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.
Ferrari Is Winning the 2026 Formula 1 Start War and Losing Sight of What Actually Matters
https://sportsnaut.com/f1/ferrari-f1-2026-race-start-rule-vasseur
Ferrari believe they have the solution for noticeable balance issues their Macarena rear wing causes
"...Ferrari are keen to make their Macarena rear wing work as it will ‘significantly’ reduce their drag levels, along with increasing the expansion of the airflow exiting the rear diffuser. The rear wing also allows Hamilton and Leclerc to reach a higher top speed and use less energy...."
https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ferrari-believe-they-have-the-solution-for-noticeable-balance-issues-their-macarena-rear-wing-causes/
Energy doesn't cause cars to move, force does. And this is the first time I've seen reference to it increasing the efficiency of the diffuser.
"It's easy to accuse Verstappen of "sour grapes" since he's reduced from a WDC threat to a mid-packer, but that is entirely an ad hominem attack. The accusation has nothing to do with the facts and entirely boils down to naysayers projecting how they would feel if they were in his shoes. They're not addressing what he says, simply attacking him for saying it. "
And Charles Leclerc is taking exception to claims the racing is ‘artificial:’
But it’s not his ox that’s being gored, is it? So based on his level of success under the new formula, the natural subjective human response would be a positive rationalization.
But that’s still not being objective.
A poll of F1 fans overwhelmingly agrees that Verstappen has the right to complain.
But whether they agree with his assessment is another poll altogether.
https://racingnews365.com/is-max-verstappen-right-to-continue-his-fierce-criticism-of-f1s-new-rules
Horner seems to be out of luck finding a team to run.
He had been courting Alpine but now news comes that Toto Wolff is also looking to buy into Alpine, but with Mercedes backing. Haven’t heard much from the Alpine deal in a couple of weeks so I suspect there’s a lot of discrete negotiations underway.
Today news breaks that Horner had a discussion with Lawrence Stroll at Aston Martin, along with speculation that Adrian Newey put the kibosh on those aspirations.
...and I might be motivated to ask, who is the one single individual who began some years ago to fashion formula one into the mirror image of the green new deal?
That beginning has now killed the golden goose and soured the millions of fans who prefer a team of Car and Driver to any other means of manipulating formula one.
Verstappen won another GT3 race at Nürburgring (this time driving a Merc), then he got DQ’d for using seven sets of tires when only six were allowed.
Boy kin drive. Gotta givvim that.
Aston Martin has poached Jonathan Wheatley from Audi to be Newey’s replacement as TP.
https://www.planetf1.com/news/jonathan-wheatley-audi-f1-bernie-ecclestone-exit
https://www.thedrive.com/news/jonathan-wheatley-abandons-audi-f1-team-after-2-races
https://f1chronicle.com/with-immediate-effect-wheatleys-audi-departure-confirmed/
https://www.gpblog.com/en/features/wheatley-out-at-audi-this-appears-to-be-a-key-reason-to-step-down
Apparently this is a really big deal because at least a million news sources are reporting on it.
The Chrome Gnome says the only reason Jonathan Wheatley could gave chucked Audi for Aston Martin (and only two races into the season) is if he’d grown tired of living in Switzerland and was pining for Old Blighty.
Otherwise, he said, “That’s actually impossible.”
Luca di Montezemolo says Ferrari’s gap to Mercedes is alarming/staggering [depending on the translation], and the Ferrari car is good but not good enough to challenge for the championships.
https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/former-ferrari-chairman-delivers-quite-staggering-verdict-for-tifosi
Then again, LdM is hard-put these days to find a kind word for the Scuderia.
Alejandro Agag, the founder of Formula E, claims Toto Wolff is the key proponent of ever greater reliance on battery power in F1.
https://racingnews365.com/toto-wolff-pinned-as-main-force-behind-controversial-f1-rules
And if Wolff is in the hybrid catbird seat now, who’s to say he wasn’t in the same position when the original turbo-hybrid formula was adopted in 2014? After which Mercedes went on a tear for EIGHT seasons because development/updating was drastically limited by the regs, making it impossible at first and later difficult for the competition to catch up.
French broadcaster Canal+ mocks F1’s 2026 rules with a Mario Kart-inspired trailer ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix
The short clip, shared widely on social media, reimagines Formula 1 cars using arcade-style visuals, power-ups and exaggerated overtakes, leaning heavily into the comparisons made by drivers earlier in the season.
The creative concept is no coincidence. Several drivers, most notably Max Verstappen, have criticised the 2026 cars for their heavy reliance on battery deployment and energy management, with the Dutchman famously describing the racing as “Mario Kart”.
Canal+ appears to have taken that criticism and run with it.
https://x.com/alexx_f1/status/2034011497882345657
Verstappen denies that his whinging has anything to do with his lack of competitiveness.
“It’s just Kimi or George that is winning, right? It’s not really back and forth. They’re miles ahead of the field. It’s just that Ferrari sometimes has these good starts that they push themselves in front, and then it takes a few laps to sort it all out.
“This has nothing to do with racing. I would say the same if I was winning races because I care about the racing product. It’s not about being upset of where I am, because I’m actually fighting even more now, of course. So you get to understand what you have to do and what it is about even more. For me, it’s really a joke.”
