Cadillac is framing its Formula 1 entry with a high-profile marketing push alongside a multi-year technical program. The brand will unveil its debut livery in a 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl (scheduled to air around 3:00 a.m. GMT in the U.K. and Europe) and teased the reveal in Times Square with a frosted-glass car replica that gradually “thaws.” The campaign pairs the Super Bowl ad buy with a Times Square activation and online distribution; Cadillac will post the ad to its social channels after the broadcast.

CEO Dan Towriss described the dual launches as an invitation for fans to join the team’s journey. In the U.K., Channel 5 will show the Super Bowl free-to-air and Sky Sports will provide full coverage, giving Cadillac broad exposure as it moves into the season.

On the sporting and technical side, Cadillac will join F1 as the sport’s 11th team and its first expansion entry since Haas a decade ago, operating as a works operation under new technical regulations intended to tighten competition. The team will be based in both Indianapolis and Silverstone, will initially run Ferrari power units, and will simultaneously develop a General Motors engine targeted for 2029 — a multi-year plan meant to balance visibility this season with future powertrain development. Team principal Graeme Lowdon tempered expectations, stressing execution and earning respect while acknowledging logistical and technical hurdles ahead of the season-opener in Melbourne in March. Drivers Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez, who together have 16 grand prix wins, said the objective is steady progress and to “try not to finish last,” underscoring Cadillac’s cautious approach as it shifts from a high-visibility launch to the practical challenges of competing in F1.

Cadillac’s newly formed Formula 1 team moved from planning into on-track reality with shakedowns that began at Silverstone and continued at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, where the American entry completed its first meaningful running against rival squads. The rookie outfit, and the 11th team on the grid in 2026, has signed Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez, two mid-thirties veterans who bring a combined 16 grand prix wins and wide experience. Team principal Graeme Lowdon said recruiting experienced drivers would help unify the engineering group and garage, and Bottas summed the short-term aim as “try not to be last.”

The Barcelona shakedown was framed as a debugging and data-gathering exercise. Bottas handled the morning running, completing 33 laps, and Pérez completed 11 in the afternoon, 44 laps in total. Many of them had installation and systems-check laps. Running was curtailed at times by minor technical issues, and the team again struggled to accumulate mileage.

Drivers and engineers described a learning curve under the major 2026 regulation changes. Bottas said the car felt different, with less aerodynamic load in high-speed corners, more torque on corner exit, and increased battery-management demands. Pérez called the new engine “massively different” and said, “It’s always challenging when there is a massive rule change.” Lowdon and the drivers emphasized that the priority was to debug systems, build mileage, and establish team procedures, with plans to use further permitted test days and upcoming sessions in Bahrain to work through gremlins rather than chase immediate lap-time performance.

The 2026 F1 power‑unit rules, which mandate roughly a 50/50 split between internal combustion and electrical power, are already reshaping driving styles, strategy, and race dynamics ahead of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. Teams say the new units have nearly tripled electrical output, making battery harvesting and deployment central to performance. That shift has prompted warnings that traditional flat‑out laps could become a “thing of the past” at Melbourne, a circuit identified as relatively harvest‑poor (about 7 MJ per lap versus roughly 8.5 MJ in Bahrain), and therefore more likely to expose energy‑management limits than tracks with more braking and slow corners.

Pre-season testing in Bahrain and Barcelona exposed how those constraints will change on-track behavior. Drivers were audibly lifting and coasting on straights in qualifying simulations, downshifting aggressively into corners to conserve energy, and even backing off before lap ends to preserve deployable charge. Several drivers described the new cars as unfamiliar, with Haas’ Ollie Bearman calling them “a bit strange” and saying some turns felt power‑limited rather than like true corners. Other drivers voiced stronger reactions. Max Verstappen labeled the rules “Formula E on steroids,” prompting a rebuke from Formula One Management. George Russell said he had enjoyed the Bahrain and Barcelona tests but cautioned Melbourne “might be a different story,” and Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris similarly noted the cars feel different to drive.

