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On Tuesday the Racing Bulls VCARB03 car took to the track for the first time as part of a 15 kilometer run. To do this, the team chose the Enzo and Dino Ferrari circuit in Imola, just 15 kilometers away from their base.

Despite the short distance (only three laps) (that’s how many laps can be done on this track within limits), this trip provided a number of photos of the car from different angles, videos of the spins and even the first event of the season.

Although championship newcomers Audi and Cadillac have been on the track before, their races were private and did not provide truly valuable photographs. In Racing Bulls, on the contrary, it is now possible to fully evaluate the team’s trends and innovations and compare them with the limited material of other teams.

What will change in the 2026 season

Everyone knows the general direction of innovations: cars will become smaller (20 cm long and 10 cm wide), lighter (32 kg), active aerodynamics will appear, and power plants will undergo significant changes – the ratio of the electric motor and internal combustion engine will now be 50/50. So what does this mean in practice?

Compared with previous generation machines, the level of ground effect will decrease sharply. This is the principle of pressing the car against the asphalt due to the air flow at the bottom: when the air passes there faster, the pressure decreases and the car seems to “suck” the track. This is what allowed me to pivot faster.

However, in the new rules the lower part has been significantly simplified, so this effect has been partially eliminated. It was replaced by the concept of “rake”, which will be discussed later. What consequences this will have and what alternative solutions the teams have used will be discussed below.

Nose and front suspension

For convenience, the material will be presented in the format of an overview of individual elements of the car, from the front to the rear wing.

The nose of the car first caught my attention. The differences between the Racing Bulls and the other teams that managed to enter the track, especially Cadillac, are already noticeable here.

As mentioned above, active aerodynamics will come into force from next year. The level of downforce will decrease in straight lines and the wing elements will change position during turns, allowing the vehicle to turn with maximum pressure. This requires a special mechanism and, as with the rear wing, there are several options for its implementation, each with its own nuances and advantages.

Cadillac placed it under the nose of the car using a central active aerodynamic mechanism (the white ellipse in the photo below). Racing Bulls also went the other way – with two fasteners, one on each side (red circles in the photo below).

The American solution has many advantages: lighter, less harmful vortex in the central part of the wing, as well as a simpler mechanism with fewer hydraulic elements.

At the same time, this arrangement creates turbulent flows in the central part of the base. The Racing Bulls solution, although inferior in performance, potentially allows airflows to be split to the sides and reduces downforce losses due to dirty air.

It is still unknown which option will be more effective. After the first episode of the season, it will become clear which solutions will take root better under the new rules.

As for the front suspension, the Faenza team switched from pull rod to push rod (blue lines in the photo below).

This solution has some trade-offs. Theoretically, the drawbar suspension has a lower center of mass for all internal components. This lowers the car’s center of gravity and has a positive effect on its stability. In addition, the towbar itself creates less aerodynamic drag and reduces “blocking” of airflow at the front of the car.

At the same time, this plan is more difficult to maintain and install, has a large mass and is also less reliable; This makes it not the best choice for the start of new regulations. Especially for Racing Bulls who rely on the balance of the car.

In addition, the layout of the front suspension has also changed: the angle of inclination of the upper suspension arm is noticeably less than in the 2025 version (burgundy stripes in the photo below). This signals a less aggressive approach to suspension geometry and less emphasis on aggressively tackling ground clearance during frontal braking.

What is the rake and middle part of the car

Almost everything in the central part of the car largely repeats or resembles the decisions of the 2017-2021 regulations.

The leading edge of the underbody features large-scale aerodynamic elements that create vortices that direct dirty air away from the wheels and prevent outside air from entering under the underbody. This region will probably be one of the most dynamic regions in terms of the number of changes throughout the season.

One of the main “updates” on 2026 cars is the rake. It is noteworthy that in the photographs of the vehicles of all teams currently on the track, the rear part is quite higher than the front.

F1 cars for the 2026 season will have much less ground effect than previous generation cars. Therefore, they no longer need to be lowered onto the pallet as before, making adjustment easier and reducing the risk of underbody damage due to bumps.

