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Downforce and drag levels will reduce, the cars will get slightly smaller and lighter, and the electric part of the power unit will have a greater contribution.

Different performance attributes naturally bring different demands on the tyres. F1 supplier Pirelli is therefore trying to ensure a smooth transition from the current regulations to the next.

The Italian company’s target is to bring tyres that offer similar performance, degradation and balance characteristics to what is currently used.

However, its task has been complicated by the fact that no 2026 cars will be available until pre-season testing next February.

Instead, Pirelli has needed to test its future F1 tyres on cars built to the preceding rule book that are not on this year’s grid.

‘Clearly, we need to understand how the new cars are going to work,’ says Pirelli motorsport director Mario Isola.

‘At the moment, we have an estimation. We have simulations coming from the teams. But it’s impossible to test the tyres on track with representative cars.’

To get as close to the performance of the 2026 cars as it can with the existing crop, Pirelli has asked the teams to adapt their current-generation cars into mules.

Five teams have tested prototypes of the 2026 tyres so far: Alpine, Aston Martin, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes. Williams will become the sixth when it joins a session at Bahrain International Circuit in early March.

As usual for tyre testing, the teams are not given details of what specifications they are running on, but their feedback is noted by Pirelli’s engineers and used to inform what constructions and compounds it ultimately goes with.

Pirelli needs to finalise its 2026 tyre constructions by September but Isola expects it to have something that is ‘not too far’ from the final product by May.

‘We have the mule cars, but the aero package is the same as they have now, so the stress on the tyre is probably not comparable to what we will have in 2026,’ he says.

‘Especially because the new cars should not generate so much [drag] on the main straight, so we are expecting higher top speed, but a similar amount of downforce in the corners that is slightly lower, on paper.’

Pirelli is assuming the 2026 cars will not be too different from the current ones with regards to vertical and lateral load in cornering.

‘That is what is important for us to understand: how much energy you are putting into the tyres,’ Isola adds.

‘That means degradation and integrity. Also, to understand the right minimum pressure to give to the teams.

‘There are a lot of question marks, but the final target is to have tyres that are similar in performance, degradation and balance characteristics to now.

‘What we can expect, because of the slightly smaller diameter size and width, is probably a bit more overheating that we need to compensate for with new compounds.

‘The higher pressure is to compensate the vertical load: we need to understand what the vertical load is.’

When Pirelli developed its first batch of F1 tyres for the 2011 season, it had access to a neutral test car, the Toyota T109, which became available after the Japanese manufacturer’s exit from the championship.

No such luxury is afforded this time around. In fact, it’s gone the other way, considering Cadillac is set to join in 2026 and doesn’t have an older F1 car available to run.

Pirelli also needs to rely on the other teams bringing mule cars that give accurate readings on the tyre data.

‘Aston [Martin used the] 2023 [car],’ says Isola. ‘They modified the car to fit the new size.

‘So, there is no change in aero package, but the active aerodynamic [device] is not present. The new [flatter] floor is not there.

‘It’s always a challenge. But a good example is when we moved from 13 to 18-inch tyres and it was a very similar situation.

‘Different cars, different aero packages, different characteristics. In that case, we have used a lot the virtual models of the tyres, together with the virtual simulations of the teams, to correlate what we saw on track with the virtual environment.’

The limitation of real-world testing with anachronistic vehicles means Pirelli relies heavily on simulations.

Teams have been testing their 2026 F1 cars in the simulator for many months now, so the mechanical properties are reasonably well understood.

Pirelli’s virtual models have also got more advanced over time.

‘I believe we did a lot of steps in the right direction,’ says Isola. ‘At the moment, the thermal mechanical model of the slick tyre is working quite well.

‘It’s more difficult for wet conditions. A model for the wet tyre is really difficult to develop because we have little data for correlation.

‘For the slick tyre, we can correlate the data from the virtual tyre to what we see on track.

