Posted on 08/05/2009 7:57:45 PM PDT by Chode
This will be a general purpose thread for F1 news and pings that really don't require a thread of their own.
RE: my remark (two posts up) about Ayao Komatsu’s concerns with battery power deployment, today ‘The Race’s’ Jon Noble elaborates further:
“...Outlap conflicts
“What Komatsu is referring to is that, with cars not having enough battery to run laps flat out, drivers can’t waste any energy on the outlap at all.
“That means not triggering any more usage of the battery element of the package than is absolutely necessary.
“But that is a very tricky thing to achieve properly – because drivers cannot just drive slowly to achieve that aim. The demands to warm the tyres, avoid traffic issues and keep up to the maximum delta time mean there is a requirement to get a hurry on as well.
“Furthermore, there is no scope in the regulations to simply run a quick outlap on the internal combustion engine alone, as there are strict rules regarding power demand.
“Article 5.12.1 of the Technical Regulations states: ‘At any given engine speed, the driver torque demand map must be monotonically increasing for an increase in accelerator pedal position.’
“This effectively means that the trigger for kicking in battery usage is throttle position - not a button on the wheel.
“So in effect, the only way to avoid burning up any battery is to be very cautious on the accelerator.
“There are therefore a host of conflicting demands of what drivers need to do to cover off tyre preparation, traffic, timing deltas and energy.
“And the end result is a massive headache in how to get things nailed perfectly....”
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/scary-new-element-to-qualifying-in-f1-2026/
““There are therefore a host of conflicting demands of what drivers need to do to cover off tyre preparation, traffic, timing deltas and energy.
“And the end result is a massive headache in how to get things nailed perfectly....””
This may very well benefit Max...
Both in qualifying and wheel-to-wheel battles, F1 drivers will have to deploy the available energy tactically. Andrea Kimi Antonelli speaks of ‘speed chess’, but what exactly is behind that?
It's an interesting read based on observations from the simulator. This is not how motor racing has been defined for the last 139 years, and it's not how I view the (ersatz) pinochle of motor sports. The 2026 version is tantamount to a soap box derby.
"Here's your 32 ft/s^2, and that's all you get."
I would love to see a competing venue doing "old-school" dead-dinosaur-embracing racing to compete with F1 but that can never happen because The Chrome Gnome's most lasting legacy is that the Formula One Group has essentially permanent contracts with every constituent element and every supporting business connected to F1. From the racing circuits to the sports media to the freight company (DHL) to the production companies with moving car film crews, Bernie sewed them all up.
In fact, that's one reason why F1 had that sudden expansion into Asia about 20-25 years ago. Because Marussia threatened to sue the FOG in EU court for creating a monopoly. Bernie recognized that that was a vulnerability he needed to be prepared for, so he created a worst-case escape route. He could drop all the European venues and focus on Asia, the Americas, Oz and maybe throw in a couple of African circuits.
In 2013 Ecclestone paid off Marussia with a $20 million bribe bonus for something he made up on the spot, in return for which they stopped making noise about suing him. In the 2013-2014 bribery trial in Germany (which Bernie paid a $100M fine to make go away), there was sworn testimony that he had paid principals of three of the leading teams bribes of $10M to get them so sign the 1998 Concorde Agreement, which they previously didn't have a warm fuzzy about. When the press asked about it Bernie didn't deny it, he said it was "just business."
Of course it's no longer Bernie's circus but it's still the same lions, same elephants, and the same tent, so it stands to reason that business is still done Bernie's way.
So, no there's never going to be a 'break-away' from F1. Not in my lifetime anyway.
Ferrari seems certain that Mercedes’ compression-changing engine trick is going to kick their red fannies. And they think the FIA is going to rule that it’s 100% legal (for the third time). So they’ve given their engine development boffins the go-ahead to develop an engine with a con rod that grows when it’s hot (so that’s apparently how they think Mercedes is doing it).
They hope prototypes will be running this summer.
Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t one reason for all these new rules to make the sport more affordable? Looks to me like it’s instigated a spending war.
There’s been lots of subjective comments about the AMR26 since it’s unveiling at Barcelona, calling it “spectacular, an “engineering masterpiece,” and very “aggressive.” But none of that praise will make it one whit faster.
Newey denies that it’s ‘aggressive,’ counters that it’s just ... ‘done right.’
A lot of column-inches have been given to one of the car’s more ‘aggressive’ features, the dual-pullrod front suspension. Not just the dual pullrods, the geometry is more extreme than anything ever seen before. If it doesn’t work, it’ll be a nightmare to tune. If it works, it’ll dramatically reduce dive under braking.