Increased ground clearance and high rake, common in cars by 2022, help direct airflow underneath more efficiently. This creates additional downforce even at greater distances from the track, increasing the aerodynamic stability of the car and allowing better cornering at high speeds.

This solution also reduces the effect of polluted air from vehicles in front, reducing the risk of loss of downforce during braking or acceleration, making the car more predictable and controllable.

The central air intake above the pilot’s head, that is, its size, also attracted attention. This may be due to the specifics of the new regulations, but noticeably less so for Audi and Cadillac.

This may be due to the design and layout of the Red Bull Ford powertrain. More details about the effectiveness and impact of this decision will become clear later, when Red Bull, another car with this engine, takes to the track.

The area of ​​the car’s sidepods and air intakes (shown by a rectangle in the photo above) is very similar to last year’s solutions. In the currently available images, it is possible to see a similar concept in both Cadillac and Audi. Most likely this approach will become the most popular in the peloton and teams will not literally repeat rendering decisions as some teams did in 2022.

For comparison, you can pay attention to what Audi showed in its show car the day before. The air intakes here are noticeably larger than those of the VCARB03.

Rear suspension and wing

First of all, you should pay attention to the rear suspension design of the 2026 Racing Bulls. Like the front, it is made according to the pushrod design. But if the front suspension does not look radical and does not have extreme solutions to combat “anti-ring”, the situation with the rear is the opposite.

The rear design clearly shows that, compared to the 2025 version, the team aims to maintain and possibly increase the effect of stabilizing the ride height under load. First of all, we are talking about controlling the height of the rear of the car when braking and entering corners.

This decision seems quite logical, considering the return of the commission concept. It aims to maintain stable downforce, better tire contact with the track and predictable car behavior during both braking and cornering.

The rear wing has become more “angular”. The integrated transition between the side plates and the main plane of the wing, which was previously designed to reduce dirty airflow for cars in the rear, is now gone.

The current version continues with the vertical “walls” of the wing all the way to the top. The question is whether this will bring back some of the problems that Formula 1 tried to fix in previous regulations. The wing is also constructed with a two-element deployment mechanism used in reduced pressure mode on flat sections of the route.

Solution

It is necessary to treat Bolide Racing Bulls as the first look at the real cars of the new generation. It will undoubtedly undergo some changes in the first race of the season, but they are unlikely to be dramatic. Given budget constraints, no team can completely change the car concept in a month, so significant adjustments in key areas seem unlikely.

The overall concept of Racing Bulls has already clearly outlined the direction of development. As is customary for “little bulls”, the team in almost all areas chose solutions aimed at maximum stability and predictability of the car’s behavior, rather than a risky search for the traditional “tenths of a second per lap”.

In general, this is the best strategy for a mid-level team: get a stable and balanced platform and gradually improve it throughout the season, based on the data collected.

Perhaps some will question whether Red Bull would have anything in common with this car in its technical solutions. I personally don’t believe this. Red Bull has traditionally been famous for its extremes and aggressive concepts designed to maximize the strengths of the driver, especially Verstappen. In previous regulations, this approach was applied almost to the limit, so teammates often suffered.

Therefore, most likely, the general concept of the senior and junior teams will be significantly different this time too.

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The Cadillac F1 team is gearing up for its first season as the queen of motorsports and will officially unveil its first appearance in two weeks at the Super Bowl on February 8.

But photos of a possible American design have already started circulating online. The images show part of the car’s engine cover, mostly painted black, featuring the Cadillac logo and the team’s TWG Motorsport team logo. The photos are of low quality and taken from a distance, making it difficult to see the details.

Previously, Cadillac took to the track with a new vehicle, but it used an all-black color scheme.

Leaked image of what Cadillac design could be👀
(image may be completely fake)
📸(@_Turn right_ via wixyjixy) pic.twitter.com/DJtRmUb1vo

— Cadillac F1 News (@CadillacF1News_) January 19, 2026