Asked if the rule structure is salvageable, he replied:
“You can help it a little bit, but it’s fundamentally flawed.”
https://racingnews365.com/max-verstappen-denies-theory-over-joke-f1-cars
Hot on the heels of Mercedes double victories in the opening two rounds of the 2026 F1 season, F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo ponders about the variety of opportunities Mercedes might exploit with their rumoured sizeable power unit advantage.
Formula One has entered a transformative era in 2026, with the sport having prepared for its most significant power unit overhaul since hybrid engines were introduced in 2014. The new regulations has fundamentally rebalanced how performance is generated, shifting from the roughly 80:20 split between internal combustion and electric power to an even 50:50 ratio.
To achieve this, the complex MGU‑H — the heat‑recovery system that has been central to hybrid F1 engines for over a decade — has been removed entirely. In its place, the MGU‑K has become dramatically more powerful, rising from 120 kW to 350 kW, while total energy recovery per lap will increase from 2 MJ to 9 MJ.
Fuel flow has dropped from 100 kg/h to around 75 kg/h, and the sport has transitioned to advanced sustainable fuels, placing a premium on combustion efficiency and energy density. Despite these sweeping changes, peak power has remained above 700 kW, but how that power is delivered — and how consistently — will define the competitive landscape of the next era.
Within this context, rumours have emerged suggesting that Mercedes may have found a meaningful advantage in the internal combustion engine portion of the 2026 power unit.
The figure being discussed is around 10 kW — roughly 13 horsepower — and while that may seem small in isolation, the structure of the new regulations means such an advantage could be disproportionately valuable. The key lies in the fact that electric power, no matter how powerful, is temporary.
The MGU‑K’s 350 kW output can only be sustained for a limited portion of the lap before the stored energy is depleted. Once that happens, the car relies solely on the combustion engine. A stronger ICE therefore provides a constant performance baseline, ensuring superior acceleration and higher average power even after ERS deployment fades.
This opens the door to strategic possibilities that could give Mercedes a tangible on‑track edge. With a stronger ICE, the team can choose to deploy 10 kW less ERS on one lap, effectively “saving” energy without sacrificing performance, because the combustion engine compensates for the reduced electric boost.
Even in this energy‑saving mode, simulations suggest the Mercedes would remain faster than a rival such as Ferrari, whose ERS output diminishes over time while the ICE power remains fixed.
On the following lap, Mercedes could then deploy the energy saved previously, combining the inherent 10 kW ICE advantage with an additional 10 kW of ERS deployment. This creates a double‑benefit attack phase that rivals cannot easily match.
Beyond lap‑to‑lap tactics, a stronger ICE also allows Mercedes to run higher downforce levels without suffering a straight‑line speed penalty. The extra combustion power offsets the drag, enabling better cornering performance, improved tyre management, and more consistent race pace.
The removal of the MGU‑H amplifies all of this. Without the heat‑recovery system to smooth out energy delivery and maintain deployment, teams face greater variability in power output over the course of a lap.
This makes the constant, reliable contribution of the ICE more important than at any point in the hybrid era. A small combustion‑engine advantage becomes magnified, influencing not just peak performance but the rhythm and strategy of racing itself.
https://www.f1technical.net/news/28356
I don't know where the 339.8 kph figure is coming from because Ferrari's best trap speeds so far this season were Leclerc's 330.0 (just one time) at Melbourne and Hambone's 328.0 at Shanghai.
BMW says they have no intention of returning to F1 until the “hybrid” phase has warn off because it would contribute little to nothing to their production autos.
https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/1079629/f1-bmw-return-2026-wec-frank-van-meel/
Honda says they don’t know where the horrible vibration in the Aston Martins is coming from.
That disturbs me because I can’t imagine a company with their technological resources at hand that can’t determine something that elemental. And it’s so severe it threatens to cause nerve damage to AM’s drivers.
Maybe it’s the cynicism talking but I can’t believe it’s all their fault. At the very least, there should have been testing available to them BEFORE THE SEASON BEGAN that would have allowed them to ward off something like this.
Formula E driver Dan Ticktum delivers scathing verdict on ‘terrible’ new F1 regulations
“It’s terrible, absolutely terrible. I mean, racing is in a very bad place at the moment, you know, across all sorts of championships.
“You know, you’ve got, over in WEC, everything dominated by BoP [Balance of Power, the technical adjustments to promote parity within the grid], which is just bollocks, if you ask me.
“In F1, [you’ve got] a couple of hundred kilos of battery crap, an engine that sounds like s**t, lifting down the straights, or running out of energy on the strip, it’s just rubbish, it’s just not racing.
“It’s not why people love cars and love racing, and it’s sad, more than anything, to be honest. It’s not what I grew up and fell in love with as a boy, and I dare say, I think most fans and whatever agree with me.
“I mean, the races in F1 have been a lot more chaotic, a lot more overtaking, but it’s not authentic, is it? It’s not proper overtaking, but it is what it is.”
Haas F1 to run a Godzilla livery at Suzuka, and again in Austin. The scheme is in partnership with Toho Co, Ltd., the studio that owns Godzilla.
The Godzilla livery will be run in Austin because it will be near to the release of “Godzilla Minus Zero,” the next movie on the franchise.
https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/03/24/formula-1s-identity-crisis-why-the-50-50-electric-revolution-is-crashing/
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