Teams warned some will make ‘mistakes with these new regulations’

After porpoising plagued some teams at the start of F1’s ground-effect era, they have been warned that some will “make mistakes” with F1 2026’s all-new regulations.

Oliver Bearman just hopes Haas isn’t one of those teams.

Oliver Bearman: ‘There are going to be teams and people making mistakes’

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Formula 1 bid farewell to ground-effect aerodynamics last season, a year in which McLaren dominated the first half of the season on its way to the championship double. The sport has now moved onto cars incorporating active aerodynamics.

It is the biggest regulatory reset in Formula 1’s history.

The new cars will be shorter and lighter than their predecessors and use movable front and rear wings, while a new engine formula will see the cars run on sustainable fuel with a 50-50 split between electrical and combustion power.

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But as with any big change, there’s always the prospect that one team, or more, will get it wrong.

The last time the chassis regulations changed was in 2022 when Formula 1 introduced ground-effect aerodynamic cars and some teams, notably Mercedes, suffered with porpoising that cost it dearly on the track.

Bearman reckons this season there will again be teams that get it wrong.

“It’s impossible to gauge where we’re going to be right now,” he said at the unveiling of Haas’ VF-26 livery.

“Everything I’m seeing from the team is positive, but we don’t know how we stack up, and we won’t know until qualifying in Australia.

“Even then, I feel like in the first few races reliability is going to be playing a big factor. There are going to be teams and people making mistakes with these new regulations.

“It’s going to be tough to establish a true pecking order.”

Haas will head to Barcelona in the coming days for the start of a five-day behind-closed-doors test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya that begins on January 26.

The teams will be permitted to run on three of the five days after which they’ll head to Bahrain for official pre-season testing on February 11-13 and February 18-20.

“These changes are the biggest in the history of Formula 1,” Bearman said. “That is a huge deal of excitement for me. I’m heading into a regulation change for the first time in my life, really.

“Last year was a big step for me, but I think even from the beginning, we knew that if we put the car in the right window, we were still going to be able to fight for points, and we had an idea of the competitiveness of the car.

“That lack of knowledge heading into 2026 is good and bad, as on one side I feel like we can really have an impact straight away, but also it’s horrible not knowing. I would like to skip forward six months to see where we are, but I’m going to be giving it everything to make sure that where we are is as high up as possible.”

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