Team principals and engineers say the effects will reach into racecraft and strategy. McLaren’s Andrea Stella and driver Oscar Piastri framed battery harvesting as a tactical weapon and potential weakness across the 24-race calendar. He warned that pre-programmed energy strategies will be harder to adjust on the fly and that circuits such as Melbourne and Jeddah could be “harvest-limited.” Teams expect qualifying runs, race stints, car setups, and overtaking patterns to change as crews prioritize when and how to use stored energy rather than chasing outright top speed. FIA technical director Tombazis said the FIA would evaluate opening-race data before proposing changes to harvesting or deployment parameters. With Melbourne viewed as an early, practical stress test, teams will be watching reliability, race-window strategies, and the on-track spectacle closely as the season opens.

Adrian Newey was credited with jump-starting Aston Martin’s recovery after a difficult recent preseason. He was appointed team principal in March while retaining his managing technical partner role, and owner Lawrence Stroll also named him to head the team’s operations. Newey designed the AMR26, the squad’s first Newey-designed car. Several figures in the paddock, including former driver Pedro de la Rosa, called his intervention “critical” and praised his clear technical direction. de la Rosa said the group was “not worried” and asked that judgment be reserved until the end of the season.

The problems Newey inherited were severe and multifaceted. According to sources at the F1 Commission, he told rivals Honda’s new power unit was failing to harvest hybrid energy at the regulatory lower limit of 250 kW and could not reach the 350 kW threshold. The shortfall reduced straight-line power and prevented engineers from gathering accurate aerodynamic data. Bahrain testing exposed reliability and supply issues, as the team completed the fewest laps, and Honda reportedly had only one functional battery by the final day. In addition, an energy recovery system fault curtailed Fernando Alonso’s running, and spare-part shortages limited Lance Stroll to a six-lap cameo. The team also suffered integration problems. Its first in-house gearbox was “miscommunicating” with the engine and producing erratic behavior, prompting some paddock observers to warn Aston Martin risked being the slowest team, and might miss the 107% qualifying threshold, and could even be unable to start the season opener in Australia.

Aston Martin has leaned on new infrastructure and intensive data collection while seeking technical fixes. The AMR26 was built in the team’s new wind tunnel, and the simulator came online at the start of 2025. During curtailed running in Bahrain, the squad focused on logging as much data as possible to diagnose the issues. Team figures urged caution in judgment but said resolving Honda’s hybrid energy recovery shortfall and the gearbox–engine integration will be decisive if Newey’s technical leadership, the new facilities, and the Honda partnership are to close the performance gap.

Yuki Tsunoda escaped unharmed after a historic Red Bull RB7 caught fire during a show run on San Francisco’s waterfront. Tsunoda made his first public appearance since losing his race seat late in 2025 and assuming the role of Red Bull’s test and reserve driver (2026). He was driving the 2011 title‑winning RB7 in a Red Bull-Ford show run when, after a series of donuts, smoke and then flames erupted from the car’s rear. Fan footage showed spectators shouting for him to get out as he calmly unbuckled, stood up, and climbed from the cockpit while response vehicles arrived. Reports and eyewitness videos indicated he was uninjured, and no other injuries were reported.

Organizers halted the event early and retired the RB7 from the demonstration, leaving smoke and smoldering wreckage on the waterfront. The RB7 is closely associated with Sebastian Vettel’s 2011 championship, and the fire drew extra attention because it occurred during a public show rather than in competition.

Coverage combined fan video and eyewitness reaction with technical commentary. Observers also noted Red Bull’s new in-house power unit, developed with Ford, had been praised for reliability in preseason testing, but no technical cause for the RB7 fire has been provided. There is also no confirmation that the modern power unit was involved. The incident prompted questions among observers about potential logistical and reputational fallout for Tsunoda and Red Bull. Isack Hadjar replaced Tsunoda on Red Bull’s 2026 race roster after the Japanese driver scored 33 points and finished 17th in 2025.

Oscar Piastri reshuffled his management and trackside support for the 2026 Formula 1 season, with long-time manager Mark Webber stepping back from regular trackside duties to concentrate on commercial matters while remaining part of the driver’s management. Piastri confirmed the change during pre-season testing in Bahrain, describing it as a planned shift that will see Webber attend fewer events and saying that “there wasn’t anything specific, we just made a decision for things to look a bit different.”

The reorganization places engineer Pedro Matos as Piastri’s main presence at grand prix weekends. Matos worked with Piastri as his race engineer at Prema when the Aussie won the 2021 FIA Formula 2 title and earlier in British F4 in 2017, and will now take on weekend engineering duties. Australian mental-performance coach Emma Murray will increase her involvement during race weekends, and is best known for her work with three-time Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin. Piastri framed the changes as practical adjustments to support on-track performance as drivers and teams adapt to the sport’s new technical cycle.

