A new and controversial formula with major regulation changes – and the usual dose of F1 politics attached. Two new manufacturers teams on the grid, Honda’s fresh start with Aston Martin. Drivers with plenty to prove and expectations to confirm.
There is no shortage of compelling storylines for F1 fans to follow this season. Our journalists pick the ones they are most intrigued to watch unfold.
Illusion or delusion? The chances of a four-way fight
I know, I know. The chances of Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren all converging to a similar performance level immediately after a fresh regulations overhaul is...optimistic. But so far, we have yet to see clear signs that it won't be possible, and we also haven't seen any concrete evidence of a new Brawn GP scenario with one team riding off into the sunset. The one caveat is Mercedes, which some rivals suspect is employing so many sandbags it could be tapped up to help out with flood relief.
The four teams in question have wasted few opportunities to elevate each other into a pre-season favourite role. Mercedes came out of the gates swinging, but last week it pointed to Red Bull's outstanding energy deployment, only for Red Bull to label itself the fourth-fastest team the very next day. McLaren chief Andrea Stella is not known for actively misleading people over his team's performance, and he placed Ferrari on a par with Mercedes and ahead of McLaren and Red Bull.
What makes all this more interesting is that the nature of the 2026 power units, while much maligned right now, could offer plenty of opportunity for more track-to-track variance. Is Ferrari's reportedly smaller turbo helping it in some circuits and hurting it in others? Are teams who are struggling to harvest as much as their peers going to be stronger at places like Monaco and Singapore, where energy won't be a limiting factor? Will circuits like Jeddah, Baku and Monza be so extreme that deployment trumps outright chassis performance?
Naive? Maybe. As the fog of war gets lifted over the second Bahrain test and into Melbourne, we may yet get some answers that will shatter this illusion of a four-way fight. But right now, this period is the one of the most exciting parts of being a Formula 1 fan. The not-knowing.
- Fil Cleeren
Russell with a title favourite tag
For the second year in a row, an F1 season starts with, on paper, a driver without a championship on his CV as the title favourite. Lando Norris crumbled under that pressure at times last year and almost let the opportunity slip, despite McLaren’s dominant form early in the season and a relatively inexperienced team-mate as his main contender. Yet he eventually managed to get his act together and withstood the late challenge from Max Verstappen. Still, you’d think Norris made the task much harder for himself with some unforced errors at the start of the campaign.
George Russell’s favourite tag still needs to be confirmed – because despite all the pre-season speculation, Mercedes first has to prove it deserves that status too. Russell’s performance last year suggests he should have no issues on the execution side, but having the best car on the grid comes with a price tag of added pressure.
Can he handle that?
– Oleg Karpov
End of the road for Hamilton and Alonso?
The 2026 season could mark the end of the road for Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. The two world champions have crossed paths several times over the years, though their careers have followed very different directions. Their exits from Formula 1 may come at the same time — but for very different reasons.
If Alonso does decide to call it a day, it is likely to be down to yet another technical setback from the team he chose to back — something that has become a familiar story in recent seasons. Questionable decisions have followed him deep into his forties, and with his 45th birthday approaching, time is no longer on his side. Even for someone as driven as Alonso, the clock does not stop.
Hamilton’s situation looks very different. Lewis is coming off a 2025 season in which he was clearly outperformed by Charles Leclerc. The team pointed to the challenge of adapting to a completely new environment as a key factor behind the performance gap. That explanation will not carry the same weight this time around.
With a new generation of cars arriving, every driver will effectively be starting from scratch. By now, Hamilton is expected to feel fully settled in Maranello and ready to deliver.
For Hamilton, 2026 is huge. A revival in red would be a perfect fairytale chapter in an already remarkable career. If it does not happen, however, it could turn into a difficult last dance – still deserving of respect, but far from the ending he would have wanted.
– Roberto Chinchero
F1’s extreme development rate behind the scenes
The first signals about the new regulations have not been equally positive from all drivers. Reactions have ranged from “Formula E on steroids” to Fernando Alonso joking that even a chef could drive the car. It remains to be seen what kind of racing we will get, but one thing is clear: the rate of development will be extremely high.
And although the pure racing may no longer be ‘peak F1’, according to Alonso, this aspect still very much represents ‘peak F1’. Regardless of how good or bad the regulations turn out to be, the development curve of teams under a new ruleset remains extremely impressive. In 2026, that applies on many fronts: not only aerodynamics, but also the power unit and energy management.
Teams will collectively learn to get a better grip on energy management, while on the aero front they are all “shameless plagiarists”, as Alpine’s Steve Nielsen put it. It is particularly interesting for tech enthusiasts, much like the gradual convergence in sidepod concepts from 2022 onwards.
There is once again plenty to choose from this year: Newey’s extreme design, the distinctive Audi sidepods, Red Bull – and no doubt more rabbits will be pulled out of the hat before Melbourne. What works and what doesn’t? For tech enthusiasts, it will be an intriguing year in any case.
