2026 F1 Cars - General Thread

[ChrisM40]

Just a question. How low would the top speed likely be if they had no electrical power left for a long straight? With 500bhp from the ICE roughly it cant be good. Surely these cars, even with active aero have high drag compared to say a road car.

[AR3-GP]

I asked Gemini (AI) what the best way to use energy around Barcelona would be.

[wuzak]

Just a question. How low would the top speed likely be if they had no electrical power left for a long straight? With 500bhp from the ICE roughly it cant be good. Surely these cars, even with active aero have high drag compared to say a road car.

Reports suggest about 350km/h at Barcelona.

[ChrisM40]

OK, but that’s not what I asked, I asked what the top speed the car could achieve with NO electrical power, ie only about 500bhp from the ICE.

The point of the question is if a car is going down a long straight at 355kph and loses all deployment it will lose speed right? 500 is not enough to sustain that speed with the drag they have even with the active aero.

[ChrisM40]

Just a question. How low would the top speed likely be if they had no electrical power left for a long straight? With 500bhp from the ICE roughly it cant be good. Surely these cars, even with active aero have high drag compared to say a road car.

Reports suggest about 350km/h at Barcelona.

A road car struggles to hit 220mph with 500bhp in ideal conditions, no way a relatively high drag car like an F1 car (even with active aero deployed) can do it with only 500bhp. We are talking a cd of ~0.34 v a cd of ~0.7 which is a low end estimate for the 2026 car with aero deployed. Or am I missing something?

[johnnycesup]

I asked Gemini (AI) what the best way to use energy around Barcelona would be.

https://i.postimg.cc/Nf24wGnw/image.png

Man, this is so ---. "T1 is the primary source of the 8.5 MJ recovery" then? Are they going to spend 15 seconds braking for T1? GTFO

[johnnycesup]

A road car struggles to hit 220mph with 500bhp in ideal conditions, no way a relatively high drag car like an F1 car (even with active aero deployed) can do it with only 500bhp. We are talking a cd of ~0.34 v a cd of ~0.7 which is a low end estimate for the 2026 car with aero deployed. Or am I missing something?

Road cars have a lot of frontal area, this balances the difference in coefficients somewhat.

Indycars can get to 385 kph (239 mph) at Indianapolis from a 700hp engine, seems possible that an F1 car can get to 345 with a 540 hp or so engine.

EDIT: Last year the top speed in the Indy 500 qualifying was more like 239mph, not 242mph

[ChrisM40]

A road car struggles to hit 220mph with 500bhp in ideal conditions, no way a relatively high drag car like an F1 car (even with active aero deployed) can do it with only 500bhp. We are talking a cd of ~0.34 v a cd of ~0.7 which is a low end estimate for the 2026 car with aero deployed. Or am I missing something?

Road cars have a lot of frontal area, this balances the difference in coefficients somewhat.

Indycars can get to 390 kph (242 mph) at Indianapolis from a 700hp engine, seems possible that an F1 car can get to 345 with a 540 hp or so engine.

Not that much, and indycars are 900bhp now and are much lower drag than F1 cars, even with active aero. 0.7 is being generous, its more like 0.85 in reality. The cars lose speed when they run out of electrical power now, and that’s with 800bhp and DRS.

[johnnycesup]

Not that much, and indycars are 900bhp now and are much lower drag than F1 cars, even with active aero. 0.7 is being generous, its more like 0.85 in reality. The cars lose speed when they run out of electrical power now, and that’s with 800bhp and DRS.

They don't run 900hp in the speedways, even with the boost increase for qualifying it's 700hp at best

EDIT: Maybe the hybrid boost makes it closer to 900hp, but Alex Palou hit 240 in 2023 without it, so I think my point stands. As for the comparison between 2025 and 2026, just on the frontal area the new cars are 10% less draggy. Add the narrower tyres and the fact that aero efficiency has become so important because of the PU, I don't think the drag levels will be Indy 500 like but that's where they'll be aiming

[karana]

A road car struggles to hit 220mph with 500bhp in ideal conditions, no way a relatively high drag car like an F1 car (even with active aero deployed) can do it with only 500bhp. We are talking a cd of ~0.34 v a cd of ~0.7 which is a low end estimate for the 2026 car with aero deployed. Or am I missing something?

Road cars have a lot of frontal area, this balances the difference in coefficients somewhat.

