The Official F1 2026 silly season *contains speculation*

[WPA]

Gtom said:

ajprice said:

Not confirmed, Andy Cowell might be out as Aston Martin CEO, (ex Stake and McLaren) Andreas Seidl could be replacing him. https://racingnews365.com/aston-martin-set-to-sack...

The article I read said that Horner is going there.

Was Horner not the reason the Newey left RB if so how is that going to work

[ajprice]

WPA said:

Gtom said:

ajprice said:

Not confirmed, Andy Cowell might be out as Aston Martin CEO, (ex Stake and McLaren) Andreas Seidl could be replacing him. https://racingnews365.com/aston-martin-set-to-sack...

The article I read said that Horner is going there.

Was Horner not the reason the Newey left RB if so how is that going to work

[Big Nanas]

Mick Schumacher joins Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for the 2026 IndyCar Season.

[thegreenhell]

carl_w said:

Certainly no reason to get rid of Andy Cowell now though.

The story is that he's moving sideways to assist Honda's engine programme, similar to the role he had at Mercedes.

[SmoothCriminal]

Saw a report that said Madrid is behind schedule and may be swapped for Imola.

[hondajack85]

SmoothCriminal said:

Saw a report that said Madrid is behind schedule and may be swapped for Imola.

Sounds like the sort of coded message they use in f1 to confuse a driver mid race lol.

[vaud]

hondajack85 said:

Sounds like the sort of coded message they use in f1 to confuse a driver mid race lol.

Ferrari driver "Are we on plan K?"

Response "We are checking... possibly X-ray or Zulu..."

[hondajack85]

I think Red Bull are looking good for 2026. It cant be that hard to produce and engine with approx 450-500hp.
All the electronic stuff and batterys can be improved if they seem behind.
Red bull know about building a complex and tightly packaged car. They have the staff and they have Max.
As just seen they have the ability to come back to the front fast.
Meanwhile everyone else seems a bit less agile. Why would that stop next year?

[vaud]

hondajack85 said:

I think Red Bull are looking good for 2026. It cant be that hard to produce and engine with approx 450-500hp.

Yeah super simple. Which is why the engine manufacturers are spending so much over a long period…

Your skills are clearly missed in an F1 team (as are mine)…

[TheDeuce]

vaud said:

hondajack85 said:

I think Red Bull are looking good for 2026. It cant be that hard to produce and engine with approx 450-500hp.

Yeah super simple. Which is why the engine manufacturers are spending so much over a long period

Your skills are clearly missed in an F1 team (as are mine)

Also, it doesn't matter how hard something is, those with the most experience at are still likely to be better at it than those with the least experience at it. RBR maybe have an excellent engine, who knows? But I don't see how anyone can reasonably say they're 'looking good', when we so far can't see anything of it.

Also it's the entire PU, not just the IC component. The crossplay between the two is going to be all important. Personally, I would back those with over a decades experience of hybrid F1 PU's. I may be wrong, but at least the theory is based on something we know, not how something that we can't see apparently 'looks'.

[nikaiyo2]

alisdairm said:

88 has a white supremacist connection.

Really ?

Dale Jarrett
Dale Earnhardt JR

Both famously used the 88 in NASCAR

[TheDeuce]

nikaiyo2 said:

alisdairm said:

88 has a white supremacist connection.

Really ?

Dale Jarrett
Dale Earnhardt JR

Both famously used the 88 in NASCAR

I googled it...

Apparently the 8 refers to the eighth letter of the alphabet, which is H. So 88 = HH = Hail Hitler.

That's pretty weak and pointless. Who cares if some weirdos want to continue to celebrate Hitler, he lost, he's dead! This is not a reason to consider 88 racist, especially given it's use in all sorts of far more common and contemporary non racist instances.

I've never understood the desire to hand over words or phrases to racist people as if they get to steal them and they can never be returned for normal people to use. If some dheads tried to adopt a number for racist purposes, fk em - support those that use it in good ways.

If Max or any other driver adopted 88 would we really think he's secretly a Hitler fan?

