F1 ‘designers’ think Racing Bulls have already made a mistake with Liam Lawson’s 2026 car

Follow us on Google Discover

Racing Bulls were one of the first teams to officially hit the track with their real car for the 2026 Formula 1 season.

It may have been for a handful of laps, but it was enough for everyone to dissect exactly what their ambitions are with their first iteration.

Liam Lawson had a quiet few laps in some treacherous wet conditions before new teammate Arvid Lindblad went out and spun the car, leaving it beached in the gravel almost straight away.

After some early technical woes, it wasn’t the smoothest day of running for Racing Bulls, but they’d rather that now than at the Barcelona test next week.

How worried should Racing Bulls be about Arvid Lindblad’s Imola spin on his first lap in the 2026 car?

Comment

Like or Comment

Have your say Sign-in now for free

Gary Anderson suspects Racing Bulls will ‘exploit’ their suspension and has been impressed by their design at the front of the car.

It’s just a shame that Racing Bulls immediately hit problems and may have to worry about the reliability of the Red Bull engine in the back of their car this season.

READ MORE: Arvid Lindblad told he won’t be the ‘new Isack Hadjar’ before he’s even started an F1 race

F1 ‘designers’ think that teams will ‘converge’ after seeing Racing Bulls solution

F1 fans couldn’t ignore Racing Bulls’ air intake after seeing it on track at Imola, and it does look a lot different than in previous seasons.

That’s the beauty of the 2026 F1 regulations. There’s going to be a huge gulf in design philosophy at first, before everyone aligns over the years.

But already, Matteo Bobbi has spotted something on Racing Bulls’ front wing that is likely to change, and may even make Lawson’s life a little trickier earlier in the season.

With active suspension set to arrive, teams will benefit from having one actuator (less weight) to control the wings. Bobbi expects that this is somewhere teams will ‘converge’ after speaking to designers.

“Speaking with some designers, they tell us that it is very possible that as the season progresses, and therefore the various update packages that will arrive race after race, they will probably all converge towards the single pod [front wing],” he said on his YouTube channel.

“[That’s instead of] the monopod, if only because the single actuator has a clear and obvious advantage in terms of weight, less weight. But in this initial embryonic phase, it is possible that some teams, like VCARB for example, will go in the direction of having two actuators plus weight.”

READ MORE: Liam Lawson has now copied Max Verstappen’s approach to using the sim for the 2026 F1 season

Why Racing Bulls could be a really handy asset for Red Bull in 2026

In a year where they’re going to be trialling a lot of new parts, having Racing Bulls in the power unit department could be very handy.

If Red Bull want to try a performance upgrade that they’re not quite sure is reliable enough to go on their car, they can take a gamble and give it to the sister team.

Either it works a treat, or they’ll be able to gather plenty of data from it to go back and make the part more efficient and durable.

This might be why some rivals complained about their partnership some years ago. They could see that this would be an advantage down the line.