The 2026 F1 Season has a new entrant, competing for the first time in history. The Audi F1 Team is offering a preview of what its contender will look like—in the form of the R26 Concept. For those who are scratching their heads, here’s a brief history. Audi completed the acquisition of Sauber Group earlier this year for about €600 million, thus laying the foundation for its F1 debut. The talks of acquiring Sauber began in 2022 with an official announcement in October that year. Audi’s current holding in Sauber is 70%, while the remaining 30% is held by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). With this new ownership, Sauber will end its 15-year-long engine relationship with Ferrari.
As for the R26 Concept, well, it is being shown in colors that’ll spearhead Audi’s new brand identity. The visual identity, according to Audi, is based on the recently introduced design philosophy and its four design principles: clear, technical, intelligent and emotional. Essentially, the idea is to be minimalistic and clean. The color palette features titanium, carbon black and the newly introduced Audi red. The red appears to be a darker version of the orange we’ve seen on past all-electric/hybrid test mules/prototypes.
The actual racecar won’t look this clean, though, as it’ll be covered with a sponsor-full livery. Speaking of sponsors, the main sponsor is a controversial financial services company called Revolut. Which means the full name of the F1 team is Revolut Audi F1 Team. Gabriel Bortoleto🇧🇷 and Nico Hülkenberg🇩🇪 will be the drivers.
Audi also disclosed that it has been working on a 1.6L V6 turbo for this car in Neuburg an der Donau since spring 2022. As you may know, a modern F1 car is a hybrid, which means, in addition to an ICE, there’ll also be an energy recovery system (ERS) including energy storage (ES) and an electric motor generator unit (MGU-K), as well as an electronic control unit (CU-K). In addition to the ICE, the gearbox is also being developed in Neuburg.
The team’s official inauguration is in January 2026. Shortly thereafter, the first test drives with the new Formula 1 cars will take place at the end of January in Barcelona, Spain, still behind closed doors. Further tests will happen in Bahrain in front of the public for the first time, before the brand’s racing debut at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in March.
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