• The first stage of the forum upgrades has now been completed but they remain in a degraded state and are still being worked on. Normal posting/reading should now be possible.
    Please read this thread for more details.
    New user registrations are currently disabled.

F1 2026

Big Jeff said:
Yeah we have got rid of DRS and instead we have active aero.

But it’s the same apart from now the front wing moves as well as the rear wing.

I’m not hopeful for better racing this season.

I hope I’m wrong but I expect more of the same.
Click to expand...
DRS has really been replaced by the overtake mode. If you are within 1 second of the car in front you get an electrical boost. But key difference is you can use it at any point throughout the lap not just designated straights.

Hopefully means we might not get the DRS trains we have previously got.
 

MadMackem10 said:
DRS has really been replaced by the overtake mode. If you are within 1 second of the car in front you get an electrical boost. But key difference is you can use it at any point throughout the lap not just designated straights.

Hopefully means we might not get the DRS trains we have previously got.
Click to expand...
But if there is a line of cars then they will all have the boost.
 
anth said:
The front one won’t though, similar to how they didn’t have DRS. Hopefully a boost in power is more effective than the drop in drag DRS did
Click to expand...
We can but hope.

Everytime they change the regs to improve the racing it stays exactly the same!
 
Big Jeff said:
We can but hope.

Everytime they change the regs to improve the racing it stays exactly the same!
Click to expand...
there tends to be more field spread, until then on converge on the same specs being the fastest, at that point the change it all up again.
 
MadMackem10 said:
They will, but unlike DRS they aren’t restricted on where they can use it on the track
Click to expand...
That’s true but the early signs from the drivers are not encouraging, there seems to be a requirement to have the turbo spooled up all the time.

Given the revs that turbos work at it’s going to be interesting to see how they last but it’s the racing we need to be better.
 
Big Jeff said:
That’s true but the early signs from the drivers are not encouraging, there seems to be a requirement to have the turbo spooled up all the time.

Given the revs that turbos work at it’s going to be interesting to see how they last but it’s the racing we need to be better.
Click to expand...
My hunch is they will sack off this engine ruleset as quickly as possible and return to a bigger engine running on these new fuels with a small battery
 
MadMackem10 said:
My hunch is they will sack off this engine ruleset as quickly as possible and return to a bigger engine running on these new fuels with a small battery
Click to expand...
Drivers are reporting corner speeds are much reduced. Alonso said the team chef could drive the car but Fernando does tend to get rather hysterical.

Max is also not impressed with the way the cars drive.

Lewis looks a bit happier but of course we know he hated the last iteration of F1 cars.
 
I still think that's not Red Bull's real sidepod. I think it looks like they've got a aggressive narrow curved horizontal scoop like Aston Martin, but they've put a carbon "skirt" over it making a weird unsophisticated looking squared off lower section. None of the car analysis I've seen agrees with me so I'm probably making it up!
 
Beau Peep said:
I still think that's not Red Bull's real sidepod. I think it looks like they've got an aggressive narrow curved horizontal scoop like Aston Martin, but they've put a carbon "skirt" over it making a weird unsophisticated looking squared off lower section. None of the car analysis I've seen agrees with me so I'm probably making it up!
Click to expand...
I feel a strange animosity towards Adrian Newey. I just rail against the “love in” everyone has that he’s a design genius ( I’m sure he is) but I just hope his new car is rubbish.

I think it’s a red bull thing.
 
Big Jeff said:
I feel a strange animosity towards Adrian Newey. I just rail against the “love in” everyone has that he’s a design genius ( I’m sure he is) but I just hope his new car is rubbish.

I think it’s a red bull thing.
Click to expand...
I agree as well, no doubt about his talent and track record, but the deification is all a bit overdone. This year it seems like he's put wacky packaging around an engine that his car can't keep cool enough. If so, that's not great design, it's belligerent dogmatism.

There have been plenty of era-defining designers in different eras, Chapman, Murray, Barnard and Dernie but cars aren't just aero and this is supposed to be a works team now. Effectively one entity.

Don't get me wrong, Newey has been the eminent F1 designer for a third of a century and almost half of F1's entire history.

But the YouTube and Facebook generation exaggerate and talk only in superlatives.

Stroll wants to buy success for his son, and that underlies the entire Aston Martin programme, including purchasing Newey, who made himself eminently purchasable. Can't blame either of them really, but doesn't make me want to root for them.
 
Beau Peep said:
I agree as well, no doubt about his talent and track record, but the deification is all a bit overdone. This year it seems like he's put wacky packaging around an engine that his car can't keep cool enough. If so, that's not great design, it's belligerent dogmatism.

There have been plenty of era-defining designers in different eras, Chapman, Murray, Barnard and Dernie but cars aren't just aero and this is supposed to be a works team now. Effectively one entity.

Don't get me wrong, Newey has been the eminent F1 designer for a third of a century and almost half of F1's entire history.

But the YouTube and Facebook generation exaggerate and talk only in superlatives.

Stroll wants to buy success for his son, and that underlies the entire Aston Martin programme, including purchasing Newey, who made himself eminently purchasable. Can't blame either of them really, but doesn't make me want to root for them.
Click to expand...
I have little affection nor affinity with the Aston set up and even less so Red Bull.

My wishes for this season are, in order-

1. Ferrari have a fast, reliable car that delivers Lewis an 8th World title.

2. McLaren do well

3. Mercedes do well.

4. I’d like the active aero to work and deliver epic overtaking.

However, I think the established top 4 will still be the top 4. I don’t think we will see epic overtaking and if I was a betting man my 50p would go on Max to win it.
 
Alchemist said:
As the cars are more battery focused, could a lapped car unlap himself?
Click to expand...
Honestly not a clue. All I know about this overtake mode is being 1 second or less behind the car in front gives you an energy boost you use anywhere on the track.

But then you also have boost mode which is a different amount of extra power available to every driver every lap - again to be used anywhere.

The active aero is largely irrelevant in terms of the racing as every car will use it in the same place so unless a car has a failure likely won’t impact the racing.
 
MadMackem10 said:
Hopefully means we might not get the DRS trains we have previously got.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that HAD to go. The trains of DRS where nobody was actually getting an advantage was awful. And the idea you can just get a fresh full DRS every lap if you've made a mistake and need to come back through the pack was never really fair either - just blasting past car after car each lap.
MadMackem10 said:
Honestly not a clue. All I know about this overtake mode is being 1 second or less behind the car in front gives you an energy boost you use anywhere on the track.
But then you also have boost mode which is a different amount of extra power available to every driver every lap - again to be used anywhere.
The active aero is largely irrelevant in terms of the racing as every car will use it in the same place so unless a car has a failure likely won’t impact the racing.
Click to expand...
There's far too much going on, that's for sure.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top