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Obituary: Legendary Porsche engineer Peter Falk
Peter Falk should rightfully be remembered as a true Porsche legend. The engineer, who recently died aged 93, played key roles in the success of the Stuttgart marque’s two most famous racing sportscars, the 917 and 956/962. Falk was present as the lead engineer from Porsche at the Osterriechring ...
Why KTM should be encouraged after first MotoGP Sepang test
The opening day of the Sepang MotoGP test offered KTM plenty of reasons for encouragement, even if it remains too early to draw firm conclusions about the true performance of the 2026 RC16. The Austrian manufacturer took an aggressive development approach over the winter, with greater stability a...
Williams launches 2026 F1 car livery
Williams has unveiled the livery for its delayed 2026 Formula 1 car. The FW48 will feature a mainly dark blue and black design like its predecessors, but will also feature light blue and white on its sidepods, accommodating the Barclays and Komatsu logos, with more white on the front and rear win...
Aston Martin was four months late with 2026 F1 car design, Newey reveals
Adrian Newey has revealed Aston Martin didn’t start its 2026 wind tunnel programme until mid-April 2025, which accounts for the team’s current setback. As Formula 1 held a five-day shakedown last week at Barcelona, where each team was allowed to run on three days, Aston completed just one full da...
Rally Finland drops famous stage for WRC 2026
The famous Ouninpohja stage, regarded as one of most revered in the World Rally Championship, has been dropped from Rally Finland this year as part of an event itinerary revamp. The 32.98km gravel rollercoaster, which has earned cult status over the years, made its return to Rally Finland in 2024...
How energy management could turn F1 2026 into “speed chess”
The 2026 Formula 1 regulations do not only represent a major shake-up for all designers and engineers behind the scenes - in fact, the work of recent months on the new generation of cars has only been part of the story. An equally important aspect is how drivers must deal with the new tools at th...
Quartararo suffers early exit to MotoGP Sepang test after finger break
Fabio Quartararo will sit out the remainder of MotoGP’s Sepang pre-season test after breaking a finger in a crash on Tuesday. Just an hour into the start of collective testing in Malaysia, Quartararo went down at Turn 5 on his V4-powered Yamaha M1 and had to be taken to the medical centre for che...
MotoGP Sepang test: Marquez tops Day 1 as Quartararo crashes
Ducati’s star rider Marc Marquez topped the opening day of MotoGP’s official pre-season test in Malaysia, while a crash sidelined Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo for much of the running. Riding a MotoGP bike for the first time since his incident with Marco Bezzecchi in Indonesia in October, Marquez lea...
Haas signs Doohan as reserve driver for F1 2026
Haas has signed Jack Doohan as a reserve driver for the 2026 Formula 1 campaign. Doohan will join Ryo Hirakawa in the role, with Toyota’s Hypercar driver having held the position since last April as the Japanese brand expanded its involvement in the American outfit. A product of the Red Bull and ...
The challenges facing Williams ahead of F1 2026
It’s a demonstration of the merciless nature of Formula 1 that Williams, statistically one of the most successful teams of all time in terms of championships won, has been bumping along the bottom for more than two decades and narrowly avoided financial extinction at the turn of the decade. Willi...
Button switches from Williams to Aston Martin in F1 team ambassador role
Aston Martin has signed 2009 Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button as its team ambassador on a multi-year deal. Button previously was an ambassador with additional advisor and heritage driver roles for Williams from 2021 to 2025, having made his F1 debut with the team in 2000. The Briton never r...
How fears on F1's new rules have been soothed despite downshifting on straights and lift and coast
After early complaints based on simulator runs, drivers have been cautiously optimistic about the new regulations after the first on-track running of 2026. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff goes a step further, stating that he has seen “no negatives” with the all-new machinery. “I don't see any worst...
Wolff tells Mercedes' F1 rivals to "get your s*** together" over engine complaints
Mercedes Formula 1 team principal Toto Wolff has called on rival power unit manufacturers to "just get your s*** together" after they voiced complaints to the FIA on Mercedes' interpretation of the regulations. The 2026 power unit regulations prescribe an engine compression ratio of 16:1, down fr...
