McLaren and Aston Martin have now completed the 2026 Formula 1 launch season after holding events in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, respectively, to unveil their new race liveries, and we now await the first of two three-day tests in Bahrain before the new campaign begins in earnest in Melbourne, Australia, in early March.

McLaren won both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ titles last year and is hoping to continue its strong form into 2026 with its new MCL40 challenger. The reigning world champion, Lando Norris, and Australia’s Oscar Piastri will continue as an impressive driver pairing for the Woking-based and Bahraini-owned team, and the new livery is essentially a development of last year’s, with papaya and black again the favoured colours.

However, so much will depend on how the individual designers, engineers and drivers have mastered the complex new regulations, which will impact on so many aspects of the sport. The changes represent literally the biggest season-to-season differences in the 75-year history of F1, with revised active aerodynamics, far less downforce, a greater reliance on hybrid electrical power, a smaller and lighter chassis, a sustainable new fuel and various different driver aids relating to the harvesting and deployment of the onboard battery’s electrical energy.

Driving a Formula 1 car will certainly be a noticeably more complex challenge for those behind the wheel, and there’s a belief that this may favour younger drivers like Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, who can perhaps prove themselves to be more adaptable to the revised technology and different racing techniques required. Ontrack F1 action may well look somewhat different, particularly during the early stages of the season, as drivers seek to get to grips with how best to utilise the new technology.



The Aston Martin launch included input from the outfit’s design guru and, for now at least, team principal, Adrian Newey, who transferred his allegiance from Red Bull last year, and there are high expectations about the Silverstone-based team’s fortunes after years of relative underperformance despite the vast sums of money invested by the owner, Lawrence Stroll. Newey has a long association with Formula 1 and rarely fails to produce a strong contender, with the new AMR26 looking decidedly interesting and, in some ways, quite unusual from a technical point of view, entering ground other teams have deliberately chosen to avoid.

Also, Aston Martin has bravely, if perhaps questionably, opted to ditch Mercedes propulsion after a long relationship and is now at the start of a unique partnership with Honda, as the latter will be providing power units solely for F1’s British Racing Green liveried cars. It’s still to become clear whether this change will help or hinder the team and the other big question mark surrounds the retention of its existing driver pairing. Lance Stroll, the owner’s son, is competent but certainly not world champion material and may well never even win a Grand Prix, while the other car will be pedalled by the veteran Spaniard, Fernando Alonso.

The 44-year-old can still show flashes of raw speed, but it’s impossible to ignore the stark facts that he was last a world champion way back in 2006 and hasn’t won a single Grand Prix since his home event in 2013. This leads to a strong argument for the team to perhaps look to replace both drivers without further undue delay, but time will tell on this front. While still on the subject of Aston Martin, the British 2009 world champion, Jenson Button, now aged 46 and having retired from active race driving, has been signed on a multi-year deal as a team ambassador, a role he previously undertook for Williams.




Writing of the Williams team, it was highly embarrassing and unfortunate when it was forced to miss the entire five-day shakedown in Barcelona due to production delays and other issues related to its new car, the FW48. It was, though, given an ontrack debut at Silverstone last Wednesday, and it certainly sports a very attractive livery. As always though, pure race pace is what determines success in Formula 1, and we can but await the outcome. Spain’s Carlos Sainz and the Thai-British Alex Albon will continue as the outfit’s race drivers this season.



The 24-year-old Brit, Luke Browning, finished fourth in last season’s Formula 2 campaign behind the wheel of a Hitech GP car and will be an F1 reserve driver for Williams this season. While on the subject of highly promising young drivers from our shores, 17-year-old Freddie Slater is certainly already making headlines as he too climbs the motorsport pyramid. He has won five titles since starting to race cars in late 2022, following a very successful karting career, and to date he has won 54 times out of 155 starts. In 2025 he became the Formula Regional European champion, and this season he will seek further success in FIA Formula 3, with the new Audi Formula 1 team having recently signed him up for its Driver Development Programme.



Audi may have taken over the former Sauber team, but the Cadillac entry for the 2026 season is a genuinely brand-new contender, with a steep learning curve ahead of it. In addition to all the significant costs related to establishing from scratch a totally new operation, it is also having to pay a US$450m dilution fee to be shared amongst the other 10 existing teams. This issue relates to the fact that the arrival of Cadillac will result in future end-of-season prize money pots being split 11 ways rather than 10. Former F1 racers Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez have been recruited as its drivers, and they will certainly provide plenty of valuable experience, if perhaps questionable speed.

With the team being from the USA and based there as well as at Silverstone, it was very appropriate that the livery for its new car was revealed in a television advert break during American football’s massively popular Super Bowl final on Sunday evening local time in California (early Monday GMT), even if the outfit’s CEO admitted the exposure had cost them up to US$20m. The livery proved to be a two-sided affair, with the left flank mainly a greyish-white colour and the other side largely black, with TWG, the name of the team’s owner, prominently displayed. It reminded me of the BAR team’s livery back in 1999 when one side was red and white and the other blue and yellow for differing sponsors.



Formula 1’s popularity in the USA is already growing exponentially, but publicity during the Super Bowl can only help the sport reach out to so many football diehards and others, who might now just decide to start checking out F1 and their new American team on a regular basis too.