2026 F1 General Discussion Thread

F1 was always peak technology, to go back to old technology makes no sense. Synthetic fuels are an inefficient way to burn fuel, limited in availability and hard to scale up.

F1 can commit suicide like the European car manufacturers who missed the eTrain and cater to the handful of petrolheads that have a ardent memory of the past that is long gone.

The historic F1 races, with cars from the 80s, 70s attract 100 people on a weekend with free entry, F1 with the unloved hybrid systems 300000 paying 200 upwards.

That makes as much sense as saying F1s current success is down to David Croft.

It’s formula racing - the reg’s are what puts the formula into formula 1.
if it was a free for all, you’d have something unsafe and it would go absolutely nowhere. The regs also ensure teams can’t take unnecessary risks while pushing the boundaries of speed and aerodynamics.

These regs however were presented I thought as making the cars smaller and less complicated (less drs and 50:50 hybrid etc etc).

However, from reading more about it after the testing, even things like launching the cars at start lines now seem to be massively complicated, and I’d agree with VER if what he said bears out in reality - that in Barcelona doing quali laps he was lifting and coasting for about 600m in total in order to regen the battery for better usage elsewhere in the lap, which is not really what quali laps should be.

Suddenly it all seems more complicated not less :)

I also saw Gasly saying that if all 22 cars get off the grid at lights out in Aus without bogging down, it’ll be a miracle 😀

The time dfferences are still mad. Think the early races could be total chaos

Have to assume Cadillac are purposefully running slow. They've the same Ferrari engine.

If thats remotely genuine they could find themselves falling foul of the 107% rule like Hispania did.

it was 4sec at the end, PER did one flying lap with a few mins to go, but was hampered by the red flag tests

Issues around homologation of fuel now too

Mercedes having issues which impacts those using their engines.

I know it's only testing and only half the field but this start looks so slow.

saw that - was mad to see the reaction to it on the tv feed.
in theory it’s brilliant, if it’s allowed by the regs (apparently the regs doesn’t specify which side of the wing has to be pointing up or down) - the rear wing temporarily becomes an airplane wing on the straights and reduces drag

What impact would the Ferrari wing trick have on a car following them? I assume the shape of the wind coming off the back of the Ferrari would be very different to a normal configuration, but would it effectively clear out more air, or make it dirtier for the cars behind?