Abu Dhabi post‑season test: full line‑ups and F1’s first taste of 2026

When the chequered flag falls at Yas Marina, most fans think the season is over. But on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, the floodlights will burn for one more day as all 10 teams roll out two cars apiece: one to say goodbye to 2025, and one to take F1’s first real step into 2026. From 09:00 to 18:00 local time, each team runs a modified “mule” car on Pirelli’s narrower 2026 tyres alongside its regular 2025 chassis for the mandated young‑driver test. The mule cars carry low‑downforce, Monza‑style wings and even speed‑limited straights with extra DRS zones to mimic next year’s active‑aero machines, while Pirelli cycles race drivers through one set of C2 and three sets each of C3, C4 and C5.

The youngsters pound around on the current compounds, with a generous mix of C3, C4 and C5 to sample both qualifying bite and race‑run degradation. McLaren split the tyre work between freshly crowned world champion Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, with IndyCar star Pato O’Ward in the young‑driver car. Ferrari field Charles Leclerc and incoming legend Lewis Hamilton on the mule car, handing the 2025 SF‑25 to F2 title contender Dino Beganovic, while Red Bull promote Isack Hadjar to the senior team with Super Formula champion Ayumu Iwasa in the RB21. Mercedes entrusts 2026 prodigy Andrea Kimi Antonelli with the mule car and reserve Frederik Vesti with the W16E, as Aston Martin turn to experienced simulator hand Stoffel Vandoorne and F2 racer Jak Crawford. Pierre Gasly shoulders Alpine’s tyre running with Kush Maini making his full‑fat F1 debut; Haas pair Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman share the experimental work as Toyota WEC star Ryo Hirakawa handles rookie duties. Visa Cash App RB lean on Liam Lawson with future race driver Arvid Lindblad in the 2025 car, Williams combine Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon with Luke Browning, and Sauber give both Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto mule‑car mileage while loan signing Paul Aron takes the young‑driver slot. Only Cadillac are absent, focused instead on finalising their 2026 entry.

On the mule side, this is less about lap times and more about correlation. Engineers will be poring over tyre temperatures, ride heights and aero balance, asking whether a season’s worth of 2026 CFD and simulator work actually survives contact with reality. Pirelli has even imposed a roughly 290–300 km/h speed cap on the straights to avoid over‑loading the narrower tyres, with extra DRS use to imitate straight‑line “low‑drag mode”. “We decided to avoid overloading the tyres on the straights… so, if you look at the laptime, it’s probably not fully representative. But it’s consistent,” explains Pirelli motorsport boss Mario Isola. That consistency is gold dust for teams trying to choose their 2026 setup philosophies before a single new‑regulation chassis turns a wheel. For the rookies, the brief is different but no less intense. This is the longest continuous run most of them will have had in an F1 car: full fuel, live pit stops, tyre changes from green track to night‑time grip. For Hadjar, Antonelli and Lindblad in particular, it’s an audition for 2026 race seats; for O’Ward, Bortoleto, Beganovic and company, it’s a chance to show they can manage tyres, traffic and feedback like hardened pros rather than desperate juniors. By the time the Yas Marina lights finally flicker out on Tuesday evening, no trophies will be handed out and no points will be scored. But buried in terabytes of tyre data and driver debriefs will be the first clues to F1’s next era – who has guessed the 2026 rulebook correctly, which rookies look ready to step up, and which giants may be about to stumble. The season may be over, but the race to 2026 starts here.