– Ronald Vording
Will Cadillac’s moonshot break free of Earth's orbit?
As the first genuinely new entrant in a decade, with the backing of one of the world’s most influential carmakers, General Motors, Cadillac is set to capture plenty of attention when the 2026 season begins in Melbourne. Fans, rivals and media alike will be watching closely to see what the team is capable of.
Cadillac has even framed the challenge ahead as akin to reaching the Moon, drawing inspiration from US President John F. Kennedy’s 1962 “We choose to go to the Moon” speech for its car’s livery reveal.
Considering that Apollo 11 didn’t land on the Moon until 1969, and that the United States’ moonshot began well before JFK’s address, the magnitude of the task facing Cadillac – and its ambition to reach the pinnacle of Formula 1 – is striking.
It is clear the team is playing the long game, and Cadillac F1 CEO Dan Towriss has stated that focusing on points in ’26 would be "both arbitrary and represent short-term thinking". Of course, success this year alone will not define its journey, but it will be fascinating to see whether Cadillac has truly broken free of Earth orbit…
– Federico Faturos
Who has done a better job ahead of the season?
Some of these cars are not like the other ones.
It’s become a cliché in motor racing, but no less true for being oft-repeated, that when the flag drops, the bullshit stops.
From the very first installation laps during the Barcelona ‘shakedown week’, some fans have been asking what the pecking order of the teams might be. For their part the competitors have been desperately trying to avoid giving away their secrets, innovations, and hard-fought advantages… while sowing innuendo that their rivals are doing so much better than them, or are somehow cheating.
Much of that will conclude when we get to Australia, the racing begins in earnest, and we see who has what. Yes, it’s a series of lights going out rather than a flag dropping, but the you-know-what will certainly stop.
- Stuart Codling
Will Aston Martin deliver on expectations at any point this year?
The best designer in modern F1 history, all the money in the world, the most advanced facilities and infrastructure, an engine manufacturer that turns them into a works team and knows what it takes to win (even recently), the largest oil company in the world as a partner, and a two-time F1 world champion driver. What could possibly go wrong?
The 2026 season, with new aerodynamic and engine regulations, has not started the way Aston Martin – or the world – expected, and the question is whether a recovery is possible.
With Adrian Newey on board, there is justified hope that the aerodynamic issues will be resolved, but the new Honda engine may not be ready until, at the earliest — and thanks to the ADUO system — several races into the season. Fernando Alonso has expressed real confidence that the second half of the season will be better for Aston, and that they may eventually even have the best car.
Therefore, the big question for the 2026 season is whether the Silverstone-based team can achieve a comeback similar to McLaren’s in 2023 (which Alonso also referenced), or whether the great opportunity presented by the first year of such a major regulation change will ultimately be lost.
– Jose Carlos de Celis
F1 2026 will see the best version of Norris
Becoming Formula 1 world champion should be the making of Lando Norris. It might seem strange to say given he’s already achieved his childhood dream, but to many, that was an underwhelming title campaign.
They say he made harder work of it than he should have, Max Verstappen was undoubtedly the stronger driver and McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri effectively handed it to Norris during the final third.
But to give Norris his credit, there were times when he kept his cool and delivered in the high-pressure moments when needed – in Mexico, he was unstoppable – and that went against any prior reputation the 26-year-old had built up. That he lacks the mental capacity to become champion.
He has proven that he does, and Norris heads into this season looking like a man who has a huge weight lifted off his shoulders. This writer has been highly impressed by his calmness in media sessions this year, and there is no doubt 2026 will see the best version of him now that the pressure is slightly off.
The only question is: will Piastri keep up? Because that was a damaging way to lose the title battle.
- Ed Hardy
Hadjar and Red Bull's second-seat curse
For quite some time now, the second Red Bull seat has been surrounded by a special aura. Some talk of a “curse”, while others simply point out that it's not easy to exist alongside one of the greatest drivers of his generation in a team built around him.
Isack Hadjar arrives with this initial burden on his shoulders, as others before him have failed, sometimes spectacularly. What's more, the Frenchman joins Red Bull with little experience in F1, having just completed his rookie year.
It was certainly a very interesting season, marked by a podium, but one that still needs to be confirmed, which is always a difficult task. This confirmation will therefore have to come both in the shadow of – and in the spotlight surrounding – Max Verstappen.
However, it's difficult to define expectations, as regulation changes and the challenge of the Red Bull Ford engine are enough to reshuffle the deck and blur the Austrian team's objectives and our expectations…
This is undoubtedly where Hadjar's opportunity lies: in arriving with a fresh perspective in a team that is changing, at a time when all drivers, even the best, need to review their “internal software”. This is undoubtedly his best chance to avoid the fate of his predecessors.
– Fabien Gaillard