‘In the virtual environment, there are also some question marks for 2026. Usually, we have different loops for development. We start with a model of the tyre that we supply to the teams.

‘They are using the model in their simulators. They come back to us with feedback, and [using that feedback] we fine-tune the model, and they use the new one, and so on.

‘We have three or four loops during the previous season in order to have better models and to correlate this model with what we see on track.’

The main change for the tyres in 2026 is the reduction of the tyre’s width by 25mm at the front and 30mm at the rear.

Initially, the plan was to also reduce the diameter of the tyres by two inches, however that was scrapped in favour of keeping the 18-inch diameter.

‘The estimation was to have loads that were much lower compared to the current cars,’ recalls Isola.

‘But the reality is that, if you go lower with the loads of the amount that was estimated at the beginning, the lap time was much slower.

‘We are talking about 5-6 seconds slower. This is not what they want. We need to keep a difference between Formula 1 and Formula 2: Formula 1 has to be the most performing car.

‘What I heard is that they don’t want to be slower than more than three seconds per lap.

‘The current estimation… we are not far from current lap times. When we got the data and the targets for the new cars, we simply said, if you go for the 16-inch tyre, it’s not possible to achieve this performance. We [would] need to increase the pressure sky high and the level of overheating will be crazy.

‘So, we suggested to reduce the tyres to try and save some weight and stay on the 18-inch tyre. Not going down with the rim diameter.’

Pirelli’s F1 testing so far

To date, the teams that have been involved in Pirelli’s testing of 2026 slick tyre options have completed approximately 7400km between them.

A further 1500km has been logged on intermediate and wet compounds; all tests have taken place over two days.

Pirelli conducted its first such test in September 2024. It started by focusing on a single car, before increasing its mileage by welcoming other teams to the track in early 2025.

The maiden test at Barcelona involved an Aston Martin AMR23 which completed just shy of 1400km with the team’s reserve driver, Felipe Drugovich, behind the wheel.

The second slick tyre test took place with a McLaren MCL60 at Mugello the following month, but rain limited the car’s running to 619km.

Testing for the 2026 wet weather tyres started at Magny-Cours in November. An Alpine A523 initially turned laps on slick tyres before sampling intermediates and wets on an artificially watered track.

Car mechanical issues on day one limited the mileage, although Jack Doohan still managed to log around 675km.

After the conclusion of the 2024 season and the winter break, Pirelli returned to testing in late January with a visit to Paul Ricard, using one of the French circuit’s short configurations.

McLaren completed 840km, splitting the driving duties between Oscar Piastri on day one and Lando Norris on day two.

Not long after, in early February, Ferrari joined the British team at Barcelona to get its first real-world taste of the 2026 prototype rubber options, using the hardest compounds.

Each team was scheduled to run just shy of 750km per day, with Ferrari sharing out its seat time between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, and McLaren keeping Piastri at the helm.

Between Ferrari and McLaren, almost 3000km was racked up, making it the most productive outing so far from a mileage standpoint.

Another multi-team test was held at Jerez in mid-February with Alpine, McLaren and Mercedes, which swapped in for McLaren for the second and final day. That put another 2470km in the bank.

According to Isola, mule car availability determines which teams run on the prototype 2026 rubber.

Others are set to come along later, although some have said they are unable to produce a mule car until the summer.

For Pirelli, the target is to do real-world testing with constructions that are close to what it believes will be the final product, rather than starting with a wide net and whittling down.

‘We try to reduce as much as possible the number of options with some virtual and indoor tests to assess the tyres’ characteristics,’ concludes Isola.

‘It is much better to go on track with fewer prototypes and test them better, than having a huge number of prototypes and just running three laps on each of them.

‘The idea is that, in one day of testing, you have around four or five different products.

‘Sometimes we have more. But when we start the development of different compounds, we are in the phase of performance runs [and] you can test eight or nine different compounds in one day.

