– Formula 1 is significantly faster in the 2026 season than the biggest pessimists had feared. Longtime Pirelli Formula 1 boss Mario Isola says about the new cars: “They are not slow. I remember someone saying last year that they were five seconds slower.”
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“That is absolutely not true,” the Italian clarifies and explains: “Last year, the pole position [in Suzuka] was 1:26.9. So we are less than two seconds slower.” In fact, Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli drove a 1:28.778 on Saturday in Japan.
That made the Italian “only” about 1.8 seconds slower than Max Verstappen a year earlier. And according to Isola, the comparison is not even fair because the rules this year are completely new, while in 2025 they were already at the end of a four-year regulation.
“We are at the beginning of a development cycle that will probably be enormous, as [the teams] need to better understand the electric part of the powertrain,” explains Isola. Or in other words: Formula 1 cars will become significantly faster in the coming years.
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A fairer comparison would therefore be with the 2022 season, when the then regulation was also completely new. Max Verstappen drove a 1:29.304 in Suzuka for pole position, so he was even about half a second slower than Antonelli in 2026.
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“It is the way they achieved this lap time that makes the difference,” explains Isola. Because in fact, the new cars are slower in the corners during qualifying but reach higher top speeds than their predecessors.
By the way, the times of the 2026 cars do not come as a surprise to Isola. He reveals: “In simulations for the Suzuka race track, the lap time was a 1:28.7 – and the pole position was at 1:28.7. So the teams are very good with their simulations.”
“On a new race track it is more difficult [to simulate the times], but in Suzuka, where races have been held for many years, they delivered quite reliable simulations,” says the Italian.
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