Indycars can get to 390 kph (242 mph) at Indianapolis from a 700hp engine, seems possible that an F1 car can get to 345 with a 540 hp or so engine.

Not that much, and indycars are 900bhp now and are much lower drag than F1 cars, even with active aero. 0.7 is being generous, its more like 0.85 in reality. The cars lose speed when they run out of electrical power now, and that’s with 800bhp and DRS.

Toto Wolff mentioned that 400kph would be possible with full power, I assume this means if they would be allowed to keep deploying at 350kW without restriction. If we assume 400kph to be the terminal velocity at 750kW, we get a terminal velocity of ~324kph with a 400kW engine. If the terminal velocity is only 360kph with the full 750kW, we get ~292kph with the engine alone.

[ChrisM40]

Road cars have a lot of frontal area, this balances the difference in coefficients somewhat.

Indycars can get to 390 kph (242 mph) at Indianapolis from a 700hp engine, seems possible that an F1 car can get to 345 with a 540 hp or so engine.

Not that much, and indycars are 900bhp now and are much lower drag than F1 cars, even with active aero. 0.7 is being generous, its more like 0.85 in reality. The cars lose speed when they run out of electrical power now, and that’s with 800bhp and DRS.

Toto Wolff mentioned that 400kph would be possible with full power, I assume this means if they would be allowed to keep deploying at 350kW without restriction. If we assume 400kph to be the terminal velocity at 750kW, we get a terminal velocity of ~324kph with a 400kW engine. If the terminal velocity is only 360kph with the full 750kW, we get ~292kph with the engine alone.

Exactly, and I think that’s at Mexico with less air pressure. Ive seen somewhere the max possible to be as low as 186mph/300kph with engine alone.

[mzso]

Given the cars are going to be generally 'energy starved' will that change qualifying, in that previously, cars went as slow as they could on the outlap, to save the tyres, but presumably doing that sort of thing now, won't be enough to fully charge the battery? Will they have to push harder on the outlap to do that, which could impact favoured tyre choice even?

No reason. They can easily charge the battery with K during the outlap.
The problem is during the qualifying lap. Apparently for maximum lap-time they need to lift and coast.

Because the battery is 50% of your power. Max speed at the end of a straight is just a few seconds in a lap, cornering and acceleration is a lot more time in the lap and good traction gets you fast faster.

You always want battery out of corners so you optimize for that, not top speed at the end of straights.

What are you talking about? He asked question about the out lap for qualifying. You're response doesn't seem at all related.

[vorticism]

I think what they're doing with the sidepod is creating greater continuity between the underside of the nose and the floor. The drawing is not to scale, but it illustrates how the sidepod overhang can increase the width of the transition between the nose and the floor ramp (red triangle) if treated as a continuous surface. Won't know for sure until there are further photos.
https://i.postimg.cc/kg08FxJL/RB22floor ... ticism.jpg
viewtopic.php?p=1322315#p1322315

I know this is illustrating the sidepod so it was probably not on your mind when you made it, but I wonder how big is the diffuser sidewall hole on this car? In some angles it looks like they don't even have a diffuser sidewall !?

The coordinates suggest that the forward 260mm of the diffuser sidewall can be open. After that RS-Sidewall must be obscured. How far the hole can cut into the roof, I’m not sure yet.

[mzso]

I don’t know if you’ve ever driven an EV but off pedal energy recovery is a massive slow down of the car.

Most of these cars are driven as a one pedal car where your rarely ever touch the brakes.

That's by choice and just a silly gimmick. Coasting is more efficient that regen braking, Regen should be tied to the brake pedal, or controlled separately.

[carisi2k]

Not that much, and indycars are 900bhp now and are much lower drag than F1 cars, even with active aero. 0.7 is being generous, its more like 0.85 in reality. The cars lose speed when they run out of electrical power now, and that’s with 800bhp and DRS.

In total the old 22-25 f1 cars had over 1000hp and not 800hp unless you are only counting the ICE and even then that was more like 850-900hp. From what I can see the 2026 indycar engines with hybrid are only going to be hitting 800hp combined with the electric part.

Indycar is only lower drag on ovals because when you see them on road courses they have laughably large wings on both the front and rear. The Indycar is also twin turbo and doesn't have the fuel flow restrictions that F1 has enforced on them.