‘But that’s not really the target. The target is to stay in the range of five or six solutions, maximum.’

The post How Pirelli is Developing Tyres for New F1 Cars in 2026 appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

The McLaren MCL39 was driven by both of the British team’s full-time drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

It was tested in a black and orange camouflage livery to hide some of the key technical features.

The frontal view shows the continuation of a pull rod front suspension layout, with a larger gap between the two upper wishbones compared with a similar photo taken at last year’s British Grand Prix.

A version of the perpendicular rear wing corner that is visible on the McLaren MCL39 was used towards the end of last season and in a post-season test at Yas Marina.

The image of the MCL39 exiting the garage points to a re-profiled step in the centre of the rear bodywork section, as well as the region around the rear suspension mounting point. A new wing mirror design is also discernible, while the sidepod inlet appears to extend further down.

There is also what looks to be a new vertical element towards the rear of the car, visible to the right of the halo in the frontal image.

Further clarity on the car’s new features is set to come when the McLaren appears at collective pre-season testing in Bahrain on 26th February.

The 2025 season marks the fourth and final year of the current F1 technical regulations.

‘We are excited to see the MCL39 hit the track for the first time at Silverstone Circuit today,’ said McLaren F1 team principal Andrea Stella.

‘Whilst we finished last year as champions, 2024 highlighted how highly competitive the grid is, which is something that will carry through to this year’s championship.

‘We therefore must keep focused to compete at the front in this tight field. It’s going to be an exciting but incredibly challenging year ahead.

‘The team have worked extremely hard to prepare as best as possible for the start of the season. We learned a lot from our battles last year, so we take this and use it to push our goal for the year.’

McLaren Racing CEO, Zak Brown, added: ‘We must be realistic that every team will have made progress over the winter.

‘Last year highlighted just how much the grid has closed up, which is a brilliant thing for the sport.

‘We believe we have made further steps forward since the championship-winning MCL38 but we won’t know where we sit in the standings until we get into qualifying in Australia.’

Check out images of the McLaren MCL39 below, with photos of last year’s car for comparison:

The post First Glimpse of 2025 F1 Tech as McLaren Completes Shakedown appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

A 100 per cent sustainable fuel for both championships is being developed by Aramco, the Saudi Arabian state-owned oil company that will soon start supplying the Aston Martin F1 team, of which it is already a key sponsor.

Since the start of the 2023 season, both F2 and F3 have run on fuel with 55 per cent of the content being sustainably derived, but that proportion is being increased.

The move to 100 per cent sustainable content fuel is part of the series’ movement towards the greater goal of adopting fully synthetic fuels in 2027. That will be possible once Aramco has worked out how to produce enough for two grids of more than 20 cars.

‘We started the agreement with Aramco in 2022,’ says Bruno Michel, CEO of F2 and F3. ‘We started to use Aramco fuel in our cars in 2023, with advanced sustainable fuel from biomass. It’s something that has been working extremely well. We have had quite a lot of development to make sure we could get the proper homologation, working with [Aramco] to ensure we are always aligning the fuel with the engine’s request.

‘Next year, we have something very important happening – we will use 100 per cent advanced sustainable fuel. We have advanced on what we had in the original agreement.

‘We want to go and use synthetic fuel from 2027. That’s the next step that we have in mind. We are very confident that, with Aramco’s capacity of development, we are going to be able to achieve it.’

The 2025 fuel that will land in F2 and F3 is classified as ‘advanced sustainable’ because it contains at least 70 per cent sustainable components. The FIA defines a sustainable component as either a second-generation biomolecule or the product of non-bio carbon capture and synthetic processes.

The step up from 55 per cent sustainable content to 100 per cent has come with its challenges.

One has been to ensure the 3.4-litre Mecachrome engine used by both series has the same performance attributes without sacrificing consumption. To address this, the engine will adopt direct injection next year, in addition to indirect injection.

