Ferrari and Mercedes offer us our first glimpse of F1 in 2026…

The final Formula One action of 2025 took place at Abu Dhabi on Tuesday where all ten teams took to the track for one last time as part of Pirelli’s post-season test.

This not only included a full roster of ‘young drivers’ in 2025 machinery but also current drivers at the wheel of mule cars, which had been adapted to test Pirelli’s 2026 offering.

Actively seeking answers

Pirelli has conducted a number of tests throughout the course of 2025, with the teams providing mule cars to suit the new tyre dimensions, which have been altered in accordance with the new regulations.

The wheel rim diameter remains at 18 inches, but the tread width is 25mm less at the front and 30mm less at the rear. The total diameter is also 15mm less at the front and 10mm less at the rear.

But, whilst most of the teams continued to employ their regular Drag Reduction System at the rear of the car during this test, two teams committed to providing Pirelli with some additional data, installing a moveable front wing assembly too.

The 2026 regulations have abandoned DRS, with front and rear wing active aerodynamics taking its place, meaning that when in ‘Straight Line Mode’, both the front and rear wings will adjust to reduce drag.

Ferrari had already tested a moveable front wing solution as part of the Pirelli test in Hungary earlier this season, but gave it another run out in Abu Dhabi, with both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton getting a taste of how the cars balance might shift and how the tyres react to that.

However, Mercedes also opted to install a very temporary solution on their mule car for this test, with Kimi Antonelli behind the wheel for the silver arrows.

And, whilst not completely representative of how the solution might perform in 2026, given how the current generation of cars make more of their downforce from the floor, those two teams were allowed to run without speed limits, whereas the remainder of the teams ran with a speed limit fixed at 300kph.

If we take a look at the SF-25’s front wing from behind we can see the adaptations that have been made, with the flap adjuster moved to the inboard end of the flaps and a hydraulic actuator (green arrow) attached to the rear of it to raise and lower the two uppermost front wing flaps in conjunction with when DRS is deployed.

Ferrari also continued to test their prototype steering wheel during the test, having already put it through its paces in FP1, in the hands of Arthur Leclerc.

The new steering wheel, which is a more condensed version of the one used during 2025, has an air of the Mercedes styling to it when Lewis Hamilton was with the team, which suggests he might have had some influence over the design changes.

The use of the steering wheel during a session at the Grand Prix opened the door for it to be used during the test, without needing their drivers to use it in a competitive session.

In terms of the differences between the two designs there’s clearly been a substantial reshuffle in terms of where all of the buttons are housed in the upper corners of the wheel.

However, the biggest alteration comes to the section beneath the LCD display, with the multi-function rotaries condensed into three, rather than six rotaries.

This will result in a sub-menu arrangement, rather than everything having its own place on the wheel but, with changes to how the power unit operates in 2026 a redesign has likely come at the right time for the team in any case.

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc reportedly said after the test: “It was a very positive day of testing, we had a lot of things to test.

“It was the last day of this season, but at the same time the first of the next one.”

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