The Official F1 2026 silly season *contains speculation*
Discussion
Milkyway said:
Honda & VTEC... variable cam profiles.
A variable compression ratio seems plausible.
VCR exists.A variable compression ratio seems plausible.
Edited by Milkyway on Tuesday 20th January 16:46
https://www.nissan-global.com/EN/INNOVATION/TECHNO...
This is not what is being talked about in these new F1 engines. It would definitely not be legal.
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.
The SC is going really quickly unless asked to specifically slow down for the incident, on a dry track the SC driver is giving it the beans on the straights and going 80-90% around the corners. SC laps at fast circuits are roughly comparable with a Carrera Cup car. It just looks slow because it’s slower than F1 cars usually go! In the F1 Academy races with F4 cars, the SC really has to back off along the straights.
It also needs to be reliable in use, sitting idling for an hour with the aircon working before going hard within a few seconds of being told to. It’s on all-weather tyres for obvious reasons. The current AMG Black Series was a ‘Ring lap record holder in its class when released, it’s a seriously capable piece of kit but also very much a production car. Any crazy low-volume Hypercar is likely to fail the reliability and practicality requirements for the safety car, there’s a fair amount of kit for the lights, radios, lap chart screens, emergency equipment etc that sits in the boot.
IIRC in Formula E they have a Taycan Turbo as the safety car. That would work for F1 as far as the performance goes, but would fall short on the range, it probably only does 50km or so when driven flat out on a big-boy circuit, and it would be rather embarrassing to have to switch it out for a second one if there were too many SC laps in the race! As you suggest, perhaps after a couple more generations they’ll have enough range to be plausible.
Doriane Pin signed as Mercedes development driver, alongside a TBA racing season which won't be F1 Academy as she won that last year.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/f1-acad...
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/f1-acad...
ajprice said:
Doriane Pin signed as Mercedes development driver, alongside a TBA racing season which won't be F1 Academy as she won that last year.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/f1-acad...
That’s quite the job for Dori, she must have seriously impressed Mercedes over the past two years with F1A. Sounds like the role will be simulator driving sharing with reserve Fred Vesti, especially at the long-haul flyaway races where Vesti will need to be there in person. Congratulations! https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/f1-acad...
French media rumours were that she’s looking at an ELMS LMP2 drive. I think she’ll still be a Silver driver, which is a good position to be in.
Sandpit Steve said:
It s actually a really difficult car to spec.
The SC is going really quickly unless asked to specifically slow down for the incident, on a dry track the SC driver is giving it the beans on the straights and going 80-90% around the corners. SC laps at fast circuits are roughly comparable with a Carrera Cup car. It just looks slow because it s slower than F1 cars usually go! In the F1 Academy races with F4 cars, the SC really has to back off along the straights.
It also needs to be reliable in use, sitting idling for an hour with the aircon working before going hard within a few seconds of being told to. It s on all-weather tyres for obvious reasons. The current AMG Black Series was a Ring lap record holder in its class when released, it s a seriously capable piece of kit but also very much a production car. Any crazy low-volume Hypercar is likely to fail the reliability and practicality requirements for the safety car, there s a fair amount of kit for the lights, radios, lap chart screens, emergency equipment etc that sits in the boot.
IIRC in Formula E they have a Taycan Turbo as the safety car. That would work for F1 as far as the performance goes, but would fall short on the range, it probably only does 50km or so when driven flat out on a big-boy circuit, and it would be rather embarrassing to have to switch it out for a second one if there were too many SC laps in the race! As you suggest, perhaps after a couple more generations they ll have enough range to be plausible.
Yep, EV range needs a big boost to become suitable for the role.The SC is going really quickly unless asked to specifically slow down for the incident, on a dry track the SC driver is giving it the beans on the straights and going 80-90% around the corners. SC laps at fast circuits are roughly comparable with a Carrera Cup car. It just looks slow because it s slower than F1 cars usually go! In the F1 Academy races with F4 cars, the SC really has to back off along the straights.
It also needs to be reliable in use, sitting idling for an hour with the aircon working before going hard within a few seconds of being told to. It s on all-weather tyres for obvious reasons. The current AMG Black Series was a Ring lap record holder in its class when released, it s a seriously capable piece of kit but also very much a production car. Any crazy low-volume Hypercar is likely to fail the reliability and practicality requirements for the safety car, there s a fair amount of kit for the lights, radios, lap chart screens, emergency equipment etc that sits in the boot.