‘We have tested this fuel for the past months already on the dyno, and on track,’ says Pierre-Alain Michot, FIA F2 and F3 technical director. ‘We have achieved quite a lot of mileage.

‘With this fuel, we make the sure the car is still as compliant as expected. [The fact] that we still have the performance for what we have done [so far], is in line with our expectations.

‘We have worked quite well with the engine supplier, Mecachrome, to make sure that we can have some [improvement] in engine consumption. It will be slightly lower next season. We have done quite a good step and it will be on track early next season.’

Looking further ahead, the 100 per cent sustainable fuels are set to be fully synthetic by 2027.

Synthetic fuel creation involves extracting the hydrogen and oxygen molecules from water (H2O) using electrolysis. The extracted hydrogen is combined with CO2 from the atmosphere to create a liquid fuel that can be used in racecars.

However, synthetic fuel creation can be costly and energy intensive. For example, direct air capture (DAC) of CO2 is one of the most expensive ways of obtaining it from the atmosphere.

It has also proven globally difficult to generate large amount of synthetic fuel using DAC: Porsche has managed it at a remote location in Chile, but Aramco is continuing to explore the method. It plans to have DAC active from a new plant at Neom, a Saudi Arabian being built from the ground up, to feed its motorsport ventures.

‘Motorsport is a platform to really validate the performance of the fuels that we’re developing,’ says Amer Amer, chief technologist of transport technologies at Aramco.

‘We are trying to make sure that we understand the potential of these fuels under very extreme conditions, which is what motorsport really offers us.

‘We start by looking at bio-based sustainable components, because this is a step on our journey to developing fuels that are renewable. Those fuels are essentially going to be, in the future, made from hydrogen that comes from renewable electricity, combined with CO2 that is captured from either air or industrial installations. The idea is that we will combine these molecules to end up with renewable fuel.

‘When I say renewable, this is something that is very consistent with the EU Renewable Energy Directive, to describe these fuels. This journey is for us to validate these fuels on this journey to make sure that the investment that we’re going to put behind these fuels in the future is something that is based on real testing under real running conditions.’

Despite all its work preparing F2 and F3 for the move to 100 per cent sustainable fuel, Aramco rejects the notion this might give it a competitive advantage against the other F1 fuel manufacturers when that championship goes the same way.

‘They are different engines,’ says Calendini. ‘It is different fuel and regulations. The fuel will be different, even if some components can be the same.

‘When you go to motorsport, especially Formula 1, you need to tailor your fuel to exercise the maximum power, because there is competition with the other competitors [such as] Petronas and Exxon. All are pushing at the limit to deliver the best performance.

‘It is a very different ecosystem to F3 and F2 where everyone has the same engine and fuel. Here, we can balance the performance and reliability.’

Scaling up the introduction of sustainable components in fuels is a costly endeavour. However, according to Michel, the move will not have a negative impact on F2 and F3 team budgets.

‘It will cost nothing more, because since we had the agreement with Aramco, the teams have got the fuel for free,’ he states.

‘Aramco is supplying the fuel free of charge to the teams and it’s going to continue like this. Any change of fuel isn’t going to change at all the budgets of the teams.’

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The device, developed and built by Allengra, was installed in the Mercedes W15, McLaren MCL38, Williams FW46 and Sauber C44 for the session at Yas Marina Circuit. Fuel flow meters are used to limit the amount of fuel being sent to the combustion engine, preventing teams from gaining a power advantage on certain parts of a lap.

F1 is overhauling its power unit regulations in 2026, with the electrical part of the powertrain being uprated and the internal combustion engine’s contribution being reduced. The championship is also switching to 100 per cent sustainable content fuel, developed by the different fuel suppliers that are partnered with each power unit manufacturer.

The overhaul is also heralding a new exclusive supply contact for the FIA-approved F1 fuel flow meter, valid from 2026 to 2030. Allengra, which currently operates in the FIM World Superbike Championship, won the FIA tender and will replace Sentronics as the designated supplier to all cars.

