1) 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…gulp. 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.
2) 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 Top Gear’s Jonathan Wheatley. Good luck to ‘em: Sauber won one race in 32 years, and that was when it was paired with…BMW.
OTHER STORIES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED:
This Nissan superfan is building his own Sentra Nismo
Arriving soon? The next-gen hybrid Toyota RAV4 gets DOE recognition
3) 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…
4) 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 that 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?
5) 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 towards 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.
