2026 Pre-Season Testing

[ChrisF1]

What Scott said basically.

Formula 1 is planned out on computers and the drivers are told to execute. Something goes awry and the computers recalculate.

It's no different to football which has totally lost its soul to data driven play - don't shoot from there, your chance of a goal is lower. Don't cross to find a player, cross to hit the arm of the defender because the chances of a goal from a penalty are greater than from a cross.

I would absolutely LOVE to remove a significant amount of data from F1 cars and simulation processing.

[mzso]

Ok not worth the effort - none of what you said holds water tbh so no point continuing

Keep your fantasies, that's your only fuel...

[Ferry]

If we could just get back to the times when Schumi did 19 qualy laps in Hungaroring ...

The Ferrari/Schumi era was the most boring period in F1. Maybe good for the Schumi-fans, but not in general. What a relief it was when Renault started winning.

I don't get this love for sustainable fuel? Why do you want that?

[Bence]

The shape and size of these cars is perfect.

What people don't realize that these cars are 23-25 cms NARROWER than the classic cars before 1993.

Length and weight are the problems.

[dren]

Why not, we still race horses too, we could also race horse power. I am not opposed to using batteries, but these cars look heavy, snap, and run out of power on the end of the straight. It doesnt make me very happy. Yet?

I'm all for a fixed fuel amount formula and cap the fuel flow if you want. Leave the rest up to the manufacturers.

[TeamKoolGreen]

I just had my first watch if testing. This is worse than I expected. Why are the cars so weak on corner exit ? Does anyone know how much down force F2 cars have ? Because it looks like they are more planted around corners than these cars ? I don't think I'll be able to watch 20+ races of this. I'll make do with the streams. F1TV cancelled. I am also buying all the replica F1 cars I can now, while the GE car stuff is still around. I'm not going to have Frankenstein cars on the shelf.

These cars around copse/maggots/becketts are going to be embarrassing.

[SiLo]

F1 has always been about Drivers pushing cars to the limit, and in doing so you separate the best from the rest. It sounds like these cars won't be driven anywhere near the edge. They've created an energy management championship. It's really sad to see.

The entire Pirelli era has been all about tyre management. That's not in defence of this by any means, but let's not pretend F1 has suddenly given up being a flat out sprint between pit stops at the end of 2025.

My rose tinted glasses are strong that I'm missing the refuelling era where drivers were quite obviously at the absolute limit almost every lap.

[ScottB]

F1 has always been about Drivers pushing cars to the limit, and in doing so you separate the best from the rest. It sounds like these cars won't be driven anywhere near the edge. They've created an energy management championship. It's really sad to see.

The entire Pirelli era has been all about tyre management. That's not in defence of this by any means, but let's not pretend F1 has suddenly given up being a flat out sprint between pit stops at the end of 2025.

My rose tinted glasses are strong that I'm missing the refuelling era where drivers were quite obviously at the absolute limit almost every lap.

If we brought that back, I wonder if it would end up like the recent years of tyre management. As others have noted, with all the data available, teams have consistently favoured running at a slower pace to avoid an additional pit stop, so if we brought refuelling back, does the same happen? Crunch the numbers and conclude it's quicker / more efficient to run around X tenths off the max pace because it saves an additional fuel stop etc etc.

The goal is to win the race in the slowest possible time, as they say, and modern F1 goes for that. Not sure we can put that data driven genie back in the bottle.

[Seanspeed]

Mclaren race sim is good, but not scary. Seem very capable of keeping those tires alive again, though.

[FrukostScones]

Mclaren race sim is good, but not scary.

may I ask in which stint PIA is?

[Just_a_fan]

How about the people who want reminisce about yester-seasons, or fantasise about preferred rule sets, set up a topic for that purpose?

This is supposed to be about today's cars and their testing.

[McFAN]

Mclaren race sim is good, but not scary.

may I ask in which stint PIA is?

Looks to be in the second stint (soft medium) of a race sim

[Seanspeed]

Mclaren race sim is good, but not scary.

may I ask in which stint PIA is?

Later into his 2nd stint at the moment.

[FrukostScones]

Mclaren race sim is good, but not scary.

may I ask in which stint PIA is?

Looks to be in the second stint (soft medium) of a race sim

thx

[SiLo]

How about the people who want reminisce about yester-seasons, or fantasise about preferred rule sets, set up a topic for that purpose?

This is supposed to be about today's cars and their testing.

no