2026 gearing

[AR3-GP]

<split form the 2023 gearing thread (hence the 2023 title in some posts), where this started: viewtopic.php?t=31020>

I grabbed full race data for all drivers from Jeddah and it would appear there have been no gearing changes over what everyone was running in the last half of 2022. In the charts below, 1st and 2nd gears are best fit to time rolling in/out of the pit lane; 3rd & 4th include a lot of longitudinal slip in the data, so I targeted somewhere near the top of the cloud (assume there will be less long slip on engine braking than on power); 5th-8th have much cleaner data.

Not sure if you are still around. Would love to see gearing from the Bahrain test.

[padajacaba]

Still around and already digging into test data. Most interesting thing so far is the Audi's long and wide gearing. Their 1st is much shorter than everyone else and their 7th is about the same as McLaren's 8th! McLaren have 8th set to be right at 360kph for 13,000rpm, which I think makes sense given these cars will probably top out around 350-355 max as the ERS-K power vs speed regulation limit hits. Will post some more in a bit...(let's see if I remember how to share images on here)

[padajacaba]

The Fords are running a longer 1st and narrower spacing. Slightly longer 8th than McLaren - by 1.5% or so.


Ferrari taking a similar approach to McLaren's spacing but scaled up about 4%. Haas is the same and I assume Cadillac is too (their gear sensor hasn't been working in any data)


Mercedes/Williams/Alpine all on a common ratio set so far. A little bit longer 8th than the Ferrari again - close to 6% longer than McLaren's 8th - with the same long 1st that Red Bull Ford is using.


Aston Martin Honda looking like a very similar approach to the Mercedes, just with subtle differences in the middle gears. Most interesting thing here is to see how easy they are taking it on the engine and car - limiting rpm and a hard speed limit of 302kph on day 1. Maybe something to be worried about?...but also looks like some standard weirdness you see when doing specialized test procedures. Comparing acceleration traces from the Aston to Ferrari, for example, doesn't exactly show it being significantly down on power despite the limits they seem to be imposing on themselves.

[gruntguru]

Still around and already digging into test data. Most interesting thing so far is the Audi's long and wide gearing. Their 1st is much shorter than everyone else and their 7th is about the same as McLaren's 8th! McLaren have 8th set to be right at 360kph for 13,000rpm, which I think makes sense given these cars will probably top out around 350-355 max as the ERS-K power vs speed regulation limit hits.

Surely not a newbie error?
New ratios for Audi coming soon.

[Cold Fussion]

What advantage do Audi gain from designing a 7 speed box when they're still required to have an 8th gear? Surely the timed saved with one less shift is extremely small with these gearboxes.

[michl420]

The gearing ratio may be changed once this season. Just for information.
I don´t think a change was allowed 2025 at all.

[AR3-GP]

The Fords are running a longer 1st and narrower spacing. Slightly longer 8th than McLaren - by 1.5% or so.

Thank you for taking the time to update. Great topic. I also noticed the close ratios of the RBPT box particularly when exiting T8 in Bahrain. Very little time between the upshifts. I've been wondering if they have done it this way to allow the driver to control the wheel spin a bit better. Wheel spin is a big problem now with the higher power MGU-K. Upshifting can drop the revs and stop it however if the ratios are too far apart, then you are going to get out of ideal power band. I also think there are some clever energy recovery things that can be done during the shift.

[AR3-GP]

The gearing ratio may be changed once this season. Just for information.
I don´t think a change was allowed 2025 at all.

I wonder if it would not be possible to split the calendar into two parts, and run ratios optimized for each half of the calendar in some fashion, based on the prevalance of certain track types in one part of the calendar.

