The engines are silent, the wheels are standing still – adn yet the race has long since begun. Invisibly and behind the scenes, the racing teams have been working on their cars for the 2026 season for months. At the beginning of April last year, when the previous season had just begun, the first teams set their focus on 2026. because then Formula 1 will start into a new era with completely revised regulations. the cards are being reshuffled – and it is completely unclear who will have the best hand.

The onyl thing that is certain is that the more time invested in the development of the new car, the higher the chances that a racing team will have a technical advantage at the season opener in Melbourne, Australia on March 8th. That would be worth its weight in gold. In the truest sense of the word. In the 76-year history of Formula 1, teams have repeatedly been able to start an era of dominance after major rule revolutions.

instead of having to first identify the problems, they were able to build on a good basis and thus outpace the competition. This was the case at Ferrari after the turn of the millennium, when Michael Schumacher won five titles in a row, and also at Mercedes, which won the drivers’ championship seven times and the constructors’ championship eight times between 2014 and 2021.

In the future there will be eleven teams in Formula 1 – not everyone likes that

Each team hopes for a similar success story.But the percentage chance of this has decreased.From 2026 onwards, not ten but eleven racing teams will be competing. Cadillac,whose cars will be driven by experienced drivers Valtteri Bottas (formerly Mercedes) and Sergio Perez (Red Bull),completes the elite circle. The luxury brand of the automobile company General Motors will become the second racing team alongside Haas that will compete for victories and world championships under an American license in the future.

The fact that Cadillac received a license and that there will be eleven teams in the future is mainly thanks to Mohammed bin Sulayem. The president of the world association FIA pushed the plan through together with those responsible for the US racing team against Formula 1 and the other teams. they blocked the deal for a long time for various reasons.

The established racing teams did not want to share the income from TV money, sponsors and organizers with another party. In addition,in their opinion,the one-off payment was too low to get started.By 2024 this would be $200 million. As the market value of the teams has increased significantly due to the newly ignited global hype surrounding the racing series, Ferrari, Mercedes & Co insisted on an increase. The fia gave in and Cadillac had to pay $600 million. A manageable defeat for the luxury brand.

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Those responsible for Formula 1 may have felt completely different. CEO Stefano Domenicali lost the power struggle against bin Sulayem and the Fia. While the world association officially wanted more competition, the racing series itself was concerned with maintaining the value of the premier class of motorsport. In the paddock, though, it is indeed an open secret that the dispute was primarily a test of strength between the parties. Formula 1 lost.

The entry of another new competitor was much quieter. A german racing team will also be competing in the premier class for the first time in 2026: Audi. The VW subsidiary emerges from the traditional Sauber team and will officially be called “Audi Revolut F1 Team”. Along with Audi itself, the largest donor is not the neobank Revolut, but rather Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund (Qatar Investment Authority). The desert state holds around 30 percent of the shares in the Ingolstadt factory team. Audi is said to have received around $350 million for the minority stake. At the time of purchase in November 2024, this corresponded to around 330 million euros. The VW subsidiary does not want to sell any further shares temporarily.

What distinguishes Audi from Cadillac: The VW subsidiary can partly build on existing structures, such as the plant in Hinwil near Lake Zurich, but it faces a disadvantage when it comes to the drive unit. While Cadillac purchased the engine and transmission from Ferrari up to and including the 2028 season, Audi produces all the parts itself. A Herculean task.

Hardly any manufacturer can look back on such a triumphant time in motorsport as Audi (including 13 overall victories in the 24-hour race in Le Mans),but Formula 1 is like a different sport. A team boss describes it in an interview with WELT am SONNTAG as follows: “It’s like knowing the rules for poker and wanting to play Skat with them. That doesn’t work. Both are card games, but the rules and requirements are completely different. You’ll have a difficult start.” The people of Ingolstadt themselves also know this. Internally, the goal was agreed that they would like to compete for the World Championship five years after joining, i.e. in the 2030 season.

Starting in the new season, half of the drive units will be electric for the first time

The biggest hurdle on the way to Formula 1 is the drive unit.Not just because Audi – unlike the competition – has never built its own Formula 1 engine. But mainly because the start came late. It was only in August 2022, on the sidelines of the belgian Grand prix, that the Ingolstadt-based company announced the founding of a works team.What sounds like a lot of lead time is considered a sporting imposition in Formula 1: three and a half years is not a lot of time to develop a competitive drive unit and build a factory, but almost the day after tomorrow.

Still, those responsible decided to get started. In their eyes, the big rule change was the optimal possibility to at least approach established teams like Mercedes on an equal footing. Because they also have to invent a new engine. From 2026,half of the drive units will be electric for the first time. The performance of the previous combustion engine therefore drops from 750 hp to 540 hp. In return, the battery will generate three times as much power, namely 480 hp instead of 160 hp.

To bring the entire racing series closer to the goal of being emission-free by 2030, the engines will only run on enduring fuel in the future. Thanks to more efficient aerodynamics and less horsepower gasoline consumption is expected to decrease by up to 20 percent.

It’s not the only savings that the new regulations will force teams to make. The DRS system, which previously gave drivers an excess of speed on selected straights through a flat rear wing, has been abolished. There is now a “Boost Mode” that gives the cars more propulsion for a short time.The pilots can also actively adjust their front and rear wings during the race, for example to generate more downforce in the corners.

These are small changes that can have a big impact. But they will hardly be visible to the fan. The overall appearance of the cars is completely different. The 22 cars will become narrower and smaller overall. if they were last two meters wide, the new maximum value is 1.9 meters.The wheelbase is shortened from 3.6 meters to 3.4 meters.

All of this means that one of the drivers’ most significant demands is met: the cars lose 30 kilograms in weight. Rather of weighing 798 kilograms as before, they will now only weigh a maximum of 768 kilograms. In Formula 1 these are worlds apart. The rule of thumb is that ten kilograms per lap is approximately 0.3 seconds.

However, cars will not be any faster in 2026. On the contrary. Simulations by the world association FIA predict that the cars will be up to two seconds slower per lap. The main reason for this is that the aerodynamics of the cars change significantly, so that they can generate less downforce. Drivers therefore have to slow down“`html