2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

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AR3-GP
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Re: 2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

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Farnborough wrote:
04 Mar 2026, 10:25
PlatinumZealot wrote:
04 Mar 2026, 02:37
The pirelli graphics show rear load is high the front left is particular vulnerable.
The Pirelli tyre graphic doesn't show left vs right as I interpret that.

One side of car is showing "longitudinal" load, with the other "lateral" loading. They've effectively combined different aspect into one single chassis representation for convenience.

The track though, will have some lateral bias because of that right turn dominant layout.
I don't think that's correct. The center of the tire shows the longitudinal load rating for each tire. The two outboard stripes indicate the lateral load. All 4 tires have independent lateral and longitudinal ratings.

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PlatinumZealot
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Re: 2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

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Farnborough wrote:
04 Mar 2026, 10:25
PlatinumZealot wrote:
04 Mar 2026, 02:37
The pirelli graphics show rear load is high the front left is particular vulnerable.
The Pirelli tyre graphic doesn't show left vs right as I interpret that.

One side of car is showing "longitudinal" load, with the other "lateral" loading. They've effectively combined different aspect into one single chassis representation for convenience.

The track though, will have some lateral bias because of that right turn dominant layout.
Look at the colours on the tyres themselves. Each tyres is divided into three load sections. Pretty much similar to what the F1 engineers would use I suspect.
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AR3-GP
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Re: 2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

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Battery state-of-charge (SOC) will not be displayed on the broadcast. Cars will appear randomly quick and randomly slow because of battery or maybe it's tires. It will be confusing. Nobody wins here. The solution is to get rid of the focus on battery charging if that won't be visible for the viewer.

Many will now wonder if the deployment of electricity can be seen live on TV. There was the will but, barring surprises in the last few hours, the answer would seem negative since after various meetings between the FIA, FOM and the teams it would have been decided not to share (not even internally) the information of the SOC (State Of Charge) of the battery, unlike what happens in Formula E. A choice also designed to leave more room for the driver's instinct and less for his engineer who, knowing the state of charge of the battery in front, could remote control it even more.
https://autoracer.it/anteprima-tv-f1-20 ... qualifica/
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FittingMechanics
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Re: 2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

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Just imagine how much coaching there would be if the engineers could see the battery charge of cars around their drivers. Probably best to leave it off.

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Re: 2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

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AR3-GP wrote:
04 Mar 2026, 14:02
Battery state-of-charge (SOC) will not be displayed on the broadcast. Cars will appear randomly quick and randomly slow because of battery or maybe it's tires. It will be confusing. Nobody wins here. The solution is to get rid of the focus on battery charging if that won't be visible for the viewer.

Many will now wonder if the deployment of electricity can be seen live on TV. There was the will but, barring surprises in the last few hours, the answer would seem negative since after various meetings between the FIA, FOM and the teams it would have been decided not to share (not even internally) the information of the SOC (State Of Charge) of the battery, unlike what happens in Formula E. A choice also designed to leave more room for the driver's instinct and less for his engineer who, knowing the state of charge of the battery in front, could remote control it even more.
https://autoracer.it/anteprima-tv-f1-20 ... qualifica/
Way too many downsides as a viewer, most of the time you'll left guessing whether it was actual skill that caused the overtake or battery.

Commentary during testing was already a nightmare, not knowing what a car is doing, they were trying so hard to listen to the audio and decipher but that is obviously not going to be possible on a race day. Also, less info for this forum to pour over :( SoC graphics could have simplified a lot of things.

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Re: 2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

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yeah, looks like it will all be a bit chaotic, and probably not in a good way. Even on hot laps in Qualifying we'll likely see cars going slow at points, so sector times aren't really worth much anymore.

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bluechris
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Re: 2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

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search wrote:
04 Mar 2026, 15:39
yeah, looks like it will all be a bit chaotic, and probably not in a good way. Even on hot laps in Qualifying we'll likely see cars going slow at points, so sector times aren't really worth much anymore.
I think it will be the opposite than everything we have seen so far in the Hybrid era. Be going slow you are not puting heat in the tyres (were i think they needed from now on since the downforce is lower and the cars lighter) and secondly you need high RPM to fill the battery.

