Exciting times , who is going to come out of the traps in good shape , and who is going to be a disaster. Massive unknowns going to be so interesting, could a previous underdog jump to the front .Massive Bottas77 fan here , hope he gets a good start .Shame about the immediate grid penalty in the first race before a wheel turned .
Whether Adami was a good engineer or not, the dynamics between him and Hamilton were pretty terrible and appeared catastrophic as the end of last season approached. Hopefully it was just a personality clash and not a general problem between Ferrari and Hamilton. Not long to find out the answer to that one!
Peter
3 Likes
Sergio Perez was behind the wheel of Cadillacâs first F1 car in a shakedown at Silverstone yesterday.
1 Like
Interview with Andrea Stella. Itâs going to be different, hopefully not cr@p, which I suspect it may be.
âRacing may be âweirdâ
Stella said the extent of the rule changes was such that F1 racing in 2026 âmay look a little weirdâ.
On-track running will be defined by energy management, because the electrical part of the hybrid engines now supplies about 50% of the total power output, but the amount of energy that can be recovered is limited.
So drivers will have to make choices about when to expend energy at various points on a lap for optimum racing.
âIt may look a little weird that one car can overtake so easily another car,â Stella said.
"Itâs important the spectators understand why that was so easily [done], or even that in one car the battery is now quite full, while the car ahead has the battery quite empty. Therefore, something [new] is coming from a racing point of view.
âThe power-unit exploitation as a racing and overtaking variable will be particularly important in being able to communicate effectively to our spectators.â
McLaren technical director for performance, Mark Temple, said: "Now we have a similar capacity battery but you have a higher level of power. So you can use that more on a single straight, get a bigger boost in that one straight from that extra battery capacity.
"But then maybe your [battery] pack is empty. If you press your boost mode and you choose to use all of the energy, youâll then go into the next corner and come out of it with only what you were able to recover in that corner. And that could then leave you exposed in a following straight, which maybe traditionally wouldnât be such an opportunity.
âThe most interesting aspect, and in a way the thing thatâs the hardest to simulate, is going to be those kind of overtaking, attacking, and defending scenarios. In 2026 the amount of energy that you have will be much more of a factor in the strategy.â BBC McLaren article.
I wonder if thereâll be a button to release banana skins to the cars behind? 
3 Likes
They look more like the pre 2022 âground effectâ cars.
A new F1 year is always an exciting prospect, but this year, with such a big change to the formula for cars and power technology makes the prospect even more unknown.
There are 2 new teams, although one is a rebadged Sauber team, but more interesting two new engine suppliers in Redbull Ford and Audi.
The only dampener on the excitement is that often, rule changes of this scope mean one team takes a dominant early lead, with the others left to try and develop fast to keep up. This can benefit the teams with the largest budgets.
2 Likes
Could this be Georgeâs year?
It certainly would be good to see him competing at the front and if the rumour mill is right Mercedes will have the best power system.
However, I donât put a huge store in rumour even the public test results can be misleading before racing starts. It is the first couple of races where you see who has had the best winter designing the new car.
If Mercedes does have the best power system it will also be in the McLaren (and others) so it will then get to who has the best aero and car systems who comes out on top.
I really do not like the sound of this aspect of the rule changes. Instead of handing back the challenge to driving skills, this feels like even more emphasis is being placed on battery management. Almost the ultimate expression of EV range anxiety!
Very much hoping Iâm reading this all wrong! Not too long to find outâŚ.
Peter
2 Likes
No need to worry AI will sort that out to let the drivers driveđŹ
No official media at the first test but surely stuff will leak outâŚ
Ted Kravitz will provide daily updates each evening at 21:00 on Sky F1
1 Like
I guess it will be part of driving. AFAIK the drivers will control recovery/deployment, not the teams.
I suspect it will increase driver influence, but whether it improves racing?
1 Like
It sounds like the racing and the commentary will be dominated by how much battery cars have left at any given moment.
An exercise in power management, harvesting and tactics. Hope it is better than I fear.
2 Likes
We have entered the winter silly season, where lots of journalists make judgments about what pecking order will be; some of these will be ill-informed, and others will be down to wild speculation. Punters get excited about their favourite driver team doing extremely well or better in the new season. This is all in overdrive this season because of the big changes to the engine and car regulations. And of course I am no different to anyone else and will no doubt voice ill-informed opinions at some point.
So, I will make a few comments or predictions based on 60 years of following F1, whether they are ill-informed, I will leave you to judge.
A driver will win the world championship. A team will win the constructorsâ championship. This could be with the same car or engine, and possibly both.
There will be controversy during the season; in fact, we have had preseason controversy already about alleged clever tricks to increase compression ratios.
Drivers will fall out about who is responsible for contact, and the press will gleefully turn a molehill into a mountain to increase ad revenue.
Most of the worldâs population wonât take any notice of F1 as usual.
The Petite Panthers wonât take any notice of it, well the havenât so far, but I have known cats that do watch F1.
2 Likes
You forgot that the WDC will go down to the last race of the seasonâŚ.
1 Like
Slightly off topic. I just saw that the âF1â movie was nominated for best picture at the Oscars.
Wow. What a joke!
2 Likes
Williams has announced that they will miss the first test.