Esteban Ocon believes Mercedes is likely to be favorite for the 2026 Formulation 1 season, whereas Audi is predicted to battle alongside Cadillac on the again.
Mercedes impressed within the five-day, behind-closed-doors shakedown at Barcelona. The brand new Silver Arrow accomplished 500 laps (in keeping with unofficial information) in simply three days, with first rate tempo relative to the competitors, and subsequently is the primary group that involves thoughts for the 29-year-old Haas driver.
“I believe it’s a bit early to speak concerning the pecking order, however we’ve seen that Mercedes was very quick over the entire take a look at,” Ocon stated.
“We’ve additionally seen that the Ferrari was in an excellent place, the Pink Bull was doing effectively, the McLaren was within the combine too.
“For now, that’s what Barcelona advised us; it is going to be tighter within the group behind – VCARB, Alpine and ourselves – and a bit of step behind, for now, Audi and Cadillac.
Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi F1 Group
Photograph by: Audi
“It’s a bit early to speak about it, we’ll have to see in Bahrain. However for now, that’s what we predict is going on.”
Cadillac is a brand-new group, so was all the time anticipated to battle considerably with its first, Ferrari-powered challenger. Audi, previously generally known as Sauber, is a brand new energy unit producer and was hampered by a lot of technical points on the Catalan monitor – certainly one of which was recognized as a hydraulic leak.
Logically, Ocon talked about neither Aston Martin, which ran for simply over sooner or later, nor Williams, which skipped the Barcelona take a look at altogether.
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Regardless of teething issues on some vehicles, reliability was significantly better than feared, which stunned the Frenchman – particularly with Haas finishing extra laps than anybody bar Mercedes and Ferrari. That was regardless of shaking the brand new VF-26 down at Fiorano lower than two days earlier than the Barcelona take a look at acquired underneath manner.
“No, undoubtedly not, I used to be not anticipating that,” he added. “I believe it was an superior job, you already know, by the entire group.
“To begin with, driving in Fiorano [until Saturday evening] after which placing the automotive down on Monday, to drive at 9am within the morning – I believe we exited at like 9:15am, however the automotive was prepared at 9. That was only a loopy effort.
Esteban Ocon, Haas
Photograph by: Haas F1 Group
“I by no means thought that will have been doable. I believed there would have been some downside on the motorway alongside the way in which, that there could be some site visitors or no matter, and the automotive could be late. However, yeah, we have been prepared at 9am and we did 150-whatever laps [that day]. It was loopy.
“No, I used to be not anticipating that, that it went so easily, but it surely’s good, it is superb, as a result of it signifies that the reliability up to now, we’ve got it.
“Day two was a bit of bit tougher on Ollie’s facet, however there are straightforward issues to repair. So we needs to be on level on that facet. And now the subsequent factor, clearly, is to make the automotive quick, as a result of it is dependable – it is good – but it surely must be quick.”
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