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I really think Toto is cherrypicking Verstappen deploying on main straight instead of later in the lap as proof of some big Red Bull advantage.
One thing that is interesting is that those longer stints Verstappen did are close to race stints from 2025. So either Verstappen is on low fuel stint (10ish laps), or the car is as fast as those in 2025 on race pace.
It is as predicted by Pirelli. Cars will match 2025 race pace in Bahrain. They are not as fast in T11,T12, but they accelerate much faster.
“But on some tracks at the beginning of the season, the cars will be on a similar race pace to what they had in 2025. On others, they may be a few seconds behind, it will vary. But the teams are already preparing updates. So I have no doubt that in a few months, the teams will have already made up that margin compared to 2025.”
One of the tracks that Monchaux’s colleague Mario Isola, director of Pirelli Motorsport, reckons could bring similar levels to 2025 is Bahrain.
I really think Toto is cherrypicking Verstappen deploying on main straight instead of later in the lap as proof of some big Red Bull advantage.
One thing that is interesting is that those longer stints Verstappen did are close to race stints from 2025. So either Verstappen is on low fuel stint (10ish laps), or the car is as fast as those in 2025 on race pace.
It is as predicted by Pirelli. Cars will match 2025 race pace in Bahrain. They are not as fast in T11,T12, but they accelerate much faster.
“But on some tracks at the beginning of the season, the cars will be on a similar race pace to what they had in 2025. On others, they may be a few seconds behind, it will vary. But the teams are already preparing updates. So I have no doubt that in a few months, the teams will have already made up that margin compared to 2025.”
One of the tracks that Monchaux’s colleague Mario Isola, director of Pirelli Motorsport, reckons could bring similar levels to 2025 is Bahrain.
This is not going to happen, unless for "close" Isola means 3s off
Bahrain is almost all traction/acceleration zones. This is the strength of the 2026 Formula due to the high torque from the electric motor. That's why this is a track where cars will be similar to 2025. The tracks where they will be much slower than 2025 will be the circuits with many high speed corners. There's only 1 high speed corner in Bahrain.
Last edited by AR3-GP on 11 Feb 2026, 22:51, edited 1 time in total.
A couple of things to note here. If the right bar on the steering wheel is the available energy for deployment then :
He had more energy available at the start/finish straight, so if he kept deploying it's likely he would have reached 330
If he had done that, it's hard to know how the rest of the lap transpires. From half a bar before T1 breaking to an empty bar before T1 breaking probably makes a big difference in how you can drive the rest of the lap.
There was nothing left at the end there. In fact the battery runs out quite quickly. The bit he used after the final corner was entirely harvested in the braking zone of that last (technically penultimate) corner.
I think if you dump the battery in the start/finish straight then you likely have almost nothing to deploy on the back straight at the end of the lap.
Very interesting. Looks like he deploys at every corner exit.
It would be great if we had Verstappen onboard to see. And an onboard from "race" sims so we can compare between teams.
This is not going to happen, unless for "close" Isola means 3s off
Bahrain is almost all traction/acceleration zones. This is the strength of the 2026 Formula due to the high torque from the electric motor. That's why this is a track where cars will be similar to 2025. The tracks where they will be much slower than 2025 will be the circuits with many high speed corners. There's only 1 high speed corner in Bahrain.
Piastri was lapping on low 1.36 in his race sim (first stint) in Bahrain 2025 test (with race fuel).
This is not going to happen, unless for "close" Isola means 3s off
Bahrain is almost all traction/acceleration zones. This is the strength of the 2026 Formula due to the high torque from the electric motor. That's why this is a track where cars will be similar to 2025. The tracks where they will be much slower than 2025 will be the circuits with many high speed corners. There's only 1 high speed corner in Bahrain.
Piastri was lapping on low 1.36 in his race sim (first stint) in Bahrain 2025 test (with race fuel).
With well known formula and well known PU at that test and cooler conditions. There will be a much steeper growth rate on the 2026 cars. Bahrain is the 4th round. Cars will have updates and be more optimized. It will be very close by then.
Bahrain is almost all traction/acceleration zones. This is the strength of the 2026 Formula due to the high torque from the electric motor. That's why this is a track where cars will be similar to 2025. The tracks where they will be much slower than 2025 will be the circuits with many high speed corners. There's only 1 high speed corner in Bahrain.
