Formula 1 2026 Season Discussion

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#3465543 27-Feb-2026 18:31

thermonuclear:

It normally coincides with midnight US time (I think West Coast?) so I believe it will be 9pm tonight.

I asked ChatGPT earlier and it basically said the same. Estimated some time between 7 and 9pm.

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#3465704 28-Feb-2026 16:51

It's out

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langi27

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#3465895 2-Mar-2026 09:48

Wonder how many races in Middle East there will be this season. All those race are within easy reach of Iran and serious conflict.

Pretty sure teams won't want to travel into potential warzones.

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#3465899 2-Mar-2026 10:03

langi27:

Wonder how many races in Middle East there will be this season. All those race are within easy reach of Iran and serious conflict.

Pretty sure teams won't want to travel into potential warzones.

It'll cause a lot of disruption not just from a circuit perspective but also the logistics of travelling around the globe.

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#3465908 2-Mar-2026 10:15

Handsomedan:

langi27:

Wonder how many races in Middle East there will be this season. All those race are within easy reach of Iran and serious conflict.

Pretty sure teams won't want to travel into potential warzones.

It'll cause a lot of disruption not just from a circuit perspective but also the logistics of travelling around the globe.

This

All the teams are due to travel to Melbourne for the Australian F1 GP on Sunday.
I expect the majority of the air freight will have been due to leave the UK / Europe today or tomorrow and the personnel a day later. And of course home or onto the next venue a week today.
Qatar are "the official airline of F1" but their main hub is closed and under fire. It's going to be interesting.
😰😰😰

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#3465914 2-Mar-2026 10:53

Its finally race week! I'm also quietly positive that it looks like Sky will endeavour to show most/all of the races in 4K. Australia and China are marked as showing in UHD already.

Bring on Friday for FP1!

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#3465928 2-Mar-2026 12:20

Also I see Netflix may be showing the first F1 race this year too?

Looked closer and this is in the US only, where apple TV has the F1 race rights now.

tdgeek

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#3465929 2-Mar-2026 12:29

JPNZ:

Its finally race week! I'm also quietly positive that it looks like Sky will endeavour to show most/all of the races in 4K. Australia and China are marked as showing in UHD already.

Bring on Friday for FP1!

Yeah, will be super interesting albeit all over the place until Quali. Yes, always like that pretty much but much more so this time in

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#3465950 2-Mar-2026 14:12

Pirelli actually had a tyre test scheduled for Bahrain this past weekend that was cancelled last minute, I think McLaren and Merc were participating.

While this season's cars should be fine as they usually use special mule cars or TPC cars for these tests (depending if they want similar to current spec or happy to just test compounds), whomever the teams have sent (mechanics, drivers, support crew), plus Pirelli, FIA, FOM, etc personnel there may end up stuck if the airspace remains. Haven't seen anything about any concerns yet, but The Race & Planet F1 (I think theirs might've been just a comment on Reddit) did a good write ups about some of the issues.

Logistically if Bahrain and Saudi races get postponed, they're probably likely to be cancelled completely, looking at 2026 Gap between race weekends : r/formula1 they removed the 'second summer break' that existed last year, so logistically it could be hard to reschedule those races, even with sufficient notice. Maybe if Madrid falls through/fails track certification they could do a triple header Bahrain-Saudi-Baku, but otherwise it'd be a mess from what I can see.

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#3465964 2-Mar-2026 15:37

Bahrain is 10-12 April so definitely dicey.

Jeddah is the week following, 17-19 April. Jeddah is across the other side of the country on the Red Sea so might be safe enough in itself, but imagine there could be logistical challenges!

As an aside, a buddy is off to Europe shortly, flying via Seoul. Somehow it seems very 2026 that transiting via a country technically at war seems like a *way* better idea than the Middle East or North American routes.

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#3466066 2-Mar-2026 18:36

JPNZ:

Its finally race week!

Bring on Friday for FP1!

Can hardly wait for the end of the week and the start of competition in earnest. Supporting Lawson, Norris and Audi but happy to see most drivers do well.

Will work through the remaining DTS episodes by Friday, have watched three so far. Have to feel very sorry for Doohan and what happened there. I appreciate it's edited to accentuate the "drama" but the way he was targeted personally by rabid Colapinto fans with his well-being threatened was just shameful. That part of the world needs to grow up.

Sounds like all the teams/FOM have made arrangements to get the roadshow to Melbourne with a few charter flights involved. It's shaping as an event-filled weekend, potential for plenty of retirements with issues of one kind or another. The race start could be a disaster as drivers struggle to get their cars off the line and through T1 without hitting someone or being hit.

Hard to say who has the edge at the sharp end, but do expect the six drivers from Williams, Cadillac and Aston Martin to be filling the back of the grid come Sunday night.

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#3466080 2-Mar-2026 19:35

Will be disappointing to see Williams at the back. They've had a good run of late.

Survive to Drive has been interesting. Separately but related, it appears Lawson may have been used to force a higher sponsorship contribution from Honda to progress their guy Yuki. Was a horrible period for Lawson, especially given the limited testing time allowed these days. Moved into Red Bull over the Christmas/New Years period, then demoted mid season to a Racing Balls car he hadn't practised in. Rough.

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#3466095 2-Mar-2026 21:17

Jaxson:

Will be disappointing to see Williams at the back. They've had a good run of late.

Survive to Drive has been interesting. Separately but related, it appears Lawson may have been used to force a higher sponsorship contribution from Honda to progress their guy Yuki. Was a horrible period for Lawson, especially given the limited testing time allowed these days. Moved into Red Bull over the Christmas/New Years period, then demoted mid season to a Racing Balls car he hadn't practised in. Rough.

It pretty much confirmed to me that Marko never rated or wanted Lawson and it was all Horner that pushed for him, it might settle down at Red Bull this year that both Horner and Marko are out

Common sense is not as common as you think.

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#3466155 3-Mar-2026 10:11

Im picking Max to do well, RBR seems quick, and he will have read the rules 20 times by now, so IMO he has the best chance of nailing the battery/ICU challenges

Liam to do well, now that Marko is out, he can work with normal people making normal decisions and normal motivational factors

Happy if Ferrari step up

Jaxson

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#3466156 3-Mar-2026 10:11

Cripes he (Dr Marko) was 82 years old when he retired, after being at Red Bull for 20 years!?
That means he started there when most are thinking about retirement.

With him and Horny out of the way, yeah that likely sees the environment a bit more stable.

Survive to Drive was a bit different this year. Less fly on the wall documentary and more acted scenes was a bit weird.
Crazy yeah though, too much dramatic content to work with.

Theme of the season though was the conflicting leadership approaches, from dictators being grumpy and expecting that pressure to be leadership (Aston/Alpine/Red Bull), vs those looking to create an environment that supports and gets the most out of the drivers (Stake Sauber/Williams/Mercedes etc)

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