Mercedes technical director James Allison admitted he was pleasantly surprised by how reliable the new 2026 Formula 1 cars were during private testing in Barcelona
Mercedes technical director James Allison has been surprised by the reliability of the new regulation cars at the private testing in Barcelona.
The 2026 Formula 1 season marks the start of a new regulation era in the championship. Included in the major regulations overhaul are a power unit with a 50:50 split between internal combustion and electric power, smaller and lighter cars, and active aerodynamics.
To give teams more testing opportunities ahead of the season-opener in Australia from 6-8 March, private testing was held in Barcelona last week before Bahrain testing on 11-13 February and 18-20 February.
As he reflected on the testing during the live Mercedes launch event, Allison explained that he had expected the week at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya to be filled with red flags.
"I think the biggest thing that surprised us, and I'm guessing it's true also for our competitors, has been the really quite astonishing level of reliability that we've seen up and down the grid," Allison explained.
"With everything new as it is, I think it would have been reasonable to expect this first shakedown test to have been just a symphony of red flags and smoking vehicles, but that really hasn't happened.
"And in fact, for the most part, the reliability of these cars has been absolutely comparable, in some cases, better than last year's winter testing, with things that were far more mature, and which were very well understood.
"So that has definitely been a surprise to us, a welcome surprise, and I hope something that means that we can go into the new season, just concentrating on the racing, rather than trying to keep everything held together with baling wire and sticking tape."
The Barcelona shakedown was also the first opportunity that the teams had to check out the competition.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
"Well, intensely, of course," Allison said when asked how interested he was in the other teams. "Everybody spends the whole of the year or so it takes to design and build these cars, working in a vacuum, absolutely focused on what you're doing, intensely caring about putting as much performance as you possibly can into those cars.
"But knowing that up and down the land and abroad as well, there are other groups doing exactly the same, wrestling with the same challenge, and thinking about it probably differently to the way we are. And so when we do all emerge into the light, we just fall upon their designs to try to see what they may have found that we may have missed.
"And we take as many photos as we can, and then if we see something that is tricky to understand, we will put people on it until they do. If we see something that we think, 'Oh, crikey, we should have thought of that', then we'll start working on that as fast as we can.
"And just overall, we are completely shameless plagiarists, and the reason we're shameless is that we know all of our competitors are exactly the same. Part of the sport is doing what you can with the skills you have on your own. And then when you all come together, then working out what other people have done and trying to learn from them as well."
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Category: General Sports
