F1’s 2026 Tyre Plan Hits The Skids

Rumblings in the Bahrain test paddock hinted at a push to ditch the narrower 2026 Pirelli tyres.

Max Verstappen played it cagey when pressed on the test rubber’s feel: “They’re round,” he said with a grin.

George Russell didn’t hold back. “They’re clearly worse overall, there’s no doubt about that. Because they’re a lot narrower,” the Mercedes man told the press, laying it plain.

Motorsport-magazin.com says Mercedes is leading the charge to keep the current tyre sizes, scrapping the slimmed-down plan for 2026’s big shake-up.

The narrower specs came from team talks—less drag, lighter weight, a fit for the new cars—but some are balking now.

Pirelli’s F1 chief Mario Isola shrugged: “If the majority of teams want to keep the current size, then we will do it.” He’d just reuse today’s moulds with the new compounds.

It could be a case of too little too late though, as some squads have already started designing their 2026 cars around the skinnier tyres.