The new challenge F1 teams face in finalising 2026 car

The Las Vegas Grand Prix this weekend will kick off a three-race run that goes all the way to the end of the 2025 season on 7 December in Abu Dhabi. Over this period, the Formula 1 drivers’ championship will be decided, as well as many positions in the constructors’ standings, which equates to a lot of prize money for the teams. 

However, while almost every F1 squad still has things to fight for over the remainder of the season, they are all also working tirelessly to prepare for the next generation of cars that will begin racing in 2026 – featuring a major technical overhaul for both chassis and power units. 

With pre-season testing beginning on 26 January in Barcelona – exactly one month earlier than the start of testing this year – teams are pushing to finalise the design and build of their new challengers sooner than ever. What’s more, if they hope of running filming or shakedown days with their new machines, teams will need to hit the ground running in the early days of the new year. 

“I was in the factory last week, and I saw the chassis. That's much earlier than I've experienced before,” Alpine managing director Steve Nielsen told Autosport. “Normally, the chassis is something that appears around late December, early January. So, it's all much earlier, because our first test is in week three in January.

“So, all the people you see here (at the track) are pretty much going to finish in Abu Dhabi, go home, say hi to their families at Christmas, and then they're going to be back in the factory building cars to go testing again.

"The sum of all of that is quite a lot of pressure, not only on Enstone, but also on the whole of Formula 1, because the winter is shorter than it's been for a long time.” 

Steve Nielsen, Managing Director at Alpine F1

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

With teams also having to pass the FIA crash tests in order to homologate their new chassis – something that is usually done around December and January – Nielsen gave further details of Alpine’s expected timeline for its 2026 challenger, and how the work in the factory is ramping up towards next year’s car. 

“The car will exist in one piece – not finished, but it will exist in one piece, I would say, by mid-December, because it's going to have to be on a track three weeks later,” Nielsen said. 

“We've got Christmas in the middle of that. So, if you go round the factory now, the chassis is there, although it's not painted, of course, it's not machined yet. We've got the crash test, which is a big milestone, in two or three weeks. But every machine in the factory is making bits for ’26 cars.” 

Testing for the 2026 Formula 1 season kicks off with a private session in Barcelona on 26-30 January, before two further sessions on 11-13 February and 18-20 February in Bahrain. 

Ahead of testing, Red Bull has already announced that it will unveil the liveries for its 2026 car and that of sister team Racing Bulls at an event in Detroit, Michigan, in January 2026.