On a weekend where one Formula 1 team has said it hasn’t even let its drivers ‘test’ its 2026 car in the simulator yet, the new ruleset has begun to take on the aspect of a large-scale thought experiment.
So extensive are the changes – narrower, lighter cars with active aerodynamics and a 50:50 split of power deployment between the electrical system and the internal combustion engine – that definitive sim models are some way off. But while the teams can work on these, and the car concepts themselves, for several more months before signing parts off for production, tyre supplier Pirelli faces a more imminent set of deadlines.
