2026 Formula One Season Thread

[Madonepro]

Is this true what that ex RBR employee said "Melbourne is at the wrong time, should be a night race, so it is a better time for the UK viewers?" Paraphrasing some bloke that was fired recently from Red Bull Racing, and trying so hard to bet back into F1...

I lived in Melbourne for over a decade, and there was often talk of Melbourne losing its GP. It was Ron Walker, who convinced the Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett, to convince Bernie Eccleston to bring it to Melbourne, from Adelaide.
It was, and is, a very expensive exercise to hold it each year, and more prudent politicians argue it's worth. It costs $2.66 in economic impact for every $1 invested.

 

[JustinePaula]

Drivers? Do they even know what tools are used? I meant the PHD's.. All the information at uni is the same, if you Study in the UK, Prague, Paris or some 4th level public access state college in Des Moines Iowa.. The degree is the same.. so surely the answers to the questions should be the same, thus the cars identical??

How can we have 1 or 2 teams that are maybe F2 point 5, and the rest best suited to a F5 level? With so many teams poaching from each other, basically education incest.. All the cars should be the same.. The regulations so rigid it makes carbon fibre seem like mash potato.. So how within the regs and the same PHD's.. the cars so useless that we have an effective 3 tier grid? Cars that are F2.5. cars that are F2, and cars that are F5???

 

[JustinePaula]

I lived in Melbourne for over a decade, and there was often talk of Melbourne losing its GP. It was Ron Walker, who convinced the Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett, to convince Bernie Eccleston to bring it to Melbourne, from Adelaide.
It was, and is, a very expensive exercise to hold it each year, and more prudent politicians argue it's worth. It costs $2.66 in economic impact for every $1 invested.

If it costs 266% of the investment for a sunny day race, I wonder, would it cost $6.00 for a night-time race? And would a night race even be legal?

 

[Madonepro]

If it costs 266% of the investment for a sunny day race, I wonder, would it cost $6.00 for a night-time race? And would a night race even be legal?

The issue has always been, as far as F1 are concerned, not the money, but the timing of the GP. Later doesn't work, because the market isn't the US, but UK, Europe and more lately, the Middle East. In March, Melbourne time is +11 GMT, which is awful for broadcasting in those markets.

 

[JustinePaula]

Yeah, I know, I have to get up at sparrow's wee to watch SA v AB's when it is a home game for the AB's.. Would prefer if we had 30 races a year all from Japan.. Great time for me, breakfast time..

Sunday afternoon is no good, have to work.. The moronic service here does not have a record function for the digital streaming of F1.. And they will schedule repeats for when everyone and the parrot has to work..

Would be interesting if they did move it to a night race... But before they do that, F1 really should if they want to move events, just turn the cars around in Monaco.. Have them race from finish to start.. Then it makes sense.. Monaco becomes a brilliant track that they want to race at 3 times a year.. Maybe even do testing instead the freezer they use now...

 

[Paul1964]

You have 11 teams in F1, within the 11 teams, across all 11 teams, 90% all went to the same sort of university, had the same education, same access to software, so why do we have teams that really should be in F5, and the rest in maybe F2,5? Where is the real F1 teams?

Will 2026 be a year full of excuses "New regs..blah blah.." plenty of verbage, but nothing much to say??

So should we scrap 2026, whoever wins, is not a true winner, we should really start saying F1 champs from year 3? So 2029 is the 1st real year of proper F1 under new regs???

I guess you'll not be watching it then?

 

[JustinePaula]

I will be watching, but it makes no sense to regard year 1 of a new series as a valid indicator of WDC..When the driver is about 1% of that title, and 99% is PHD.. Who has the best PHD on staff..

 

[Paul1964]

I will be watching, but it makes no sense to regard year 1 of a new series as a valid indicator of WDC..When the driver is about 1% of that title, and 99% is PHD.. Who has the best PHD on staff..

If you're looking at the car, the Adrian Newey is the best F1 car designer and Aston Martin will likely have the best car.

But ... we don't know what the new Honda engine will be like and may hold the car back. If they were still using a Mercedes engine my money would have been for Alonso to win the WDC.

The problem Honda have is that many of their experienced F1 engineers are now with RedBull PowerTrains and no longer work for Honda.

It remains to be seen, have the "new" Honda people built an engine worthy of an Adrian Newey car?

I'm much more enthusiastic about 2026 than you appear to be. As Darth Vader once said - I find your lack of faith disturbing. 😉

 

[JustinePaula]

Actually I want to be wrong, there is nothing better than being wrong, I want to Aston become great, as I do William's, I want to see 3 or 4 maybe 5 teams duke it out for 2 titles, every weekend, I don't want a snooze that after 8 races, we have 2 titles decided.. In fact each race should pay more points 25 for race 1, 26 for race 2 etc.. So that you have a way for Williams or AM or Cadillac to achieve...

