Red Bull launched their new engine partnership with Ford in Detroit on Thursday but the car on display there in the team’s new livery was a show car that bore almost no resemblance to their 2026 car.
The new rules for 2026 change both the cars and power-units (PU). The engines remain 1.6-litre V6 turbo hybrids, but the electrical components of the engine now have a much greater importance in overall performance, with significantly increased energy management around a lap and over a race, and the engines must run on fully sustainable fuel produced from either waste biomass or industrial synthetic processes.
The teams will reveal their cars individually in a series of online launches over the next three weeks, before the first public pre-season test in Bahrain from 11-13 February, which is followed by a second on 18-20 February.
There is a first test in Barcelona in the last week of January but this is private, with no independent media allowed.
The first race of the season is the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on 6-8 March.
Team principal Ayao Komatsu said the extent of the regulation changes was a major challenge for Haas as F1’s smallest team.
“I don’t think any team, even the biggest, is going to say they’re fully equipped to tackle this. However, for us, the challenge is bigger,” he said.
“There’s going to be huge variation between teams because of two elements.
“First is the PU, with the teams using the same provider presumably bunched up, so Mercedes providing four teams, Ferrari providing three, Red Bull two, Audi and Honda providing one.
“Then on the aerodynamic side, it’s completely open, and development will happen fast.
“A pecking order may get established in the first four races pretty quickly, but I think it’s going to be a very dynamic season. What you see in race one and race two, I expect will be totally different when we come to the final races of the year.”
Komatsu said working out the complexities of energy management would be a large focus of the first weeks of work.
