TeamKoolGreen wrote: ↑22 Jan 2026, 08:09
https://autoracer.it...rezza-alla-fia/
A source reveals that increasing the compression ratio is considerable: “It can reach +6/7% of the ICE power, +3/4% overall PU.
“We all have the skills to do it, it's not allowed. The FIA must be able to check it almost in real time” Binotto.
As already revealed by AutoRacer , Audi is the team pushing hardest to check Brixworth's engine , and Mattia Binotto made no secret of this during his presentation: "If what they're talking about were actually true, the performance gap would be significant ," he admitted bluntly. Significant is exactly the right word, a term also used by another engine specialist well before Binotto spoke in the past few hours. As we've already reported , moving from a compression ratio of 16 to 18 would guarantee an advantage of more than 40 hp, with further benefits for the Power Unit in terms of efficiency, energy recovery, and other values that explain Binotto's strong concern. Audi Technical Director James Key also briefly commented on the matter. "I think it would be like bypassing the purpose of the regulations, which are somehow intended to control this area. We trust the FIA because no one wants to go through a season where someone has a significant advantage and there's no solution, since the Power Unit is homologated. We hope the FIA makes the right decision." With the FIA likely to fail to intervene very soon, the teams would have no choice but to protest in Australia, moving from words to action. However, it's not that easy: "You can protest if you know what you're protesting against," Mattia Binotto stated.
The thing is how do you do it ? I don't think it is possible.
The regulations specify allowable materials for construction. For nearly all Formula One internal combustion engine (ICE) applications, the cylinder head must be machined from a single, homogeneous block of the selected material. This requirement precludes the use of dissimilar materials within the head—such as combining steel and aluminum—to exploit differential thermal expansion as a means of increasing the effective compression ratio (CR).
Even if compression ratios at those levels were mechanically achievable, a recent interview with Honda emphasized that current FIA-mandated fuel formulations are not optimized for the fast-burn combustion characteristics required at extremely high CRs.
Seems like they have to go in another direction to get performance that CRs.