Piastri was lapping on low 1.36 in his race sim (first stint) in Bahrain 2025 test (with race fuel).
With well known formula and well known PU. There will be much steeper growth rate on the 2026 cars. As I understand, it is also hotter this year. They will get closer and closer.
I mean they will be closer than now, but not "close" overall. Norris first day mini runs were in the high 1.32s
There is no way to differentiate between :
'slightly more deployment than recharge every lap, leading to steady decrease in SoC over N laps'
vs
'tyre deg'
This is just the first time they are running actual stints, they haven't optimized their PU strategies, they are just collecting data. Too early to make inferences about things like 'tyre deg'.
For us looking at laptimes, no. The teams have the GPS data (actual GPS data, not the F1 live timing data app scraping we get), so they can know whether another car is deploying battery or not.
Early indications regarding F1 2026 performance are positive, as simulations submitted by the teams for Bahrain show that lap times are expected to be almost in line with those of the 2025 cars
...
“They are not running at the weight they could reach. We don't know how much fuel they are using, but the general feeling is that the cars are where we expected them to be, maybe even better than our predictions.”
That means lap times being much closer to what has been seen in recent seasons, but it should only consistently happen later in the year once teams have fully grasped the new regulations.
This also depends on the circuit characteristics because active aerodynamics and energy management will play key roles in these regulations; they can be used more on some tracks than others, so there’ll be times where the reduction in downforce is evident.
"It will depend a lot on the track,” added Monchaux. “But on some tracks at the beginning of the season, the cars will be on a similar race pace to what they had in 2025. On others, they may be a few seconds behind, it will vary. But the teams are already preparing updates. So I have no doubt that in a few months, the teams will have already made up that margin compared to 2025.”
A couple of things to note here. If the right bar on the steering wheel is the available energy for deployment then :
He had more energy available at the start/finish straight, so if he kept deploying it's likely he would have reached 330
If he had done that, it's hard to know how the rest of the lap transpires. From half a bar before T1 breaking to an empty bar before T1 breaking probably makes a big difference in how you can drive the rest of the lap.
There was nothing left at the end there. In fact the battery runs out quite quickly. The bit he used after the final corner was entirely harvested in the braking zone of that last (technically penultimate) corner.
I think if you dump the battery in the start/finish straight then you likely have almost nothing to deploy on the back straight at the end of the lap.
Edit: Because of this situation where battery level is a big performance indicator, is really hard to judge how close to the limit this lap is. Also if you end the lap with zero energy and zero available in the bank, it seems like you're going to have a rough time the following lap. What Toto said about the RedBull being able to harvest and deploy more consistently could be a huge variable (if it is true). I hope RedBull ends up the fastest tomorrow so we can get an onboard from them and judge the difference.
I don’t think that bar is available energy. It goes up under full acceleration, goes up too quick, and goes down too often
I don’t think that bar is available energy. It goes up under full acceleration, goes up too quick, and goes down too often
That is clearly the state of charge. Every acceleration zone it goes down, every harvest zone it goes up. He starts the lap with a full bar, he ends with it depleted. That's how quali runs look, that was a quali sim.
I’m curious to the three different colored led’s on the left side of the dash: purple, green, and blue. The blue led seems to come on when he presses a switch before turns 9 and 10 and then he switches it back off.
The green and purple both have 2 LED’s each that seem to go away when he is braking. My initial thought is the green displays the active aero status of the car.
The purple LED’s turn on at the end of the straights sometimes and both don’t turn on at the same time. It also looks like he is activating a switch with his left hand when the purple LEDs come on (look at the straight after T 10). Any ideas what these are?
I don’t think that bar is available energy. It goes up under full acceleration, goes up too quick, and goes down too often
Looks to be the available charge.
It can go up under acceleration if you are requesting less than the ICE is capable of. So at exit of corners you can harvest a little bit until you require more power then you start to use it.
A couple of things to note here. If the right bar on the steering wheel is the available energy for deployment then :
He had more energy available at the start/finish straight, so if he kept deploying it's likely he would have reached 330
If he had done that, it's hard to know how the rest of the lap transpires. From half a bar before T1 breaking to an empty bar before T1 breaking probably makes a big difference in how you can drive the rest of the lap.
There was nothing left at the end there. In fact the battery runs out quite quickly. The bit he used after the final corner was entirely harvested in the braking zone of that last (technically penultimate) corner.