[Badger]

Still around and already digging into test data. Most interesting thing so far is the Audi's long and wide gearing. Their 1st is much shorter than everyone else and their 7th is about the same as McLaren's 8th! McLaren have 8th set to be right at 360kph for 13,000rpm, which I think makes sense given these cars will probably top out around 350-355 max as the ERS-K power vs speed regulation limit hits. Will post some more in a bit...(let's see if I remember how to share images on here)

Nice! Would love to see the ratios in number form if you have the time

[AR3-GP]

Still around and already digging into test data. Most interesting thing so far is the Audi's long and wide gearing. Their 1st is much shorter than everyone else and their 7th is about the same as McLaren's 8th! McLaren have 8th set to be right at 360kph for 13,000rpm, which I think makes sense given these cars will probably top out around 350-355 max as the ERS-K power vs speed regulation limit hits. Will post some more in a bit...(let's see if I remember how to share images on here)

Nice! Would love to see the ratios in number form if you have the time

This plot has a normalized scaling, but it gives some initial indications. There is a few percentage points of error here, since obviously Alpine/Merc/Williams should have exact same ratios. As should Ferrari/Haas, and VCARB/RBR

[michl420]

The gearing ratio may be changed once this season. Just for information.
I don´t think a change was allowed 2025 at all.

I wonder if it would not be possible to split the calendar into two parts, and run ratios optimized for each half of the calendar in some fashion, based on the prevalance of certain track types in one part of the calendar.

That`s possible, mostly for monza and las vegas, in the second half. But I expect the smallest top speed spread in history. I would not be surprised if the difference is under 30 kph. Maybe they even run the same rear wing in monza and budapest.

[AR3-GP]

Gear distribution for the best lap of top 4 in the 1st Bahrain preseason test. Source is @F1BigData

RBR: Lots of 1st gear usage. Very little 2nd gear usage due to the close ratios of 2nd and 3rd.
Ferrari: No first gear at all
Mclaren: Generally running at higher gears due to the shorter gears.

The RBR gearbox, or perhaps driving style, seems aggressively designed for "double downshifting" as far as I can perceive, or atleast that is how the best lap is driven. The steep decline in usage of 2nd and 4th gear supports this conclusion. However, why would a manufacturer have an 8 speed box, and only seek to use 5 or 6 of the gears most of the time?

[Farnborough]

Good graphic representation.

"why would a manufacturer have an 8 speed box, and only seek to use 5 or 6 of the gears most of the time?"

Since they don't change ratios anymore (during race weekend) and have to homologate the set, then being able to pick which one's to use is going to be track dependent. Likely you'll see different bias for differing tracks throughout the season.

I know someone working in the boxes for a team when ratio swaps were routine. They'd swap them "hot" literally just come in off the track, swap and out again after requesting something like raised or lowered 2nd/3rd for particular corner sequence and rpm range.
Now, with more torque (well certainly in 2014/2025 period) they could short shift effectively, then pull it through with pu under ideal rpm.
These, almost diesel like PU have quite truncated torque spread for optimal deployment, the total ratios available covering this up.

[Badger]

so what can we say to they Audi? Barely using 8th gear.
not enough power? too long gearing?
on the MGUK-side I think Audi could eb really good; on the other hand the ICE with sub 16:1 compression ratio? ; P
Will the turn up the Power this week?

They have by far the longest 8th gear, so I don't think it's a turning down the power thing. Their 7th is basically like McLaren's 8th.

can we deduct something from this? I mean how is Audi calculating? I try to compare BOR and HUL. really weird for me what they do.

Audi is running a totally different philosophy to the other teams. Their gears go from being really short down low to being really long up high (relatively speaking to the other teams). This is a harvesting strategy, they are trying to continuously spike their revs on the downshifts by having progressively shorter and shorter gears as they shift down. This is a similar strategy to what RB is doing, though the execution is not as good as they have had to compromise their ratios much more. RB basically accomplishes the same thing by just having a long 1st (basically acting like a 2nd) and a short 3rd. You can hear it at the end of the straight here what Audi is trying to do, listen to the revs.

[Tommy Cookers]

... why would a manufacturer have an 8 speed box, and only seek to use 5 or 6 of the gears most of the time?

the final drive gears ('crown wheel & pinion') haven't been circuit-specific since 2014
(so the final drive and gearbox are a sealed unit)
after this year nothing can be changed - apart from like-for-like replacement

so (conceptually speaking) eg a slow circuit might mostly use gears 1 - 6 but a fast one might mostly use gears 3 - 8