But I really hope they ban the dog eggs of sport, the stupid useless infantile, demo version of F1, the sprint.. Make it a sprint for the well paid seat warmers..

 

[Paul1964]

Actually I want to be wrong, there is nothing better than being wrong, I want to Aston become great, as I do William's, I want to see 3 or 4 maybe 5 teams duke it out for 2 titles, every weekend, I don't want a snooze that after 8 races, we have 2 titles decided.. In fact each race should pay more points 25 for race 1, 26 for race 2 etc.. So that you have a way for Williams or AM or Cadillac to achieve...

But I really hope they ban the dog eggs of sport, the stupid useless infantile, demo version of F1, the sprint.. Make it a sprint for the well paid seat warmers..

The sprint is OK but it is a bit of a distraction. Do you mean the sprint should be for the reserve drivers? That would be an interesting idea and allow a team to audition a driver for a full race seat the following year, or drop them.

As for seat warmers, Nicholas Latifi is out and Jack Doohan has been relegated to keeping the simulator warm. Lance Stroll though ... He's only keeping his seat because of daddy.

It will be interesting if the curse continues with the second Red Bull seat as they continue to build a car around Max and his driving style.

 

[JustinePaula]

Every team 1st Jan of every year by 12:00noon Paris time, should nominate 1 driver, either Reserve or from F2 to compete in Sprint, Current F1 drivers competing in the full event Sunday, banned..

What we don't want is a repeat of F1 drivers dying in non events, and Sprints do not offer the points that justify the risk of fatality for F1.. Imagine Max being killed in a stupid Sprint.. Then what is the point of Sunday? Sprints are the demo version of F1.. So use demo drivers.. Or If you want Max in sprints, he is banned from F1 Sunday.. You cannot have it both.. Each team chooses, Jan 1st 12:00pm.. You choose who does what..

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Drivers? Do they even know what tools are used? I meant the PHD's.. All the information at uni is the same, if you Study in the UK, Prague, Paris or some 4th level public access state college in Des Moines Iowa.. The degree is the same.. so surely the answers to the questions should be the same, thus the cars identical??

I'm a mechanical design engineer in the automotive sector and I can assure you a team of engineers do not all have the same ideas and think in the same way lol. We might all be BEng/MEng educated but technologies change, innovations change perspectives and ways of thinking change constantly. If this wasn't the case in F1, we'd have a standard spec series.

 

[CWallace]

Per single seater director Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA is reported to be trying to put the compression ratio drama to rest prior to Australia, though with how close the engines are to formal homologation on 1 March that is proving difficult. One possible solution would be to perform the test once the engine has warmed to operating temperature, though there is also talk of (somehow) putting sensors into place.

Mercedes rivals push for intervention over F1 engine loophole - but how realistic is it?

Rival manufacturers are working on plans to get the compression ratio checks adjusted ahead of the F1 season. Any change would require a supermajority, including support from the FIA

www.motorsport.com

https://racer.com/2026/02/10/fia-wants-to-solve-f1-s-compression-ratio-controversy-prior-to-australian-gp

 

[Glideslope]

Per single seater director Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA is reported to be trying to put the compression ratio drama to rest prior to Australia, though with how close the engines are to formal homologation on 1 March that is proving difficult. One possible solution would be to perform the test once the engine has warmed to operating temperature, though there is also talk of (somehow) putting sensors into place.

Mercedes rivals push for intervention over F1 engine loophole - but how realistic is it?

Rival manufacturers are working on plans to get the compression ratio checks adjusted ahead of the F1 season. Any change would require a supermajority, including support from the FIA

www.motorsport.com

https://racer.com/2026/02/10/fia-wants-to-solve-f1-s-compression-ratio-controversy-prior-to-australian-gp

Sensors should be an interesting exercise if they go that direction.

Day 1 practice looking like the end of 2025 so far. Hats off to RBPT. Allot of laps at high engine modes today. I certainly wasn’t expecting it.

Toto in full diversion mode on PU performance questions. I was almost expecting him to try and bring up Kimi’s AMG 63.

 

[CWallace]

Day 1 practice looking like the end of 2025 so far. Hats off to RBPT. Allot of laps at high engine modes today. I certainly wasn’t expecting it.

The Race noted that Max was downshifting all the way to first in Turn 10, while the majority were only downshifting to second. He was also doing double-downshifts and up-shifts. The Race believes this is to intentionally push the engine revs up to recharge the battery pack faster so it can feed more energy into the MGU-K, which now provides roughly half the overall power. They also report he was the most-consistent driver, with all his laps within the same general spread.

 

[Glideslope]

The Race noted that Max was downshifting all the way to first in Turn 10, while the majority were only downshifting to second. He was also doing double-downshifts and up-shifts. The Race believes this is to intentionally push the engine revs up to recharge the battery pack faster so it can feed more energy into the MGU-K, which now provides roughly half the overall power. They also report he was the most-consistent driver, with all his laps within the same general spread.