The purpose of the Abu Dhabi test was to give the FIA some initial real-world data on how the Allengra fuel flow meter performs, having previously undergone static dyno rig testing. Both the FIA and Allengra were satisfied with its initial findings. A key requirement is for the 2026 meter to have +/- 0.5 per cent accuracy in its fuel flow measurements, as well as repeatability and adaptability for the next-generation fuel containing different sustainably-derived components.

‘I think, globally, the test went very well,’ said Martin Baerschneider, F1 powertrain engineer at the FIA. ‘We are certainly happy that the fuel flow meters that we ran, ran reliably. The signal was good.

‘We gathered quite a lot of data because there were many laps completed. We felt that, generally, it worked quite well out of the box.

‘Of course, there are improvements to be made and learning to be had for improvements from the data we gathered. They have been tested on the benches at the power unit manufacturers – partially at the teams as well – but that was the first time in real-life conditions in the car. Which is still very different, if you think of the amount of vibrations they encounter [and] the g forces compared to a static bench test.’

Currently, F1 car fuel tanks are fitted with two fuel flow meters made by Sentronics. One is known as the ‘team FFM’ and the other as the ‘FIA FFM’. The former is a control sensor for the teams so they can get as close to the maximum fuel flow rate as possible. The latter incorporates a private signal for the FIA which is designed to guard against tampering.

In 2026, F1 will return to a single fuel flow meter that can do the same job as two.

This meant that for the Abu Dhabi test, the 2026 meter was installed in place of the FIA FFM, while the team FFM remained in its usual spot. Data from the Allengra meter was transmitted on a private FIA channel, so the teams and Sentronics couldn’t see it. Likewise, Allengra couldn’t see anything from the team FFM.

All ten F1 teams were given the chance to run the 2026 fuel flow meter in Abu Dhabi, although less than half the cohort ended up doing so.

‘It was an opportunity that we offered to all teams,’ explained Baerschneider. ‘However, there is obviously resource needed to make that work.

‘You need to adapt the installation: the form factor, size and mounting is different. They will potentially have to make loom changes. They will have to change the fuel-in / fuel-out connections. To be able to adapt that, there is cost and labour involved.

‘Under the current budget cap situation, that’s not something that all teams would readily want to do. We offered an FIA project to exclude that activity from the budget cap. But still, it means there is workload involved. Not all the teams had the time and resource to do so, but four teams decided to do that for that test.’

The cars in Abu Dhabi ran on the same E10 fuel (containing 10 per cent renewable ethanol) they used during the 2024 F1 season. However, the 2026 fuel flow meter will monitor the more advanced 100 per cent sustainable content fuel. This will introduce new bio-sourced and synthetically-produced components.

‘The fuel flow meters [at the test] were calibrated to that specific [2024] fuel,’ said Baerschneider. ‘The first samples of the 2026 fuel are going to Allengra now so they get a chance to test them.

‘Clearly, the move to advanced sustainable fuels in 2026 is going to be a challenge for everyone. Not just for Allengra, but for a lot of other suppliers.

‘[It] is a lot more aggressive on the hardware, so there are challenges for the connectors, but also the internals [which are] outside of Allengra’s remit. That compatibility testing is now starting effectively.’

Further track tests with the Allengra fuel flow meter on the current generations of F1 cars are unlikely until the new supplier’s contract starts in 2026. The Abu Dhabi test was carried out with special dispensation.

‘I think the next chance to do so is when the 2026 cars are starting to come together,’ suggested Baerschneider. ‘They will mostly be in full-car dyno testing. We will be able to achieve a bit more testing on that, on top of the testing that’s happening at Allengra.’