Alex Marquez: "Gresini most solid option, but this may be a time to take a risk"
Alex Marquez, who is finalising his signing with KTM’s factory team for 2027, believes that more than half of the MotoGP grid will have their contracts settled before the first race of the season. The younger Marquez's market value has increased exponentially since he finished runner-up in the 20...
Why overtaking still looks "difficult" with 2026 F1 cars
Both Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman are pessimistic about overtaking with Formula 1’s 2026 machinery following the Barcelona pre-season test. The Haas drivers were on track for three days – as many as allowed – in F1’s shakedown last week and completed nearly 400 laps according to unofficial dat...
Russell confident Mercedes 2026 car isn't a "turd" - but too early for F1 title talk
Formula 1 2026 world championship favourite George Russell is confident Mercedes has produced a strong car for the upcoming season - but refused to declare it a potential title contender. This year F1 will introduce a whole new set of regulations with changes to both the chassis and power unit an...
Horner: "I have unfinished business in F1", targets project that can "win"
Former Red Bull Formula 1 chief Christian Horner has given his clearest indication yet that he is keen to return to the series, declaring he has "unfinished business" with F1. Under Horner's reign, Red Bull achieved two periods of dominance and won eight drivers' titles, four apiece for Verstappe...
Honda reveals 2026 bike to complete MotoGP launch season
Honda took the covers off its 2026 MotoGP bike during an online launch on Monday ahead of the start of pre-season testing at Sepang. Factory riders Joan Mir and Luca Marini revealed the latest evolution of the RC213V, which continues to run in the corporate red, white and blue colours of Honda Ra...
Bezzecchi signs new multi-year contract with Aprilia in MotoGP
Marco Bezzecchi will remain at Aprilia until at least the end of the 2028 MotoGP season after signing a new multi-year deal with the Noale-based marque. While Autosport reported last week that 2024 champion Jorge Martin is finalising a contract to join Yamaha next year, his current team-mate Bezz...
The challenges facing Mercedes ahead of F1 2026
It has been five years since Mercedes last won the Formula 1 world championship – the 2021 constructors’ title, with its last triumph in the drivers’ standings dating back to 2020 with Lewis Hamilton. As Mercedes holds its 2026 season launch on Monday, let’s look at its prospects for the upcoming...
Acosta: KTM's 2026 MotoGP bike feels "like built from zero"
Pedro Acosta says the scale of upgrades KTM has introduced over the winter makes him feel as though the Austrian manufacturer has built an entirely new MotoGP bike from scratch. Although there are serious doubts over whether Acosta will remain with KTM in the next rule cycle, there is growing opt...
What caused Hadjar’s Red Bull crash at Barcelona F1 shakedown
Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar has explained what caused his crash on Tuesday at the Barcelona Formula 1 shakedown. The new Red Bull driver suffered the only major accident of the shakedown week at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, as he went off at the final corner late on Tuesday in wet conditions. Hadj...
Ducati debuts aerodynamic package at Sepang MotoGP shakedown
Ducati introduced a significantly updated aerodynamic package on its Desmosedici GP at the Sepang shakedown test, offering a first glimpse of major aero developments ahead of the 2026 MotoGP season. The bike run by test rider Michele Pirro in Malaysia looked markedly different from the version sh...
DS Penske surprised by rain at Miami Formula E
For once, Florida, the famous 'Sunshine State', did not offer clear skies during this weekend at the end of January. In fact, last-minute rain disrupted the teams' car set-up plans, influencing the results, affecting the DS Penske team's results. On this Formula 1 circuit, shortened to 2.32km for...
Formula E Miami: Evans charges to victory in wet
Mitch Evans has kickstarted his Formula E campaign with a stunning charge through the field to take victory in the wet in the Miami E-Prix. The Jaguar driver, who had failed to score a point in the opening two rounds, surged from ninth on the grid with a smart energy conservation strategy before ...