Interesting. I’ll do more research on that. Definitely would increase regeneration. Nice stress testing for the PU as well.

 

[JustinePaula]

23 days 22 hours, plus change until lights out and...
Let's hope 11 teams find all the bugs, gremlins, bad code, faulty PHD's and get 22 cars on the grid..

Why is F1 testing not on the youtubes??

 

[TheIntruder]

Per single seater director Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA is reported to be trying to put the compression ratio drama to rest prior to Australia, though with how close the engines are to formal homologation on 1 March that is proving difficult. One possible solution would be to perform the test once the engine has warmed to operating temperature, though there is also talk of (somehow) putting sensors into place.

Reading Tombazis' word salad trying to explain how the FIA didn't screw up the regulation was amusing.

If, as reported, Mercedes was transparent with the FIA during the development process, and the latter had knowledge of the design and provided tacit approval, then it will be doing Mercedes a dirty to do anything but permit the engine to race as built.

F1 is the last, and perhaps only, series where engineers are encouraged, and have the most design freedom to seek loopholes, and exploit them.

But it's also the series where gamesmanship, and politics are integral to the sport, often to its detriment.

 

[JustinePaula]

"Didn't screw up the regulation"
When since 1950 has the FIA gone more than 2 minutes without some sort of blunder of regs? They tend to screw up mostly on Sunday's, usually Sundays with races...

I think they are very proud of the screw ups.. A bit like Bond films are used in film school, to teach raw editors how not to screw up.. The FIA is a case study in not how to run, or rather a case study on how to ruin something.. Too many lawyers and not enough adults..

 

[Glideslope]

"Didn't screw up the regulation"
When since 1950 has the FIA gone more than 2 minutes without some sort of blunder of regs? They tend to screw up mostly on Sunday's, usually Sundays with races...

I think they are very proud of the screw ups.. A bit like Bond films are used in film school, to teach raw editors how not to screw up.. The FIA is a case study in not how to run, or rather a case study on how to ruin something.. Too many lawyers and not enough adults..

Which actor’s films are referred to the most? Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosan, Tim Dalton, George Lazenby, David Niven, or Barry Nelson? My money is on Timothy Dalton.

 

[CWallace]

Some interesting PU design news has broken cover at Bahrain - both Honda and RBFPT are running air-to-air intercoolers, while the other engine OEMs have continued with air-to-water. Both teams have also mounted them to the top of the engine, which allows them to have more sculpted sidepods because they don't need to dedicate sidepod space to radiators to cool the water.

However, there are some drawbacks. In hot ambient conditions or when stuck in traffic, the air coming into the intercooler will be hotter and therefore result in lower performance. You also have 10kg/22lbs sitting at the top of the car, affecting the center of gravity and acting somewhat as a pendulum in turns. This will affect the handling of the car to some extent.

https://x.com/ApexToAsphaltIE/status/20 ... 7246060694

 

[JustinePaula]

Air intercoolers? How very 1930's German pre war Mr Porsche.. Was he not the bloke that made a very useful air cooled engine??? My 1st car was a Golf 1.. 2nd Gen, it was water cooled, but was designed to be air cooled, one day, it had no water, and nothing happened, drove home with no water in the system, filled it, and it worked for years..

So air makes more sense.. I wonder if they found an old manual for a "Bug".. Desperate times..

 

[CWallace]

If, as reported, Mercedes was transparent with the FIA during the development process, and the latter had knowledge of the design and provided tacit approval, then it will be doing Mercedes a dirty to do anything but permit the engine to race as built.

Agreed, but it is looking more and more like something is going to be done. Italian media outlet AutoRacer says that the FIA Power Unit Advisory Committee (which includes the FIA, FOM and the PU suppliers) have agreed on "a clarification of the methods and procedures for autonomous PU control" that is said to address any "grey areas" in the regulations that could be exploited by a PU manufacturer.

Wolff has dismissed the claims that the AMG PU is able to attain the 18:1 compression ratio under load that the 2025 engines were capable of and that the actual power advantage is a handful of horsepower compared to the 20-30hp thrown about in the media and by the other PU manufacturers. And considering AMG-powered cars have not been blitzing the timing sheets, either they're all sandbagging something fierce or this is not 2014 all over again.

Caso Mercedes risolto: verso la firma di un nuovo regolamento

I motoristi e la FIA stanno trovando un accordo riguardo le controversie sulle nuove Power Unit, firmando un nuovo regolamento.

autoracer.it

FIA rules on Mercedes F1 engine after ‘secret checks’ amid pressure from Ferrari

Has the FIA made the right decision?

www.f1oversteer.com

 

[pachyderm]

This is what the Audi looks like as of this morning. Different nose/front wing and different sidepods.

The image below is what we saw on the original shakedown in Spain.

 

[m..]

Those side pods look completely different, almost a new car.