A primary glimpse of a 2026 Method 1 automobile in motion has emerged on social media, with sneak footage of Audi’s Barcelona shakedown having been posted on YouTube and by the group.
Audi’s automobile, which might be often called the R26, was given a handful of laps across the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya – the incoming German model is the primary group identified to have run its new automobile forward of Barcelona’s behind-closed-doors take a look at on the finish of January.
Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto have been each scheduled to get behind the wheel as a part of a filming day to put Audi’s first-ever F1 powertrain through its paces at Barcelona, because the ex-Sauber outfit acquaints itself with its new identification.
Though low-resolution pictures have been circulated on social media purporting to be of the brand new automobile, these have been little greater than AI pictures masked by a Gaussian blur impact.
However video footage, which emerged on YouTube channel F1 A TODO GAS, reveals the brand new R26 in motion. Whereas the footage doesn’t present the automobile notably intently, having been filmed from a vantage level behind Flip 13, there are a number of key particulars on show.
Audi F1 Workforce
Picture by: Audi
The group then launched teaser photographs of the R26 however deliberately hid the automobile from focus to maintain its early design secrets and techniques below wraps.
Subsequent 12 months’s vehicles are 100mm narrower, and this can be a notable visible change. Within the video, a barely raised nostril might be made out, as can an in-washing entrance wing, because the FIA’s laws have been designed to pursue wake management across the entrance wing. The endplates do now function a footplate and a flick-up to manage the airflow across the entrance wheels.
Behind that, essentially the most notable side of Audi’s new automobile is in its push-rod entrance suspension bundle. Sauber had gravitated to a pull-rod entrance suspension design in 2024, following the lead set by McLaren and Purple Bull below the arrival of the earlier ground-effect regulation set. The inclination of the monitor rod begins from the highest floor of the chassis bulkhead, connecting to the decrease a part of the wheel upright.
It was theorised amid the earlier laws that pull-rod suspension had been extra useful for an anti-dive method to the automobile’s kinematics, however the anticipated softer spring charges of the brand new vehicles – now that the flooring are much less delicate to any minor modifications in trip peak – have prompted a reversion.
Given the graininess of the footage, it is onerous to make out the rear suspension geometry, nevertheless it additionally seems to be to be a push-rod structure too. Previous to 2022, F1 groups had largely settled on pull-rod rear suspension layouts to maintain the centre of gravity low, however extra groups started to undertake push-rod rear suspension over the course of the 2022-25 regulation cycle.
The sidepods are additionally attention-grabbing; throughout 2022-25, the myriad sidepod options seen within the early years of the system quickly converged in the direction of Purple Bull’s downwash answer, however Audi’s automobile seems to indicate an inwashing answer. This takes the stream across the sidepods to maximise the effectiveness of the Coke bottle part across the rear of the bodywork.
So long as the airflow stays connected to the automobile, this could pull air by the central part quite than expose the wake to the rear tyres.
Elsewhere, the engine be aware isn’t dissimilar to the earlier era of energy items, though it maybe sings a contact extra heartily below acceleration. The brand new rear wing has a double mount connected to the underside, quite than a single swan-neck mount that was constructed into the DRS actuator.
We need to hear from you!
Tell us what you want to see from us sooner or later.
– The Autosport.com Workforce
