2026 Drama: Alleged engine loophole

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Peter Ian Staker
Peter Ian Staker
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Re: 2026 Drama: Alleged engine loophole

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I am mean I kind of knew why they changed it. My problem if the tricks are deemed legal is that it will make that rule pointless.
The whole test at ambient temperature deal just tells me they never really thought that rule through.
Do teams even let their engines cool to ambient at any point during a race weekend?

Rodak
Rodak
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Joined: 04 Oct 2017, 03:02

Re: 2026 Drama: Alleged engine loophole

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Regarding the regulation itself, I notice the wording “geometric compression ratio” is used, not swept volume. The latter would be much easier to measure. A simple contact or visual inspection of piston travel. The surfaces of both the piston face and the cylinder head however are very complex and not easily measured, but they must be measured to establish the volume. Since we don’t have the testing protocol document, a few guesses toward what it could entail:
Swept volume is only part of the 'geometric ratio'. It's certainly possible to measure head volume and calculate ring land volume to arrive at the total volume, subtracting the swept volume for the ratio calculation. I note that the FIA allows each manufacturer to devise their own test method that would then be certified by the FIA; this would mean each manufacturer might have a different method. There should be laser measurement methods for arriving at head volume, as well as information from CNC machining of the head that might be useful for same.

I quote the Technical Regulations:
...The procedure to measure this value will be detailed by each PU Manufacturer according to the Guidance
Document FIA-F1-DOC-C042 and executed at ambient temperature. This procedure must be
approved by the FIA Technical Department and included in the PU Manufacturer homologation
dossier.

Matt2725
Matt2725
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Re: 2026 Drama: Alleged engine loophole

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motobaleno wrote:
22 Dec 2025, 21:31
https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-ca ... /10786165/

very easy to tranlate now.
keypoint: trick is not based on simple thermal expansion.
I read that article and I have to say, despite the claim that is isn't based on thermal expansion...it also doesn't offer up any clue as to what it is beyond a "geometric solution". Nothing new in that article as far as I can tell.

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Jambier
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Location: France

Re: 2026 Drama: Alleged engine loophole

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Nikolas Tombazis (3 months ago): « We made it clear to the teams that we will not tolerate anyone exploiting loopholes in the reg that they have kept hidden from us. If someone developed a concept based on a 50-50 ambiguous interpretation, it would be suicide for that team.
Now let’s see :D

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AR3-GP
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Joined: 06 Jul 2021, 01:22

Re: 2026 Drama: Alleged engine loophole

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Matt2725 wrote:
23 Dec 2025, 00:02
motobaleno wrote:
22 Dec 2025, 21:31
https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-ca ... /10786165/

very easy to tranlate now.
keypoint: trick is not based on simple thermal expansion.
I read that article and I have to say, despite the claim that is isn't based on thermal expansion...it also doesn't offer up any clue as to what it is beyond a "geometric solution". Nothing new in that article as far as I can tell.
Mechanical options:

Image
Beware of T-Rex

Rodak
Rodak
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Re: 2026 Drama: Alleged engine loophole

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AR3-GP wrote:
23 Dec 2025, 00:12
Matt2725 wrote:
23 Dec 2025, 00:02
motobaleno wrote:
22 Dec 2025, 21:31
https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-ca ... /10786165/

very easy to tranlate now.
keypoint: trick is not based on simple thermal expansion.
I read that article and I have to say, despite the claim that is isn't based on thermal expansion...it also doesn't offer up any clue as to what it is beyond a "geometric solution". Nothing new in that article as far as I can tell.
Mechanical options:

https://i.postimg.cc/029Lmss8/image.png
All of those 'options' would be quickly nixed by the FIA as they are on their faces illegal, not to mention inadvisable in a high revving racing engine.....

