F1 team representatives speak on how much can they fake parts in the upcoming tests to start 2026 preparation for the big season ahead.
With F1 teams wanting to hide as much from its rivals before they start in Australia, often they tone down their cars in testing to throw everyone off. The 2026 season will a brand new start for everyone involved, whether it is the chassis or the power units.
The teams would want to hide the new designs as much, but at the same time, they would want to test them to be sure about it ahead of the F1 2026 start. That’s what the team representatives have highlighted as well. They note that they will still hide, but it can’t be everything.
They can play around the modes certainly along with fuel load to collect the needful data, but they will still use the test to run the new parts and certain designs which needs validation. But they also note that they can change the car from Barcelona to the first race still, as it will be constant learning.
Here’s what some of the F1 team representatives said –
Paul Monaghan: “I’m just wondering how to answer your questions. I’m going to offer all the answers here. I think I’ll offer a pragmatic view. It’s going to be quite a struggle to get to Barcelona. And if you think we’re going to turn up with two versions of a top body — one is real and one is fake — no. If we get there in good shape and the car runs, fine. We’ve then got something to build upon, rather than trying to confuse ourselves with multiple options of it. There’ll still be all the games — what are you doing with the energy, which fuel you’ve got on board, is it your race one package, is it your launch package, is it different? So that will all go on — and that’s fine. That’s part of it. As we go towards the second Bahrain test, it might be possible to pick a bit of an initial running order from that.
“But these are prototype type cars, we can change them. So even if we are disappointed at the second Bahrain test it doesn’t mean that will be the same thing that goes to Australia. If we can engineer a change and bring it to the car and draw benefit from it, we will, as will Mercedes, Aston Martin, as will everybody in the pit lane. So it might not be as flagrant as it has been in the past with one week’s testing — it was difficult. I think we’ll hit the ground running with what we’ve got in Barcelona.”
Simone Resta: “Yeah, I suppose it’s always difficult to understand what the others are doing in terms of fuel levels, power unit utilisation, etc. So it’s always very difficult to read into the timing for the first three tests. The only thing I can say is that we are working flat out to extract the maximum from our package — both in Brackley and in Brixworth, and also Petronas — we are working very strongly. They are not thinking too much about others and what they will show, etc. We just push flat out and see what we can get into Melbourne. There’s still a lot of work to do. You kindly reminded us that we’ve got 10 weeks to go, which is quite scary — but in 10 weeks, we can do a lot of stuff.
“And we are just concentrating on this one — doing our programme, trying to make sure the car will work in a reliable manner at the test. Still a lot to do. And then in Melbourne we’ll start to see what is going to be the pecking order. But like we’ve seen this year, it’s changing on a race-to-race basis. So imagine on a brand-new regulation with so many things to learn — I think we probably will need, I don’t know, three, four, five races to get a feel about what is the right order of the teams.”
Andy Stevenson: “Yeah. First, thanks to Paul for letting us know what their development plan is for the start of the season. But I think we’ll all just be doing our own thing. We’ve got so much to do and so much to learn that it might look from the outside that we’re playing games, but I’m sure we’ll all be working very, very hard to our own set agendas — just to gather as much information as we can so we can turn up to the first race being as strong as possible. I don’t think we’ll have that much time to look at each other, to be honest. I think we’ll have enough on our plates just to focus on what we’re doing.”
Here’s teams’ tier system
Here’s drivers’ tier system
Here’s Nikolas Tombazis on how rule will prevent extra PU use
Here’s Nikolas Tombazis answering queries on F1 2026 regs
