Red Bull finalised its 2026 driver line-up and plans to announce it on Tuesday ahead of the Abu Dhabi finale. The decision was made with input from Laurent Mekies, Helmut Marko and CEO Oliver Mintzlaff; management said the timing was chosen to avoid distracting Max Verstappen during the title run‑in and to allow any driver who misses out a proper send‑off in Abu Dhabi. Mekies emphasised that anyone racing in Abu Dhabi must be able to support Verstappen and praised Yuki Tsunoda’s recent pace as the team weighed its options.

The core decision promotes Isack Hadjar into the senior Red Bull seat alongside Max Verstappen, creating a vacancy at sister team Racing Bulls that is set to be filled by 18‑year‑old FIA Formula 2 (F2) race winner Arvid Lindblad. The other Racing Bulls seat is contested between Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda; reports said a high‑level meeting favoured retaining Lawson to partner Lindblad, while Tsunoda faces alternatives including a move to Racing Bulls, a reserve role, or release.

The Qatar Grand Prix served as a final audition: Hadjar signalled he knew his future, Lawson finished ahead of Tsunoda and impressed team figures, and Tsunoda showed flashes of speed in the sprint despite an otherwise difficult season (15th in the standings with 33 points). The announced structure settles a key piece of Red Bull’s driver programme, reshuffles its junior pathway and has immediate implications for driver careers and partner‑team line‑ups in 2026. The Tuesday announcement is reported to finalise those placements and bring clarity after one of the off‑season’s most closely watched decisions.

Ferrari announced it is moving Riccardo Adami off Lewis Hamilton’s car and appointing him manager of Ferrari’s Driver Academy and of its test and previous cars. Ferrari said it will use Adami’s trackside experience to help develop drivers and to manage the team’s test and previous cars, framing the change as an internal reallocation rather than a technical shake-up. Adami had been Hamilton’s race engineer throughout last season and previously worked with Carlos Sainz Jr. and Sebastian Vettel; Ferrari publicly thanked him for his commitment.

The reassignment follows a season in which Hamilton underperformed relative to expectations and drew scrutiny after several awkward radio exchanges, though he publicly defended his working relationship with Adami. Ferrari acknowledged communications between the pair had sometimes been strained, citing their final radio exchange at the Yas Marina finale — where Hamilton, who finished P8, said, “Been a long season, guys. Grazie a tutti.” — and said there was room for improvement. Ferrari confirmed Hamilton will have a new race engineer for the upcoming season, but has not yet named a successor. The announcement came just over a week before the pre-season test in Barcelona and a week before Ferrari’s new-car launch, creating a tight timeline to appoint a replacement; the team said a decision is needed before on-track activity begins. Ferrari emphasised organisational continuity and positioned the move as a way to strengthen its performance culture and talent pipeline without signalling immediate changes to the car’s technical programme.

Alpine completed the A526’s first on‑track shakedown at a wet Silverstone. Pierre Gasly drove laps in heavy rain as the team ran system checks and packaging validation rather than performance runs. The filming day was limited to 200 km, giving Alpine early mileage ahead of formal testing. The outing, attended by figures including Flavio Briatore and Franco Colapinto, made Alpine the fourth team to put a 2026 car on track after Audi, Cadillac, and Racing Bulls.

Video and close-up photos showed the car in a livery similar to 2025 and revealed several visual and aerodynamic changes versus the A525. Noticeably, the reconfigured rear fin behind the airbox, removed wheel brows, revised front‑wing endplates, and covered cooling vents above the sidepods. Alpine did not officially confirm the car’s identity.

Separately, Alpine ran a TPC session in Barcelona using its 2025 car as a final shake‑down. Gasly, Franco Colapinto, and reserve driver Paul Aron shared running in a short “wake‑up” outing. The team said the session was preparatory for the closed‑door five‑day pre‑season test in Barcelona, scheduled for Jan 26–30. With teams limited to three testing days each, Alpine portrayed the TPC run and the Silverstone filming as complementary steps to validate systems and power‑unit packaging ahead of the full test programme.

Alpine is scheduled to unveil the A526 livery on Jan 23, the same day Ferrari plans its reveal.

The shakedown was Alpine’s first running with Mercedes power units after parent company Renault ended its in‑house works programme, formally making Alpine a Mercedes customer for 2026. The team is targeting a rebound from a difficult 2025 campaign: it finished last in the constructors’ standings with 22 points after halting A525 development in early June to focus on the 2026 regulations. Alpine ended the year 58 points behind ninth‑placed Sauber (now competing as Audi). Gasly said he is focused on pure pace and has been working over the winter to find any advantage.