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AR3-GP
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Joined: 06 Jul 2021, 01:22

Re: 2026 Drama: Alleged engine loophole

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Rodak wrote:
23 Dec 2025, 00:36
AR3-GP wrote:
23 Dec 2025, 00:12
Matt2725 wrote:
23 Dec 2025, 00:02


I read that article and I have to say, despite the claim that is isn't based on thermal expansion...it also doesn't offer up any clue as to what it is beyond a "geometric solution". Nothing new in that article as far as I can tell.
Mechanical options:

https://i.postimg.cc/029Lmss8/image.png
All of those 'options' would be quickly nixed by the FIA as they are on their faces illegal, not to mention inadvisable in a high revving racing engine.....
I struggle to think of a mechanism beyond thermal expansion. Could there be an inertial or centrifugal phenomenon?
Beware of T-Rex

FNTC
FNTC
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Re: 2026 Drama: Alleged engine loophole

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Some kind of coating on top of the pistons that expand with temperature? Or same in the head combustion chamber?

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ocryos
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Re: 2026 Drama: Alleged engine loophole

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Here is something interesting (and shady)!

This is C5.4.3. of regs, published July 31, 2025:
Image
As you can see, there is nothing about measuring at the ambient temperature.
Also 1.5 states that “Formula 1 Cars must comply with these regulations in their entirety at all times during a Competition”.
To me both of these together clearly say that the engine must not be designed to deliberately violate 16:1 compression rate rule, because why FIA can't come up with a measurement procedure somewhat close to operating conditions?

Now this one is Oct 16, 2025:
Image
FIA added “executed at ambient temperature” and created that loophole basically at the last moment! Why did they do that?

Before I found out that I thought Merc did a good job exploiting that temperature trick and it’s not fair to punish them for being clever. But not anymore. Before Oct 16 their engine with compression rate 18:1 at high temperature was illegal. After Oct 16 changes it suddenly becomes legal! The only way I can think of this situation is that Merc knew in advance that their engine will become legal at the point in time when “it’s too late to change the engine” (or at least they had a backup plan), otherwise they would have never committed to something that is pretty clearly violates the regs.

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AR3-GP
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Joined: 06 Jul 2021, 01:22

Re: 2026 Drama: Alleged engine loophole

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I think certain elements of this story have been lost in translation. I would also be wary because majority of the reports are coming from Italian Media. They want to paint a picture of a tainted championship and they haven't proven that anybody has done anything wrong.
Beware of T-Rex

Rodak
Rodak
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Re: 2026 Drama: Alleged engine loophole

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Seriously, this site is F1 Technical. Maybe it's time to get technical instead of imaginary. Too many times imaginary B.S. shows up here as real stuff when, with simple reference to factual doable stuff, that stuff shouldn't even be discussed as real; the 'discussion' about skid plate cheating with some sort of heating element is a prime example. Maybe get a grip and investigate real physical properties with numbers before posting. Here's an idea: read the Technical Regulations before commenting.

One of my co-workers, in the distant past, had theories about how to generate some sort of charged electrical balls of energy of some sort that could be shot from an electrical cannons; it sounded good as he described it but there was no way his ideas could be implemented; it was stupid. I see the same stuff here. Get real.

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Juzh
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Re: 2026 Drama: Alleged engine loophole

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dialtone wrote:
22 Dec 2025, 09:24
Badger wrote:
dialtone wrote:
21 Dec 2025, 21:52


Ferrari had a drop already in COTA before the new FFM which was fitted from 2020.

https://motorsport.tech/formula-1/fuel- ... it-be-done

And there were 2 pumps involved anyway in the process so syncing both of them would have been quite the challenge to go unnoticed.

FIA had access to the fuel system from Ferrari and still couldn’t figure it out and needed Ferrari explanation. I refuse to accept that it was something trivial because FIA would have figured it out themselves.

