{"id":466,"date":"2026-03-05T13:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T13:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/?p=466"},"modified":"2026-03-05T13:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T13:48:10","slug":"norris-technical-changes-and-new-gp-in-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/?p=466","title":{"rendered":"Norris, technical changes and new GP in Madrid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>This weekend begins on the circuit of <strong>Albert Park<\/strong> of <strong>Melbourne<\/strong> he <strong>Australian GP<\/strong> of <strong>Formula 1<\/strong>first of the season <strong>2026<\/strong> in a <strong>World<\/strong> where <strong>Lando Norris<\/strong> defends his newly crowned driver&#8217;s world champion crown and his team, <strong>McLaren<\/strong>that of builders.<\/p>\n<p>It will be the first of <strong>24<\/strong> race weekends, with six of them hosting <strong>sprints<\/strong>among which there will be again <strong>14<\/strong> years later two in <strong>Spain<\/strong>: <strong>Barcelona<\/strong> y <strong>Madrid<\/strong>. It will not be the only novelty, because many teams were waiting for this <strong>2026<\/strong> and the long-awaited news as a way of giving back to the <strong>F1<\/strong> its old competitiveness, but in the preseason it has been seen that equality will be hard to come by and the list of favorites will be reduced to the usual ones.<\/p>\n<div class=\"section\">\n<h2 class=\"ladillo\">Verstappen, Piastri and Hamilton, Norris&#8217;s main rivals<\/h2>\n<p>Among those will be the Dutch <strong>Max Verstappen<\/strong>of <strong>Red Bull<\/strong>the considered &#8220;moral winner&#8221; of last year for keeping the fight for <strong>World<\/strong> of drivers, despite having a car clearly inferior to the <strong>McLaren<\/strong>. This year, with an engine <strong>Ford<\/strong> and a new partner in the person of one of the best &#8216;rookies&#8217; of <strong>2025<\/strong>, <strong>Isack Hadjar<\/strong>they once again aspire to everything.<\/p>\n<p>The internal fight in the British team was partly what benefited &#8216;<strong>Mad Max<\/strong>&#8216; when it comes to continuing to have hope, which implies the participation of a third actor: <strong>Oscar Piastri<\/strong>. The Australian driver will want to show that he is worthy enough to fight for the title. <strong>World<\/strong> as your partner <strong>Norris<\/strong>but he will have a difficult time within a British team against a British driver.<\/p>\n<p>The same nationality as the seven-time champion <strong>Lewis Hamilton<\/strong>who longs to return to the top six years later and in the preseason <strong>Ferrari<\/strong> It has given him back the illusion of finally having the competitive car he dreamed of with his star signing last year.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, despite the hopes placed by all the teams in the changes, the aspiring teams remain the same. He joins the three from before <strong>Mercedes<\/strong>where Italian is consolidating <strong>Kimi Antonelli<\/strong> as a great asset in the face of the stagnation of the British <strong>George Russell<\/strong>. The German brand supplies the engine itself, as does <strong>McLaren<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"section\">\n<h2 class=\"ladillo\">The doubts of Alonso and Sainz<\/h2>\n<p>Given the optimism of those considered &#8216;great&#8217;, the doubts of those teams that put all their hopes in this <strong>2026<\/strong>. That implies <strong>Aston Martin<\/strong> and to Spanish <strong>Fernando Alonso<\/strong>that with the signing of the engineer <strong>Adrian Newey<\/strong> last year they planned to take a step forward this season, but the preseason results of the new engine <strong>Honda<\/strong> They have left much to be desired.<\/p>\n<p><strong>New<\/strong>who is considered the creator of the best <strong>Red Bull<\/strong> In his two winning cycles, he is an expert in aerodynamics, but he has been skeptical when it comes to assembling the improvements with the Japanese brand&#8217;s engine. True to his style of taking packaging to the limit, he asked at the last minute to install the <strong>MGU-K<\/strong> in an extremely low position to sink the center of gravity of the <strong>AMR26<\/strong>. This forced us to divide the battery pack into two levels and change the original anchors, which caused excessively high vibrations that made the batteries resonate within the chassis.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The systems are interacting in a way that simulations in <strong>Sakura<\/strong> (headquarters of <strong>Honda<\/strong>) did not predict,&#8221; he declared <strong>New<\/strong> a <strong>Motorsport<\/strong>. The preseason problems have caused some to rate the <strong>Aston Martin<\/strong> &#8220;walking laboratory&#8221; and cast doubt on its performance. To his <strong>44<\/strong> years, <strong>Alonso<\/strong> I wanted to hold on until I had at least one season in which I aspired to something more than low podium positions, and even more so having a <strong>GP<\/strong> in <strong>Madrid<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Nor have things been better in <strong>Williams<\/strong>where he plays for another year <strong>Carlos Sainz<\/strong> waiting to take a step forward after two podiums last season. The former World Cup-winning team has now seen how in the preseason its <strong>FW48<\/strong> did not pass <strong>crash test<\/strong> and