First look: Audi F1 reveals incredible new sidepod design as Bahrain test images emerge

The Audi F1 team has arrived at the Bahrain F1 2026 test armed with a B-spec car featuring a striking new sidepod design.

The second of three pre-season tests begins today (Wednesday) following a shakedown in Barcelona last month.

Audi F1 sidepods catch the eye as Bahrain F1 2026 testing begins

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With almost two weeks separating the end of the Barcelona shakedown and the first test in Bahrain, a number of teams have brought upgrades to Sakhir as preparations for the F1 2026 season step up.

Among the more eye-catching designs includes a striking new sidepod arrangement on the Audi R26, featuring vertical inlets (below).

The sidepod design is significantly different to the one Audi had in Barcelona (below).

Gabriel Bortoleto was at the wheel of the R26 on Wednesday morning with teammate Nico Hulkenberg set to take over this afternoon.

The narrow vertical inlets on the B-spec R26 have been likened to the ‘zero-pod’ design pioneered by Mercedes four years ago.

Mercedes introduced the aggressive ‘zero-pod’ look in pre-season testing in Bahrain in 2022 in one of the most memorable technical innovations of recent times.

The Brackley-based team struggled in the first year of the ground-effect era with Mercedes restricted to just one victory – achieved by George Russell in Brazil – in 2022.

Mercedes abandoned the design during the 2023 campaign following a poor start to the season, introducing a more conventional sidepod design at that year’s Monaco Grand Prix.

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Audi will be looking for more mileage in Bahrain after a muted start to testing in Barcelona.

The team confirmed to PlanetF1.com that Bortoleto suffered a “technical issue” on the opening morning in Spain, with the problem ruling him out for the rest of the day.

That left Audi on the back foot with the team limited to 240 laps across its permitted three days of running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Only Cadillac and Aston Martin, which carried out just two days of running, completed fewer laps.

As reported by PlanetF1.com last week, Hulkenberg insisted that there was a big positive to Audi’s Barcelona test, claiming the team now knows “the direction” to take in F1 2026.

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