Anyway this is OT, to close my position remains that this is the same situation as 2019 and should be banned if it’s happening, any other outcome is corrupt to me.
Well COTA was the weekend the scandal broke IIRC, they may have dialled it back as a precaution to not risk being protested. Whether the FIA figured out the details on their own or Ferrari told them as a part of the secret deal, the encrypted randomised fuel flow sensor was added for a reason. Can't get away from that.

First you argue that we don't really know what happened in 2019, then in the next paragraph you claim that the current situation is the same as 2019. If you don't know what happened then that is obviously nonsense. This seems more like advocacy rather than a reasoned opinion, especially when you conclude the whole contradiction by saying "any other outcome is corrupt".
COTA was absolutely not where the scandal broke LMAO, it was going on since basically 2018, they had to fit a 2nd sensor on their split battery as that’s where early speculation was going. 2 years of insane scrutiny on that car. No other car has ever seen this level of intense attempts at finding what’s illegal with it. In Canada 2019 there was more unhappiness and still focus on battery. In December 2019 the engine was seized by FIA to work out what was going on, and they still couldn’t.

Encrypted randomized flow sensor sounds all cool except when the encryption is irrelevant as Ferrari wasn’t replacing data in the sensor actively, you don’t get away without DQ if you do that, normal electro magnetic interference would provide lots of noise, visible from the reading, and as already said synchronizing 2 pumps with a sensor would require some insane levels of technology in the pumps, which would be quite easy to tell when you saw their specs, which FIA had access to. The random jitter makes the synch impossible, but it was still borderline impossible, there’s a reason why they went with a fuel buffer post sensor as their first idea, and updated the rules to forbid.

The fuel sensor can certainly hint at something going on there, but it also can just be intent on FIA to close any possible attempt going forward there now that the whole grid has tried to figure out what Ferrari did and spent millions trying to trick a sensor.

Why this is the same as 2019 to me has nothing to do with the trick. A team got punished for interpreting the rules in a smart way, so smart that nobody could figure it out, even when given access to the technology and blueprint. And yet got punished, do the same now if you are fair, otherwise it’s corrupt. It really doesn’t matter what it is they are doing when the rule intent is 16:1.

Don’t care much about your name calling.
Fuel flow sensor took measurements at 2200 hz. Ferrari found a way to inject more fuel in between those measurement points.
“The new device incorporates anti-aliasing technology and full data encryption,” according to Sentronics. “The anti-aliasing technique randomises when the device makes its measurements, ultimately making it impossible to synchronise any ancillary parts to the measurement frequency. Full encryption ensures the authenticity of the data and privacy to the FIA.

F1 fuel flow sensors
The new blue FIA fuel flow meter is encrypted
“This eliminates the possibility of the data being used as part of a feedback system to gain a competitive advantage.”
End result: 15-20 kmh and more than a second lost straights compared to 2019, even on a short track like red bull ring:
Image
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

Duckman
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Re: 2026 Drama: Alleged engine loophole

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Quack

the EDGE
the EDGE
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Location: Bedfordshire ENGLAND

Re: 2026 Drama: Alleged engine loophole

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I only have one question…

Since when have F1 engine secrets been revealed to the world, before the season has even begun?

Did the teams just decide to start bragging? Did the FIA decide to reveal confidential info?

dialtone
dialtone
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Joined: 25 Feb 2019, 01:31

Re: 2026 Drama: Alleged engine loophole

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Juzh wrote: If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.
I do not agree with this simple interpretation.

You think FIA just wouldn’t figure it out on their own and punish Ferrari if it was that easy?

There are 2 pumps systems in the system, a low pressure pumps sitting in the tank (4-5 of them) and a high pressure one sitting later.

The whole piping obviously has no tanks or buffers or it would be found out immediately. You are suggesting that both sets of pumps are PERFECTLY aligned to the sensor which is an ultra-sonic one as well so not in contact with fuel flow and thus no real way to give feedback to any Ferrari sensor to discover the pollrate.

This theory is just not possible in a number of ways, tweaking the sensor is more likely than this and that wasn’t happening.