Having said all that, I do support his logic about 69. It's undeniable really

[Mark-C]

TheDeuce said:

nikaiyo2 said:

alisdairm said:

88 has a white supremacist connection.

Really ?

Dale Jarrett
Dale Earnhardt JR

Both famously used the 88 in NASCAR

I googled it...

Apparently the 8 refers to the eighth letter of the alphabet, which is H. So 88 = HH = Hail Hitler.

That's pretty weak and pointless. Who cares if some weirdos want to continue to celebrate Hitler, he lost, he's dead! This is not a reason to consider 88 racist, especially given it's use in all sorts of far more common and contemporary non racist instances.

I've never understood the desire to hand over words or phrases to racist people as if they get to steal them and they can never be returned for normal people to use. If some dheads tried to adopt a number for racist purposes, fk em - support those that use it in good ways.

If Max or any other driver adopted 88 would we really think he's secretly a Hitler fan?

Having said all that, I do support his logic about 69. It's undeniable really

88 = HH = Hattie Hayridge = Max is a Red Dwarf fan

[hondajack85]

TheDeuce said:

vaud said:

hondajack85 said:

I think Red Bull are looking good for 2026. It cant be that hard to produce and engine with approx 450-500hp.

Yeah super simple. Which is why the engine manufacturers are spending so much over a long period

Your skills are clearly missed in an F1 team (as are mine)

Also, it doesn't matter how hard something is, those with the most experience at are still likely to be better at it than those with the least experience at it. RBR maybe have an excellent engine, who knows? But I don't see how anyone can reasonably say they're 'looking good', when we so far can't see anything of it.



Also it's the entire PU, not just the IC component. The crossplay between the two is going to be all important. Personally, I would back those with over a decades experience of hybrid F1 PU's. I may be wrong, but at least the theory is based on something we know, not how something that we can't see apparently 'looks'.

Yeah yeah,Mercedes 'looks' good due to years of making 'engines' but have been useless at making a whole car for the last 5 or so years.

[TheDeuce]

hondajack85 said:

TheDeuce said:

vaud said:

hondajack85 said:

I think Red Bull are looking good for 2026. It cant be that hard to produce and engine with approx 450-500hp.

Yeah super simple. Which is why the engine manufacturers are spending so much over a long period

Your skills are clearly missed in an F1 team (as are mine)

Also, it doesn't matter how hard something is, those with the most experience at are still likely to be better at it than those with the least experience at it. RBR maybe have an excellent engine, who knows? But I don't see how anyone can reasonably say they're 'looking good', when we so far can't see anything of it.



Also it's the entire PU, not just the IC component. The crossplay between the two is going to be all important. Personally, I would back those with over a decades experience of hybrid F1 PU's. I may be wrong, but at least the theory is based on something we know, not how something that we can't see apparently 'looks'.

Yeah yeah,Mercedes 'looks' good due to years of making 'engines' but have been useless at making a whole car for the last 5 or so years.

What's that got to do with our discussion about power units

[Jayho]

TheDeuce said:

hondajack85 said:

TheDeuce said:

vaud said:

hondajack85 said:

I think Red Bull are looking good for 2026. It cant be that hard to produce and engine with approx 450-500hp.

Yeah super simple. Which is why the engine manufacturers are spending so much over a long period

Your skills are clearly missed in an F1 team (as are mine)

Also, it doesn't matter how hard something is, those with the most experience at are still likely to be better at it than those with the least experience at it. RBR maybe have an excellent engine, who knows? But I don't see how anyone can reasonably say they're 'looking good', when we so far can't see anything of it.



Also it's the entire PU, not just the IC component. The crossplay between the two is going to be all important. Personally, I would back those with over a decades experience of hybrid F1 PU's. I may be wrong, but at least the theory is based on something we know, not how something that we can't see apparently 'looks'.

Yeah yeah,Mercedes 'looks' good due to years of making 'engines' but have been useless at making a whole car for the last 5 or so years.

