2026 McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

[FittingMechanics]

4 MJ is the maximum difference from low charge to high charge that you can have throughout the race. So at any single time you can have 4 MJ to deploy (maximum), but if you discharge 4MJ then you can charge during the lap, and deploy again up to a maximum of 8.5 MJ per lap (not at one single time). Most/all teams will have bigger batteries than 4 MJ in order to have better charging/discharging capabilities.

I'm curious why they don't increase the allowed charge difference to 8.5 or 10 MJ. We could then get "full beans" qualy laps with 0 recharging.

[FittingMechanics]

BTW Norris going well this morning, he left the pits a while ago, did two fast laps on hard tires (1:35:795 fastest) then switched to a longer run. If I am following correctly, he did about 10 laps in 1:37s range.

Looks like he pitted now. 17 laps so far.

[LionsHeart]

Lando did a fast lap on the Hard tyres, then pitted and immediately exited, focusing on long runs on the Hard tyres. I'm keeping track of the sectors and mini-sectors, and here's the run of the first 10 laps by sector: the first sector is 31.0 - 31.2, the second sector 42.9 - 43.0, the third 23.6 - 23.7. The stability and tightness are impressive. He drives like a robot.

[_cerber1]

[LionsHeart]

4 MJ is the maximum difference from low charge to high charge that you can have throughout the race. So at any single time you can have 4 MJ to deploy (maximum), but if you discharge 4MJ then you can charge during the lap, and deploy again up to a maximum of 8.5 MJ per lap (not at one single time). Most/all teams will have bigger batteries than 4 MJ in order to have better charging/discharging capabilities.

I'm curious why they don't increase the allowed charge difference to 8.5 or 10 MJ. We could then get "full beans" qualy laps with 0 recharging.

So that's how it is. It's all complicated. I'll have to think about it. But the overall picture is coming together in my head.

[LionsHeart]

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)

Okay, I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the clarification.

[Darth-Piekus]

Sainz has been oogling over that Ford Engine apart from Toto Wolf.

[FittingMechanics]

4 MJ is the maximum difference from low charge to high charge that you can have throughout the race. So at any single time you can have 4 MJ to deploy (maximum), but if you discharge 4MJ then you can charge during the lap, and deploy again up to a maximum of 8.5 MJ per lap (not at one single time). Most/all teams will have bigger batteries than 4 MJ in order to have better charging/discharging capabilities.

I'm curious why they don't increase the allowed charge difference to 8.5 or 10 MJ. We could then get "full beans" qualy laps with 0 recharging.

So that's how it is. It's all complicated. I'll have to think about it. But the overall picture is coming together in my head.

Yeah, quite complicated. We didn't even mention overtake mode which allows you 0.5 MJ extra in the lap that you were under 1 second to the car ahead. In races where charging the battery will be hard, overtake mode could be useless as you won't be able to get the 9 MJ recharged per lap.

[mwillems]

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)

Okay, I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the clarification.

But thats the max, what you can harvest depends on braking zones and on your harvesting efficiency.

Its possible a team has strong harvesting.

In any case, deployment on a push lap (same fuel) won't likely be that different laptime wise from a standard lap and differences from Q to race not as big in relative terms to previous seasons.

Battery advantage from Q to R has stayed the same between seasons but race now equalised on aero activation and deployment advantage from last year to this, between Q and R is diminished somewhat.


I'm still saying faster than 2016

It's important to note that Pirelli are saying late 26 will approach 25 speeds.

What we should really be reading into this is the rate of development they think the teams can find from deployment and the concepts.

They are also seeing accurate and representative data and not our "sand bagged" view.

Edit: and of course driving style will affect harvesting.

[Darth-Piekus]

What do you think of that one? It's the second individual that says the same thing. Do they know something we don't? https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/sainz ... /10796930/

[McFAN]

[_cerber1]

It's almost the same pace as the first leg, which is good for a single set of tires.

[_cerber1]

[McFAN]

Would be interesting to see the deployment in these stints vs yesterday's runs

[Darth-Piekus]

Doing Race stints from what I see.