Mercedes driver George Russell believes Formula 1’s 2026 regulations will provide more exciting races this year and said the complex new cars are more intuitive to drive than he was expecting.
Russell set the second fastest time on the first day of this week’s opening preseason test at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya and completed 95 laps during the afternoon session.
New power unit and chassis regulations for 2026 arguably represent the biggest rules reset in the sport’s history, with power units capable of deploying nearly three times as much electrical power as last year and cars that are lighter, shorter and narrower.
Seven teams ran on Monday in Barcelona, including Mercedes, and Russell said the first impression of the new cars was eye-opening.
“I think just generally, on the whole, the amount of power they give is pretty impressive,” he said. “I think for all the cars I was watching today with all the different power units, it’s probably the quickest I’ve ever seen an F1 car pass here in Barcelona so that was pretty exciting to see.
“The cars do generally feel like you feel it being smaller, you can feel that weight reduction compared to previous years so I think from that aspect as well it’s gone in a good direction.”
The increased electrification of the new power units are expected to bring challenges for teams and drivers, especially as they learn the best ways in which to recover energy under braking and in corners.
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Some drivers were critical of the regulations when they first tried the new cars in the virtual world last year, but Russell said they felt better in reality and is confident they will provide a more entertaining spectacle for fans.
“It is very different to be honest, but once you wrap your head around it, it then feels quite intuitive,” he said. “So I think from the fans’ perspective there’s definitely an opportunity to see more exciting racing and I don’t think you potentially will see some of the negatives that we may feel from the car in terms of the recharge.
“But of course that’s going to evolve so much over time, so I think all in all it’s been an exciting day. As I said, really glad and happy the cars are smaller now, because even though I was such a fan when we went to the big cars in 2017 visually, having driven them now for a few years I think they were too big and now they just look cool.”
Where and when drivers use the power unit’s extra electrical power is set to be a key factor in wheel-to-wheel racing this year, with an electrical ‘boost’ available to drivers all around the lap and an ‘overtake’ mode replacing the DRS overtaking aid used in F1 since 2011.
Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson said preseason testing, which extends beyond this week in Barcelona to two further tests in Bahrain, would be crucial to gaining an understanding of the power units and believes the options available to drivers will help them make more of a difference in wheel-to-wheel combat.
“[The new cars are] very, very different,” Lawson said. “I haven’t got my head around it fully yet. It’s something that we’ll keep learning over the next few days and weeks in Bahrain as well.
“It’s very different. It feels like there’s a lot more we can do as drivers, potentially, to make a difference – which is good. Right now, it’s very early days, so it’s very difficult to know where we are, but for now we are just trying to optimise the car.”
Mercedes trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, added that his drivers had provided positive feedback after driving the car in the real world for the first time.
“Prior to Silverstone [Mercedes’ shakedown] their experience of it was all in the virtual world in the simulators and in a number of areas it’s actually feeling better to them on track than they were feeling in the simulator so that’s certainly encouraging,” Shovlin said. “In terms of the top speed well you know if you deploy all the way down the straight then there’s an awful lot of power there from the electrical side so that’s nice for them to feel because they always like going quickly, and in terms of drivability we’re in a pretty good place.
“It’s a lot of work to do and you know we’ve really just at the very very embryonic stages of the test programme here, but I’m sure that we’ll make progress over the next few days and it does seem like we can get it in a sensible place for the first race.”