Audi has urged the FIA to clarify how Formula 1 (F1) will police the new 16:1 compression‑ratio cap after claims rivals can exploit thermal expansion in conrods and other components. Reports suggest that some vehicles on‑track operating‑temperature compression could exceed the static ambient checks used for enforcement. Teams estimate that an undetected increase could be worth roughly 10–15 bhp (about 0.3–0.4s per lap).

The rules set a 16:1 limit measured in ambient conditions after a reduction from 18:1, and critics say the ban on measuring compression during an engine’s working cycle creates an enforceability gap that teams could exploit.

Audi COO Mattia Binotto raised the issue publicly at the team’s livery launch, and Audi, Ferrari, and Honda have written to the FIA. Audi technical director James Key has urged robust enforcement and likened the dispute to the 2009 double‑diffuser row.

Red Bull Powertrains director Ben Hodgkinson dismissed the concern as “a lot of noise about nothing,” saying his team has pushed to the limit of the rules. Mercedes also downplayed any impropriety, while executives at Ferrari and Honda have voiced reservations.

The FIA says it currently has no evidence of wrongdoing, points to the 2026 engine rules and the ADUO performance‑balancing framework, and says the matter is being addressed through technical forums. Binotto said he did not expect an immediate rule change and noted that race protests require demonstrable evidence of a specific breach.

A meeting of the five 2026 power‑unit suppliers and manufacturers is scheduled for Thursday, January 22, to discuss developing a real‑time methodology for measuring compression ratio and how on‑track compression should be assessed. Teams stress that meaningful enforcement is essential because power‑unit homologation freezes designs for the season, and any unchecked advantage could become effectively unassailable.

The dispute, therefore, centers on the interpretation and enforceability of the compression rules; the outcomes of the supplier and manufacturer talks, and the FIA’s ongoing technical work. These factors will determine whether measurement protocols or regulatory language must change.

Former driver Ralf Schumacher warned that Ferrari’s reported plan to pursue separate development concepts for Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc would be “a disaster” and risk undermining the team. Schumacher and team principal Fred Vasseur have both pointed to a split over setup demand: Hamilton favors rear stability versus Leclerc preferring a snappier, more responsive front end.

Ferrari halted work on last season’s SF‑25 to concentrate resources on the 2026 project. After that decision, the team fell from second to fourth in the Constructors’ standings during the final eight races, scoring less than half the points of championship winners McLaren in that run-in — a drop that increases pressure to get the SF‑26’s concept right before it reaches the track.

Ferrari plans a January 23 launch in Maranello, with a Fiorano shakedown and final assembly the day before the reveal. The launch week has drawn extra scrutiny because Mercedes will reveal its car on January 22 and Red Bull has already shown its livery; there were reports Ferrari considered delaying its unveiling.

Vasseur says the team will run a basic “Spec A” configuration in the closed Barcelona test — a fundamental setup focused on mileage and reliability — and postpone performance-focused upgrades to later tests, an approach he expects some rivals to adopt. Early public on-track comparisons will come at the Bahrain tests in February, where pace and reliability will be assessed under race-like conditions.

Concerns about an alleged horsepower shortfall have intensified, with reports that the deficit could leave Ferrari in danger of missing Q3 at the Australian GP. The preseason narrative now blends technical (the driver-setup split), strategic (prioritising reliability and development focus), and regulatory elements (reports of a possible protest over an alleged Mercedes engine “loophole”). The opening tests and first races will be pivotal in determining whether Ferrari can reconcile driver demands and close the gap to its rivals.

Racing Bulls ran their new VCARB03 on track at Imola on a limited demonstration/filming day. The team completed a short, wet-weather shakedown of roughly 15 km (three laps under Demonstration Event rules), running full-wet demonstration tyres; Liam Lawson was reported to have driven while rookie Arvid Lindblad observed. Morning teething issues were reported, and photographers quickly published the first images and spy shots of the actual race chassis following last week’s Detroit livery reveal that used showcars. The chassis name VCARB03 reflects the team’s Visa and Cash App sponsorship, and the outing also marked the first real-world appearance of the new Red Bull Powertrains–Ford engine.

Engineers used the Imola session for system checks, installation procedures, and initial data collection rather than any performance evaluation, and the team released few technical or lap-time details. Published images highlighted several styling and packaging features — a trapezoidal airbox, a nose that dives close to the front wing, narrow sidepod inlets, and pushrod front and rear suspension — which Racing Bulls said would carry forward to the Barcelona tests.

Limited filming rules constrained mileage and compound choices, so the focus was on reliability, installation checks, and producing promotional material rather than setup work. The team planned to return to Imola the following day for a longer promotional/filming session that could total about 200 km, with Lawson and Lindblad expected to share driving duties to build early mileage. The Imola outings were presented as a prelude to the official Barcelona pre-season test window, Jan. 26–30, and further preparation ahead of the competitive season.

