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Lap 1
What Do the Numbers Say?
Ahead of the 2026 season, most experts expected the new regulations to slow Formula 1 cars by 3–4 seconds per lap. While that prediction proved accurate in Australia, teams have made rapid progress since then.
Just six race weekends into the season, the deficit to the final year of the ground-effect era has already been reduced to around 1.5–2.1 seconds per lap at most circuits.
The table below compares the fastest qualifying lap times from 2026 with those from 2025.
GP | 2026 |
|---|---|
🇦🇺 Australia | + 3.422 s. |
🇨🇳 China | + 1.423 s. |
🇯🇵 Japan | + 1.795 s. |
🇺🇸 Miami | + 1.598 s. |
🇨🇦 Canada | + 1.689 s. |
🇲🇨 Monaco | + 2.097 s. |
The trend is clear: development is moving quickly, and the 2026 cars are already closing the gap to their predecessors faster than many expected.
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Lap 2
The Only Double Points Finish in Monaco 🇲🇨
In a race where track position is everything, Racing Bulls were the only team to place both cars in the points.
The team gambled on a late Safety Car, hoping to gain a "free" pit stop, and the strategy paid off perfectly. The resulting track-position advantage proved decisive around a circuit where overtaking is notoriously difficult.
Racing Bulls now sit sixth in the Constructors' Championship, just five points behind Alpine.
The only other teams to have achieved double points finishes during the 2026 season are Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, and Alpine.
Lap 3
The importance of pitstop preparation
Rob Smedley on Michael Schumacher's pit-stop preparation:
“Michael would be out there, Friday, all day, practicing, practicing how fast he could get into the pitlane. It used to be like, in the Friday practice drivers would kind of, I don’t want to say like, coast down into the pitline but they certainly were not practicing going as hard as they were in the race. He used to practice and practice and practice every time he went out.”
Lap 4
🧢 THIS WEEK’S PRIZE
🏆 Win an Official F1 Bucket Hat
Winner selected:
Sunday, June 14, 20:00 CET
How to Enter
1️⃣ Complete the Reflex Champion Reaction Time Challenge HERE 👉
2️⃣ Become a Fastest Lap Club Member for just €10/month
3️⃣ Achieve an average F1-style reaction time below 400 ms
Membership Benefits
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Lap 5
Reflex Champion
Test your reaction time using the current FIA Formula 1 start procedure and see how you compare against your friends and the world's best drivers.
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