The side pods also are extreme. “Near-zero,” Gary Anderson calls them. Newey admits the packaging is so tight his supporting engineers burned a lot of midnight oil getting it right. Anderson also notes the sidepods’ exteriors probably are designed to produce ‘in-wash’ to further energize the air passing through the rear diffuser.
The F1 journos are saying Aston Martin is four months behind in development. That stems from the fact that Newey had their wind tunnel torn down and rebuilt (because it wasn’t reflecting real-world data). That took from January to April of 2025. And for those four months, while Aston Martin was rebuilding, the other teams were wind tunneling.
The up-side is that now Newy claims Aston Martin’s is “probably the best wind tunnel in the world for Formula 1 application.” And I don’t think that’s a claim he makes lightly. And he’s saying its accuracy is already reaping YUGE dividends.
The most telling thing I’ve read that Newey has said is he says the car is designed to be — my term — “future-proof.” The competition is showing up with cars that are more of a finished product. His car is built with the certain knowledge that three months from now, he’ll have found things he’ll wish he’d done differently. And unlike past cars, where designs had so many corners painted into them, so many ‘dead ends,’ this one gives the means to modify or adjust anything that might foreseeably need it.
And that’s the single scariest thing I’ve read or heard said about the AMR26. Once they start finding shortcomings in the original design, there’s nothing could be wrong that they cant fix. So this car is pretty much guaranteed to continue to get faster the longer it’s driven.
“YUGE”
Thanks for your YUGE amount of posts!
VERY interesting!
RE: the automagically increasing compression ration, this tidbit is from Matt Grant, who bills himself as an F1 engine designer, and apparently does own ModaTek, which manufactures Cosworth-approved replacement parts for their engines.
“...I think the FIA were already aware that engine manufacturers were actively trying to increase the compression ratio during running, which is why they decided to drop the limit from 18.0:1 in 2025 to 16.0:1 this year. They probably reasoned that this allowed sufficient headroom to ensure that nobody exceeded the previous limit of 18.0:1 when the engines are running.
“But the question everyone is asking is just how are Mercedes and Red Bull able to increase the compression ratio during running? Do they have some clever trick bit of kit that can circumvent the rules?
“In actual fact, I think manufacturers have been able to increase the compression ratio during running for years, often inadvertently. The compression ratio is defined as the ratio of the the maximum cylinder volume (when the piston is at bottom dead center, BDC) to the minimum cylinder volume (when the piston is at top dead center, TDC). So if the volume of the combustion chamber at TDC is reduced, then the compression ratio is increased.
“One way to reduce the volume at TDC is to increase the length of the connecting rod, which happens naturally on every engine, and which explains why I think everyone has been doing this for years. On Formula 1 engines that I have worked on, at maximum engine speed the rod stretches by around 0.2mm due to the inertial load from the piston, so there is an inherent increase in compression ratio, whether you want it or not.
“There is talk by some that Mercedes and Red Bull are reaching 18.0:1, which would equate to a rod stretch of around 0.5mm. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that they have cleverly designed the rod to expand in length due to a combination of the piston inertial load and thermal expansion. This would almost certainly be legal, as there is no regulation about the longitudinal stiffness or thermal expansion coefficient of the connecting rod.
“Like I said though, these are just the ramblings of an ex-Formula 1 engine designer, with no factual evidence....”
https://modatek.co.uk/f1-compression-ratio-controversy/?v=0b3b97fa6688
Not meaning to be ghastly about it but it probably would have brought more if he were altogether dead instead of (mostly) brain dead.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/michael-schumachers-first-f1-race-winning-f1-car-sells-at-auction-for-seven-figure-sum/10795614/
If you’re interested, Aston Martin has posted an advert that’s also a really interesting conversation with Adrian Newey.
I didn't put it in my post yesterday quoting Matt Grant but he mentions that the F1 teams have been 3D-printing pistons since 2018. Honda is the only one who has admitted to this but it's a certainty everyone is doing it because printing can create structures that neither machining nor casting can. So not to use it would be to forego what might prove to be the best design opportunities.
The point of the 3D printing is that it allows the selective use of different alloys for different regions of the pistons. I'm baffled how they could use differential thermal expansion in a piston because of the stresses that uneven expansion would seem to be certain to cause, and an F1 piston at 12,000 rpm is already experiencing about 5000 Gs, which I would think already is stress enough to make a materials engineer's hair turn gray overnight. But AMuS is speculating that that's how Mercedes is getting compression to 17:1.
