2026 F1 Cars - General Thread

[mzso]

Discussing ai "enhanced" images is very silly. It's not enhancing anything, it's just making up the details.

Yeah, that's nonsense. Clearly the sidepods are huge in reality.

any chance thats an opening?

To me it seems like a shadow/reflection that moves around as the car turns.

[vorticism]

Some guesses at what we’ll see in a couple of months:

Front pushrod. The front wing pressure distribution has changed. The largest part of the wing is now outboard, the opposite of the 2022 formula which had the largest part of the wing inboard. This will alter the flow fields between the front wheels.
...
Rake. The question is how much. The rear wing allowance seems small relative to the size of the front wing, and there are no beam wings. Use rake to increase overall downforce that is necessarily rearward of the front axle. That said--does rake conflict with using higher center of gravity pushrods at the rear.
...

Confirmed on Audi’s car:
https://i.postimg.cc/B6QXSC2J/Screensho ... -01-PM.png

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-O6A5WWIAA ... me=900x900

Some guesses at what we’ll see in a couple of months:
...
Rear pushrod. The diffuser is not as tall but the onset of the diffuser remains in approximately the same location as the 2022 formula. It is perhaps better to not risk impinging upon it with pullrod mechanisms, although the higher CoG of a pushrod assembly could conflict with the use of rake.

Confirmed on Audi's car:

[cplchanb]

how come no thread for the audi car yet despite videos of the actual car running?

[matteosc]

[...]

Very conservative side pod openings. These engines will be less efficient and less powerful at the same time. So the big openings are interesting.
[...]

Less efficient would point to more heat losses, especially considering that the power deficit is due mainly to the lower compression ratio (at least in theory). Making less power with similar fuel should result in more heat losses.

Not sure about how the lack of MGU-H affects heating.

[stan_french]

[...]

Very conservative side pod openings. These engines will be less efficient and less powerful at the same time. So the big openings are interesting.
[...]

Less efficient would point to more heat losses, especially considering that the power deficit is due mainly to the lower compression ratio (at least in theory). Making less power with similar fuel should result in more heat losses.

Not sure about how the lack of MGU-H affects heating.

Couldn't this just be a sign of an A-car made for the barcelona test? That is, looking at reliability where they progressively close openings?

I would then imagine that in Bahrain they're going to test the actual side pods they will run. Similar to Mercedes in 2022. Probably not that much to read into, no?

[cplchanb]

https://cdn-6.motorsport.com/images/mgl ... -team.webp


Very interesting interpretation of the wheel cover by audi

[WardenOfTheNorth]

how come no thread for the audi car yet despite videos of the actual car running?

I was wondering the same thing

[mzso]

Why don't you guys start one?

[PlatinumZealot]

Some guesses at what we’ll see in a couple of months:

Front pushrod. The front wing pressure distribution has changed. The largest part of the wing is now outboard, the opposite of the 2022 formula which had the largest part of the wing inboard. This will alter the flow fields between the front wheels.
...
Rake. The question is how much. The rear wing allowance seems small relative to the size of the front wing, and there are no beam wings. Use rake to increase overall downforce that is necessarily rearward of the front axle. That said--does rake conflict with using higher center of gravity pushrods at the rear.
...

Confirmed on Audi’s car:
https://i.postimg.cc/B6QXSC2J/Screensho ... -01-PM.png

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-O6A5WWIAA ... me=900x900

Some guesses at what we’ll see in a couple of months:
...
Rear pushrod. The diffuser is not as tall but the onset of the diffuser remains in approximately the same location as the 2022 formula. It is perhaps better to not risk impinging upon it with pullrod mechanisms, although the higher CoG of a pushrod assembly could conflict with the use of rake.

Confirmed on Audi's car:
https://i.postimg.cc/KzjJWjmY/k-TEp-Xh8-(1)-4.jpg

Newey's modern era pull-rod also had the same concerns with impinging on the floor and the double diffuser. He somehow made it all fit inside the foot-print of the gearbox to nullify that issue. The reason why ground effect era moved the cars away from the pull-rod rear was perhaps the size of the tunnels but I think critically, the larger more complex suspension internals that were required. We saw that RedBull's pushrod in 2022 had complex, big parts to handle the loads and keep the ground effect floor in the narrow working range. For 2026, if the floor is not too sensitive I can see teams migrating towards a softer ride and more compact suspensions. Pull rod rear could become popular again. If it doesn't then it means the teams likely uncovered very strong benefits for the push-rod through lessons learnt in the Ground effect era.

[madridista]

Thanks for that.

Edit: Looking at more photos, it doesn't seem like there is anything unusual in that region. There appear to be normal louvers in the photo directly above your post, and a normal sized central cannon outlet. What is clear is that the sidepod has a pronounced curvature across the top.

Yes, looking at it from the video from the Pitwall in neutral lighting the sidepod looks normal.

The top edge reminds me of the F1-75 just with more curvature up midway. The big undercut (only really evident when you play around with the lighting) reminds of the Amr22(a).It doesnt attach to the floor, so the undercut goes through to the back. On the ai slop photo that someone shared here it has no undercut at all and its just a fat box which is obviously wrong.