LCR Honda reveals split liveries for 2026 MotoGP season
Team LCR has revealed the satellite Honda RC213Vs it will campaign in the 2026 MotoGP season. The French squad will once again run different liveries across its two bikes, instead of a unified design, as it heads into the final year of the current regulation cycle. Team leader Johann Zarco will c...
Why Hamilton has found the new F1 cars more fun to drive
Lewis Hamilton’s wealth of Formula 1 experience puts him in the best place to assess the new generation of cars – and he’s enjoying what he is driving so far. The seven-time F1 world champion is entering the fifth major regulations overhaul of his career and has often been vocal about which era o...
Newey’s extreme Aston, Red Bull, and Mercedes: Early technical trends of F1 2026
After the shakedown in Barcelona, the first question to ask is whether it really had to be so secretive. Of course, it matters that ‘official’ winter testing is organised in Bahrain and that, for commercial reasons, only that event is allowed to carry that name, but fears of a repeat of 2014 have...
Gresini unveils 2026 livery as Alex Marquez secures factory-spec Ducati
Gresini Racing unveiled the livery of its 2026 MotoGP bikes at a presentation in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday. Following the conclusion of MotoGP’s Shakedown test at the Sepang International Circuit, Gresini travelled to Malaysia’s capital to reveal the bikes Alex Marquez and Fermin Aldeguer will rac...
Honda tops MotoGP’s Sepang Shakedown test as Espargaro goes fastest
Aleix Espargaro led the way for Honda during MotoGP’s official Shakedown Test at the Sepang International Circuit, leading his KTM-mounted brother Pol Espargaro. MotoGP organised three days of official running in Malaysia this week, but participation was limited to test riders from each manufactu...
Alex Marquez targeting factory MotoGP seat at Yamaha and KTM
Alex Marquez is chasing a factory seat in MotoGP for 2027 following his breakthrough campaign in MotoGP last year. After spending much of his career in the shadow of his older brother Marc Marquez, the Gresini rider emerged runner-up in 2025 with an impressive campaign that included three grand p...
Team by team: How Barcelona's F1 shakedown went for the 2026 field
The complexity of F1's 2026 rules overhaul is such that teams requested an extra shakedown on top of two three-day tests in Bahrain to prepare for the start of the season in Melbourne in March. The new power units, with a much bigger reliance on a more powerful electric MGU-K system, caused such ...
Verstappen on Red Bull F1 engine: "Still quite a bit of work to do"
Max Verstappen stated “there’s still quite a bit of work to do” on his new Red Bull Ford Powertrain after the Barcelona Formula 1 shakedown. F1 hosted a five-day private test in Barcelona this week, where all 11 teams were given a maximum of three days running ahead of this season’s wholesale reg...
Alonso's verdict on Aston Martin's first proper day of 2026 F1 running
Given the revolving door of technical directors, team principals and CEOs at Aston Martin in recent seasons, the scrutiny of its activities during the Barcelona shakedown would have been intense even if its new car were not the first product of its new structure under Adrian Newey. The team was t...
What happened on day five of F1's secretive 2026 shakedown
Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap on the final day of Formula 1’s 2026 shakedown in Barcelona, while Mercedes conducted the most mileage across the week. The Ferrari driver completed an unofficial 1m16.348s towards the end of day five at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, knocking former Mercedes s...
Trump signs executive order for IndyCar race in Washington D.C.
At first, it seemed like a joke or wishful thinking, but the concept of a 2026 IndyCar street race in Washington D.C. is now very real. United States secretary of transportation Sean Duffy posted an AI-generated video last week, depicting IndyCar racing around the National Mall, which led to pres...
"Heroes Arena": The bold new plan to save GT amateur racing
When motorsport fans think of "heroes," they usually picture factory drivers battling for tenths of a second at Spa or Le Mans. However, the financial reality of customer racing is quite different: it is the ambitious amateurs and "gentleman drivers" who keep the sport alive. The "GT Summer Serie...
The "huge changes" Aston Martin had to overcome to make the Barcelona F1 shakedown
Like Indiana Jones snatching his misplaced fedora from under a rapidly descending stone doorway, Aston Martin’s timing was dramatically close to the edge this week. The team arrived for the Barcelona shakedown week late on the third of the five days and only achieved a handful of laps when its AM...