The post F1 Cars Complete First Track Test With 2026 Fuel Flow Meter appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

The season-long average pole position time (in dry weather) came down by eight-tenths of a second from 2023 to 2024, while the average race fastest lap reduced by six-tenths. To give a single track example, the year’s pole position time at Bahrain International Circuit got 0.85s and 0.52s quicker each year since 2022.

As teams have added more load to their cars in search of more downforce, to get the most out of their ground effect floors, so the Pirelli tyres have been taking increasingly greater strain. The Italian supplier is therefore exploring ways of ensuring the progressively faster F1 machines don’t cause problems for the rubber in a racing scenario.

Pirelli received fresh simulations from the teams at the end of November and will use that to estimate how much further the lap time gains might evolve in 2025. Additionally, a post-season test at Abu Dhabi next week will enable teams to gather real-world data on the updated 2025 construction.

‘We expect some improvement, but we need to understand from the data,’ says Simone Berra, chief engineer at Pirelli. ‘Next year, we expect the increase in performance will be much lower and we will be in a more stable situation.

‘But who knows, because the teams will find a way to find performance. Simulations are not the Bible so it can be different next year. A step is expected.

‘We will also have new compounds and structures, so a proper back-to-back [comparison] will not be so easy. But we expect some improvement.’

Pirelli knows that its expectation, or desire, for only slightly better lap times in 2025 can be easily undone by the engineering work of the teams. Berra admits that the general performance increase over the second half of 2024 has been greater than anticipated.

‘We have seen very high loads from two or three teams,’ he reports. ‘Usually, we have the simulation for the year at the middle and end of the season. Nobody thought to have these kinds of loads.

‘[They were] beyond expectation, I would say. It is interesting with how much they are evolving with the cars.

‘We thought, at some point, they would reach the maximum level of performance. But there is still some performance to gain. We have seen in the last races, for example Mercedes improved a lot. It is very interesting.’

Next year marks the final season of the ground effect regulations. By that point, it might be expected that the teams are finding it much harder to unlock lap time gains, especially relative to each other as car designs converge.

Red Bull, the runaway champion in 2022 and 2023, felt it would eventually hit a development ceiling with this year’s car. As that transpired and some of the other teams got on top of their inherent design flaws, Red Bull saw its advantage diminish. McLaren and Ferrari even surpassed it in the constructors’ table.

However, Pirelli is not banking on teams easing off their 2025 car development. That is despite some acknowledging the difficulty in deciding whether to sacrifice 2025 resources in favour of ensuring a strong baseline concept for the new regulations in 2026. The other option is to keep pursuing harder-to-find gains to move up an extremely tight grid.

Pirelli has previously reacted to cars that ended up being faster than expected. Last year, it introduced a new construction midway through the season at the British Grand Prix. This was accommodate increased speeds and loads from the cars, compared with pre-season simulated data.

However, Berra argues it won’t have enough time to develop and test something so drastic next year when Pirelli is focusing hard on its new 2026 tyres, which will be narrower than the current crop and will carry less aerodynamic load.

Instead, the focus will be on adjusting tyre pressures.

‘We don’t want to change construction [during] the season,’ says Berra. ‘We do not really think it’s fair, because we provide one specification that should be the same for the rest of the season.

‘For Silverstone last year, the improvement in terms of fatigue was quite significant. We proposed this to have a better integrity for the tyres. We don’t expect to have something similar for next year, at the moment.

‘We need to double check with the loads from the teams on simulation etc. [to determine if] we will stay with the same pressure or have lower pressure. It is very much team dependent on what we do with the pressure.

‘There may be the possibility to increase the pressure towards the end of the season. I would rather prefer not to increase the pressure too much. So would the teams, I think, because you start to generate too much overheating and graining.

‘We would like to keep the pressure as low as possible.’

As F1 teams continue to bring the lap times down, it is necessary for Pirelli to keep on the pulse and ensure the tyres can withstand increasing demands.

