Straight mode 2026 Australian GP

[kptaylor]

Okay, so they can be operated separately! Interesting... (Separately meaning the front can be opened with the back remaining closed but not the other way around.)

[bananapeel23]

It's basically DRS rebranded.

I don't see why people fail to notice that!


Anyway. I agree that the same DRS zones will be used.

DRS was never really a thing you would focus heavily on, since it sat at the very end of the car. You had some clever effects like the W12 running very low on the straights and the wings flexing, but it never really went beyond minimizing the frontal cross section of the car. The downstream effects of an open front wing mean that you will see teams focus heavily on exploiting the effects it can have. I'm sure we will see some crazy suspension solutions and innovative front wing solutions that shed a ton of drag.

[De Wet]

I don't really understand why F1 wants to see cars doing 350+ km/h on practically every circuit with even a medium sized straight. While safety has improved, the opportunity to have a crash that is dissipating a significant amount of energy is higher.

I'm sure you know this, the reason is that they want these cars to stay fast. To rely 50% on electrical energy you need low drag and we can't have slow cars in corners so they created Straight Line Mode.

From official website:

The drivers will manually ‘open’ the wings for each zone. Similar to DRS now, drivers can manually 'close' it or the wings will automatically close if they brake or lift off the throttle. There is an additional auto turn-off feature for 2026, whereby for certain zones there is also a lap distance turn-off to ensure that drivers can’t try to take certain corners with the wings ‘open’.

That will prevent incidents like Jack Doohan's off at T1 in Suzuka in 2025.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... cIpGzoWkY0

But the rules (at least current public version) does not specify that. It would make sense to be auto turn off feature so we don't get people pushing their luck and crashing at huge speeds.

Isn't that what racing is about ?

[FittingMechanics]

Isn't that what racing is about ?

To me and you yes, but I still don't want to see drivers hurting themselves or dying. Risk is sometimes unnecessary.

FIA will be very cautious about it.

[bananapeel23]

I don't really understand why F1 wants to see cars doing 350+ km/h on practically every circuit with even a medium sized straight. While safety has improved, the opportunity to have a crash that is dissipating a significant amount of energy is higher.

Realistically they will not be hitting 350 kph very often. Yes they might do it occasionally with override, as well as on quali laps, but most straights will be similar to the top speeds we're used to.

The only tracks that truly scare me in this regulation set are Baku and Jeddah. The quick left-right on the baku straight was already scary in the old cars with no DRS. If they allow low drag mode there in these cars, someone will hit the wall HARD. Jeddah is always scary, but will be terrifying is someone enters corners with the wings open.

[Juzh]

Too much fear mongering. We already had unlimited DRS in 2011 and 2012 and it wasn't that scary. Yes, there was occasional spin or shunt when people pushed it too far but nothing overly serious. Just let the drivers handle it.

[AR3-GP]

I don't really understand why F1 wants to see cars doing 350+ km/h on practically every circuit with even a medium sized straight. While safety has improved, the opportunity to have a crash that is dissipating a significant amount of energy is higher.

Realistically they will not be hitting 350 kph very often. Yes they might do it occasionally with override, as well as on quali laps, but most straights will be similar to the top speeds we're used to.

The only tracks that truly scare me in this regulation set are Baku and Jeddah. The quick left-right on the baku straight was already scary in the old cars with no DRS. If they allow low drag mode there in these cars, someone will hit the wall HARD. Jeddah is always scary, but will be terrifying is someone enters corners with the wings open.

I don't think the activation zones will contain corners.

[Stu]

The definition of a straight will become important….
Zero lateral G? Application of steering lock to achieve a turning moment?
If you look at the Albert Park circuit there are only very short sections where the track has truly straight sections.
The trams should really have been able to target where they want the driver to be able to operate to balance lap-time and energy usage/conservation. Now it seems that this will not be possible. Shame. And not really ‘active’ as most would understand it, more ‘activeatable’. Shame.

[organic]

Have the teams been given a clear picture of how aggressive the FIA will be with assigning straight-line mode zones? Have they been given the rubrick that the FIA will use to decide for each track?

[FW17]

Have the teams been given a clear picture of how aggressive the FIA will be with assigning straight-line mode zones? Have they been given the rubrick that the FIA will use to decide for each track?

4 weeks before event

[De Wet]

The definition of a straight will become important….
Zero lateral G? Application of steering lock to achieve a turning moment?
If you look at the Albert Park circuit there are only very short sections where the track has truly straight sections.
The trams should really have been able to target where they want the driver to be able to operate to balance lap-time and energy usage/conservation. Now it seems that this will not be possible. Shame. And not really ‘active’ as most would understand it, more ‘activeatable’. Shame.

Standard Operating Procedure for the FIA...

[ScottB]

Won't the issue be however, that if they go too conservative, and have minimal active aero use, we're back to the problem that led to the solution in the first place; the cars end up energy starved and slow?

[FrukostScones]

will this also decent into politics?

and why should they use only front and back together , when in the rain there are already expected exceptions..

here is Silverstone 2011, where a lot of DRS usage can be seen.



I doubt that will be like that this year,

but I hope for a maximization of this system without jeopardizing safety too much.

idea: make it automated but teams can decide where they will be able to use it, also front back independed.

[PlatinumZealot]

I don't really understand why F1 wants to see cars doing 350+ km/h on practically every circuit with even a medium sized straight. While safety has improved, the opportunity to have a crash that is dissipating a significant amount of energy is higher.

Realistically they will not be hitting 350 kph very often. Yes they might do it occasionally with override, as well as on quali laps, but most straights will be similar to the top speeds we're used to.

The only tracks that truly scare me in this regulation set are Baku and Jeddah. The quick left-right on the baku straight was already scary in the old cars with no DRS. If they allow low drag mode there in these cars, someone will hit the wall HARD. Jeddah is always scary, but will be terrifying is someone enters corners with the wings open.

What are you worried about? A car losing control at high speed? Less likely with these flat floors than with the ground effect tunnels.

Teams will always bias towards downforce. So we might see Baku set-ups using a medium downforce based wing dropping to low drag... Than with a low downforce wing all together. So you might find top speeds being the same.

[Stu]

Places like Baku, Monza, Jeddah, Las Vegas will be interesting as there is the potential for this new era of cars to be faster than the previous one…

…if they are allowed to use the adjustable aero properly…!?