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It sounds like the cars are going to have a lot less grip this year with the lack of downforce and the narrower tires. I would say that Norris and Verstappen are favored in these conditions. Leclerc and Piastri could potentially struggle.
I actually think it might be the opposite. The ground effects cars were stable until the rear snapped out violently which is why Max was so far ahead of anyone else in those spiky Red Bulls. The new cars might have less grip but are more progressive in terms of how they break traction. This should level the playing field somewhat but Max is Max and will have an advantage just because he's better at adapting to anything. He's a full time sim racer with a side hustle in F1 and spends a lot of time in GT cars with very diverse characteristics.
It sounds like the cars are going to have a lot less grip this year with the lack of downforce and the narrower tires. I would say that Norris and Verstappen are favored in these conditions. Leclerc and Piastri could potentially struggle.
Leclerc will struggle with a slippery car? That's a new one. The guy is putting the Ferrari mess in poles and for me his on par with Max.
It sounds like the cars are going to have a lot less grip this year with the lack of downforce and the narrower tires. I would say that Norris and Verstappen are favored in these conditions. Leclerc and Piastri could potentially struggle.
Leclerc will struggle with a slippery car? That's a new one. The guy is putting the Ferrari mess in poles and for me his on par with Max.
About Leclerc
However, the most obvious ones were situations where the Ferrari was too front-limited for Leclerc's liking, or in low-downforce, low-grip conditions. As Leclerc has admitted, his on-the-edge qualifying approach can let him down in such conditions.
"It's not one of my strengths, qualifying on very low-grip tracks," said Leclerc after qualifying 0.319s behind Sainz in Mexico, a track where cars run in high-downforce configuration but with low downforce levels thanks to the reduced air density at altitude.
"I tend to push quite a lot in qualifying and in Monza and here [Mexico] I struggle quite a lot with that. You slide a lot because there is very low grip. You've just got to be a little bit less on the limit on those tracks and I struggle a bit more to do that."
Stella insisted Piastri had been “very competitive, very fast” since the beginning of the weekend, feeling better with the car than he did in Texas and Mexico, but argued that the poor grip conditions induced by rain showers made life hard for the 24-year-old.
“Today, if anything, the conditions saw much less grip on track compared to yesterday,” the Italian said following qualifying.
“Some of the techniques required to drive the car fast, they resemble a bit the techniques that were required in Austin and Mexico, so like Oscar is sort of learning this technique, embedding this technique, but it may take a bit more time to fully exploit them in a natural way
Both of them could overcome these issues as they are human and they learn, or not. I can't see the future. However I think the new cars have much less downforce and narrower tires. So they are driving with very low downforce everywhere compared to previous years. Lewis Hamilton already described the SF26 as sliding much more because of the lack of downforce.
This is exactly what Leclerc said he struggled with
"I tend to push quite a lot in qualifying and in Monza and here [Mexico] I struggle quite a lot with that. You slide a lot because there is very low grip. You've just got to be a little bit less on the limit on those tracks and I struggle a bit more to do that."
“Obviously the car itself, it’s got a lot less downforce than what we had last year as well. So getting used to that and how that feel has been the biggest thing we’ve started to get ourselves into.”
“These cars are different, very different, there is definitely a lot less load in general and it is a bit more predictable compared to the previous generation, they are a bit more straightforward. It is easier to play around with them and on the PU [power unit] side there are a lot more options for the driver to play with.
“In terms of just understanding the car and the balance, we have a lot less downforce than previous years. The car generation is actually a little bit more fun to drive – it’s oversteery, it’s snappy and sliding, but it’s a little bit easier to catch and I would definitely say more enjoyable.
but enough about Leclerc. I think this post is more interesting. The very first thing that the Mclaren, Red Bull, and Ferrari driver mention is the loss of downforce. Mercedes driver says car is nice to drive. A moment of foreshadowing?
Piastri could definitely struggle, especially as tires could be a huge factor. These cars will have very high torque and you can easily overheat the rear tires. This was an area where Norris was much better than Piastri, in any "tire whisperer" race Norris was much better.
Since this year, cars don't have the MGU-H to keep the turbo spinning in the corners, a throttle-brake overlap might prove very useful this year to remove any turbo lag coming out of the corners. From what I remember, Leclerc was the only one doing that in the past year (for different reasons is true). Software tricks could be of limited help (to prevent blown difusers, type of aero use of the engine). So it certainly puts more on the driver to deliver. We will see
Since this year, cars don't have the MGU-H to keep the turbo spinning in the corners, a throttle-brake overlap might prove very useful this year to remove any turbo lag coming out of the corners. From what I remember, Leclerc was the only one doing that in the past year (for different reasons is true). Software tricks could be of limited help (to prevent blown difusers, type of aero use of the engine). So it certainly puts more on the driver to deliver. We will see
You have electrical power to cover for that. Sure keeping revs up would be good, but turbo lag won't be that pronounced because as soon as they start to pick up the throttle, electrical energy can be deployed.
