Are 2026 F1 regulations broken? How to fix them?

[ScottB]

I'm not sure you can go with a blanket 'the fans don't want hybrids' or any of the other solutions that have been around in the last 5 years, when F1 has grown vastly in terms of fans, attending races and watching on TV. The concept of a screaming V10 is probably pretty alien to the average F1 fan today and certainly likely not welcome in the cities Liberty increasingly wants to host races.

The diehards, or those of us from well into the previous century? Yeah sure, possibly. Personally I like the tech aspect, which makes me feel like these new powertrains are actually a step back from what we had, without the MGU-H.

The car makers want stuff that they can vaguely link to their road cars (hybrids, batteries), stuff they can use to launder their reps / use as a fig leaf to try and extend ICE sales (e-fuels) and ultimately to market their product to as big an audience as possible (street tracks, Netflix etc). Where they got bogged down was the 50/50 split, which seems like a marketing idea that got out of hand. Make it 60/40 or something and I doubt the average person on the street would know or care either way, but it still ticks the boxes the car makers want, and allows the politicians of whatever city they're racing in to claim the cars are green / net zero etc etc.

So yeah, simple, short term fix? Change the power split towards the ICE, revisit if / when battery tech allows it.

[johnnycesup]

My recipe would be simple: 1986 power to weight ratio, a V10 with mechanical throttle linkage and no rev limit, foot-clutch for the start, standard brakes with steel discs, standard tub and suspensions, no diffuser and proper racing tires. The teams can draw their respective simple wings and airboxes. Sequential shifter on the side, max 3 dials on the steering wheel. Refueling allowed but only in 50l or 100l increments. Only exceptional drivers could ride these cannonballs well enough. That's it.

Standard brakes, tub and suspensions? HELL NO!

[gromajor]

first, let's see a couple of races, and then we can say if the product is broken or not.

[Bence]

The TV pundits will keep on explaining the system until the next engine formula...

Regarding the new fan gen, I'll never forget when I brought a Gen-Z friend of mine to an F1 track to experience the atmosphere. He wasn't a car guy, but he was in awe... He said that the gruff sounds were fascinating. I just stood there and didn't understand this particular piece of info; remembering how the Lambo V12 screamed my soul halfway out of my body...

Towards the end of the day we were walking to the exit, when the two-seater emerged from the pits. My friend just froze, and tears started to ooze out of his eyes.
- Hwaddafuq is this? - and this question wasn't directed at the machinery, but his own emotional breakdown.

I just said "it was my age of racing..."

Now THAT'S a superstimulus...

[vorticism]

https://i.postimg.cc/gJr9xwRV/image.png
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... naco91.jpg
Nature is healing.

One of my 'will never happen' fantasies is seeing how a full on top F1 organization today would design a 1990 F1 car knowing everything they do now and with all the modern resources we have today.

Or an 00s car. The major challenges are the safety items. Crash structures, halo, chassis stiffness, and refueling ban. Which of these would drivers or teams want to omit? I'm not suggesting to. These all added up to the current weight. Stiffer cars with larger CSs added weight over time. Then the refueling ban forced a larger fuel tank and longer car which is necessarily heavier. Then the fuel efficiency hybrids added further weight with the 2014 cars being 50kg heavier than the 2013 cars despite keeping nearly the same chassis/engine formula--in fact it became a little simpler with the removal of the beam wings, and the chassis shrank reflective of the fuel tank size reduction.

[Bence]

My recipe would be simple: 1986 power to weight ratio, a V10 with mechanical throttle linkage and no rev limit, foot-clutch for the start, standard brakes with steel discs, standard tub and suspensions, no diffuser and proper racing tires. The teams can draw their respective simple wings and airboxes. Sequential shifter on the side, max 3 dials on the steering wheel. Refueling allowed but only in 50l or 100l increments. Only exceptional drivers could ride these cannonballs well enough. That's it.