Team boss Alan Permane has warned of frenetic development early in the new rules cycle; Racing Bulls is balancing an aggressive update plan with parts-production timelines as it moves from these demonstration runs into full testing and race preparation after finishing sixth in last season’s Constructors’ Championship.

Mercedes confirmed that long-serving director of car design John Owen has resigned and will depart the team over the course of the 2026 season. He will remain with Mercedes to support sign-off on the 2026 W17 and to hand over responsibilities before beginning a period of gardening leave later in the year; Owen has said he plans to take a break from F1 after the transition. The team described the exit as an orderly, planned transition aimed at preserving continuity on the 2026 programme.

Owen’s motorsport career began in the early 2000s at Reynard and Sauber before he joined the Brackley operation in 2007, later serving as principal aerodynamicist on Brawn GP’s 2009 title-winning campaign. Over his time at Brackley, he led the design of 17 F1 cars, including the recently completed W17, and was a central figure in Mercedes’ dominance through the hybrid era — notably the constructors’ run from 2014–21 and multiple drivers’ championships. Team statements thanked him for his long service and highlighted the cultural and technical role he played in the Silver Arrows’ success.

To ensure an internal, phased handover, Mercedes has promoted engineering director Giacomo Tortora to take on the director of car design duties while deputy technical director Simone Resta will oversee the wider design group, with Tortora reporting to Resta during the transition. The restructuring is presented as intended to maintain technical momentum on the 2026 car and provide continuity of leadership. Mercedes said the vacancy will be filled from within and that the handover will be managed across the season to protect ongoing development work while Owen moves toward gardening leave later in the year.

Honda and Aston Martin jointly unveiled the RA626H in a livestream and a Tokyo event. Honda presented it as its first power unit purpose-built for the 2026 technical regulations, highlighting a near 50/50 split between internal-combustion and electric power, a substantially larger battery pack, and expanded control electronics.

Honda deliberately limited visual disclosure — publishing photos from a single angle and blurring the lower side of the assembly — leaving integration details such as MGU‑K (kinetic) mounting, packaging, routing, and cooling choices hidden. Reporting suggests the design appears to abandon the MGU‑H (heat-recovery), though Honda did not explicitly confirm that.

The launch formalised a works partnership that has been in development since early 2023 and follows Honda’s winding down of its Red Bull supply relationship. Sources differ on the exact timing; this summary follows reporting that the supply relationship wound down in 2025. Aston Martin is confirmed as Honda’s sole customer for 2026 and will effectively operate as a works team, with Honda collaborating on the programme with Aramco and Valvoline.

Aston Martin boosted its technical leadership by appointing Adrian Newey to direct the technical programme; executive chairman Lawrence Stroll acknowledged the challenges the team faces preparing for the new hybrid era.

Both partners framed the RA626H as the competitive foundation for 2026 and used the livestream to outline ambitions and a clear on-track timetable. Aston Martin will carry out a five-day, behind-closed-doors test of the AMR26 at Circuit de Catalunya beginning January 26, hold an official car unveiling on February 9, run shakedowns in Bahrain on February 11–13 and 18–20, and start the season at the Australian Grand Prix on March 8.

Ferrari named WHOOP its official health and fitness wearable partner and will issue WHOOP devices to drivers and support staff to monitor sleep, stress, and recovery across the 24-round F1 season. WHOOP branding will appear on the car and driver apparel. Ferrari’s medical staff will integrate with WHOOP’s Performance Science group, led by Dr. Kristen Holmes, to deliver continuous insights on recovery, strain, and resilience, translating physiological data into actionable programs to improve physical efficiency, manage fatigue, and optimize recovery during F1’s relentless travel schedule and rapid turnarounds. Chief Racing Revenue Officer Lorenzo Giorgetti framed the move as an extension of Ferrari’s data-driven approach from the car to the “human factor.”

The agreement marks WHOOP’s first F1 sponsorship and extends the company’s presence in elite sport after prior deals with the PGA Tour and the Ryder Cup; the announcement also noted WHOOP’s 2021 valuation of $3.6 billion and more than $400 million raised in venture capital. The partnership was unveiled alongside an early reveal of Ferrari’s race suits and a preview of the SF-26 livery: Rosso Corsa with bold white accents and sponsor logos repositioned toward the neckline so the Prancing Horse sits prominently on the chest. Ferrari said the white-accent styling will carry across the SF-26 livery at the car launch on January 23 and across this year’s merchandise and team kit. By combining wearable health technology with the team’s medical expertise, Ferrari has formalized an integrated performance and recovery program designed to support on- and off-track performance throughout the season.