The New Year may be just two weeks old but Formula 1 teams' preparations for the 2026 season are poised to kick off on Thursday night when the Red Bull teams launch their engine partnership with Ford by showing off their latest liveries in Detroit.

A fuller schedule of car and livery launches follows on from next week amid an unusually-early start to pre-season after the shortest of winters…

Why is launch season starting so early?

F1 launches - in January?!

If you're wondering why teams' preparations for the new season are publicly kicking into life little over five weeks after the last season ended in Abu Dhabi on December 7, then there's one simple explanation for that - the advent of the biggest technical rule change in the sport's history.

The significant overhaul of chassis and engines for 2026 means there are three pre-season tests instead of the one of recent years, with the first at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya under way from January 26 - the earliest start to pre-season running since 2014.

All 11 teams are holding livery/car/season launch events either side of that running in Spain, and ahead of the second test of the year in Bahrain from February 11.

When will we see the new cars?

The new cars themselves are always the ultimate stars of the show during launch season and this year anticipation is heightened by the fact we will see teams' first interpretations of the all-new technical rules.

Since the framework for the 2026 regulations was first announced in June 2024, we have only hitherto seen mock-ups from the FIA and F1 of what the narrower and nimbler challengers are likely to look like, so it's going to be fascinating to see how the regulations translate into reality across the expanded 11-team grid.

Not that launch season will show us everything teams have been working on to race in Australia from March 8. Far from it.

We already know we won't see either the new Red Bull or new Racing Bulls challenger at their launch event with Ford in Detroit, just their respective 2026 liveries (on show cars). Next week, though, should give more of a first glimpse of what teams have come up with.

Haas (February 19) and Mercedes (January 22) have promised the first pictures of their respective challengers via online reveals, while Ferrari and Alpine (both January 23) could also well do likewise at their events.

By releasing pictures online, teams can control what exactly they're showing to the world - and the preying eyes of rivals - and in what light and from what angles the car is pictured. Audi have already run their new car on track at a shakedown in Barcelona, but the pictures they released of it gave next to nothing away.

At this early stage of the year and after such a big overhaul, there will be little point in revealing too much before the cars hit the track in group testing beyond a basic version of how they have approached the new rules set.

The cars are, anyway, also guaranteed to develop fairly significantly from a basic launch spec to what teams run during the final test in Bahrain on February 18-20 ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in the first week of March.

What about the 2026 liveries?

Teams will be less shy in showing off their latest car livery designs, though, starting with the Red Bull teams at the Ford Racing event which kicks off their new era in engine partnership.

And while certain long-established teams in particular are highly unlikely to change their fundamental familiar colours, a minimum of two new looks are guaranteed to be revealed through the field.

Audi have finally completed their rebrand of the Sauber team, with the striking green and black colours the Swiss team ran in over the previous two seasons set to be replaced by something more akin to the red-black-titanium concept design the German manufacturer teased in November.

The arrival of Cadillac as the sport's new 11th team will also guarantees a brand-new look for the grid with the American outfit to reveal their first livery during the half-time adverts in the Super Bowl on February 8.

What will the teams and drivers say?

Launch season also gives the media and fans a first opportunity of the year to hear from the grid's drivers and team bosses. The early soundbites delivered this pre-season are going to be particularly fascinating given the nature of the rule changes over this winter.

Who will be displaying early confidence about their all-new car and engine package?

Which rivals are teams fearing most?

And will anyone admit early they're not quite where they want to be with their preparations and expect to start the campaign on the back foot? After all, it was during pre-season in 2023 that McLaren team principal Andrea Stella openly played down their chances for the season's early months, an assessment which proved completely accurate before a stunning mid-year upgrade propelled them up the grid.

Given the scale of change in the rulebook from one season to the next, the pre-season events and media interviews are also likely to provoke debate around any early technical controversies surrounding teams' interpretation of the regulations. Indeed, there has already been discussion in the media surrounding the engine compression rules amid the revision to the power-unit regulations.

Where are the launches happening?

This year's launches feature the usual mix of online and physical events, both in Europe and further afield.

While the Red Bull teams kick things off in the USA, the new-look Audi team are on home soil in Germany five days later with their final 2026 look to be unveiled in Berlin.

Honda, Aston Martin's new suppliers, are staging their own power-unit launch on the same day in Tokyo, Japan.

Ferrari's January 23 event is likely to stick with traditional and come from their Maranello base and/or adjacent Fiorano test track, while Alpine and McLaren will reveal their 2026 looks from Barcelona and Bahrain ahead of the respective tests at those venues.

Why is there no big O2-style event?

And, just in case you're wondering, there is no immediate repeat of the joint launch event featuring all the teams held by F1 last February, at The O2.

To celebrate the start of the sport's 75th anniversary celebrations, the sport's first-ever joint launch - F1 75 Live - saw all 10 teams show off their latest liveries and driver line-ups, in front of a sold-out crowd in London.

But with such a big rules overhaul, and three pre-season tests, taking up so much time and focus this time around, teams are again staging their own individual events at a time of their choosing.

Watch all 24 race weekends from the 2026 Formula 1 season live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - No contract, cancel anytime

read more