Racing Bulls lining up “significant” pre-Melbourne upgrade for VCARB03 as 2026 era dawns
Racing Bulls won’t be turning up in Melbourne with the same car it shakes down in Barcelona. Team principal Alan Permane says a “significant update” is already booked in for the VCARB03 ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, a move that mirrors Ferrari’s plan to split its launch spec and performance spec across the opening tests.
In a winter that’s forcing every team to relearn the rulebook, the Faenza squad is pushing development as late as it dares. “I’m pretty sure most people, us included, will bring an update,” Permane told PlanetF1.com in an exclusive interview. “The car we test with in Barcelona won’t be the car we take to Melbourne. I’m sure there’ll be a significant update.”
Ferrari fired the starting gun on the two-step approach, with Fred Vasseur confirming the Scuderia will roll out a basic SF-26 to an initial, behind-closed-doors run in Barcelona to bank reliability miles and validate concepts, before switching to a more aggressive B-spec for the Bahrain group tests. Racing Bulls is heading down the same road: log the data early, show your hand late.
If that sounds like everyone’s walking the tightrope, it’s because they are. The 2026 regulations overhaul is the biggest reset the sport has seen in years: 50 percent hybridisation, fully sustainable fuels and active aerodynamics, with brand-new chassis and power unit rules landing at once. For Red Bull’s two teams, it also marks the start of life with Red Bull Powertrains as a works supplier, following the end of the Honda partnership last year. The marketing fandango started in Detroit, where Red Bull and Racing Bulls revealed their 2026 looks at a Ford-branded launch, but the real game is happening in wind tunnels and CAD suites.
“We’ve known the regs for a while,” Permane said. “We’ve been able to work on the car in the wind tunnel since January 1, 2025. Now we’re all faced with exactly the same problem. The later you develop your car, the faster it will be, in simple terms. You want to keep it in the wind tunnel as long as you can. You want to finalise the mechanical designs as late as you can.”
That sounds neat on a whiteboard. Real life is messier. Packaging the new power unit and its cooling architecture dictates sidepod geometry; sidepods shape the floor; the floor writes the downforce story. Every late gain upstream causes a scramble downstream. “The installation of the engine, with the radiator installation, all that has an effect on the sidepod installation, which has an effect on the floor, which has an effect on the downforce,” Permane said. “Everything you do is geared up for performance, so you kind of define that timeline yourselves.”
Permane’s elevation to the top job last July gave Racing Bulls a steady hand at exactly the moment a team needs it. The former Alpine stalwart knows his way around pressure-testing a concept, and his message has been consistent: get the fundamentals right early, then spend your tokens where they pay off most.
That’s why Barcelona won’t be about glory runs. Expect the VCARB03 there to be a proving mule, the kind you’d be reluctant to photograph head-on. The numbers to watch will be mileage, correlation, cooling thresholds and how the active aero behaves in the real world. Bahrain is where the clever stuff should appear on the car — and where rivals will start taking notes.
The wider picture is just as spicy. With Red Bull Powertrains stepping into the limelight and Ferrari cooking up parallel cars for test one and test two, the first fortnight of on-track running could be more revealing than usual in a new-regs year. Everybody’s chasing the same late-development magic, but not everyone will hit the manufacturing window. That’s where an experienced mid-grid outfit can nick a march: show up in Australia with a car that works everywhere, then layer on the lap time.
Permane’s call to bring a hefty update before round one suggests Racing Bulls is betting on that exact approach. Bank a reliable baseline, hold shape in Bahrain, then walk into Melbourne with a VCARB03 that breathes a bit differently where it counts.
It’s a high-wire off-season, and no one’s pretending otherwise. But Racing Bulls looks committed to the art of leaving it late — and getting it right.
