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2026 Formula One Season Thread
- Thread starter The-Real-Deal82
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TheIntruder
macrumors 68020
Hail the death of the standardized wheel covers that made them all look like steel wheels.
headlessmike
macrumors 68000
There are still wheel covers in the regulations that you can see on most of the car, but Cadillac isn't running them yet as they supposedly aren't ready.
CWallace
macrumors G5
So things may not be so dire for Williams. Soy Motor has withdrawn their claim that the FW48 is egregiously overweight (they evidently edited their VOD to remove that segment) and The Race are reporting that the car has passed the FIA crash test.
LawVS dedicated most of his video today on Williams and he noted that the crash test failure does not necessarily mean the survival cell was compromised. He noted teams in the past have failed the test due to issues with front wings or nosecones. He posits that perhaps Williams was too aggressive in such areas and needed to redesign them to pass the test.
He also noted that the facility Williams will be using for the Virtual Test Track is considered the best in the industry and allows a full race simulation including aerodynamic loading (including using the active aero system), braking (engine and wheel), accelerating, gear-changes and battery discharge and recharge cycles. He believes the goal may be to create a "digital twin" of the FW48 that Williams can plug into the finite element analysis system as well as to correlate how accurate their own wind tunnel is. And he feels that using a VTT instead of dragging the car to Barcelona in whatever state it currently is in means that Williams will be able to maximize both their development and testing time.
LawVS dedicated most of his video today on Williams and he noted that the crash test failure does not necessarily mean the survival cell was compromised. He noted teams in the past have failed the test due to issues with front wings or nosecones. He posits that perhaps Williams was too aggressive in such areas and needed to redesign them to pass the test.
He also noted that the facility Williams will be using for the Virtual Test Track is considered the best in the industry and allows a full race simulation including aerodynamic loading (including using the active aero system), braking (engine and wheel), accelerating, gear-changes and battery discharge and recharge cycles. He believes the goal may be to create a "digital twin" of the FW48 that Williams can plug into the finite element analysis system as well as to correlate how accurate their own wind tunnel is. And he feels that using a VTT instead of dragging the car to Barcelona in whatever state it currently is in means that Williams will be able to maximize both their development and testing time.
Glideslope
macrumors G3
Good to see Charles run another 60 laps today. Could bode well for PU. Oh course, we don’t know the engine modes.
Hadjar ran higher engine modes after Max was done. Finished still running…….
Surprised Mercedes didn’t run in the wet. It wasn’t raining that hard.
Hadjar ran higher engine modes after Max was done. Finished still running…….
Surprised Mercedes didn’t run in the wet. It wasn’t raining that hard.
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zagato27
macrumors 68000
Yes, watched it when it finally came to Apple TV. The movie was ok, the story line a bit "used". What I really found fascinating was this YT video interview with the cinematographer. Just amazing what they did.Okay - Did anyone one of us that post in here actually like the F1 movie?
I enjoyed it, more or less, was it realistic... more often than not to sometimes... I guess.
I really don't know what to think about it.
I give
Anyone else?
TheIntruder
macrumors 68020
The new rules are more liberal, so there should at least be a chance for more variety, instead of everyone looking like they're using a spec part.
Glideslope
macrumors G3
CWallace
macrumors G5
Good thing Horner and Helmut are gone. 😛
Seriously, it might have been driver error or it might have been something with the car. Yes it was wet, but there was zero reason for Hadjar to be pushing hard. Ferrari was the only other team that went out in the wet so it was likely they sent Hadjar out just to collect some wet weather data.
Of course, this is the problem with this "private" shakedown. With the lack of official information, unofficial information is dominating the news feeds. But the teams and F1 only have themselves to blame for it.
The teams really twisted F1's arm for it because they want all the track time they can get with the cars before Melbourne, but they also demanded that the public and media be banned from seeing any of it. They remember the firestorm of 2014 when the new turbo-hybrid PUs were derided for sounding like vacuum cleaners and they also likely did not want the more technical-oriented sites dissecting their designs for everyone to see (and copy).
F1, on the other hand, wanted at least the media there because they didn't want the media idlily speculating about the new engine and aero formulas over the Winter Break. So they pushed back as much as they could, but it appears to have been mostly unsuccessful. So the teams were able to hire private and public security to try and lockdown the circuit and the surrounding square kilometers, while F1's official media was forced to drip-feed what little they could which opened them up to "massaging the message" to mask any problems (like Hadjar's shunt or Bortoleto stopping on track in the Audi).
Glideslope
macrumors G3
Kimi .2 faster than George today. If the W17 is the real package what will see? The car is black so I’m throwing out “Licorice Rules.”
CWallace
macrumors G5
I think Toto was throwing shade at "Papaya Rules" last year so I presume he is going to let the two race with the caveat they do not take each other out, of course.
Glideslope
macrumors G3
Agreed. I was attempting some humor. I’ve never been great at it.
Although this has been Pre-Season I’m feeling positive. The cars are better looking than I was expecting, the PU sounds great, and times seem relatively close. The driver’s commentary on being able to “do more with the car” hopefully leads to some close racing.
I’m looking forward to the February tests now.
Glideslope
macrumors G3
Glideslope
macrumors G3
headlessmike
macrumors 68000
The car looks pretty exciting at least. I wouldn't be surprised if most teams are running more simplistic aero designs during this shakedown and we'll only start to see the real cars in Bahrain.
Glideslope
macrumors G3
It is quite the design. I’ll admit that. Alonso running 1:28’s today in Barcelona. Kimi was 1:17’s on Wednesday. Charles, Max, Piastri in the low 1:18’s. Max getting a full day today. Red Bull will be close to Mercedes laps by the end of the day.
SpanishAppleNerd
macrumors 6502
SpanishAppleNerd
macrumors 6502
SpanishAppleNerd
macrumors 6502
Glideslope
macrumors G3
I just hope the RA626H is reliable. I’m a big Honda guy. I think they probably won’t hit their targets until 2027 though.
Charles just did a 1:16:553. 😮😮
Apple fanboy
macrumors Ivy Bridge
Glideslope
macrumors G3
I don’t think they mean much. I’m more interested in the fuel rather than the loading. They are on straight E10 this week. Let’s see the PU performance on the new fuels.