FORMULA 101: PRE-SEASON SHAKEDOWN

2026 is the season of change in Formula One, and this begins behind closed doors in Barcelona in a 4 day test being dubbed the ‘Pre-Season Shakedown. While I doubt any fan is complaining about cars being back on track just over a month since the chequered flag in December, it is out of the norm for F1. No fear; FF has you covered with the 101.

To put it simply, 2026 sees the biggest regulation overhaul in over a decade as well as One new team and Two new engine suppliers join the grid. That’s a lot for a February test in Bahrain. Enter Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. With such massive changes to the cars teams arranged the 5 day event for extra preparation time pre February testing and lights out in Australia. This isn’t a new addition to F1. When the last regulation overhaul took place in 2014 extra testing also took place for the same reasons, and if anyone was around during the last regulations update … testing was disastrous and unreliability was an issue in the opening races of the season.

What makes this different from other testing sessions is that this will be held behind closed doors (hence the name shakedown) so that teams are able to fully explore the cars together in one place without prying eyes of the media seeing who is doing well and who may be struggling. There will be some level of information that we will get from these sessions but it won’t be in the excess of what we will learn from Bahrain in a few weeks time. The cars that are being brought to Barcelona are also likely to be a lot simpler than the ones that will be on track in Melbourne and the main focus of tests will be if they are reliable on circuit, making adjustments throughout the test and most importantly, gain as much data as possible about the car because unlike previous seasons the teams cannot rely on historical data. Drivers will also be keen to get good runs during the test because it is expected that the 2026 cars will require a different driving style from what has been before.

It was expected that all teams would be present during the shakedown in Barcelona, however Williams announced last week they would be skipping the test due to delays in the development of the car. Ferrari and Mclaren team principals have also stated that they will not be taking to the track until the second day of the test. Alarms don’t need to ring yet Tifosi, teams can only run on 3 out of the 5 days of the test so missing day one doesn’t mean the end of the world.

While we are entering a season of the unknown, reports have suggested that Mercedes are the current favourites with the news that they have managed to find a loophole to the rules around the engine. Our questions won’t be answered after the Barcelona test with every team using a different strategy and also most stories coming out of the track will more likely around what teams are struggling.

All we know for sure is this is going to be an exciting start to the season.