F1 Pre-season testing is a time of uncertainty, predictions a plenty and the perennial rising hope of Ferrari fans. While it is clear to see from testing that some teams have hit this new era of Formula 1 running, the order from last season has seen shifting up and down the field. Some teams move up the grid, others drop back, while Aston Martin seem to have the most work to do of any team right from the jump.

With Lando Norris winning his first driver’s championship last season, can he and Mclaren overcome the rule changes and keep both the drivers and constructors titles or will a new champion be crowned by the end of the season when the final chequered flag falls?

This year, Formula 1 has seen its biggest regulation shake up since 2014, as the cars become smaller, the electrical power becomes greater, and DRS is cast into the wind after nearly 15 years of service (alongside creating enough DRS trains to build a global rail network). Pre-season testing highlighted both the benefits and struggles of these new rule changes with cars reaching higher top speeds than in prior years being coupled with exorbitant amounts of lifting and coasting in order to recharge the car’s batteries.

The overall feedback from drivers has… been mixed, with notable drivers to criticise the car including both Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso while others including Lewis Hamilton had both positive and negative thoughts about the new cars noting advantages with their smaller designs but also questioning the new regulations and the drawbacks that came with preserving the car’s battery.

While feelings seem to be mixed at best on the driver’s side, the only fair thing to do is to see how these cars perform under racing conditions in Australia before we decide if these cars and the racing they’ll deliver will excel or under-deliver although tensions will likely be high come race day from all areas of the sport.

Pre-Season testing highlighted the difficulties the teams faced in adapting to these new set of regulations. Late arrivals, limited running, mechanical problems and engine issues where commonplace with not one team experienced a flawless testing period, but there were some that had better tests than others. Case in point being Ferrari.

After the struggles of the 2025 season, Ferrari seem to be one of the teams on the front foot for this new season with Charles Leclerc setting the fastest lap of the entire test on the final day. The SF-26 suffered no dramatic mechanical problems, had some lightning-fast practice starts and showcased some unique innovations, most notably a 180-degree rotating rear wing meant to give Ferrari a higher overall top speed than its rivals in this new season’s designated overtaking zones.

While hope is higher than it has been in a long time for Ferrari fans, it is important to note that testing times do not tell the whole story and while Ferrari certainly look quick, their rivals cannot be overlooked, with the most notable so far being Mercedes who despite Ferrari’s pace are still considered favourites by many going into the new season.

This is primarily due to an engine trick pulled by Mercedes that supposedly gives the car a major pace advantage over the rest of the field. Is it legal? No one seems to know for certain, including the people who made these new rules to begin with.

While new rules will come into effect in June to hopefully iron out this loophole’s legality or not, Mercedes’s innovation is currently legal and means the silver arrows likely have more of a hand to play in Australia over the other top teams. With George Russell being considered as the current favourite for the driver’s title and Kimi Antonelli expected to improve further of a promising rookie season, expectations are high for the former powerhouse of the sport.

However, Mclaren and Red Bull are unlikely to just allow Ferrari and Mercedes to pull away having also had promising pre-season tests that have them right in the mix at the front of the field. Red Bull will be doing so having once again decided to shake things up, in the hopes of ending the struggles of the second Red Bull seat. Isack Hadjar takes the number 2 seat at Red Bull, alongside 4-time world champion Verstappen, while Yuki Tsunoda is bumped into the reserve driver position.

Meanwhile Mclaren have kept things virtually identical from the team that won both the driver’s and constructors titles last season, which alongside retaining both Norris and Oscar Piastri seems to also include the livery on the car. Their defence won’t be easy as current reports seem to suggest that the top 4 are all within close proximity to each other, holding advantages over the others.

As for which team has nailed these new rules, Australia will be our first indicator, although with new rules, will also come new upgrades which could see the order in Australia change drastically as the season progresses further.

It would be uncouth however to not mention the 7 other teams on the grid behind the top 4 as they themselves have some interesting stories to tell beginning with both Alpine (who keep Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto as their drivers) and Haas (whose driver lineup remains Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon) seeming to have made moves up the grid.

After struggling last season, Alpine impressed many in testing, while Haas showed great reliability and seemed to have matched Ferrari’s incredible starts, indicating that they could be the two teams at the front of the midfield for the season opener in Melbourne.

The team who led the midfield last season, Williams, don’t look like they’ll be in the same place this time around. After missing the initial shakedown tests, the team were able to lap several laps in Bahrain but have a car that looked slightly down on its rivals, though to write them off completely would be very premature after their improvements over the last few seasons and their retained driver lineup of Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz who both had impressive seasons in 2025.

Meanwhile Racing Bulls/Alpha Tauri/Toro Rosso/Minardi flew under the radar for most of testing, their most notable effort being an effort of 165 laps from the only rookie in this year’s field and the man replacing Hadjar at the team, Arvid Lindblad almost breaking the record for most laps in a single testing day as he gets set for his first season alongside teammate Liam Lawson.

One team who did not go under the radar were Aston Martin and they weren’t for good reasons. Being late to Barcelona, suffering multiple reliability issues and having a car that Lance Stroll judged to be 4 seconds off the pace of the frontrunners, likely means that Aston Martin will be the team with the most work to do this season, both to become competitive and just plain reliable.

Finally, we have our new teams on the grid as Formula 1 welcomes both Audi and Cadilac, although calling Audi a new team would not be the most accurate statement. Instead, Audi have taken over the old operations of Sauber, including drivers Nico Hulkenerg and Gabriel Bortoleto, but with the development of their own in house engine, Audi certainly feel like they have arrived in F1 and a preseason test that saw them improve over time from a sluggish start could give fans of the former Sauber team and new fans backing the German giants cautious optimism.

Lastly, we have Cadillac who have only had a year, proper to prepare for this season. Their pre-season wasn’t too dramatic mostly involving racking up as many laps as possible. With Aston Martin’s struggles being clear, alongside the driver lineup of the returning veterans Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac will be looking to prove the critics wrong and impress in their first F1 campaign.

This season sees F1 embark into a new frontier, and pre-season testing has left us all with more questions than answers as we enter the first race of the season. Can Norris keep the title? Has Verstappen got the car to take the title back? Can Mercedes prove why they’re favourites? Will Aston Martin bounce back to form? All these questions and more will soon be answered alongside the big one. Who will be the 2026 Formula 1 World Champion?

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