A technical dispute over the 2026 Formula 1 power-unit regulations erupted as reports said Mercedes and Red Bull Powertrains had found ways to run higher effective compression ratios on track while remaining compliant with static tests. The 2026 V6 hybrid rules specify a 16:1 compression ratio at ambient temperature, yet both manufacturers were reported to have configured units that registered about 18:1 in above-ambient conditions — a setup analysts estimated could be worth roughly 0.3 seconds per lap at Albert Park. Teams and technical bodies held an initial meeting and the Power Unit Advisory Committee was scheduled to meet on Thursday to discuss possible next steps, but talks so far produced few concrete outcomes.

Christian Horner, who founded Red Bull Powertrains and helped develop the 2026 units, publicly rejected characterizations of the situation as outright cheating, telling Australia’s Today show that engineers naturally push the boundaries and that the dispute was about interpreting rules rather than deliberate rule-breaking. Horner dismissed claims that teams were “cheating like wildcats” and defended both Red Bull and Mercedes; he also described Toto Wolff’s blunt remark to unhappy OEMs — “get your s*** together” — as “a big statement.” Media reports noted suggestions that Red Bull might already be using, or could adopt, similar configurations; Red Bull denied such claims.

The regulatory debate prompted teams at a pre-Barcelona shakedown meeting to consider adding real-time fuel-compression measurement to prevent on-track circumvention, though that change was viewed as unlikely to be implemented during the 2026 season. With power-unit mappings still being finalized ahead of the opening rounds, the matter remained an ongoing technical and regulatory dispute between manufacturers, teams and the sport’s technical bodies as the season approached.

Cadillac F1 completed a private three-day shakedown at Barcelona-Catalunya, running 164 laps. The program prioritized systems checks and reliability rather than outright pace, with engineers treating the outing as a debugging and durability exercise.

Valtteri Bottas, who returned after sitting out 2025, drove during the program and said the team had made rapid progress but still faced a “mountain to climb” to reach the competitiveness and reliability needed for its debut. His quickest Barcelona time was 4.572 seconds — roughly 6% off the test leader but within the 107% qualifying cutoff — suggesting the car could plausibly make the grid even if substantial development remains.

Cadillac has cleared several early technical milestones: a full-car dyno run in December, a Silverstone filming day in January, and the Barcelona shakedown. Those steps helped temper concerns even though the team recorded the slowest combined running across the five-day test programme and the second-lowest lap total among teams present.

Team principal Graeme Lowdon and senior staff note that, despite broad individual F1 experience, the group has only about 11 months of working-together time and some key facilities remain unfinished, leaving operational and development gaps to close.

Engineers collected data for simulator correlation work in the United States ahead of two three-day pre-season tests in Bahrain in February. The team may produce new parts before those Bahrain sessions and will use on-track running there to prove improved reliability and extract further performance. Success in Bahrain — and subsequent iteration before the season opener in Melbourne in March, where Bottas will race alongside Sergio Perez — will determine whether the early milestones translate into consistent, race-ready form.

Until then, the Barcelona outing stands as an important historical step that demonstrated tangible progress while also highlighting the substantial technical and operational work still to be completed.

Mercedes promoted Andrea Kimi Antonelli to a full-time race seat for 2025 as the team’s first-ever rookie signing, elevating him at 18 after scouting him in karting in 2017. Gwen Lagrue, Mercedes’ head of driver development, said the team learned from George Russell’s three-year spell at Williams — which required “half a season to get him up to speed” after joining Mercedes in 2022 — and decided to accelerate Antonelli’s path so he would be ready when the team expected to be more competitive in 2026. Lagrue praised Antonelli’s maturity and leadership, likened her early impression to seeing Max Verstappen at a young age, and told Toto Wolff to secure him for the Mercedes program, framing the promotion as a strategic development gamble because Mercedes did not expect to fight for the title in 2025. The club judged the risk worthwhile to shorten his learning curve and build long-term upside.

Antonelli, who made his Formula 1 debut in 2025 at 19 after replacing Lewis Hamilton following Hamilton’s move to Ferrari, had a rookie season marked by both promise and painful setbacks. Toto Wolff called the appointment a “big ask,” and Antonelli’s year included several high-profile errors — most notably taking Max Verstappen out at the opening lap of the Austrian Grand Prix — and a midseason loss of confidence after a rear-suspension update. He endured a long points drought, scoring only once between rounds seven and 13 with his maiden podium (P3) at the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix, but finished the year with three Grand Prix podiums: P2 in São Paulo and P3 in Canada and Las Vegas, plus a P2 in the São Paulo Sprint after chasing Lando Norris. Those results underlined flashes of pace and resilience amid the typical rookie learning curve.

Looking ahead to 2026, Antonelli has set an ambitious target of winning the World Championship as he prepares for his second F1 season, buoyed by a strong three-day Barcelona pre-season shakedown where Mercedes logged 1,134 laps and suggested the W17 has competitive pace. Mercedes warned that continued speed at the upcoming Bahrain pre-season test would position them as the team to beat when the season opens in Australia. At the W17 launch Antonelli said his goal is to win and to eventually fight for the championship, and he expressed eagerness to compete alongside teammate George Russell. Toto Wolff has counseled caution — recalling Antonelli’s midseason slump in 2025 and warning that Russell-level consistency should not be expected immediately — while nonetheless expressing confidence that the young driver can deliver a strong year.

Adrian Newey revealed that Aston Martin did not put its 2026 car into a wind tunnel until mid‑April 2025, roughly four months after the aero testing ban lifted on January 1, 2025, and after he joined the team on March 1, 2025. The CoreWeave wind tunnel only reached full operation in April, which Newey said created a “very, very compressed research and design cycle” and meant the AMR26 “only came together at the last minute.” That timing left Aston Martin at a material deficit compared with rivals that began wind‑tunnel and CFD work immediately after the ban ended. Newey described the AMR26 as a much more tightly packaged and ambitious design that required close coordination between aerodynamic and mechanical teams.

The compressed schedule forced a last‑minute push to get the car to a five‑day Barcelona shakedown, flown from the factory via Birmingham and Girona. The AMR26 made a very late appearance in the penultimate hour of the opening test, completing 65 laps across that final hour and the subsequent Friday running, and managed only one full day of running after a few laps the evening before. That limited on‑track mileage left Aston Martin with a steep development curve and less aero validation than rivals ahead of the season. Newey said mechanical designers “really embraced” the tight packaging despite added complexity, but acknowledged the timing and operational constraints constrained early validation.

He framed the slow early mileage as a technical and logistical setback rather than a permanent deficit and signaled an active in‑season upgrade program. Newey warned the car would continue to evolve through the season, with upgrades planned so the Aston Martin that appears at the Australian Grand Prix will be substantially different from the one that finishes in Abu Dhabi. The team has clear targets to improve drivability and race pace for drivers Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso as it works to close the gap opened by the delayed and compressed development. Overall, the AMR26 represents an ambitious step for Aston Martin that combined aggressive packaging with an accelerated rollout and an ongoing upgrade pathway driven by catch‑up development.

Audi’s entry into F1 — completed with its takeover of the Sauber team and the launch of the R26 — began with a Barcelona shakedown followed by a three‑day closed test that produced 240 laps (about 1,117 km). The R26 retained substantial Sauber DNA but ran an Audi power unit. Both drivers, Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto, suffered stoppages: Bortoleto halted after 27 laps with a suspected gearbox problem, and Hülkenberg stopped early because of a hydraulics fault. Audi completed 145 laps on the final day, but the 240‑lap total left the team eighth of ten by mileage — well behind the leaders and ahead only of outfits that managed as few as roughly 65 laps.

Project chief Mattia Binotto said the results produced a “very, very long list” of design and operational fixes — the largest he has seen in his career — and described the early reliability failures as expected teething problems for a new power‑unit program. The test exposed a stark mileage gap to established suppliers: Mercedes completed 1,132 laps, Ferrari 989 and Red Bull 622; Audi also ran 47 fewer laps than McLaren. Those shortfalls make improving reliability the immediate priority so Audi can increase lap count, gather technical data and unlock performance as a new engine manufacturer without customer teams.

Audi has set clear near‑term milestones, scheduling two Bahrain test blocks on Feb. 11–13 and Feb. 18–20 to validate fixes and iterate on the R26 ahead of the season opener. Binotto said the work is technically demanding but actionable: the team will focus on rapid learning and race‑by‑race improvements while pursuing a long‑term ambition to compete for world titles by 2030. Significant reliability and development challenges hampered the debut, but the defined testing roadmap is intended to resolve issues before the start of the championship.