1) Aston Martin AMR26
This is not the AMR26—this is merely a show car. But you knew that already. The point is, don’t go looking for signs of Adrian Newey’s genius-level design because the last thing a team would do is show off its homework to the world. Especially when you’re paying a reported £30 million a year to the bloke who did it. So what can we discern from this? Er, the Aston Martin car is green. Just like it was last year. Moving on...
2) McLaren MCL40
There’s a tradition at McLaren: If it wins silverware, it doesn’t rock the boat with the livery the following season. So, the reigning world champions have stayed faithful to the recipe that brought so much success in 2025, only really altering the balance of papaya and anthracite for appearance’s sake. Can’t read too much into a render, but doesn’t that drooping nose remind you of an anteater? Maybe it’s going to snuffle out victory, or something.
3) Cadillac
Your eyes don’t deceive you—Cadillac really has gone for a half ’n’ half livery. Amazing! Or it would be if it hadn’t picked the two colors that famously work the least well on television. Anyway, the black-and-white scheme (revealed in a Super Bowl ad and glass box in Times Square, because ’Merica) features a repeated pattern inspired by the Cadillac chevron, and is that a chromed halo? Niiice. Now the car just needs a name...
3) Williams FW48
Williams is the latest to stick to a familiar theme, keeping faith in the gloss blue that saw it achieve its best result—two podiums and fifth in the constructors’—in almost a decade last season. Looks great...now it just has to actually build the thing. Late homework gags aside, climbing even further up the grid will be insanely hard (even with Mercedes power) now that only big teams stand above it in the pecking order.
4) Alpine A526
Last season, Alpine finished stone dead last, amassing fewer points over the entire campaign than Lando Norris banked from the opening race. Alas, major change is afoot: This year, Alpine will be powered by a Mercedes engine instead of a works Renault unit, raising the prospect of it being actually quite decent after several years of comical mismanagement. Time will tell. The livery—blue and pink, as before—suggests continuity. Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto will be praying for the exact opposite.
5) Ferrari SF-26
Surprise, surprise: The new Ferrari is mostly red. And a little bit white. Of more concern to Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, and the entire population of Italy is whether or not this car might challenge for wins occasionally. Because the last one certainly didn’t (that one Sprint race aside). How many Q1 exits was it for the seven-time champ in the end?
We digress. The massive regulation change offers hope that Maranello might finally construct a machine capable of winning a title—something it hasn’t done at all for 18 years now. Our experience of those 18 years tells us not to expect too much...
OTHER STORIES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED:
Ford CEO on building Red Bull’s F1 engine: ‘We have the same opportunity as everyone else’
2026 Formula 1 season: Was an overhaul of the technical regulations really needed?
6) Mercedes W17 E Performance
Feast your eyes on the all-conquering, 2026 championship-winning entry from Mercedes (if depressing paddock rumors are to be believed). The last time F1’s engine regs went through a shake-up this big, Merc won eight years straight. Testing hasn’t even started yet, but the early money is already on one of George Russell or Kimi Antonelli claiming a maiden title in Abu Dhabi in December.
7) Audi R26
No, this isn’t a remix of late 2000s McLarens—it’s an all-new thing from a sort-of-new team. The Audi brand has finally landed in F1, consuming the old Sauber outfit in one big mouthful and with an appetite to “embed a championship DNA into every fiber of this team,” so says team principal Jonathan Wheatley. Good luck to them: Sauber won one race in 32 years, and that was when it was paired with...BMW.
8) Haas VF-26
No big overhaul here: The 2026 Haas F1 car looks a lot like the 2025 Haas F1 car. Except this one is sporting a tribute to George Russell on its engine cover. Kidding—the massive ‘GR’ is of course a nod to Gazoo Racing, the sporty sub-brand of Toyota with which Haas has agreed a technical partnership. Clearly, it didn’t Google ‘Toyota F1 wins 2002 to 2009’ before it signed that deal. But you never know, maybe this time will be different...
9) Red Bull RB22
What’s the first thing you notice about the 2026 Red Bull? No, not that the livery is more or less identical to every F1 Red Bull you’ve ever seen: It’s that the team has gone back to using glossy paint now. Pause for the sound of crickets chirping...
Aaaanyway, now that Red Bull has decided to make its own engine (with a bit of help from Ford), Max Verstappen will be praying the new hires have made a half-decent powertrain, or else the threat of being repeatedly lapped by a Merc-powered Alpine will be very, very real. Can you imagine?
10) Racing Bulls VCARB 03
Ostensibly, RB’s raison d’etre is to nurture talent for the Red Bull mothership, though lately, it’s been more of a holding pen for the live prey the team is contractually obliged to feed to the Max Verstappen juggernaut. New to the keep is teenager Arvid Lindblad, who, if nothing else, is marching toward the dragon with a set of very fetching white alloys. Oh, and that airbox looks massive.
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
