hollus wrote: ↑14 Feb 2026, 12:30
I am not so sure about all this "passing will be impossible". I think it will be wildly different. The old style of passing (I'll call it tactical) might have gotten harder, but there will be a new one, only that the drivers will need to learn it, and they can't do that in testing.
I am sure last year in testing you could just catch a car that was moderately pushing, set up a pass in two corners, and, since the other car was not fighting you, pass. In races of course it was harder, but it was a known amount, a known strategy to make it work (I'll still call it tacticalpassing, it was an isolated even to one segment of one lap).
And yet, in 2025, they pushed for a lap or two for a pass, and if the pass failed, the tires were cooked and "they paid for it for several laps", they could only try again 5-6 laps later.
Now we hear that in 2026 it is that if you use your push to pass, you'll pay for it for 5 laps. Familiar.
So, maybe following closely is harder and the old style will not longer work, if you can't be stable half a second behind, it won't.
Instead we might see a different type of passing:
We assume that most drivers will be energy poor most of the race, not even remotely having 9 MJ to use, ever. That is the scenario where if you try, you'll pay for five laps.
But if the leading driver is energy poor, and the following (but 0.4 sec/lap faster) driver is also energy poor, the follower can simply use less energy (or harvest more) to stay where he is, 1 second behind. After 3 laps saving, he has 6 extra MJ to use. The driver ahead could not save in the same way, at least not so much.
And then the push to pass is not a single straight, burn it all shot. Instead, with 6 extra MJ, it is 10 bursts of extra energy in every small straight, it is no Li-Co at all for 5 consecutive straigths. And the defending driver simply does not have those 6 MJ, so he can only pick one or two fights.
Alternatively, if the defending driver chooses to save energy, then he should be ready to have the attacking driver in his escape tube multiple times, as he can save only intermittently. It becomes a game of bluffs and surprise bursts.
Many will say that is not fun, and I will not challenge that. But I think we'll see lots of passing, just much more estrategic and based on energy management.
And that the pass, when it ultimate comes, will be that 60 km/h delta from the YeListener video, where the defending driver simply ran out of energy, with the attackig driver coming with all guns blazing.
Again, different to what we are used to. And many people won't like "different".
In any case, we'll find out in a month, by the time the second race is over (Australia is just different).
Oh, and no, that type of "strategic" passing, cannot be tested in testing, it requires an equally strategic rival.
The point about race sims in testing is to completely eliminate fuel as a variable, and you can only do that if you can verify the full race sim. This one still has a ? to me.
