2026 Drama: Alleged engine loophole

[RonMexico]

Embarrassing. Half a season with an illegal engine.

[FNTC]

If it passes 130C now, why wait to August? If it does not pass 130 now, what a stupid mess... FIA added the "ambient" crap in October, and how can you not interpret it as to save Mercs arse?

[Matt2725]

So basically illegal engines for 5 months?

Does it or does it not pass all the tests as specified in the rules for those 5 months?

Funny thing is, I would bet it would already pass testing at 130C. Anyone crying "illegal engine" is just trying to muddy the waters for an excuse when their driver doesn't win the title.

[Badger]

We don't know how the manufacturers are going to vote, but I presume it passes. Seems like a fair compromise. Ultimately the FIA being ambiguous got us here.

[fourmula1]

Seems like we still don't know anything and there are a lot of people jumping to conclusions in this thread. Odds are the engine wont change and testing wont matter.

[Cassius]

Seems like we still don't know anything and there are a lot of people jumping to conclusions in this thread. Odds are the engine wont change and testing wont matter.

Are you that naive? If that was the case, they would not have chosen August as a date for introduction of the hot test...

[zibby43]

A static hot test is a huge win for Mercedes. The timing is just the cherry on top.

[Real PJ's Beard]

I understand there's lead times and all that, but six months is a long time for these changes when the FIA are basically saying they know an engine is not running in a way it would define as legally

[vorticism]

So basically illegal engines for 5 months?

Does it or does it not pass all the tests as specified in the rules for those 5 months?

Funny thing is, I would bet it would already pass testing at 130C. Anyone crying "illegal engine" is just trying to muddy the waters for an excuse when their driver doesn't win the title.

I doubt anything was ever explicitly illegal. Too risky. That word always gets thrown around in this sport but rarely is something truly befalling a measurement. All Merc have ever had to do through all this was FUD the press and the competition, even the FIA, potentially. While the temp of the ICE has nothing to do with anything. Let wrong-trees be up-barked, why not.

Let's see how this plays out. 2014 and after the press, FIA, many spectators and of course, The Bandwagon were more than happy to have an oil-burning Merc engine give championships to their two drivers.

Operating coolant temperature is much different from CC surface temperatures. So while this might address some conjecture, it might not address reality. The FIA can sometimes address concerns only, even unfounded. What matters is the vote (?), whether based in reality or not. To the extent this can/will be voted on.

[venkyhere]

In addition, the strict prohibition of variable geometry systems under Article C5.7 applies here. If an engine increases its compression ratio from 16:1 to 18:1 solely through material expansion, thermal physics effectively acts as a dynamic actuator. Such a change in combustion characteristics of more than 12% is no longer a negligible tolerance, but a functional geometry change that aims to circumvent the static limits of the homologation dossier.

Sorry for being pedantic, the 16:1 changing to 18:1 isn't a 12% change in dimensions of something.
(16+x)/(1-x) = 18.
Solving, we get x=(2/19)=0.105
which works out to (0.105/16)*100 = 0.656%

If we are talking about conrod+piston that is in contact with something upwards of 2000+ celcius, I think 0.6% is not out of the ballpark of 'tolerance'.
Of course the regulations would have restricted the usage of metals for the rod/piston/gudgeonpin/bearing inserts etc etc to disallow as much expansion as possible ; and we have theories ranging from 'exotic 3D printing' to 'some speciall milling technique' to enable unequal expansions to the full-hollywood 'secret chamber' going around to explain the 16:1 rising to 18:1. That said, the reason I posted is to highlight 'how little' of change in dimension is needed to increase the compression ratio , it's not a giant number like 12%, more like 1/20th of that.

[Arcanum]

It would be highly amusing if we get to September, Merc teams are still rotating engines from the first half of the season into their cars, with no discernible change in engine performance, and another engine manufacturer can no longer use pre-August engines!

Mid-season rule changes rarely work out the way the mob expects. Be that the anti-McLaren/Mercedes mob and flexiwings in 2025, or the anti-RB mob with the early GE era changes around ride-height and plank. Typically, there's no change to the leading cars, and some unexpected side-effects for the struggling teams that make them struggle even more!

I guess we'll see come the September races after the summer shutdown.

[fourmula1]

Seems like we still don't know anything and there are a lot of people jumping to conclusions in this thread. Odds are the engine wont change and testing wont matter.

Are you that naive? If that was the case, they would not have chosen August as a date for introduction of the hot test...

Feel free to book mark this and check back in August. I make no claims either way, I am just suggesting the odds. Again we have no concrete information at all. But maybe we will see a massive swing in performance just like the flexy wing debacle.

[venkyhere]

Embarrassing. Half a season with an illegal engine.

I knew this is how it's going to end up.

Will Liberty be ready to run 14 car races instead of 22 car races ? For how long ? Can the 'rules' stand un-bent against the pressure from "money" ?

Let's say this too goes the typical 'rules farce' route, where FIA will bend backwards in the face of 'money pressure' from Liberty and Toto Wolff stamps his 'political clout' seal.

[ScottB]

Excited for the tedious debate on compression ratios at 131C come August then...

[HungarianRacer]

Would be funny if it was due to some other manufacturer's request that the deadline was set to August 1.

Remember Hodkinson's "season launch" monologue?... Either it was an elaborate psy-op from Red Bull, or their PU won't tolerate infinite heating while staying within the 16:1 limit either ...