2026 Formula 1

WolfpackIllini said:

I wouldn't blame him a bit. Alonso and LeClair strongly echo Max's sentiments, altho not to the point of retiring.
Max is why I watch F1 - he is amazing. He takes a new car out and takes it to its limits on the first or second lap.
And now, you can't take a car to its limits because you use the formerly high speed corners to harvest.
Alsonso said his team's chef could drive this gen of F1 cars, they have to go so slow in corners.

Separate issue, and I fell asleep and missed the kid who crashed in Japan due to excessive overtake speeds,
but some pretty harsh "we-told-you-so's" from Sainz.

I am glad they have a month off and have a chance to address some of these things - hope they are successful.

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I posted about that risk back on March 9 in this thread. And I'm no genius. Just a big fan of all sorts of racing. Difference in closing speed is among the biggest risk factors in modern racing. Especially in open wheel cars. There is always that risk due to mechanical issues or something where a guy just slows massively & unexpectedly on a straightaway.

To have rules that basically guarantee that is going to happen approaches batshit crazy levels of stupidity. The desire to be "green" has overstepped the common sense. Its fine to use racing as a test plot for future technology but not at the risk of undue danger to the participants.

Curbelo Fanboy said:

The desire to be "green" has overstepped the common sense. Its fine to use racing as a test plot for future technology but not at the risk of undue danger to the participants.

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The trouble is, at this point knows everyone knows the future of road cars is EV's.

They say Formula E is great racing, I've never watched. Will that be Formula 1 someday?

ChiefGritty said:

The trouble is, at this point knows everyone knows the future of road cars is EV's.

They say Formula E is great racing, I've never watched. Will that be Formula 1 someday?

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It may get that way but it seems they are trying to "force it" before it is ready. Racing has led innovation for many years but it wasn't forced like this.

Curbelo Fanboy said:

It may get that way but it seems they are trying to "force it" before it is ready. Racing has led innovation for many years but it wasn't forced like this.

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These regulations were conceived as an enticement to get the Volkswagen Group into the sport and brought in GM and a renewed commitment from Honda (yikes) for good measure. Which did make some sense, the more manufacturers on the grid the better.

Now that everybody is inside the tent, hopefully they can come together to improve things. I do think this is less far away from delivering great racing than the most negative opinions are saying. The way the cars can follow closely and scrap is much, much improved.

ChiefGritty said:

These regulations were conceived as an enticement to get the Volkswagen Group into the sport and brought in GM and a renewed commitment from Honda (yikes) for good measure. Which did make some sense, the more manufacturers on the grid the better.

Now that everybody is inside the tent, hopefully they can come together to improve things. I do think this is less far away from delivering great racing than the most negative opinions are saying. The way the cars can follow closely and scrap is much, much improved.

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I don't watch Formula E, but AI returned the response that it is underpowered and also suffers from the need to conserve energy, "lift and coast", running out of juice at the end of straights, and needing an "attack mode" (extra electric motor power) to overtake.

IMO, good racing enables drivers to drive at the edge of grip, and this is not currently possible in either Formula 1 or Formula E. DRS was an OK solution thru the end of last year, but the current "overtake mode" is indeed like Mario Kart.

Further, when two cars are on a long straight, and the lead car runs out of juice and the following car hits overtake mode, a deadly crash is imminent.

So, IMO, the cars need to be re-specced so they don't run out of juice at any time. Then the means of overtaking need to be addressed. Maybe overtake mode will be ok if no one is at risk of running out of juice.

WolfpackIllini said:

I don't watch Formula E, but AI returned the response that it is underpowered and also suffers from the need to conserve energy, "lift and coast", running out of juice at the end of straights, and needing an "attack mode" (extra electric motor power) to overtake.

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Sure, but an electric drivetrain isn't the same thing as an internal combustion engine. There's nothing "fake" about it per se, going fast in an electric car is just different on a first-principles level. The trap these current regs are in is that they're not fully one or the other.

To be clear, even though I'm the world's most basic "watched Drive to Survive during Covid and got hooked" American F1 fan, I also definitely support a return to V10's. The manufacturers don't though, it's not the evil woke FIA making them do this.

I agree with you.
I just want to see good racing.
An all EV car might be able to deliver this, but hasn't yet in Formula E.
A driver focused on battery management is detrimental to good racing.

So here are the changes the FIA has come up with for the next race in Miami. Seems like a good start, with the possibility of tweaking further between the next races.

Also, check this bizarre McLaren thing:

WolfpackIllini said:

So here are the changes the FIA has come up with for the next race in Miami. Seems like a good start, with the possibility of tweaking further between the next races.

FIA tackles unforeseen problems with rule changes at Miami GP

The FIA announced a series of rule changes for the remainder of 2026. Paolo Filisetti, technical expert for RacingNews365, explains what the governing body hopes to achieve.

racingnews365.com

Also, check this bizarre McLaren thing:

Lando Norris 'told not to answer questions on Verstappen, Russell' in awkward interview moment

Lando Norris has often been one to speak his mind on various F1 topics, but on this occasion, it seems he wasn't allowed to.

racingnews365.com

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Any rule change that allows less than continual acceleration on the straights & no random drop off in speed is against the very nature of racing. Racing at the top levels should be such that the car is "faster" than the track is capable of. This forces driver skill, car setup, car control & bravery into the equation. It seems F1 is upside down right now in that the rules have depowered the cars so much that the track is "faster" than the cars. And now they have to try to fix that equation in mid stream.

I'm sure they'll get there, but their mistake is they approached it from the wrong direction in the first place. EV's or some hybrid version of EV's are the way of the future but the approach should have been how do we maintain the same on the ragged edge type of racing but power the cars via a different mechanism.

I completely agree w all yr points.

Not sure if Im reading the article correctly, but it seems fia is reducing max ev output to prevent running out of juice, plus changing the point at which auto-recharge of the batteries goes into effect, which prevents engine braking occurring at the same time you run out of juice. These were know issues before the season started. At least they are starting to resolve this stuff.

One thing I dont understand is how the batteries go from 100 to 0 in less than a lap, and back from 0 to 100 also in less than a lap. (More or less). Teslas take 20+ min on a supercharger. So do F1 cars just have fewer batteries, or faster output/input rates or both? Years ago sony laptop batteries caught fire because the charge rate was too fast and coagulated the lithium ion material, and when the fast charge hit the coagulated litium ion stuff, it caught fire cuz it couldnt accept the charge fast enuf (not enuf surface area cuz the nano particles werent nano anymore). Will this happen to F1 cars?? I know they sense when a battery pack is "no good" anymore, and they swap them out, so maybe they have this covered. But this is another nuts aspect.

Curbelo Fanboy said:

I'm sure they'll get there

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That makes one of us!

I see those regulation changes as fundamentally cosmetic and about superficial half-a-loaf smudges to stop people yelling at them rather than a good faith effort at fixing the underlying issues.

Having said all of the above, I want it to come back!