What's that got to do with our discussion about power units

Yeah... Building a 450-500bhp engine is easy... Anyone can build an engine dont you know? A big massive company like Honda with all their tech were finding too easy when building engines for McLaren. To the point they on purposely gave them the famous F3 Engines just to mess with Alonso.

[hondajack85]

Jayho said:

TheDeuce said:

hondajack85 said:

TheDeuce said:

vaud said:

hondajack85 said:

I think Red Bull are looking good for 2026. It cant be that hard to produce and engine with approx 450-500hp.

Yeah super simple. Which is why the engine manufacturers are spending so much over a long period

Your skills are clearly missed in an F1 team (as are mine)

Also, it doesn't matter how hard something is, those with the most experience at are still likely to be better at it than those with the least experience at it. RBR maybe have an excellent engine, who knows? But I don't see how anyone can reasonably say they're 'looking good', when we so far can't see anything of it.



Also it's the entire PU, not just the IC component. The crossplay between the two is going to be all important. Personally, I would back those with over a decades experience of hybrid F1 PU's. I may be wrong, but at least the theory is based on something we know, not how something that we can't see apparently 'looks'.

Yeah yeah,Mercedes 'looks' good due to years of making 'engines' but have been useless at making a whole car for the last 5 or so years.

What's that got to do with our discussion about power units

Yeah... Building a 450-500bhp engine is easy... Anyone can build an engine dont you know? A big massive company like Honda with all their tech were finding too easy when building engines for McLaren. To the point they on purposely gave them the famous F3 Engines just to mess with Alonso.

But it has to make a lot less power than before. So no need for 100s of years of tips and tricks lol. No need for that MGU bit none of them could get right apart from merc.

[732NM]

hondajack85 said:

But it has to make a lot less power than before. So no need for 100s of years of tips and tricks lol. No need for that MGU bit none of them could get right apart from merc.

You've never heard of efficiency and competition have you?

If you are 1% worse than the opposition, you have a problem.

ICE will produce worse thermal efficiency under these new regulations, which is a shame, the current ICE are incredible things with the most efficient output ever seen.

[hondajack85]

732NM said:

hondajack85 said:

But it has to make a lot less power than before. So no need for 100s of years of tips and tricks lol. No need for that MGU bit none of them could get right apart from merc.

You've never heard of efficiency and competition have you?

If you are 1% worse than the opposition, you have a problem.

ICE will produce worse thermal efficiency under these new regulations, which is a shame, the current ICE are incredible things with the most efficient output ever seen.

I can see red bull may not have inhouse experience for certain components but thats what companies like ricardo are for.

[Muzzer79]

hondajack85 said:

Jayho said:

TheDeuce said:

hondajack85 said:

TheDeuce said:

vaud said:

hondajack85 said:

I think Red Bull are looking good for 2026. It cant be that hard to produce and engine with approx 450-500hp.

Yeah super simple. Which is why the engine manufacturers are spending so much over a long period

Your skills are clearly missed in an F1 team (as are mine)

Also, it doesn't matter how hard something is, those with the most experience at are still likely to be better at it than those with the least experience at it. RBR maybe have an excellent engine, who knows? But I don't see how anyone can reasonably say they're 'looking good', when we so far can't see anything of it.



Also it's the entire PU, not just the IC component. The crossplay between the two is going to be all important. Personally, I would back those with over a decades experience of hybrid F1 PU's. I may be wrong, but at least the theory is based on something we know, not how something that we can't see apparently 'looks'.

Yeah yeah,Mercedes 'looks' good due to years of making 'engines' but have been useless at making a whole car for the last 5 or so years.

What's that got to do with our discussion about power units

Yeah... Building a 450-500bhp engine is easy... Anyone can build an engine dont you know? A big massive company like Honda with all their tech were finding too easy when building engines for McLaren. To the point they on purposely gave them the famous F3 Engines just to mess with Alonso.

But it has to make a lot less power than before. So no need for 100s of years of tips and tricks lol. No need for that MGU bit none of them could get right apart from merc.

Do we need to point out that it's not just about creating power?