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Re: 2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

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bluechris wrote:
04 Mar 2026, 15:42
I think it will be the opposite than everything we have seen so far in the Hybrid era. Be going slow you are not puting heat in the tyres (were i think they needed from now on since the downforce is lower and the cars lighter) and secondly you need high RPM to fill the battery.
maybe, but charging at full throttle costs a lot of speed as well. In Bahrain speeds dropped by around 30kph when doing so in a fast corner, so unless everyone does the same, speeds will be very different in varying parts of the track.

And Bahrain is one of the easiest tracks to recharge, while Melbourne will be more complicated.

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AR3-GP
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Re: 2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

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According to Alex Brundle:
Want an early steer on who’s going to be fast in this weekends Grand Prix.

There are a lot of factors but repeatedly strong sector 2 in race runs lap on lap will be a calling card of the high efficiency PU’s.
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Badger
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Re: 2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

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AR3-GP wrote:
04 Mar 2026, 16:38
According to Alex Brundle:
Want an early steer on who’s going to be fast in this weekends Grand Prix.

There are a lot of factors but repeatedly strong sector 2 in race runs lap on lap will be a calling card of the high efficiency PU’s.
Not sure. Variations in deployment will make it very hard to draw power conclusions based on sector times.

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AR3-GP
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Re: 2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

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Badger wrote:
04 Mar 2026, 16:43
AR3-GP wrote:
04 Mar 2026, 16:38
According to Alex Brundle:
Want an early steer on who’s going to be fast in this weekends Grand Prix.

There are a lot of factors but repeatedly strong sector 2 in race runs lap on lap will be a calling card of the high efficiency PU’s.
Not sure. Variations in deployment will make it very hard to draw power conclusions based on sector times.
Teams do not spend all their time thinking about how to deceive the competition when they do race runs. I think long runs in practice will be able to be interpreted similar to previous seasons. The fast cars make themselves apparent.
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Re: 2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

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Badger wrote:
04 Mar 2026, 16:43
AR3-GP wrote:
04 Mar 2026, 16:38
According to Alex Brundle:
Want an early steer on who’s going to be fast in this weekends Grand Prix.

There are a lot of factors but repeatedly strong sector 2 in race runs lap on lap will be a calling card of the high efficiency PU’s.
Not sure. Variations in deployment will make it very hard to draw power conclusions based on sector times.
I guess this is why he mentions sector 2 specifically, where cars will have limited abilities to recharge. More efficient deployment should become visible there, in theory.

Badger
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Re: 2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

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search wrote:
04 Mar 2026, 17:03
Badger wrote:
04 Mar 2026, 16:43
AR3-GP wrote:
04 Mar 2026, 16:38
According to Alex Brundle:

Not sure. Variations in deployment will make it very hard to draw power conclusions based on sector times.
I guess this is why he mentions sector 2 specifically, where cars will have limited abilities to recharge. More efficient deployment should become visible there, in theory.
There will still be variations in how long they deploy. One team may deploy for longer on that straight but less on another, and vice versa.

Badger
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Re: 2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

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AR3-GP wrote:
04 Mar 2026, 16:59
Badger wrote:
04 Mar 2026, 16:43
AR3-GP wrote:
04 Mar 2026, 16:38
According to Alex Brundle:

Not sure. Variations in deployment will make it very hard to draw power conclusions based on sector times.
Teams do not spend all their time thinking about how to deceive the competition when they do race runs. I think long runs in practice will be able to be interpreted similar to previous seasons. The fast cars make themselves apparent.
Nothing to do with deception.

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FW17
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Re: 2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

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Cars fighting each other will deloy and recharge at the exact same places. Teams may not use the manual override. Best way to overtake would still be slipstreaming and harder braking.