Racing Bulls planning ‘significant update’ after Ferrari sets early F1 2026 trend

Racing Bulls boss Alan Permane has confirmed the team is planning to introduce a “significant update” to its F1 2026 car before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

It comes after Fred Vasseur, the Ferrari team principal, revealed that the Scuderia is to take a B-spec version of the new SF-26 to Bahrain testing next month.

Racing Bulls planning ‘significant update’ ahead of F1 2026 opener

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Racing Bulls and Red Bull Racing became the first teams to reveal their F1 2026 liveries in a Ford season-launch event in Detroit on Thursday.

The 2026 season marks a new era for Red Bull, which is producing its own engines for the first time via its Powertrains division after its partnership with Honda concluded at the end of last year.

This season sees the biggest F1 rule changes for some time with 50 per cent electrification, fully sustainable fuels and active aerodynamics arriving as the chassis and engine regulations are overhauled simultaneously.

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As reported by PlanetF1.com, Vasseur confirmed last month that Ferrari will effectively produce two different cars for testing in 2026.

A basic version of the new SF-26 will appear at the behind-closed-doors test in Barcelona across January 26-30 as Ferrari focuses on reliability, gaining mileage and validating its 2026 design choices.

Ferrari will then introduce a more definitive B-spec car for the remaining two tests in Bahrain on February 11-13 and 18-20 as attention turns to performance.

In an exclusive interview with PlanetF1.com, Permane – who was promoted to the role of team principal in July 2025 after his predecessor Laurent Mekies took over at Red Bull following Christian Horner’s exit – will take a similar approach with the new VCARB03 chassis.

He said: “I’m pretty sure most people, us included, will [bring] an update.

“The car we test with in Barcelona won’t be the car we take to Melbourne. I’m sure there’ll be a significant update.”

Permane went on to explain that the team are facing “exactly the same problem” of trying to push development of their 2026 cars as much as possible ahead of the new season while ensuring that parts are produced in time.

He said: “We’ve known the regs for a while. We’ve been able to work on the car in the wind tunnel since January 1 [2025].

“Now we’re all faced with exactly the same problem.

“The later you develop your car, the faster it will be, in simple terms.

“You want to keep it in the wind tunnel as long as you can. You want to finalise the mechanical designs as late as you can.

“The installation of the engine, with the radiator installation, all that has an effect on the sidepod installation, which has an effect on the floor, which has an effect on the downforce.

“Everything, everything you do is geared up for performance, so you kind of define that [timeline] yourselves.”

Additional reporting by Mat Coch

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