The Official F1 2026 silly season *contains speculation*
Discussion
Milkyway said:
Idling for a few hours... maybe an EV would be better suited. 
You joke, but we'll likely see a fully electric safety car ahead of further electrification of the F1 cars themselves - although none of the current manufacturer teams produce such a car just yet.The drivers might like the idea too, the bonkers hp EV's are the only things that can accelerate as fast as the F1 cars upto around 120mph at least. They'll get to that speed in half the time the current Merc does.
Although they might struggle to keep it up if it were on track for nearly 100miles, as happened in Japan some years ago.
Yes the problem with EV safety cars is the necessity for them to continually lap at pace-that'll eat the batteries in no time.
Never mind the fact that a super fast safety car isn't actually that safe! The idea is for cars to lap at reduced pace of course.
Maybe an EV safety car would work if it could only do a few laps at maximum pace-we'd get more red flags and more restarts as they'd need to retire the safety car to recharge every few laps-they'd probably need two or three constantly charging-think of the environmental benefits
Never mind the fact that a super fast safety car isn't actually that safe! The idea is for cars to lap at reduced pace of course.
Maybe an EV safety car would work if it could only do a few laps at maximum pace-we'd get more red flags and more restarts as they'd need to retire the safety car to recharge every few laps-they'd probably need two or three constantly charging-think of the environmental benefits
PRO5T said:
Yes the problem with EV safety cars is the necessity for them to continually lap at pace-that'll eat the batteries in no time.
Never mind the fact that a super fast safety car isn't actually that safe! The idea is for cars to lap at reduced pace of course.
Maybe an EV safety car would work if it could only do a few laps at maximum pace-we'd get more red flags and more restarts as they'd need to retire the safety car to recharge every few laps-they'd probably need two or three constantly charging-think of the environmental benefits
The latest 800v high performance EV's could probably exceed the current cars lap pace for at least ten laps. The useful thing would be that the EV could accelerate hard enough out of the corners to allow the following cars more time at tyre temp maintaining (or at least some temp) speeds down the straights - I'd argue that wouldn't overall be less safe.Never mind the fact that a super fast safety car isn't actually that safe! The idea is for cars to lap at reduced pace of course.
Maybe an EV safety car would work if it could only do a few laps at maximum pace-we'd get more red flags and more restarts as they'd need to retire the safety car to recharge every few laps-they'd probably need two or three constantly charging-think of the environmental benefits
Give it another 5 years of EV development and let's see. I suppose as and when mass production ready solid state batteries emerge, F1 would be a perfect platform to demo them - which could solve the problem of long running at speed.
TheDeuce said:
PRO5T said:
Yes the problem with EV safety cars is the necessity for them to continually lap at pace-that'll eat the batteries in no time.
Never mind the fact that a super fast safety car isn't actually that safe! The idea is for cars to lap at reduced pace of course.
Maybe an EV safety car would work if it could only do a few laps at maximum pace-we'd get more red flags and more restarts as they'd need to retire the safety car to recharge every few laps-they'd probably need two or three constantly charging-think of the environmental benefits
The latest 800v high performance EV's could probably exceed the current cars lap pace for at least ten laps. The useful thing would be that the EV could accelerate hard enough out of the corners to allow the following cars more time at tyre temp maintaining (or at least some temp) speeds down the straights - I'd argue that wouldn't overall be less safe.Never mind the fact that a super fast safety car isn't actually that safe! The idea is for cars to lap at reduced pace of course.
Maybe an EV safety car would work if it could only do a few laps at maximum pace-we'd get more red flags and more restarts as they'd need to retire the safety car to recharge every few laps-they'd probably need two or three constantly charging-think of the environmental benefits
Give it another 5 years of EV development and let's see. I suppose as and when mass production ready solid state batteries emerge, F1 would be a perfect platform to demo them - which could solve the problem of long running at speed.
Mercedes chief designer John Owen to leave later in year, been there since they were Honda in 2007. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/articles/c23r...
Sky Sports with the reported claim that Mercedes have a way of increasing compression ratio past 16:1
https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/13496334/c...
https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/13496334/c...
Byker28i said:
Sky Sports with the reported claim that Mercedes have a way of increasing compression ratio past 16:1
https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/13496334/c...
I think The Race have been reporting this for a while. The teams that missed that interpretation of the rules are obviously unhappy. https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/13496334/c...
SpudLink said:
Byker28i said:
Sky Sports with the reported claim that Mercedes have a way of increasing compression ratio past 16:1
https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/13496334/c...
I think The Race have been reporting this for a while. The teams that missed that interpretation of the rules are obviously unhappy. https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/13496334/c...
suffolk009 said:
SpudLink said:
Byker28i said:
Sky Sports with the reported claim that Mercedes have a way of increasing compression ratio past 16:1
https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/13496334/c...
I think The Race have been reporting this for a while. The teams that missed that interpretation of the rules are obviously unhappy. https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/13496334/c...
Also I understand that the FIA, to avoid any massive issues have all of the CAD, specs, etc from the team as well as PU test data - so they can guide when a team is going down a route that would then be declared illegal. Teams can ask for specific interpretations to be validated and the FiA might say “yes that’s valid” or “no” or “you could read it that way but that is not the intent of the regulation”
Would have looked bad if several manufacturers had turned up to round 1 and been disqualified for non-compliance of the PU, with a 6month+ fix time…
Would have looked bad if several manufacturers had turned up to round 1 and been disqualified for non-compliance of the PU, with a 6month+ fix time…
It does seem to be sour grapes and annoyance at potentially missing a trick driving these comments.
There is no way engine manufacturers wouldn't have run this solution past the FIA in terms of legality, the sheer cost of developing these engines is off the charts, we aren't talking about a new floor or aero parts, this is fundamental to the design of the engine. I have no idea how it works, but it sounds pretty trick whatever it is.
There is no way engine manufacturers wouldn't have run this solution past the FIA in terms of legality, the sheer cost of developing these engines is off the charts, we aren't talking about a new floor or aero parts, this is fundamental to the design of the engine. I have no idea how it works, but it sounds pretty trick whatever it is.
Biggles Flies Undone said:
It does seem to be sour grapes and annoyance at potentially missing a trick driving these comments.
DAS....Those Aero holes you covered with the back of your glove....Double Diffuser.... Active Suspension.... Traction ControlIt has, and always will be this way.
The teams that dont have it will always claim its cheating. Whilst they kick themselves they are not doing it. And also, sometimes, whilst they use their 'cheat' claims to actively deflect attention from whatever clever little subjective wording of the rules theyhave found.
If everyone is banging on about compression ratios 3 months before the first race, I am almost certain that compression ratios will NOT be the actual technical bit of genius that makes a difference this year, it will be far less obvious!
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