lost critical days of testing in <strong>Barcelona<\/strong>. &#8220;We are going to start the first half of the year with lower expectations than in <strong>2025<\/strong>&#8230;but my <strong>11<\/strong> years of experience can serve as a guide,&#8221; he said <strong>Sainz<\/strong> on the last day of testing in <strong>Bahrain<\/strong>in statements collected by <strong>DAZN<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"incluBox L\" style=\"width:100%;\">\n<p>\t\t<span class=\"figcaption\"><span>Carlos Sainz: &#8220;We arrived late and a little unprepared&#8221;<\/span><\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n<p>To top off the added difficulties to the Spaniards&#8217; options, new rivals must be taken into account in that &#8216;middle zone of the table&#8217; with the entry of <strong>Audi<\/strong> rather <strong>Sauber<\/strong> and the arrival of <strong>Cadillac<\/strong>which has brought back the Mexican <strong>Sergio &#8216;Checo&#8217; P\u00e9rez<\/strong>. More competition to score points.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"section\">\n<h2 class=\"ladillo\">Goodbye, DRS; Hello, &#8220;active aerodynamics&#8221;: the technical news<\/h2>\n<p>These long-awaited technical developments are summarized in several points. The most striking is the elimination of <strong>DRS<\/strong>which is replaced by what is called <strong>active aerodynamics<\/strong>: All drivers can move their wings (front and rear) to reduce resistance on the straights, without having to be one second behind the rival. The most striking in the preseason has turned out to be that of <strong>Ferrari<\/strong>with a capacity to rotate <strong>360\u00ba<\/strong> degrees.<\/p>\n<p>The power is divided equally between the combustion engine (<strong>V6 Turbo<\/strong>) and the electrical part (<strong>MGUK<\/strong>), which doubles its power up to <strong>350 kW<\/strong>. It is introduced the <strong>Manual Override Mode<\/strong>an extra power from the battery that can only be used by the pursuer to facilitate overtaking, the button called <strong>push to pass<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"incluBox L\" style=\"width:100%;\">\n<p>\t\t<span class=\"figcaption\"><span>Briatore: &#8220;Fernando Alonso is incredible, very competitive; he can continue one or two more years&#8221;<\/span><\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n<p>Visually, this means that the cars are shorter, narrower and <strong>30 kg<\/strong> lighter. Having less downforce, they will be slower in corners and more difficult to drive. The pilot is once again decisive in managing the engine brake to recharge the batteries. Not everyone has received these news positively. <strong>Verstappen<\/strong> has referred to the &#8220;<strong>Formula E<\/strong> with steroids.&#8221; For his part, <strong>Alonso<\/strong> have issued the warning: &#8220;If you spend that energy (to overtake), you will pay for it on the next straight. So they may re-overtake you,&#8221; although on the other side of the scale they have praised the &#8220;freedom&#8221; that the <strong>Manual Override Mode<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"section\">\n<h2 class=\"ladillo\">Madrid and &#8220;La Monumental&#8221;, the great novelty of a long calendar<\/h2>\n<p>The other big news is on the calendar with the inclusion of <strong>Madrid<\/strong>. The capital will host in September the <strong>Spanish GP<\/strong>while that of <strong>Montmel\u00f3<\/strong> It remains in June, becoming known as <strong>GP of Catalonia<\/strong>. Neither will host any of the six races at <strong>sprint<\/strong>. That will be for <strong>China<\/strong>the second one a week after <strong>Australia<\/strong>, <strong>Miami<\/strong>, <strong>Canada<\/strong>, <strong>Great Britain<\/strong>, <strong>Netherlands<\/strong> y <strong>Singapore<\/strong>. In total, <strong>24<\/strong> great prizes for a schedule as tight or more than the previous one, which will conclude in <strong>Abu Dhabi<\/strong> he <strong>December 6<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Madrid<\/strong> wants to make a big debut in the <strong>F1<\/strong>. The capital of <strong>Spain<\/strong> awaits the &#8216;great circus&#8217; with a semi-urban circuit of <strong>5,4 km<\/strong> in the area of <strong>IFEMA<\/strong> y <strong>Valdebebas<\/strong>: he <strong>MadRing<\/strong>. The designers of the layout have presented days ago the &#8216;jewel&#8217; of the circuit with the most banked curve in the entire circuit. <strong>World<\/strong>named as <strong>The Monumental<\/strong> in tribute to <strong>Sales<\/strong>. will have <strong>550<\/strong> meters to <strong>24% cant<\/strong> and it will be taken thoroughly, remembering the <strong>NASCAR<\/strong>posing a challenge for the new <strong>active aerodynamics<\/strong> and for the left front tire. <strong>Pirelli<\/strong> He has baptized her with another name: <strong>Rubber eater<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>A challenge for the pilots and an incentive for the spectacle sought after with so many new features. It is not in vain that this curve can be seen from a stand of <strong>45.000<\/strong> spectators, with a total capacity of <strong>110.000<\/strong>. <strong>Madrid<\/strong> bet <strong>all in<\/strong> for the <strong>F1<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This weekend begins on the circuit of Albert Park of Melbourne he Australian GP of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}