IIRC in Formula E they have a Taycan Turbo as the safety car. That would work for F1 as far as the performance goes, but would fall short on the range, it probably only does 50km or so when driven flat out on a big-boy circuit, and it would be rather embarrassing to have to switch it out for a second one if there were too many SC laps in the race! As you suggest, perhaps after a couple more generations they ll have enough range to be plausible.
As for reliability, I wasn't suggesting limited production hypercar EV's, there are now several very high powered mass production performance EV's and more on the horizon. BMW and Porsche both well into the 1000bhp+ territory and it's surely not going to be long before Merc and Audi (both of whom are actually in F1 of course)match their efforts. It really is the range issue that requires more work.
We don't know when workable solid state batteries will find their way into such cars, but when they do F1 would be the perfect place to display the abilities of such cars and their new found stamina. I think F1 would want it too.
Sandpit Steve said:
ajprice said:
Doriane Pin signed as Mercedes development driver, alongside a TBA racing season which won't be F1 Academy as she won that last year.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/f1-acad...
That s quite the job for Dori, she must have seriously impressed Mercedes over the past two years with F1A. Sounds like the role will be simulator driving sharing with reserve Fred Vesti, especially at the long-haul flyaway races where Vesti will need to be there in person. Congratulations! https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/f1-acad...
French media rumours were that she s looking at an ELMS LMP2 drive. I think she ll still be a Silver driver, which is a good position to be in.
TheDeuce said:
Sandpit Steve said:
ajprice said:
Doriane Pin signed as Mercedes development driver, alongside a TBA racing season which won't be F1 Academy as she won that last year.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/f1-acad...
That s quite the job for Dori, she must have seriously impressed Mercedes over the past two years with F1A. Sounds like the role will be simulator driving sharing with reserve Fred Vesti, especially at the long-haul flyaway races where Vesti will need to be there in person. Congratulations! https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/f1-acad...
French media rumours were that she s looking at an ELMS LMP2 drive. I think she ll still be a Silver driver, which is a good position to be in.
She's already done a Season in LMP2 in WEC so doesn't seem like a step forward.
honda_exige said:
Done as much as she can but F1A is only F4 cars but with lower quality opposition, why don't Merc fund her a season in F3 at least? Or even a season in Super Formula Japan, incredible cars only 5 sec a lap slower than F1 and out of the full glare of the media.
She's already done a Season in LMP2 in WEC so doesn't seem like a step forward.
Honestly, I expect if she wanted F3 she'd probably be able to convince them and attract a load of personal sponsorship sufficient to cover costs anyway. But... It might be far more attractive at this point to take paid drives and get money in the bank. F3 is a gamble for her talent level, other series make more financial sense - I don't this she's from a very wealthy family so racing is her financial career as well as her passion.She's already done a Season in LMP2 in WEC so doesn't seem like a step forward.
She's probably in the best place being assessed as a development driver at Merc whilst also pursuing racing elsewhere.
honda_exige said:
Done as much as she can but F1A is only F4 cars but with lower quality opposition, why don't Merc fund her a season in F3 at least? Or even a season in Super Formula Japan, incredible cars only 5 sec a lap slower than F1 and out of the full glare of the media.
She's already done a Season in LMP2 in WEC so doesn't seem like a step forward.
Because she would get absolutely destroyed in F3. Better to give her the job of "development driver", let her have a go in the simulator if it is free, get good PR and social media exposure for Mercedes by having her photographed in the overalls and play along with the whole "getting a woman into F1" hype.She's already done a Season in LMP2 in WEC so doesn't seem like a step forward.
This is what I find annoying about F1 academy, you create a women only ring fenced racing formula that has links with Formula 1. The reality is, none of the winners will ever have enough super licence points to drive in Formula 1, and lets be honest they would get rumbled in half a lap.
Why can't they go down the F3, F2, F1 route like virtually all of the other drivers on the grid?
ThingsBehindTheSun said:
honda_exige said:
Done as much as she can but F1A is only F4 cars but with lower quality opposition, why don't Merc fund her a season in F3 at least? Or even a season in Super Formula Japan, incredible cars only 5 sec a lap slower than F1 and out of the full glare of the media.
She's already done a Season in LMP2 in WEC so doesn't seem like a step forward.
