! Safety concerns aren’t even close to being compromised by the shrinking size.
3-year anniversary the cars MUST shrink another 20cm and10 cm, then again at the 6-year anniversary.
10 year anniversary should have an optional +5cm reduction in width.
Give these silly engineers a challenge! Make F1 Cars Swelte Again!
Zxc
27th January 2026, 12:39
Dude, what is wrong with you? Why do you insinst on disgustingly stupid looking F1 cars?!? Do you hate racing cars?
F1 cars were 215cm wide until 1993 and then they were narrowed to 200cm, except for the awful 1998-2016 period when they were 180cm narrow and looked lik F3 cars.
Racing cars are and have to be: wide and short.
Just look at the world.
Car | width | wheelbase:
Lamborghini Diablo | 204 | 265
Lambo. Aventador | 203 | 270
Ferrari Enzo | 204 | 265
Ferrari LaFerrari | 204 | 265
Koenigsegg Agera | 200 | 266
Pagani Huayra | 204 | 280
Bugatti Veyron | 200 | 271
Porsche 956 (Group C) | 200 | 265
Jaguar XJR-9 (Group C) | 200 | 278
Porsche 962 (Group C) | 200 | 277
Lola T90/00 (IndyCar) — 203 | 304
Reynard 97I (IndyCar) | 200 | 297
Brabham BT52 (1983) | 210 | 269
McLaren MP4/3 (1987) | 212 | 280
Williams FW11 (1986) | 212 | 278
Ferrari F1-90 (1990) | 214 | 286
McLaren MP4/6 (1991) | 214 | 291
Williams FW14 (1991) | 214 | 289
McLaren MP4/8 (1993) | 200 | 290
Williams FW15C (1993) | 200 | 292
200cm of width should be the minimum width for an F1 car. The current 190cm is barely acceptable. Why on earth would you want to make them even narrower?? Too look stupider?
The length is the problem. The wheelbase is now 340cm. Last year’s F1 cars where a METER longer than a Group C Porsche 956. This year’s F1 cars are still half a meter too long compared to the 80s and 90s. That’s the problem to fix.
Cranberry
27th January 2026, 13:30
Comparing F1 cars to some of the widest “spOrTs CaRs” on the road, that abuse the width of the truck beds they get pampered to the “racetrack”, is ridiculous.
With such ridiculously wide F1 cars these racing drivers, whose talents are allegedly worth millions or coin per season, need only to park their car in the middle of the race track to make overtaking considerably harder.
IMO the amount of floor visible from the top-down is a fantastic indicator as to the engineering challenge the packaging of internals has been for the designers. That is why I say they are not even close to sacrificing safety by making the cars smaller.
Aesthetics are all relative, length and width need to be in a correct proportion. As the cars get shorter, which I think we both agree they MUST, it is only reasonable they also get narrower…. or do you want the cars to be shorter than they are wide? I dare say the vast majority of people would not appreciate such girthy aesthetics as much as you.
faulty (@faulty)
27th January 2026, 16:28
This is intended as a show of appreciation to Mr. Cranberry’s post.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
27th January 2026, 11:03
Weird isnt it. I was underwhelmed with the weight and dimension cutting but, length wise particularly, they look much closer to the 99-05 ideal. Just need some more NOIZE
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
27th January 2026, 19:21
@andycz
And they also look much better.
I don’t fully agree as I absolutely hate that they have gone back to the raised noses.
I have always felt that the low noses just looked so much better as the front wing just flows better and actually look like they are part of the overall design of the cars rather than something hung off the bottom of the nose after the fact.
I also maintain that the 2m width cars just looked better overall, Hated the narrow track cars used from 1998-2016 & while these 1.9m cars don’t look as bad as those I still do prefer the 2m wide cars used before 1998 & from 2017-2025.
I do like that the main part of the front wings are narrower but then they have gone and ruined that plus point by adding the awful looking endplate flaps that are awkwardly sticking out the side of them.