You have electrical power to cover for that. Sure keeping revs up would be good, but turbo lag won't be that pronounced because as soon as they start to pick up the throttle, electrical energy can be deployed.
You could indeed. It remains to be seen if the optimal way to use electrical energy is to get out of the corner or is more useful to use it at other points, considering the limits in deploying and limited regen opportunities.
We just don't know, and that is the beauty of it. Just noting that Leclerc's ability/experience to overlap could serve him right, as it will open more opportunities. I'm sure others can do it as well or learn to do it more or less successfully.
You have electrical power to cover for that. Sure keeping revs up would be good, but turbo lag won't be that pronounced because as soon as they start to pick up the throttle, electrical energy can be deployed.
You could indeed. It remains to be seen if the optimal way to use electrical energy is to get out of the corner or is more useful to use it at other points, considering the limits in deploying and limited regen opportunities.
We just don't know, and that is the beauty of it. Just noting that Leclerc's ability/experience to overlap could serve him right, as it will open more opportunities. I'm sure others can do it as well or learn to do it more or less successfully.
I believe that, from a physics standpoint, if you're going to deploy at all in a given straight it's always better to deploy as soon as possible, because you get to carry the effects through the straight.
Check out how the 919 evo uses the most boost on corner exit, especially after the slow corners, and then just dump the whole thing in Dottinger Hohe. That's what I expect a 2026 qualy lap to look like
I believe that, from a physics standpoint, if you're going to deploy at all in a given straight it's always better to deploy as soon as possible, because you get to carry the effects through the straight.
Check out how the 919 evo uses the most boost on corner exit, especially after the slow corners, and then just dump the whole thing in Dottinger Hohe. That's what I expect a 2026 qualy lap to look like
I agree, from a physics standpoint.
My understanding is that, for the majority of the tracks, the regen capability will be limited, and battery SOC delta per lap is limited, so you won't have enough juice to deploy out of every corner, lap after lap.
It also depends on the baking zone before the corner, if you recovered enough and your SOC is fine, and also the length of the straight after the corner, if it is long enough to be worth "spending" the limited energy you have at your disposal.
I think we don't know it yet, but we might get an F1 chess where a successful overtake (and not just a few corner swap) might take a few laps to line up.
I agree, given a rather levelled playing-field especially in terms of regen capabilities and overall energy efficiency in every aspect.
I have been asking myself for quite some time, as to when and how we might get an idea of the field-spread on that topic.
There might be huge variances in how a car performs over a single lap vs. sustained performance. Will we just find out during the first couple of race laps, that some cars are not able to provide the amount of energy needed to keep their respective positions? Or looking at stint times in FP or even in Bahrain already? I guess, this is easily maskable, so even after Qualy we might be in for big surprises.
You have electrical power to cover for that. Sure keeping revs up would be good, but turbo lag won't be that pronounced because as soon as they start to pick up the throttle, electrical energy can be deployed.
You could indeed. It remains to be seen if the optimal way to use electrical energy is to get out of the corner or is more useful to use it at other points, considering the limits in deploying and limited regen opportunities.
We just don't know, and that is the beauty of it. Just noting that Leclerc's ability/experience to overlap could serve him right, as it will open more opportunities. I'm sure others can do it as well or learn to do it more or less successfully.
I believe that, from a physics standpoint, if you're going to deploy at all in a given straight it's always better to deploy as soon as possible, because you get to carry the effects through the straight.
Check out how the 919 evo uses the most boost on corner exit, especially after the slow corners, and then just dump the whole thing in Dottinger Hohe. That's what I expect a 2026 qualy lap to look like
I mentioned this before, don't remember where I posted it. But yeah during acceleration, these car will act very similarly to the old 2015-2019 LMP1 cars. So we could have a lap record in Monaco.
I mentioned this before, don't remember where I posted it. But yeah during acceleration, these car will act very similarly to the old 2015-2019 LMP1 cars. So we could have a lap record in Monaco.
We won't. The energy recovery will be limited in Monaco to prevent the cars from going into the barriers at 350km/h when they would normally never trouble 290 there. They also lack downforce.
I mentioned this before, don't remember where I posted it. But yeah during acceleration, these car will act very similarly to the old 2015-2019 LMP1 cars. So we could have a lap record in Monaco.
We won't. The energy recovery will be limited in Monaco to prevent the cars from going into the barriers at 350km/h when they would normally never trouble 290 there. They also lack downforce.
Less DF and tires are thinner. I doubt any speed gain on the "straights" at Monaco would make up much of a difference.
