Explaining the key timelines in building an F1 car

Our question this month refers not to technology but to process. I have been asked: “At what point does a team stop design work and actually build the car?” The question as posed presupposes that there is a singular date at which a car is defined, whereas in reality a Formula 1 car is never fully defined but is in fact a prototype that develops for every race.

However, the process of creating the car will vary from team to team and will depend on the circumstances that the team finds itself in. It’s also a fact that the advent of the cost cap in the F1 regulations has had a profound effect on how teams go about transitioning from year to year.

Let’s first deal with the circumstances that a team might find itself in. The prize money that is awarded in F1 is purely based on constructors’ championship positions, plus there are additional bonuses paid to teams that have historical success, which is additional to the merit payments all receive.

The total prize fund is a proportion of the profit made by Formula One Management and once the bonus payments have been made the rest is split in such a way that, on average, a single place further up the championship table is worth £6-7million.

This means that a team that’s in a tight fight for position each year might wish to devote resource to upgrades of its current car at the expense of concentrating on the car for next season.

This year McLaren tied up the constructors’ championship in Singapore, whereas Ferrari and Red Bull are separated by just eight points. The consequence of this on the design, manufacture and build programme for 2026 is that McLaren can afford to ease up on 2025 upgrades and put all its resource into next year’s car.

McLaren and Mercedes’ respective positions in the constructors’ points mean a different perspective on their 2025/26 priorities

Photo by: Getty Images

If Mercedes in second place did this, it might be in danger of slipping two places in the championship by the end of the year with a consequential loss of approaching £14m. The two teams’ approach therefore is going to be different.

Cadillac, as a brand-new team, must prove not just a new design but a whole new squad, including procedures, support equipment and supply chain. It can’t afford to leave things to the last minute as the consequences can mean missing valuable track testing time.

So, the answer as to when a team starts design is variable, but it is a basic truism that the earlier you start researching the new car, and the later you commit to production, the more performance that car is going to have.

Earlier in the year the chief technical officer will outline the proposed amount of time the current car will spend in the tunnel and how much will be devoted to next season’s challenger

However, there are certain timing milestones that need to be met and in F1, unlike many other projects, the end point will not move. The date of the first race and the preceding tests are set in stone, and therefore you need to consider some of the major sub-projects that lie on the critical path to completion of the car.

The first of these is the monocoque itself and this is an item that, pre-budget cap, was generally redesigned each year. Even now it is more likely than not that changes will need to be made, even if it’s not a clean-sheet-of-paper redesign.

To meet the deadlines, it is normal to have to define and fix the outside surfaces of the monocoque around August, which means that the design work will have started considerably earlier. How early will depend on the magnitude of the changes and consequently how much new tooling needs to be designed and made.

This does not mean that the design of the monocoque will be completed by August – far from it. Detail design and determination of the layup of the carbon fibre plies will continue well into the last quarter of the year.

Newey has been fully focused on Aston Martin's 2026 preparations

Photo by: Aston Martin

The other long lead item is the gearbox, but as the gearbox cassette – the housing that contains all the gears and shift mechanism – is rarely changed, it is just the carbon fibre housing that might be updated.

Of course, while all this is happening, development of the current car continues. This does not just occupy the design team but more importantly the aero development group.

At some point earlier in the year the chief technical officer will outline the proposed amount of time the current car will spend in the tunnel and how much will be devoted to next season’s challenger. This plan will be built around the surplus within the budget cap once all the committed spend has been accounted for.

As we’ve seen, this allows significant upgrades to be brought to the cars during the season, but this will ideally be front loaded in the year to both extract maximum benefit and to allow a timely transition from current car development to future car design.

This article is one of many in the monthly Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the November 2025 issue and subscribe today. 

Pre-season tests mark an immovable point in a new car’s design process

Photo by: Clive Mason/Getty Images