The post Pirelli’s Push to Keep Pace With Increasingly Quick F1 Cars appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

It comes 10 months after F1 rejected an entry request from Andretti Global, which sought to enter in partnership with Cadillac. Since that episode, Michael Andretti, who was at the helm of his eponymous team’s bid, has stepped back from his team ownership role.

The renewed effort for GM to enter F1 under its Cadillac brand was orchestrated by the manufacturer and TWG Global, an investment company that owns multiple race teams including Andretti Global, IMSA front-runner Wayne Taylor Racing and NASCAR outfit Spire Motorsports. Mario Andretti, the 1978 F1 world champion, was named as a board member for the project, having previously supported his son Michael in the original Andretti effort.

‘As the pinnacle of motorsports, F1 demands boundary-pushing innovation and excellence,’ said GM president mark Reuss. ‘It’s an honour for General Motors and Cadillac to join the world’s premier racing series, and we’re committed to competing with passion and integrity to elevate the sport for race fans around the world.

‘This is a global stage for us to demonstrate GM’s engineering expertise and technology leadership at an entirely new level.’

The Cadillac F1 team will be based on both sides of the Atlantic. Following Andretti’s original bid with GM, work commenced on recruiting staff in key engineering positions and establishing a UK-based facility at Silverstone. Operations will also be conducted from Andretti’s US headquarters in Fishers, Indiana, as well as Detroit, where GM is based, and Charlotte.

General Motors will manufacture an F1 power unit, although it is set to begin life as a customer team on a temporary basis while the engine is developed. Cadillac intends to become a ‘full works team’ by 2030.

‘General Motors and Cadillac’s commitment to this project is an important and positive demonstration of the evolution of our sport,’ said Stefano Domenicali, president and CEO of F1. ‘We look forward to seeing the progress and growth of this application, certain of the full collaboration and support of all the parties involved.’

The post F1 Approves Cadillac Entry for 2026 Season appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

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The long-rumoured agreement will see Toyota provide design, technical and manufacturing services to Haas. The F1 team’s announcement of the tie-up said that it would also ‘offer technical expertise and commercial benefits’ in return.

Toyota hopes the agreement will open a pathway for its young engineers and drivers to access F1. Toyota Gazoo Racing engineers and mechanics will take part in the team’s aerodynamic and track testing work. They will also help to design and manufacture carbon fibre parts.

Haas is a multinational F1 operation, with facilities in Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. Its Italian design office in Maranello is tied to its status as a Ferrari power unit customer; Haas conducts its wind tunnel aero testing from Ferrari’s in-house facility. Its Banbury base in the UK houses its operational functions, such as vehicle performance management, control systems work, logistics and race support. Kannapolis in North Carolina is home to the team’s marketing, accounting and administration activities.

‘I’m hugely excited that Haas F1 Team and Toyota Gazoo Racing have come together to enter into this technical partnership,’ said Haas F1 team principal Ayao Komatsu. ‘To have a world leader in the automotive sector support and work alongside our organisation, while seeking to develop and accelerate their own technical and engineering expertise – it’s simply a partnership with obvious benefits on both sides.

‘The ability to tap into the resources and knowledge base available at Toyota Gazoo Racing, while benefiting from their technical and manufacturing processes, will be instrumental in our own development and our clear desire to further increase our competitiveness in Formula 1. In return we offer a platform for Toyota Gazoo Racing to fully utilise and subsequently advance their in-house engineering capabilities.’

Toyota ran a works F1 team from Cologne – now the site of factory WEC and WRC efforts – from 2002 to 2009. It remained involved in the championship after that as a background player, providing McLaren with access to its wind tunnel until the British team built a new one in-house last year. Haas will not use Toyota’s wind tunnel under the new partnership, with the team confirming it will continue to use Ferrari’s facility only.