Because she would get absolutely destroyed in F3. Better to give her the job of "development driver", let her have a go in the simulator if it is free, get good PR and social media exposure for Mercedes by having her photographed in the overalls and play along with the whole "getting a woman into F1" hype.She's already done a Season in LMP2 in WEC so doesn't seem like a step forward.
This is what I find annoying about F1 academy, you create a women only ring fenced racing formula that has links with Formula 1. The reality is, none of the winners will ever have enough super licence points to drive in Formula 1, and lets be honest they would get rumbled in half a lap.
Why can't they go down the F3, F2, F1 route like virtually all of the other drivers on the grid?
I actually think Pin might be 'ok' on F3 after probably a rough start, but nowhere good enough to then progress to F2.
TheDeuce said:
ThingsBehindTheSun said:
honda_exige said:
Done as much as she can but F1A is only F4 cars but with lower quality opposition, why don't Merc fund her a season in F3 at least? Or even a season in Super Formula Japan, incredible cars only 5 sec a lap slower than F1 and out of the full glare of the media.
She's already done a Season in LMP2 in WEC so doesn't seem like a step forward.
Because she would get absolutely destroyed in F3. Better to give her the job of "development driver", let her have a go in the simulator if it is free, get good PR and social media exposure for Mercedes by having her photographed in the overalls and play along with the whole "getting a woman into F1" hype.She's already done a Season in LMP2 in WEC so doesn't seem like a step forward.
This is what I find annoying about F1 academy, you create a women only ring fenced racing formula that has links with Formula 1. The reality is, none of the winners will ever have enough super licence points to drive in Formula 1, and lets be honest they would get rumbled in half a lap.
Why can't they go down the F3, F2, F1 route like virtually all of the other drivers on the grid?
I actually think Pin might be 'ok' on F3 after probably a rough start, but nowhere good enough to then progress to F2.
She’s been an excellent role model, just the sort of person who gets the girls to sign up for karting. Mercedes were also really good with her as the Academy driver, featuring her in a lot of the media activity every weekend she was there.
Sandpit Steve said:
I really did want to see her step up to FIA F3, but that s an expensive series (around $2m a season) as they do a lot of travelling these days. It s also massively competitive, and most of them are under 18. Easy to understand why she would instead take a prestigious job at Mercedes and a paid drive in an endurance series.
She s been an excellent role model, just the sort of person who gets the girls to sign up for karting. Mercedes were also really good with her as the Academy driver, featuring her in a lot of the media activity every weekend she was there.
Yet a male with the exact same talent as her wouldn't have even done well enough to have a Wikipedia page.She s been an excellent role model, just the sort of person who gets the girls to sign up for karting. Mercedes were also really good with her as the Academy driver, featuring her in a lot of the media activity every weekend she was there.
ThingsBehindTheSun said:
Sandpit Steve said:
I really did want to see her step up to FIA F3, but that s an expensive series (around $2m a season) as they do a lot of travelling these days. It s also massively competitive, and most of them are under 18. Easy to understand why she would instead take a prestigious job at Mercedes and a paid drive in an endurance series.
She s been an excellent role model, just the sort of person who gets the girls to sign up for karting. Mercedes were also really good with her as the Academy driver, featuring her in a lot of the media activity every weekend she was there.
Yet a male with the exact same talent as her wouldn't have even done well enough to have a Wikipedia page.She s been an excellent role model, just the sort of person who gets the girls to sign up for karting. Mercedes were also really good with her as the Academy driver, featuring her in a lot of the media activity every weekend she was there.
Milkyway said:
Is she just destined to become another Jamie Chadwick... SIM / PR / Media...
None of these women are good enough for F1, 99.99999999% of men aren't either.She'll make a decent living for her talent level, just as Jamie will.
We have a thread about this that goes round in circles.
Milkyway said:
Is she just destined to become another Jamie Chadwick... SIM / PR / Media...
Jamie’s also in LMP2 ELMS, which is probably where Dori will end up. In a 24h race, consistency and not making mistakes counts as much as outright pace in the car, and both ladies are good at that. Sandpit Steve said:
Jamie s also in LMP2 ELMS, which is probably where Dori will end up. In a 24h race, consistency and not making mistakes counts as much as outright pace in the car, and both ladies are good at that.
Being slow for a stint is a disaster, it's no use being safe but slow. The pro-am class caters for this scenario, it's unacceptable in pro.Gassing Station | Formula 1 | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff