I know it’s testing, but we got SOME clues as to which F1 team handled it better than others.
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With the first showcase of 2026 F1 cars behind us, we may not know times or the proper pecking order of teams…but Ferrari managed to throw some surprises in our way with their SAFE car. They might have a faster one if the FIA approves it. Could that be the thing that keeps them as the Mercedes challenger and Lewis Hamilton a chance for some proper Ferrari success in 2026 AND to keep Charles Leclerc for another year?
Then there’s also the matter of Red Bull. Do they have a car and engine which pleases Max Verstappen? Well, for now, yes. However it’s early days but plenty to smile about…unlike with Audi who suffered the most issues of any team…and McLaren? It was a decent start but not a hot one; same for Aston Martin.
Which other teams won out, lost out or were not doing enough to draw a conclusion?
#f1 #formula1 #formulaone #f12026 #f1shakedown #f1testing #f1teams #f1drivers #f1latest #f1updates #f1news #f1drama
The 2026 F1 Shakedown Winners and Losers
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00:00 Introduction – I know it’s just testing, bro
02:01 The Winners
14:21 The Meh (AKA The “Too Early To Say Section”)
20:28 The Losers
24:43 Dishonourable Mention
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I think the Cadillac f1 team will go with a paint scheme. That is based off the Cadillac GTP cars.
Hey best buddy!
Seeing one of my favorite Youtubers coming back in another chapter of my life is always good. Welcome back!
Today is Ground Hog Day, and in the great tradition of Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, and now Law will kiss Vowles ass for 6 more weeks. Happy Ground Hog Day Law… the winter of fawning over Vowles.
Ferrari hopeium intensifies
1:04 LawVS the reason why they allowed teams to run "normal" (F1 E10 mix) fuel instead of efuel is…
After spending 8bn on a refinery… (if you talk to the pointed hats people, the total spent comes back to 12bn to 20bn)
This is public knowledge before the FIA, Shell and Porsche hid all the reports that were posted on the FIA website for anyone to download.
and the scientists in pointed hats started asking peer review questions and pointing out issues…
So like all good organisations do…
FIA pulled all the reports and data from the website, quoting commercially sensitive data.
I know all this becuse I was part of the team that sent the data and reports to a number of universities and other scientists, becuse the YouTube channel I was working with had a lot of questions and needed answers.
After spending 8bn on their refinery FIA, Shell and Porsche said they will have enough capacity to supply the grid for testing, pratice and the race, and even use it to fuel the trucks going to and from the races as well.
Since then, they have an issue…
The scince pointed hats people pointed out first concerning the output of the new refinery, saying it is very marginal in terms of the amount of fuel output vs how much fuel cars/teams used in F1.
This is a bigger issue…
The number of races has grown over the years…
The number of sprint events added and grown over the years… so that went from 0 to possibly 3 knowabout to 6 – 600% increas
And they added 2 more cars to the grid, with talk of a possible 2 more.
Just adding two more cars to the current 20-car grid is a big jump in fuel supply needed.
It means they need to find 10% more fuel over the total race season just for a start.
The number of races going up represents a 12.5% increase in fuel consumption, as well + all the sprint races – I let others do the maths.
QED F1 was very tight on fuel production and is now even more so – have they got enough fuel to last the season… not using efuel in this test shows they are having issues already.
Not sure if the FIA has "fixed" the price of fuel becuse when you do the maths, efuel costs come in at an eye-watering $20 per litre, which is around 100% to 150% more than what the team spent on fuel from last year.
Teams have been going back to the FIA and asking about the price of new fuel and the budget cap over the last year.
That $20 per litre does not include fuel tax, VAT (sales tax), R&D costs or capital expenditure costs, and that is the base price without making any profit, while going up to 20% slower becuse the new fuel does not have the same density as the 2022 to 2025 fuel.
The FIA did say the new fuel is 18% to 16.5% lower in density power now after tests, but they refuse to show anyone there working out.
oH cOmE oFf iT lAw
The Alpine win action is what I would think someone with little design experience would come up with. There's nothing wrong with it, you are using air pressure to help open it but you are then having to exert more force closing it. As opposed to the other designs that you have to exert more force against air pressure to open it and use the pressure to close it. Actually I would think that their design would be slightly faster (nanoseconds?) each time it opens which could give them a slight advantage if everything else was equal. The other designs would provide faster full downforce of the wing. I guess it depends on what would be more important to the team. Maybe certain tracks would benefit one design over the other?
Crazy growth my boy, been there since you had 2k and predicted your success, Great to see
Speak for yourself. I really enjoyed the dancing donkeys when they paid why to much for a driver.
🙂 I've said it many times before, and will say it again:
Ferrari; where old champions go to retire and the dreams of younger talents are dashed.
So… when George wins the WDC and Merc the WCC this year, will they do a Williams and sack their champion?
You know that tart, Toto would throw over anyone to get intimate with Max.
I swear people forget about Ferrari's strategy team that's going to screw up Ferrari chances, doesn't matter if you fast car. The Ferrari clowns are there to screw it all up.
Cadillac: Silver with Tommy Hilfiger red and blue. If you subscribe to Cadillac F1 society you can see the livery concept. They posted something today that gives a glimpse.
Max likes RB19 = wins 19 GP
Max hates RB21 = loses by 2 points
Max likes RB22 =?
Law understands that I cannot tolerate hearing my own thoughts, and is very considerately pumping out a stream of videos so I don't have to worry about that
Idle curiosity: Aren't Ford and Honda providing basically the same engine?
No doubt to over simplify. RB powertrains have got what they inherited from Honda, and as these 'engines' are a 'simplification' of the last rule set Honda's engineers would be morons to start with a clean sheet with how little time they gave themselves…
…it would be quite funny if for licensing reasons Ford get's to use Honda's work while Honda can't.
For what it seems Alpine's rear wing solution incrwases efficiency, so more maximum speed and maybe generates a bit more downforce in the "full" mode with respect to the other teams conservative solution, so they should have a bit more stable rear in the straights or fast turns if it will be possible to activate it
Here is my dream 2026 testing calendar:
02-05 February: 🇪🇸 Shakedown session at Jérez
09-12 February: 🇪🇸 Pre-season testing at Valencia
16-19 February: 🇮🇹 Pre-season testing at Imola
23-26 February: 🇮🇹 Pre-season testing at Mugello
Thoughts on new dragon ball super news?
Fudgepacker Hamilton is always a Wiener.
Testing ain't long enough for team Ferrari to press their self-destruct "RED button".
This will be 2014 all over again. Except Ferrari might be a tiny bit more competitive… that is it.
8:20 It was acceptable and maybe even necessary in the late 2000s and early 2010s, given that F1 was going through a bad time
But we are in 2026 now. Every single team is worth more than a billion (according to Forbes, at least) and F1 isn't going through a crisis anymore. On the contrary, the sport is in it's most lucrative era
So we are past the time of having 2 teams being owned by the same group. I think that 2 decades of having 2 teams is enough of a "thank you" to Red Bull for keeping the grid with at least 10 teams. It's time for Racing Bulls to be sold and finally be allowed to at least try to win races and challenge for something, instead of being a Red Bull B
Genuinely the best youtuber I can think of.
I’m not sure if anybody has mentioned this in your videos, but more often than not, at the end of the video when you’re pointing to the left side of the screen, saying you can go watch this video now, there’s nothing there. Sometimes we do see a video. We can click on, but a lot of times we don’t just an empty space. But you should know.
For three years now James Vowles told us to forget about 2023, 2024 and 2025. His ‘project’ had only one focus: 2026. And now, February 2026, his car isn’t ready…. What a punk!
AMR26 will be rapid but unreliable. Shades of MP4-20
Its not even testing yet
Mercedes supplies too many teams imo..
When Alonso is smiling you know he is likely to get a podium because he knows the car is a great car
dutu dudu
This ISN'T even testing lol. It's PRE-pre-season testing.
21:19 williams: we are preparing for 2026
2026? I said 2028
2028? I said 2030
So…it’s just garbage and speculation?
It would be so legendary for team Cadillac to reveal their new F1 car like it was the opening of the cars movie. Also as a new casual fan I predict that this season will be like the wacky races.
It was JUST A SHAKE DOWN…
It was a shake down of systems…
Stop making conclusions…geez
I agree with most of this, maybe missed a few because I was listening while getting ready for work, but no on Ferrari.
Not because what you said isn't correct. But we do not become hopeful, we wait for about half a season of being on top before saying we are in with a chance.
No more bumping in races, imagine changing a front wing😂😂😂😂😂😂
Kim Kardashian making Lewis real happy
I just love cuddling my anime waifu body pillow!
Ferrari is like the Cowboys lol Every year "this is our year, we dem boys" lololol
I don’t buy into the narrative of calling Red Bull-Ford a „brand new engine supplier“. If you do a little digging then you’d know that Red Bull’s engineers now working at their official power trains division had A LOT of insight into engine development whilst they were still working with Honda, since they were the only team being supplied by them and as a result chassis and engine development were almost as closely knitted as they are in full on works teams like Mercedes . They already knew a lot about Turbo Hybrids and just needed a strong manufacturing partner to realise them. If you weren’t sure about your own knowledge in the matter, why would you choose a partner that has little to no knowledge to add on top of yours? Drawing a comparison to Audi seems a bit far fetched.
The red myst hope never dies during the winter… its the spring that is a problem.
I wonder if the Alpine wing makes less drag from having the single aerofoil
I miss the good old purposoising times. This all goes to smooth
Ferrari had a better car than Mercedes in 2018
Works teams should have the best start because they understand the engine/transmission combo earlier. However Ferrari fans aren't optimistic, not as long as Mercedes engines benefit from cylinders that allow a 18:1 compression ratio while operating. If the theories are true, it's 0.250s gap and it's huge in modern competition.
My Question is: How many cars used in Barcelona will make it in the same shape in Melbourne?? Maybe we will see completely different cars in Bahrain!!
George also was confident with the new aero Merc. Only to be lapped.
Ford did a great job? You mean Red Bull Powertrains did a great job. Ford did great sticking its stickers on the cars 😛