Standard brakes, tub and suspensions? HELL NO!

Hell, YES. The MOST INVISIBLE items for any viewer/fan. For them they are just a few black rods and triangles, a black coffinlike dunnowhat with ENTIRELY uninteresting form factor and large powerful discs which should glow during braking. The engines should spit fire, even better if they emit blue flame during acceleration like street Maccas, they should bang like the siege of a castle. Ask any rally fan; when they hear the ALS bangin' they go glassy eyed with a blissful boner...
No average viewer/fan knows the exact kinematics/effect of an F1 suspension. For them those are just the parts which go up and down on some onboards. The tub hides under the skin so they doesn't even know how they look and couldn't care less if they were interchangeable or not. And finally the disc just rotating inside the same sized wheels, so they must be the same, right? That's based on my 25+ years of experience as a car/motorsport journo...

[Bence]

So I'd readily bring back the "Münchhausen rides the cannonball" factor, where real gladiators taming wild machinery...

[johnnycesup]

Hell, YES. The MOST INVISIBLE items for any viewer/fan. For them they are just a few black rods and triangles, a black coffinlike dunnowhat with ENTIRELY uninteresting form factor and large powerful discs which should glow during braking. The engines should spit fire, even better if they emit blue flame during acceleration like street Maccas, they should bang like the siege of a castle. Ask any rally fan; when they hear the ALS bangin' they go glassy eyed with a blissful boner...
No average viewer/fan knows the exact kinematics/effect of an F1 suspension. For them those are just the parts which go up and down on some onboards. The tub hides under the skin so they doesn't even know how they look and couldn't care less if they were interchangeable or not. And finally the disc just rotating inside the same sized wheels, so they must be the same, right? That's based on my 25+ years of experience as a car/motorsport journo...

If fans really thought that way they'd be watching NASCAR, Indycar, or any other spec series, NASCAR sounds just as good as any F1 engine ever did. F1 needs to have different constructors, it's a big part of the charm of the thing, and it's always been so.

My 25+ years of experience reading car/motorsport journos tell me that they don't know what fans want.

[Bence]

These opinions are largely skewed because not the average fan takes part in surveys, but the more polished, more tech-oriented ones. We did more than enough random surveys walking in the merch arenas. Unfortunately.

[SB15]

These opinions are largely skewed because not the average fan takes part in surveys, but the more polished, more tech-oriented ones. We did more than enough random surveys walking in the merch arenas. Unfortunately.

When GT3 is the only "pure" motorsport left

[SealTheRealDeal]

I'm still holding my breath on this formula, but I don't see the much touted sustainability.

All this talk of sustainability, yet here we are still with expensive disposable engines, that aren't even remotely production-related, and rely on bespoke fuels.

I want:
-strict cost controls
-~2,000km between rebuilds
-can leniently be described as "production based"
-a basic "green" fuel

"but-"
Oldsmobile and Infiniti did this in the IRL! With 90s technology!


Or alternatively we can accept that the bleeding edge of technology will inherently be expensive and wasteful to some degree, in which case give us a powerful exotic ICE and a hybrid component that is volume limited rather than output limited (aka "figure out solid state batteries now or lose to whoever does").

[FW17]

Allow for 4000mj/hr fuel flow
Remove 3 engine limit to cover higher fuel flow reliability issues
Restrict recharge only when the brake pedal is engaged with a minimum braking torque

[Rikhart]

first, let's see a couple of races, and then we can say if the product is broken or not.

What do you call a F1 set of regulations that needs 600 meters of lift and coast on Barcelona, like Hamilton said? Come on, that's just ridiculous.

[Rikhart]

Allow for 4000mj/hr fuel flow
Remove 3 engine limit to cover higher fuel flow reliability issues
Restrict recharge only when the brake pedal is engaged with a minimum braking torque

I like your suggestions, this could be implemented relatively fast, and would make it much better already.

[Rikhart]

It's just so weird seeing stuff like this.