Also not fond of the barge board type things sticking off the front edge of the side pods, They just look so awkward and out of place aesthetically with the rest of the car. And also not fond that shark fins are kinda back, They aren’t as bad as what we’ve seen in the past but they still don’t look especially good.
I have just always liked cars where the bodywork and overall shape flows more and have never really liked car designs where you have a lot of things that just look like they have been stuck on and are awkwardly hanging off or sticking out in one direction or other.
And I also always prefer rulesets that allow cars to look very different so how restrictive modern F1 rules are resulting in cars looking more similar than i’d like is also something i’m just not fond of at all.
sinewave (@sinewave)
27th January 2026, 10:53
I am impressed by George’s observation. Shaving 30 kg off an 800 kg car is equal to just 3.75% of weight loss. And he still feels it, despite numerous other changes.
Jogo
27th January 2026, 11:16
Drivers have highly developed sensory perceptions, but it’s actually not that small a deal: if you’re sensitive enough, you can definitely feel the presence or absence of an extra 60 kg (like a passenger or luggage) in a standard 1,600 kg car
Alex De (@alexde)
27th January 2026, 19:22
Yep. +1
albo94
27th January 2026, 11:06
The cars look more proportionate, although I loved the two-metre width.
Let’s hope they continue to reduce the weight next seasons.
Retep
27th January 2026, 12:19
With the cost cap and safety tests, I wonder why there is a need for a minimum weight limit.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
27th January 2026, 13:11
because weight is laptime which im sure you know but it also stops the engineers looking to compromise areas that pass safety but are lighter and maybe more brittle. The safety tests are not fool proof.
Retep
27th January 2026, 14:23
If the engineers can get below the minimum weight while still meeting the FIA safety requirements they will do that anyway, as that will give them the option to put additional mass where it would be most beneficial for weight distribution.
Less weight means also more agile handling and less energy to dissipate in case of a crash.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
27th January 2026, 17:54
Its still weight. No one carries ballast for fun
Jere (@jerejj)
27th January 2026, 11:11
Audi’s rear wing configuration in straight-line mode looks interesting.
André
27th January 2026, 13:47
In short, the 2009-2016 cars were fine.
Andy (@andycz)
27th January 2026, 14:36
Except that horrible front wing looking like plowshare. 2026 FW looks much better and more proportional.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
27th January 2026, 14:41
I think the race engineer’s role will be much more important this year in terms of choosing settings and real-time switches. You almost need a fighter jet pilot in there able to communicate options to the driver real-time. Actually, a team should be doing that and sharing that with the engineer in some fast method (9 choices), one lighting up.
baasbas
27th January 2026, 15:36
Quicker on straights, slower in corners,..
Sounds great. Now all we need is worse brakes
cdavman (@cdavman)
27th January 2026, 18:29
I’m torn on this one.
I want Formula 1 to be more exciting, so this seems like a great change for the benefit of the racing.
On the flipside, I also love the technical side of F1. The standout part of that for me was their cornering speed. The fact that no other motorsport could touch them in that regard. It’s (relatively) easy to make something go quick in a straight line. It’s much more difficult to make something quick round the corners. That was what differentiated Formula 1 from everything else.
Ah well, can’t have it all…
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
27th January 2026, 19:30
@cdavman
The standout part of that for me was their cornering speed.
Same.
When standing trackside especially watching them through a medium/high speed corners as well as how incredible the braking performance is was always what really wowed you more than anything else.
The acceleration & top speeds were never really something that were all that impressive when compared to other top-ish level categories. I mean Indycars for instance are equally as impressive in that regard but are noticeably less so when it comes to braking/cornering. And TBH even something like F2 is actually not miles off F1 in terms of the acceleration or top speed on some circuits and it’s again always the cornering that really set F1 above them.
Pretty much everyone I have ever known that fell in love with F1 did so because they were wowed by the performance & technical aspect of the car and I honestly think that losing or reducing that element too much would hurt more than been able to produce a million passes a race would help as if you go too far your losing what sets F1 above other categories.
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