Karun Chandhok: Five big questions ahead of the 2026 F1 season

As I write this column, the Formula 1 world has just woken up from the winter slumber and seen the first teases of a 2026 F1 car as Audi has had its shakedown in Barcelona. There are so many unknowns heading into this new era of F1 but I thought I would try and pick the top-five storylines I am looking forward to for 2026.

Will the Lewis/Ferrari dream come true?

Lewis’s first season without a podium while his team-mate racked up seven wasn’t what anyone expected when he left Mercedes in the most shocking driver move in F1 history. The relationship between team and driver hasn’t quite gelled and both sides have talked about the cultural change being greater than Lewis expected.

“Wouldn’t it brilliant to see a feisty Fernando fighting for the title?”

There will be a lot of pressure on Ferrari to get it right in the new era. It started the 2014 hybrid era way behind on the power unit side and cannot afford to have the same start this time around. I would really love to see Lewis win a title for Ferrari. It will be brilliant for the sport but it won’t be easy, especially as to be successful Lewis will first have to beat a Charles Leclerc who has stopped making the mistakes that we saw a few years ago and is reaching his peak.

Could this be George Russell’s big chance?

All of the rumours have centred around Mercedes getting the jump on everyone else, like it did in 2014, which puts Russell, who drove incredibly well last year, at the top of the favourites list.

While I have no doubt that the team at Brixworth will do an outstanding job, I am not sure it will be as clear cut as we had at the start of the previous hybrid era. The engineers know much more about electric and hybrid technology than they did 12 years ago and Mercedes HPP has also had a little bit of a brain drain of people leaving there to go to other places, especially Red Bull Powertrains.

The other challenge is that Mercedes supplies McLaren, Williams and Alpine and the first of those teams is the reigning double constructors’ world champions. This means that even if the Merc power unit is a step ahead, Oscar and Lando will be right in the fight with the works Mercedes team.

How will Red Bull cope with doing it all?

This era is a massive leap for Red Bull as it moves from being ‘just a race team’ to also an engine manufacturer. Oddly the architects of this move, Christian Horner, Helmut Marko and Adrian Newey, are all gone and it will be up to Laurent Mekies to work with the Powertrains division and Ford to make a success of it all. The team seems optimistic that it has recruited well and is hitting its targets on performance but the proof will be in the pudding when we get to Melbourne.

Red Bull will take a lot of confidence from the second half of last year after a tough 12 months where it lost its way. This would have made Red Bull question its design and simulation tools, not what you need heading into a big rules reset. The last six months of 2025 would have resulted in a collective sigh of relief in Milton Keynes and I expect the chassis side to be strong again, although the loss of Adrian is a factor.

How will the Newey/Aston era begin?

Adrian Newey’s move to Aston Martin was one of the biggest news stories of last season. Full credit to Lawrence Stroll for throwing a massive amount of investment into the team but there is a huge amount of change in the Silverstone operation. Not only has it got a whole new structure of people in place under Newey, but it also has a new engine supplier in Honda and is making its own gearbox for the first time in nearly two decades. This means that Aston needs a lot of new elements to gel quickly but wouldn’t it be brilliant to see a feisty 44-year-old Fernando Alonso in an Adrian Newey-designed Aston Martin fighting for the title?

How will Audi and Cadillac get on?

I’m really intrigued to see where Cadillac is going to be. Having raced for two of the new teams in 2010 and 2011, I know just how hard it is to break into F1. Cadillac, however, is in a different position as it seems to have a healthy budget and has aggressively recruited a lot of experienced people from other teams. If it can get out of Q1 regularly for a start, that will be a solid base to build on.

Audi comes to the pinnacle of the sport after so many years of success in other racing categories. By taking over Sauber, it may seem to have less of a challenge than Cadillac, but creating its own power unit to take on the Formula 1 incumbents isn’t something that should be underestimated.