They're further speculating the other point of compression is coming from a 1cc antechamber in the cylinder head connected to the combustion chamber by a very narrow orifice. When they manually spin the cold engine for a compression test, there's time for air to pass through this orifice and enter the antechamber, which lowers the static compression. But when the cylinder head is hot and the engine is at full suck, the orifice is constricted and the timeframe too brief for any significant amounts of burning fuel/air mix to be tapped off. Bada-bing, 18 to 1.
That "1cc" figure catches my eye. Being as AMuS are Germans, I don't envision them making a remark with such specificity if it doesn't come from a credible inside source. But regardless whether they're right, Ferrari seems to be the figurehead of the anti-loophole league, and they're preparing a full-blown protest for Melbourne. They're also preparing a proposal for a rule change.
Red Bull now also has stated they will join Audi and Honda in signing the Ferrari protest letter, and apparently it would take the votes from four of the five engine suppliers to get a rule change approved. And Red Bull coming onboard would appear to give them the necessary votes.
F1 news quotes Juan Pablo Montoya as claiming he's heard a rumor in the paddock that Mercedes was sandbagging at the Barcelona shakedowns. They did a lot of sandbagging in the early V-6T hybrid era and still dominated, so it's a credible rumor IMHO.
Speculation from the start has been the Mercedes compression trick will give them some tenths of a second per lap, and at Barcelona they were a couple of tents off the fastest lap times, but JPM's rumor also claims Mercedes already had three to four seconds -- full seconds -- in hand, they just chose not to show all their cards.
Barcelona, after all, wasn't about proving who was fastest, it was about identifying, isolating and eliminating as many bugs as possible, while at the same time hiding your blemishes from your competitors. Hambone's best lap time of the event, for instance, was absolutely meaningless. The only take-away from that was that his engineers loosened his reins just that little bit, probably as means of giving him a 'dog yummy' to stroke his oh-so-fragile ego.
Truth be told, Barcelona gave Ferrari concerns for their integration of ICE and battery power (which by the TR has to be controlled by nothing more than throttle position) compared to Mercedes. So not only is Mercedes likely to have the most powerful ICE, their integration with battery power appeared at Barcelona to be the best of all.
For it's part, the FIA (at least at present) is standing by it's original plan. First, they're counting on improvements since 2014 in simulators the teams use to prevent the performance disparity that marked that era. And second, even if some of the teams didn't get their simulations right, the FIA is counting on their Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) system restoring parity.
I'm not from Missouri but I'll believe it when I see it.
https://www.planetf1.com/news/f1-2026-mercedes-red-bull-power-unit-theory
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/mercedes-rivals-plotting-f1-engine-rule-change-for-melbourne/
https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/red-bull-are-now-ready-to-sign-ferraris-letter-of-protest-against-mercedes-2026-f1-car/
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/explained-the-engine-compression-row-that-risks-overshadowing-f1s-new-era/
https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-are-privately-concerned-by-what-theyve-noticed-in-lewis-hamiltons-barcelona-test-data/
https://racingnews365.com/fia-address-2014-esque-repeat-concern-as-new-f1-engines-introduced
Mind games begin. Wonder if the “compression ratio” is a misdirection to hide the real advantage. Don’t put it passed a team leak a possible major advantage which they spend a lot of time and money on for this “advantage” only to discover it did not work. So let’s leak this major “advantage” and sent the competition on a snipe hunt right at the start of the season….. 😂😂😂😂.
Sky has released its broadcast schedule for the remainder of the pre-season testing:
“...Confirming its plans for the test running from February 11 - 13, Sky Sports will only broadcast the final hour of on-track action on each day.
“This will commence at 15:00 GMT, in line with the F1 TV changes that were recently confirmed.
“Later in the day, at 20:00 GMT, it will broadcast a ‘Testing Wrap’ show where it discusses all the action from the day.
“This will then be followed by ‘Ted’s Testing Notebook’, hosted by Ted Kravtiz, at 20:30 GMT.
“The broadcast schedule for the final pre-season test of the year, which spans February 18-20, has not yet been released....”
https://racingnews365.com/sky-sports-f1-confirm-broadcast-change-for-bahrain-test
The horrifying crash that ended Robert Kubica’s Ferrari dream
Robert Kubica was once projected to have a successful F1 career before a horror rally crash changed everything.
Fifteen years ago today, on 6 February 2011, Robert Kubica’s Formula 1 career came to a brutal halt in a rally crash that would alter the course of his racing journey....
https://racingnews365.com/the-horrifying-crash-that-ended-robert-kubicas-ferrari-dream
It appears Horner’s plans to gain control over Alpine are being stymied by ... guess who ... Renault.
