Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur expects Formula 1 teams to introduce B-spec cars at the official pre-season tests in Bahrain next year, following January’s shakedown in Barcelona.
New aerodynamic and power unit regulations make the 2026 cars a significant departure from their predecessors, and have led to a late-January five-day test in Spain to first run the new designs. Similar to 2014, the main focus will be on reliability at that stage before two pre-season tests in Bahrain that Vasseur believes will see two different types of car used ahead of the opening race.
“I think yes, everybody will do it,” Vasseur said. “But in this situation, the most important is to get mileage. It’s not to chase performance, it’s to get mileage, to validate the technical choice of the car, and then to get performance. I think everybody will come in Barcelona with not the real car, but a ‘spec A.’”
With Ferrari launching its new car on January 23 next year, Vasseur says the Barcelona running will allow teams to uncover any potential major issues that need addressing, as the Bahrain tests will likely be too close to the first round in Melbourne to do so.
“It’s true that we are not used to having nine test days anymore,” he said. “The last four or five seasons, we did three. It’s an advantage, but it’s also a completely different program. It means that the first target for this kind of season is to get reliability.
“You remember perfectly the season 10 or 15 years ago, the first races you had a huge percentage of DNFs. It means that first, we need to get mileage. Also what we want to avoid compared to 2025 is that when we were lost at the beginning of the season with the disqualification [in China]. We lost mileage, we lost reference, and then you are [chasing] after this. It’s a long process.
“The first focus in Barcelona, we need to get mileage for the car, to understand the reality of the car, where we have to improve or on what we have to react. Because if we want to have something for Bahrain T02, we won’t have time to react for Australia. The first target – the promotional day no, but Barcelona – will be for sure to get mileage more than pure performance.”
