First F1 2026 livery revealed as Alpine splits with Doohan – round-up

Henry Valantine 13 Jan 2026 9:00 PM

Cadillac's first F1 livery for testing has been revealed.

Your Tuesday dose of F1 news is here, with Cadillac having unveiled its testing livery and Alpine parting company with Jack Doohan.

All that and much more to catch you up on, so let us wait no longer.

F1 news: Cadillac reveals Barcelona testing livery

Cadillac became the first team to reveal a livery of any kind in 2026 when it unveiled its camouflage colours for the five-day, behind-closed-doors test in Barcelona.

In all black with the Cadillac logo, the brand has also added the nice touch of including the names of all of the team’s founding members across its UK and US bases.

Cadillac will officially be unveiling its car on February 8th, but for now, the team will run incognito.

Alpine splits with Jack Doohan in ‘mutual agreement’

Having dropped back to a reserve role after starting the 2025 season in a race seat, Alpine announced it has parted ways with Jack Doohan in a “mutual agreement” between the two.

PlanetF1.com has previously reported that Doohan is linked with a potential reserve role at Haas, which could be set to combine with a drive in Japan’s Super Formula series for the 2026 season, with an eye on looking to return to the Formula 1 grid in 2027.

Alpine confirmed the split was to “allow him to pursue other career opportunities.”

‘Overtake mode’ explained

‘Overtake mode’ is due to enter the Formula 1 lexicon this year, and our own Thomas Maher has run the numbers to take a much deeper dive into how exactly it will work in practice.

With this and ‘Boost mode’ set to replace DRS in the coming season, it is worth knowing how the drivers will be able to pass each other as quickly as possible.

Verstappen: Piastri sold his soul in team order compliance

Max Verstappen said he would have “definitely not” complied with team orders at McLaren, in the same way Oscar Piastri was asked to do in the 2025 season.

He reasoned that, in doing so, “you sell your soul” to the team, giving it impunity to ask whatever it wants of a driver.

McLaren insisted throughout the 2025 season that it went to great lengths to ensure its drivers had parity in the Drivers’ Championship battle.

Marko: Red Bull-Ford competing in 2026 would be ‘big success’

Prior to his departure from the Red Bull stable, Helmut Marko said Red Bull’s power unit project with Ford could already be considered a “big success” if the team is able to compete with the other power unit suppliers.

Red Bull is going it alone for the first time in creating its own power unit in 2026, in conjunction with Ford, with established competitors in Mercedes, Ferrari and Honda supplemented by a new manufacturer in Audi – though the German brand is well-versed in creating engines for motorsport.

How Red Bull will perform in 2026 remains a mystery, with a little under two months until the lights go out in Melbourne.

Red Bull Jack Doohan Max Verstappen Oscar Piastri