According to Motor Sport Magazine’s Mark Hughes, he’s got everything in place to buy US-based Otro Capital. Otro Capitol is in the investment bidness, not in the racing bidness, and they’re funded by a bunch of rich athletes, like Patrick Mahomes, Rory McIlroy and Travis Kelce. They bought 24% of the team in 2023 for €200 million and the deal with Horner will be for about €763 million, which works out about 94% return per annum. So I expect they’ll take the money and run, giggling all the way to the bank.
But Otro only owns 24% of the BWT Alpine Formula One Team, which isn’t enough to make Horner majority shareholder. The rest is owned by Renault proper and a Franco-Japanese “allianace” that includes Renault. Horner won’t play if he can’t have complete control, but that will take Renault selling him some of their piece of the pie. And that isn’t a simple stock sale, that’s also Renault surrendering control of the team. And they don’t seem to be in a mind-making-up mood.
I got no dog in this fight but I find it fascinating how a guy who only has a few tens of millions of cash in the bank can leverage it into taking over a billion dollar company.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdG2cT9w0cI
https://racingnews365.com/fia-confirm-new-f1-power-unit-trick-some-have-succeeded
F1oversteer.com states that an article (in Italian) at Motorsport Italia claims they know the reason RBR decided to side with Ferrari (and others) to protest against Mercedes' "trick" engine. After-the-fact analysis of the telemetry from the Barcelona tests shows that every once and a while, Mercedes would uncork it momentarily, probably to give the engineers some 'full throttle' data they needed, then shut it down hoping no one would notice that they briefly were breaking the sound barrier.
Which sounds like they were sneaking in the occasional "point and squirt," hoping it wouldn't attract attention. And it frightened the jeepers out of Red Bull, so they joined the lynching party.
Oops.
https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/red-bull-u-turned-on-mercedes-engine-trick-after-spotting-one-thing-in-barcelona-shakedown-data/
https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-caso-motori-il-cambio-di-fronte-red-bull-mira-a-ridurre-il-vantaggio-della-mercedes/10796042/
Which lends credibility to JP Montoya's claim that Merc has 3-4 seconds better pace than the rest of the field.
According to f1technical.net (citing Motorsport Italia) ...
Long, long ago in a land far away, Toto Wolff had a little chat with the the head of FIA's powertrain department, Vincent Pereme*. The topic was Mercedes' automagical compression-increasing trick. Wolff told Pereme perzactly how it works and Pereme told Toto, "Va bene" (which is Eye-Tie for "S'okay by me, bro!")
Which means it's a done deal, a fait accompli, the fat lady has sung and is on her way to the Shoney's buffet. I'm thinking this is all a ploy on Toto's part (did I mention that Toto likes talking smack) to keep everybody else's knickers in a twist.
Because I seriously doubt this is anything the FIA is going to walk back, regardless how much the other four engine suppliers whinge.
https://www.f1technical.net/news/24816
https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-ferrari-in-fiducia-il-motore-di-barcellona-viene-usato-anche-in-bahrain-/10796359/
* Yes, his given name really is 'Vincent,' not 'Vincenzo." Go figure.
https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/organigrammes_-_01_2021_0.pdf
“...whinge”
Had to look that one up: great word.
With all the bolloks and whinge you must be of British captivity...
Another great post, thanks.
Everybody in my family talks (and writes) like Jed Clampett. Not surprising, considering we’re from thereabouts. I’m the odd duck because I’ve lived most of my adult years in strange places where people talk funny.
I once heard Robin Williams say the censor on ‘Mork & Mindy’ was a Puerto Rican lady, so when he wanted to swear and get it past her, he’d swear in Yiddish. That remark about the planet’s temperature remaining constant was pure B.S. but somehow ‘bollocks’ captured my reaction more exactly, and Freeper’s censor probably never gave it a second thought.
Verstappen says the 2026 cars are no fun to drive. Nonetheless, everybody — including Toto — seems concerned how fast he can make his go.
Max also says F1 has lots is soul. At least one journo agrees (and the rest are idiots):
“Max Verstappen is right - F1 is losing its soul and the sports owners need to listen to him”
I watched a replay of the one hour of yesterday’s tests that Sky Sports aired. Mostly it was pretty boring. The cars look skittish.
Hambone had another spin. Leclrec was lucky they installed an exit road right where he elected to lose control.
There’s speculation that Ferrari has made it’s 1st gear too low (probably to get the turbo on song at lower rpms) and the big jump to second unsettles the chassis.
Aston Martin is 3-4 seconds off pace, which might be them catching up on development.
Mercedes doesn’t look as impressive as they did at Barcelona, which might be sandbagging to try to quieten the carping over their too-powerful engine.
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