I think if you dump the battery in the start/finish straight then you likely have almost nothing to deploy on the back straight at the end of the lap.
Edit: Because of this situation where battery level is a big performance indicator, is really hard to judge how close to the limit this lap is. Also if you end the lap with zero energy and zero available in the bank, it seems like you're going to have a rough time the following lap. What Toto said about the RedBull being able to harvest and deploy more consistently could be a huge variable (if it is true). I hope RedBull ends up the fastest tomorrow so we can get an onboard from them and judge the difference.
I don’t think that bar is available energy. It goes up under full acceleration, goes up too quick, and goes down too often
Forgive me, I'm not one to retain terabytes of information, but the other day, maybe even yesterday, there was news that the recuperation system can charge 4 MJ per lap. Despite the regulations allowing for 8-8.5 MJ per lap, most teams decided to use batteries from the previous regulations, which have a total capacity of 4 MJ. This is why we see large fluctuations in charging and discharging during a single fast lap. Electrical power has increased from 120 kW to 350 kW, so the charge is being consumed rapidly, as we can see on the steering wheel.
This means that during one fast lap the battery manages to discharge twice. Either that, or I need to read the technical regulations in great detail.
Norris sets the fastest time and Leclerc improves on the final runs. It's clear how power delivery makes a huge difference, even more so than the deltas in the corners at the moment.
Verstappen starts off strong in the lap, Lando makes a mistake in T4, Leclerc makes a great LiCo right at 4. Then McLaren comes out in S2 with great acceleration up to 9. Ferrari is like RedBull in the middle sector. Then Max pushes hard at 12, but Lando gains a 14-point lead on him and Charles on the final straight and takes P1. Who knows if this direct dependence on power strategies will continue or if they will gradually become more aligned and we'll be talking about cornering speed again. Let's see
Actually what 'can be pondered over' is the T11-12-entry to 13.
The RB22 seems significant here. Even though we don't know the deployment difference, we should keep in mind that Norris has loads of battery left to be deployed in sector3 while the Redbull has already used up a large chunk by this point. Probably because there is more downforce. Too early to conclude anything other than using words like 'probably'/'likely'/'may be' etc. But still, the difference in this part of the track shouldn't go unnoticed.
A couple of things to note here. If the right bar on the steering wheel is the available energy for deployment then :
He had more energy available at the start/finish straight, so if he kept deploying it's likely he would have reached 330
If he had done that, it's hard to know how the rest of the lap transpires. From half a bar before T1 breaking to an empty bar before T1 breaking probably makes a big difference in how you can drive the rest of the lap.
There was nothing left at the end there. In fact the battery runs out quite quickly. The bit he used after the final corner was entirely harvested in the braking zone of that last (technically penultimate) corner.
I think if you dump the battery in the start/finish straight then you likely have almost nothing to deploy on the back straight at the end of the lap.
Edit: Because of this situation where battery level is a big performance indicator, is really hard to judge how close to the limit this lap is. Also if you end the lap with zero energy and zero available in the bank, it seems like you're going to have a rough time the following lap. What Toto said about the RedBull being able to harvest and deploy more consistently could be a huge variable (if it is true). I hope RedBull ends up the fastest tomorrow so we can get an onboard from them and judge the difference.
I don’t think that bar is available energy. It goes up under full acceleration, goes up too quick, and goes down too often
Forgive me, I'm not one to retain terabytes of information, but the other day, maybe even yesterday, there was news that the recuperation system can charge 4 MJ per lap. Despite the regulations allowing for 8-8.5 MJ per lap, most teams decided to use batteries from the previous regulations, which have a total capacity of 4 MJ. This is why we see large fluctuations in charging and discharging during a single fast lap. Electrical power has increased from 120 kW to 350 kW, so the charge is being consumed rapidly, as we can see on the steering wheel.
This means that during one fast lap the battery manages to discharge twice. Either that, or I need to read the technical regulations in great detail.
THey can harvest up to around 8.5mj per lap and keep 4mj from the previous lap (or charge) in the battery, total available of 4mj extra on a push lap verses a lap where the battery is being maintained. It's apparently about 11s of full power, which some equate to around a second a lap. Equivalent fast lap energy is of about 3 times the energy of the battery vs non push lap which is max 2 x battery (ish)
