Ferrari’s Fred Vasseur voiced similar sentiments late last season about how competitive the field currently is.
“I don’t remember a championship where you had four teams winning races, three teams still able to be champion two events before the end,” he said. “This kind of competition two races before the end. It’s not so often.
“I think it will be probably even better next year [2025], because we have a kind of convergence of performance the last two or three years. And this is good for F1, good for the championship. Then we will see about 2026…”
“Do you want to stay focused a little bit, or not at all, on 2025?”
Even before this year’s models have taken to the track teams have been putting much of their aero R&D focus into their 2026 projects. Exactly how they chose to balance their resources between the two parallel programmes will have a major impact on how this coming season unfolds.
“We will all be fully focused on 2026 quite early into the season,” said Vasseur. “I don’t want to go deep in detail, but I think we’ll do all the same the first two or three months. And it’s more by the end of March that we’ll have to take a decision. Do you want to stay focused a little bit, or not at all, on 2025?”
Aerodynamic research ban is lifted
Wind tunnels spun into action on January 2 as the ban on 2026 testing was lifted
McLaren
January 2 was a hugely significant day for F1 teams as they were finally allowed to launch their aero research into their 2026 cars, weeks before their 2025 contenders had even run on track.
A very sensible rule designed in effect to protect them from themselves ensured that teams had hitherto not been able to carry out any CFD or wind tunnel work for 2026, other than some basic CFD research authorised and collated by the FIA as part of a joint effort to fine tune the regulations. The results were in turn shared between all the competitors ahead of the rules being tweaked and signed off.
Stopping teams from starting work early on a future rules set wouldn’t have been possible a few years ago. However, in these days of strict FIA aerodynamic testing restrictions the governing body monitors everything that happens in wind tunnels so closely that it would have been impossible for teams to conduct their own 2026 aero work on the sly.
Up until January 1 teams could focus entirely on their 2025 projects, and throw everything at them. And with no rule changes there was a fine dividing line between work for 2024 and ’25 cars, which is why some teams were bringing new parts to the track until the final race last year.
Sauber brought a major update last year’s season finale in Abu Dhabi
Sauber
The challenge they all now face is how to split their resources between the two parallel projects for the remainder of the season. It’s a conundrum that they face every season, but it’s one that is always more complicated when major rule changes are coming, and you need to front-load the work on the following year’s car.
The wind tunnel shuffle
There was nothing to stop them working on the mechanical aspects of 2026 prior to January 2, other than the fact that the FIA financial regulations and budget cap keep a lid on head counts, and thus any personnel looking at 2026 had to be diverted from 2025.
That in turn impacted team decisions regarding how much mechanical stuff was carried over or modified for this season – including the chassis – and some will have changed more than others.
And as Horner noted, the 2026 rule changes are perhaps the most significant we’ve ever seen, with a new power unit package adding to the complications.