‘We are pleased to announce that Haas F1 Team and Toyota Gazoo Racing have concluded a basic agreement to enter a technical partnership such as Haas vehicle development,’ said Tomoya Takahashi, president of Gazoo Racing Company. ‘We would like to express our gratitude to Mr. Gene Haas, Mr. Ayao Komatsu, Mr. Stefano Domenicali (CEO – Formula 1), Mr. Fred Vasseur (team principal – Scuderia Ferrari), and all our existing partners of the team for their exceptional cooperation and understanding in this collaboration.

‘By competing alongside Haas F1 Team at the pinnacle of motorsports, we aim to cultivate drivers, engineers, and mechanics while strengthening the capabilities of Haas F1 Team and Toyota Gazoo Racing, and we desire to contribute to motorsports and the automotive industry.’

Despite the new Toyota tie-up, Haas will remain a Ferrari power unit customer until the end of 2028, taking it through the transition into the new technical regulations which arrive after next year.

The post Haas F1 Team Enters Technical Partnership With Toyota appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

Newey will join the Silverstone-based outfit on 1 March 2025 after his departure from the Red Bull Technology Group. The Briton has recently shifted his focus from Red Bull’s F1 programme to its RB17 hypercar project that he has been heavily involved in.

Newey’s title will be managing technical partner of Aston Martin F1 team. He will also become a shareholder in the business.

He will join a leadership structure that currently consists of executive chairman Lawrence Stroll, team principal Mike Krack, technical director Dan Fallows and incoming CEO Andy Cowell. Aston Martin also recently signed Ferrari’s technical leader Enrico Cardile in the new role of chief technical officer.

Newey brings to Aston Martin a wealth of experience in F1, having started out with March in the late 1980s. He then moved up the grid, taking at Williams and McLaren, before joining a nascent Red Bull team in 2006. Newey-designed cars during his 19 years at Red Bull achieved seven drivers’ and six constructors’ championship titles, and 188 race wins.

‘It’s the biggest story since the Aston Martin name returned to the sport and another demonstration of our ambition to build a Formula One team capable of fighting for world championships,’ said Stroll. ‘As soon as Adrian became available, we knew we had to make it happen.

‘Our initial conversations confirmed that there was a shared desire to collaborate in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Adrian is a racer and one of the most competitive people I have ever met. When he saw what we have built at Silverstone – our incredible AMR Technology Campus, the talented group of people we have assembled and the latest wind tunnel in the sport – he quickly understood what we are trying to achieve.’

Newey’s signing marks the latest step in a push from Aston Martin to strengthen its technical leadership and push for F1 race wins and titles. The team finished fifth in last season’s constructors’ standings and has struggled to keep up with Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes this year.

Newey said during a press conference that he was ‘flattered’ to have ‘a lot of approaches from various teams’ once his departure from Red Bull became public in May.

‘I felt as if I needed a new challenge,’ he added. ‘Towards the end of April, I decided I needed to do something different. I spent a lot of time with Mandy, my wife, discussing what’s next. Do we go off and sail around the world or do something different – America’s Cup or whatever? So we took a bit of time out.

‘I felt I have been lucky enough to have achieved what I aspired to from the age of 10 or 12, which was simply to be a designer in motor racing. I can honestly say everything else has been a bonus, having achieved that straight out of uni. I never, of course, expected anything like what I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with. You have to be honest with yourself and keep yourself fresh. I felt I needed a new challenge.’

Newey added that discussions with Stroll, and the Aston Martin team’s leadership structure, persuaded him to make his ultimate choice. He was given a tour of the outfit’s new F1 headquarters at Silverstone in June.

‘Lawrence’s passion, commitment and enthusiasm is very endearing and persuasive,’ said Newey. ‘If you go back 20 years, when team principals were owners of the teams… in this modern era, Lawrence is unique in being the only properly active team owner. That’s a different feeling, when you have someone like Lawrence involved like that. It’s an old-school model. To have a chance to be a shareholder and a partner is something that hasn’t been offered to me before. It became a very natural choice.’

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