Why Johnny Herbert expects two teams to struggle in F1 2026

With F1 2026 just around the corner, the crystal balls are being dusted off as predictions emerge over the biggest winners and losers in the regulatory shake-up.

Johnny Herbert, the three-time grand prix winner and former FIA steward, highlighted newcomers Cadillac, and Alpine, as the teams which he believes could find it “tough” going in the season ahead.

Cadillac and Alpine tipped for ‘tough’ F1 2026

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It is all change in the regulations for F1 2026. Smaller, lighter cars, using active aerodynamics on both wings, will hit the grid. They will be powered by new 50/50 electric and biofuel engines, making F1 2026 a journey into the unknown.

There are also two new teams joining the fray. Audi has taken over from Sauber, while Cadillac enters as the sport’s 11th team.

Audi had a strong base put down by Sauber to build from, but Cadillac is a team which has been brought together completely from scratch.

As such, when 1996 World Champion Damon Hill, and Johnny Herbert, appeared on the Stay on Track podcast, Hill suggested to Herbert that Cadillac will, in his opinion, be “playing catch-up for a long time”.

“Big time, yes,” Herbert responded in agreement.

Cadillac does have the valuable experience of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez as its driver line-up. The pair boast a combined 16 grand prix wins, 10 for Bottas and six for Perez.

However, as a completely new start-up team, with so much to learn, taking on the calibre of competition which exists in modern Formula 1, Herbert believes that Cadillac may need to prepare for life towards the back of the grid at the start of their journey.

“It’s a whole new learning experience,” he said. “Yes, there’s going to be experienced people there, but it’s a whole different scenario when you’re bringing a whole new team, and there are expectations, I’m sure, from Cadillac themselves.

“And you’re up against the greats of the sport, from the Ferraris of the world, Mercedes and Red Bulls and McLarens, for example.

“So, it’s going to take time. Have they got enough time for that to all come together down the line? I suppose we’re all going to be talking, what, four or five years, probably.

“But I think it’s going to be tough for them. I think it’s going to be very tough.

“Got two great drivers, who are going to be very, very useful for their input of the experiences they’ve had at various teams, Mercedes, and Red Bull with Sergio.

“But I think they are going to be the one that’s going to be fighting, probably, for those last few rows, I would think, which is going to be a bit a bit tough for them.”

The team which Herbert predicts Cadillac to be battling back there, is Alpine.

The Enstone squad finished a distant last in the 2025 Constructors’ Championship, having opted to focus on the new regulations.

“I think the one that’s really going to be finding things tough is Alpine,” Herbert stated.

“I think Alpine are in a real big rut at the moment.”

In addition to the opportunities offered in the new chassis rules, Alpine has also seen major change on the engine side.

Renault pulled the plug on its F1 2026 power unit project, leaving Alpine to become a Mercedes engine customer.

While no firm evidence exists, the Mercedes engine has been widely tipped to pack a punch. When Formula 1 first moved to hybrid engines in 2014, Mercedes embarked on a run of eight consecutive Constructors’ Championship wins.

But, when Hill pointed out that Alpine will run the Mercedes engine in F1 2026, Herbert stressed that “it’s the whole package”.

He added: “It’s the aerodynamics. It’s the whole package of it. You’ve got to be able to have the right ingredients for the electrification to work with the combustion, but then you need the right aerodynamics. We’ve got all the technology with the active wings as well. They’re going to come into play.

“So there’s a hell of a lot of new things that are coming in, and they’re not coming off of, particularly, what I would say, a strong last couple of years.

“It’s been chaos. How do you twist chaos into positivity?”

Hill quipped that to do that, one “gets a Mercedes power unit”.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t fix everything,” Herbert came back with. “It may be very, very useful, but I think there’s more fundamental issues.

“It’s all those little ingredients that are going to make it, I think, very, very tough for them.”

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Alpine driver Pierre Gasly used what the team is working on for F1 2026 as his fuel to push through a harrowing 2025.

“What has helped me a lot is, it was a very long tunnel the whole [2025] season, but knowing what we’re doing for 2026, I’ve always had that sort of light,” said Gasly.

“I could always see the light at the end of the tunnel, which sort of helped me to get through that year.

“It’s the season I’ve scored the least number of points in F1.

“I feel, personally, I’ve put a strong performance out there, so it doesn’t really bring any satisfaction from it.

“I’m going be very happy to move away from that year.”

Teammate Franco Colapinto, meanwhile, is very encouraged by Alpine’s 2026 prospects.

“Next year’s car is going to be better than this year’s,” he said in late 2025.

“It’s very, I think, they are all very positive in terms of the base and the performance of next year, starting the simulations, but until you see it on track, it’s difficult to say.

“I’m sure it’s going to be better than this year’s!”

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