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I agree that the new cars will have faster lap times compared to last year. My contention is that the Mercedes and RedBull engines will be faster still than the other manufacturers.

The general consensus seems to be the AMG and RBFPT PUs will offer two or three tenths advantage per lap due to the higher compression ratio.
 
It sounds like battery deployment and charging strategy could have the biggest impact on lap times. Haas' Ayao Komatsu has said he believes nailing this could boost lap times by three times that given by the engine tweaks AMG and RBFPT have developed.

James Vowels with Williams has also noted that the engines are likely going to be working harder this season because of the batteries having more capacity. So engine reliability might be an issue early on in the season.

Battery deployment and regeneration and how it’s managed by each driver will be the big story this season. Managing deployment on the straights will be critical IMO. Incredibly high straight line speed, but not too fast.

Engine modes will be more complex as well with deployment. The battery deployment will be controlled by the accelerator. Each engine mode will determine when, and how much battery energy to deploy according to pedal travel. The amount of tweaking with this will be interesting.
 
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I do have an Apple TV account, US based, and a regualr F1 account... gotta wonder if I'm going to be able to watch any races.

I was able to link my AppleTV subscription and regular F1 account to activate the F1 TV Premium features. I don’t remember the website where I did it. I do remember it took time to find it.
 
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So it sounds like Red Bull have joined Honda, Ferrari and Audi protesting the higher compression "trick" they and Mercedes are employing in their PU which now gives them the majority necessary to engage the FIA and FOM for an immediate rules change to the engines that could take effect prior to the Australian Grand Prix.

 
So it sounds like Red Bull have joined Honda, Ferrari and Audi protesting the higher compression "trick" they and Mercedes are employing in their PU which now gives them the majority necessary to engage the FIA and FOM for an immediate rules change to the engines that could take effect prior to the Australian Grand Prix.

When losing becomes unbearable, the only option left is rule-changing.
 
The trouble is at this late stage changing the rules gives Mercedes a disadvantage. Not changing the rules gives Mercedes an advantage.

So what do you do? One team always interprets the rules better than others. It’s always been the way with F1. Always will be.

Quintessential "rock and a hard place" scenario.
 
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The trouble is at this late stage changing the rules gives Mercedes a disadvantage. Not changing the rules gives Mercedes an advantage.

So what do you do? One team always interprets the rules better than others. It’s always been the way with F1. Always will be.

Absolutely. Nothing new here other than the changing cast of characters.
 
So it sounds like Red Bull have joined Honda, Ferrari and Audi protesting the higher compression "trick" they and Mercedes are employing in their PU which now gives them the majority necessary to engage the FIA and FOM for an immediate rules change to the engines that could take effect prior to the Australian Grand Prix.


It’s interesting since RBPT has such a large number of former AMG PU Engineers. AMG must have made significant advances. Personally I believe this is advanced metallurgy.
 
I see two options for the FIA:

Option One is to treat this like they did blown diffusers in 2009 and just tell the teams that don't have variable compression ratios to just develop it under the existing Additional Development and Update Opportunities (ADUO) rules and accept they will be spending some of the ADUO allowances in developing the technology rather than general performance reliability upgrades.

Option Two is for the FIA to rule it illegal for 2027 and the advantage AMG and RBFPT have in 2026 might be offset in 2027 by needing to spend ADUO money on removing it rather than general performance reliability upgrades.

My guess will depend on how the first quarter to third of the season works out. If Mercedes and other AMG PU teams run away with the championship due to the engine advantage, they will probably choose Option Two because you know there will be much howling from the F1 fanbase about how "boring" it is that one team (or PU) is dominating.

If the non-VCR teams are able to stay competitive for other reasons (better aerodynamics, better electrical energy strategy, more tracks not favoring VCR) then I could see them doing Option One.
 
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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...
 
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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'm fine with that.
 
New Cadillac livery is ridiculous. Pick one and be done.
I kind of like it. Beats just a simple black and white car. Makes me wish teams were allowed to use different liveries for their two cars. For reference.

cadillacf1-a-livery-deserving-of-a-double-take-v0-8onhmvr6ydig1.jpg.webp
cadillacf1-progress-under-pressure-the-first-cadillac-f1-v0-tzr0gpyrtdig1.jpg.webp
cadillacf1-progress-under-pressure-the-first-cadillac-f1-v0-zhgx6qyrtdig1.jpg.webp
 
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???
 
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'm used to your remarks, but this one has me 'perplexed', to extrapolate your argument, perhaps you could formulate a table, with where each driver went to university, what they studied etc...
 
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