Piastri credited Webber with playing a key part in his move from Alpine to McLaren and said Webber had been a steady presence across his first three F1 seasons. He denied any dramatic fallout from the reshuffle and said the revamped support team and car will face their first true test at his home race in Melbourne (March 6–8). Separately, commentators, including former driver Ralf Schumacher and unnamed podcast hosts, suggested McLaren had instigated some restructuring to restore calm after Piastri’s difficult second half of the 2025 season. He led the championship for 15 rounds but ultimately finished third behind teammate Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, an assertion presented as outside commentary rather than Piastri’s account.

Mercedes has acknowledged a growing problem with race starts on its new W17 under the 2026 regulation changes, with George Russell warning the team was “stumbling” and saying two of his practice starts were “worse than my worst-ever start in Formula 1.”
Russell said poor starts in Bahrain had cost positions, even causing him to spin his tires and be overtaken by teammate Lewis Hamilton before Turn 1, and he warned that fixing launches was the “tallest hurdle” the team must clear to avoid losing races.
The issue prompted the FIA to organize extra practice starts during the Bahrain weekend and introduce blue-light warnings to improve safety around launches.

The three-day final pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit was teams’ last intensive on-track assessment before the season opener in Melbourne. Run under a new technical rule set — including major changes to chassis, aerodynamics and power units plus the introduction of sustainable fuels — the test imposed a steep learning curve across the F1 paddock. Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull arrived with significant updates and much of the running focused on systems integration: revised hybrid energy harvesting and deployment, new software and cooling maps, reliability work and race-management procedures.

On-track sessions ran daily from 07:00–16:00 local time. Early indicators showed the front-running teams operating in a similar performance window, but lap times were considered deceptive because squads used different fuel loads, tire compounds and bespoke run programmes. Midfield teams concentrated on extracting gains from fresh upgrades while adapting to the broader technical changes.

Live paddock coverage accompanied the running: PlanetF1 provided session-by-session updates and flagged that fans could stream all laps (some reports suggested using a VPN such as ExpressVPN to follow the feeds), while F1i and other outlets published curated photo galleries. A number of outlets used inconsistent day labels in their pictorial recaps, sometimes describing sessions as “penultimate.” Teams balanced aggressive data collection with deliberate concealment of detailed setup and outright-pace information — keeping ballast, setups and full programmes under wraps and leaving open the possibility of late low-fuel runs. Testing concluded after the three-day session; squads will return to base to analyze the collected data and finalize preparations ahead of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

McLaren arrived at Bahrain pre-season testing with a stark contrast between single-lap pace and race-distance concerns. Lando Norris set the session benchmark with a 1:33.453 lap, edging George Russell by 0.006s and Max Verstappen by 0.131s, while teammate Oscar Piastri also showed strong one-lap speed. Reports varied on the tire compound used for Norris’s flyer (sources cited C3 and C4). Most teams, including McLaren, spent the latter part of the test on race simulations and systems checks rather than chasing outright lap times, and no driver improved on the fastest marks in the second half of the session.

Despite the single-lap headline, McLaren’s long-run work was notably less convincing. Team feedback and testing programs, including extended race-distance stints, pointed to a missing technical or set-up characteristic compared with the 2025 car, a shortfall Norris said has given rivals an edge. Independent timing analysis of comparable simulations (runs by Kimi Antonelli, Lewis Hamilton, and Oscar Piastri) suggested McLaren may be roughly one second a lap slower in race pace than Mercedes and Ferrari. Those same windows also showed Red Bull and Max Verstappen looking strong. If that gap holds into the Australian season opener, McLaren risks starting as low as fourth on the grid, a scenario that could jeopardize its bid to retain both World Championship titles.

The test also delivered early technical signals from other teams: Ferrari debuted a 180° rotating rear wing under the new active-aero rules (reports said it reverted to a standard position under braking) but largely stayed off track and returned late for standing-start practice. Reliability checks dominated the program, as Lewis Hamilton was limited to five laps by a chassis issue before returning to complete FIA systems checks and practice starts. One more round of Bahrain running remains before the Australian Grand Prix, giving McLaren another opportunity to close the observed race-pace gap.