Acosta set to join Ducati in 2027 alongside Marquez
With Fabio Quartararo heading to Honda and Jorge Martin on his way to Yamaha, Ducati has been the MotoGP team under the least pressure, largely thanks to the calm conveyed by Marc Marquez in his recent statements. The Spaniard made it clear that his intention is to remain with the team that allow...
Will Yamaha ditch its triplane aero for Ducati-style winglets in MotoGP?
One look at the 2026-spec Yamaha M1 is enough to show that the V4 engine isn’t the only departure from the recent past. In recent MotoGP seasons, the Iwata-based manufacturer had explored the same aerodynamic concept pioneered by Aprilia, opting for a gull-wing profile on the fairing, which in th...
Doohan's Super Formula plans fall through at the last minute
Ex-Formula 1 racer Jack Doohan will not race in Super Formula after all this season after his negotiations with Kondo Racing ended without an agreement. Kondo announced on Friday that Ukyo Sasahara will fill its second seat for the 2026 campaign, the Japanese driver joining the previously-announc...
What happened on day four of F1's secretive 2026 shakedown
Aston Martin finally appeared on track in the latter stages of the fourth day of the Barcelona Formula 1 shakedown, while Mercedes kept collecting miles and McLaren's day was cut short with trouble. Fresh from turning over 90 laps apiece on Wednesday, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell trad...
Exclusive interview: Lowdon on why Cadillac F1 hired on values over ability
As Formula 1's first expansion team in a decade, Cadillac is very much up against it to take on F1's establishment when its veteran race winners Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez join the grid in March. Following an intense recruitment spree for its bases in Silverstone and North America, which th...
How Williams benefits from F1 Barcelona shakedown - despite no running
It has been a very weird week in the world of Formula 1: cars have hit the track for the first time in 2026 but the general public, media included, has only been drip-fed information. In a world where everything is usually on constant demand, putting the Barcelona shakedown behind closed doors as...
Exclusive: Martin finalising two-year Yamaha MotoGP deal
Yamaha and Jorge Martin are finalising the details that will see the Spaniard become a factory rider for the Japanese manufacturer for the next two seasons, Motorsport.com has learned. This move follows the one reported by this publication earlier on Thursday, which will see Fabio Quartararo leav...
Alpine's innovative 2026 F1 rear wing explained
Alpine needs to turn a page in its history. Team boss Flavio Briatore insisted on swapping from Renault to Mercedes power, removing one long-standing excuse for its underperformance. The Enstone-based team finished last year at the bottom of the constructors’ championship and its engineers have r...
Mercedes impresses with first race sim at F1's Barcelona shakedown
Mercedes has delivered a strong start to the 2026 Formula 1 pre-season as Andrea Kimi Antonelli completed a full race simulation on day two. The Mercedes W17 ran reliably on both Monday and Wednesday, with George Russell having completed 92 laps by lunchtime yesterday before handing over the car ...
What the new F1 rules mean for driver workload: ‘An element of subjectivity’
Almost every driver who has run so far during the Formula 1 shakedown in Barcelona came up with the same line after climbing out of the car: “It’s very different from what we’re used to.” That starts with the fact that the 2026 cars have considerably less downforce, and less downforce usually mea...
Exclusive: Honda agrees deal with Quartararo for 2027 MotoGP season
Honda’s factory MotoGP team has agreed a deal with Fabio Quartararo for the next two seasons, Autosport has learned. The 26-year-old Frenchman will leave Yamaha after agreeing a deal with HRC for 2027 and 2028, bringing to an end his association with the manufacturer, which handed him his MotoGP ...
Norris: "Surreal" to see number 1 on my car as McLaren kicks off F1 2026 testing
Lando Norris says driving around as the reigning Formula 1 world champion was a "surreal" feeling as he took to the track in Barcelona for a day of discovering his 2026 McLaren MCL40. McLaren delayed its start to pre-season testing until Wednesday, the third of five shakedown days at the Circuit ...
