Villeneuve: “2026 can be as great as it can be a failure, not everyone will adapt well”

What the Canadian expects F1 is preparing to experience a season marked by the biggest revolution ever to take place at a regulatory level and in just over a week the presentations will begin because at the end of the month teams and drivers will already be on track in Barcelona behind closed doors. If in 2025 the gaps were really minimal, especially in Qualifying since the technical regulations remained substantially unchanged from 2022 to 2025 (under the power unit freeze regime), in 2026 this will certainly not be the case and the teams have already underlined that 2026 will be a battle of developments. Jacques Villeneuve expects heavy gaps: “The gaps in 2026 will be heavy – said the 1997 world champion reached by PokerScout – there are many things to discover and the pilots will have to get used to using the battery and the mobile wings. We don’t know what to expect, the new rules could be exciting and could be a failure at the same time. Not all drivers and not all teams will adapt well to the big change expected in the way of racing”.