Formula 1 teams face a dilemma this season. They have to decide when to stop the development of this year’s car to focus on 2026, because Christian Horner, the Lord of the Red Bull team, said it was “the biggest change of adjustment in probably 50 or 60 years in the history of the sport”.
Teams are developing their cars at a time as they fight for drivers and manufacturers or try to improve their positions. The higher a team ends, the more money prizes wins.
This year is different. Changes to the regulations in 2026, including engine configuration, means that teams have to focus early on the car of next season. Growth for 2025 could stop after some Grands Prix.
James Vowles, director of the Williams team, said his team would fall on the line. “I am very clear from the beginning that 2026 is the year I want to focus, and this will have an effect on 2025,” he said.
“There will be team upgrades. I am sure you will see a match on the front of the league and be in a commitment to whether they will invest in 2025 or 2026.”
Vowles could not name a specific date or match when Williams would look next year. “Mostly because I want to see how we get out of the gate this year,” he said.
“The only thing to make a difference is when we turn a come Australia wheel,” referring to the races starting with the first Grand Prix on March 16th. “But even then, I don’t think our path will change from where we are.”
McLaren is heading to the new season with manufacturers to defend. Last season, she won her first in 26 years, ending up in Red Bull’s dominance after winning the championship in the previous two seasons.
Andrea Stella, director of the McLaren team, said the teams will “have to call according to your realistic opportunities to win races and compete for the championship”.
McLaren has developed her car for this year “as quickly as possible” to make use of her success last season and maintain her title.
“There will be some updates during the first races of the season, but that would be the same, even without the changes to the 2026 regulations,” Stella said.
“With four teams, at any weekend, in a state to win a race, it would be very easy to fall from being in place on the P8 on the network, so we are full of growth in terms of growth and we will see if we could develop more than our 2024 competitors.
McLaren finished 14 points ahead of Ferrari in the ranking of manufacturers last year. Ferrari, now has Lewis Hamilton, a seven -time champion, leading this season, has not won the title since 2008.
Frédérick Vasseur, director of his team, said the changes to the regulation, which included significant revisions in the car’s aerodynamics, were very important.
“If we have to develop the current car, it will be the first pair of races, and then I think everyone will shift the focus,” he said. “I don’t want to say that we will stop the current car. But we will focus more on 2026.
“It means that the first races and the first upgrade we bring to the car will be vital for the season.”
Mercedes did not question a title, as the current rules designed for closer matches were introduced for 2022. Last season, it won four Grands Prix, but ended a distant quarter in the ranking, 198 points behind McLaren.
Toto Wolff, the team manager, feels the opportunity to capitalize this year if Mercedes is making a strong start for the season.
“We are fighting for wins and depths and we can’t write it,” he said. “Yes, the transition of people and the capacity to the 2026 regulations will happen a little earlier than would be under constant regulations, but the game will not change.”
Wolff said that Niki Lauda’s words, three -time Mercedes champion and non -champion before his death in 2019, were inspired by how to approach the next two seasons.
“Nike, when asked,” would you rather win this championship or next? “He would say,” both, “Wolff said.
Red Bull fell to the third in the manufacturers ‘championship last year, despite the Max Verstappen driver, winning the drivers’ championship for the fourth consecutive year.
Its dilemma is more acute. For the first time, it develops its own engine at the Red Bull Powertrains at its headquarters in England. Ford has joined as a technical partner.
“One of our concerns, when we undertake this project, was that we lost the depth of knowledge compared to Ferrari, Mercedes or any other OEM team,” Horner said, referring to automakers.
“Then, this collaboration with Ford of course happened and gave us a great deal of collaboration, so enthusiasm in the various sections that we can go to toe-to-toe with what our competitors have at their disposal.”
He said it was “under illusions” that his team has “a mountain to climb” to compete in 2026.
Horner has an experience of fighting for titles in the last race with new regulations. Red Bull did it in 2021 when Verstappen won the driver championship, but the team lost the manufacturers in Mercedes.
If Red Bull is in a similar situation this year, important decisions should be made.
“Inevitably, your growth takes the season more, which is particularly difficult,” Horner said. “We saw that in 2021 it enters ’22, where you have a great conceptual change of regulations.
“If there is a tight championship and goes down to the cable, then this will be a harsh act of balancing for the various groups to choose how they are distributed to their resources.”
