2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

[avantman]

In qualifying they deploy 11 or 12 MJ. They start the lap topped up.

In Qualifying in Australia they were allowed to deploy 7mj. This is gonna be changed race by race by the FIA. Why? In order to improve the optics, I guess

They were allowed to recharge 7MJ. If they start on a full battery (4MJ) they can deploy 11 MJ.

Well thanks for clarification. I was watching Windsor’s podcast with Mark Slade on Friday and what he Slade said there misled me. He said that if cars start push lap with battery fully topped up at 4MJ, that means they still had to recover 3MJ during s push lap.

[fourmula1]

I had fun watching that at least until the safety car pulled the cars apart. This is just another part of the F1 evolution. There is huge potential with active aero and electric power. This is the first season, hopefully it only gets better from here and teams converge. Maintain the lower weight smaller size cars and it could get really good. There certainly are problems with this formula but I think it is all just a part of the process and the next step (or half step if they make mid gen changes) will be better for it.

I think F1 needs more gradual evolution every 2 years rather than a completely new car every 5 or whatever.

Do you realize active aero was never put in place to improve potential? To improve racing? It is there only to cover the pathetic PU formula and improve optics. Active aero literally and directly hampers racing by weakening further the slipstream effect making proper, natural overtaking harder, not easier.

I think you’re thinking is too short sighted but also its ok if you do not enjoy any pieces of this generation. I see future potential in all of it, again this is just one year and F1 will continue for a long time hopefully.

Also “proper natural overtaking” hehehe. Are you a proper natural overtaker!? I’m an improper overtaker! Very unnatural. Can you elaborate, when you race how do you pass? Slipstream or late braking? Or more power? I run lots of big aero and wide A7’s and have worst top speed in my class.

[DDopey]

This is why Verstappen is fully against the regulations.

He can retire if he doesn't like F1 anymore. (Just using his own words).

I think it is a bit more complicated than that. There will be contractual issues and penalties. I think that is also why he is so pissed off, he needs to stay this year.

[FittingMechanics]

In Qualifying in Australia they were allowed to deploy 7mj. This is gonna be changed race by race by the FIA. Why? In order to improve the optics, I guess

They were allowed to recharge 7MJ. If they start on a full battery (4MJ) they can deploy 11 MJ.

Well thanks for clarification. I was watching Windsor’s podcast with Mark Slade on Friday and what he Slade said there misled me. He said that if cars start push lap with battery fully topped up at 4MJ, that means they still had to recover 3MJ during s push lap.

Someone clarified it to me on this forum as well. This ruleset is quite complicated and this distinction, having a recharge limit set and not deployment limit is an unexpected one.

But it could explain why qualifying time is closer than the race time. In qualifying they use more energy throughout the lap. However as was already pointed out, these race fastest laps from 2022 suffered from drivers pitting for new tires for the fastest lap point (or just saving up to get the lap in).

[AR3-GP]

Either that or they will be parking the car in front of the one they are overtaking in order to prevent them from utilizing their SOC advantage. Both are pretty interesting.

The power differences create 40-50km/h speed differentials. This is what Lando Norris was warning about after the GP. Drivers cannot be allowed to block or do anything silly because not only is there a 50km/h speed difference, but they also have less ability to react to a block because the wings open! Airplane crash in the making.

I meant parking it on the apex and/or corner exit to prevent the car in front from deploying, not on the straights. I thought that wad obvious.

Sorry, I misunderstood that part.

[Rikhart]

This is why Verstappen is fully against the regulations.

He can retire if he doesn't like F1 anymore. (Just using his own words).

Sure, so can most of the drivers, who all absolutely hate this ridiculous farce we have now. Who needs the best drivers, huh? Just let them eat cake, I mean, retire.

[Pingguest]

As a layman I thought front axle recovery might be a solution for the current energy starvation, but this article got me thinking otherwise:

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/easy ... ompletely/

[atanatizante]

Why engine software is the key to Mercedes' dominance in 2026:

[erikejw]

Chris is right though. The only chance Ferrari would have had in this race was doing something different i.e going 1 stop and hoping Mercedes would need to come in for a second stop.

Merc had everything covered. Their pace was too strong. Just look at the laptimes the Mercs did on 40+ old tyres, without being tested. Surely they were managing pace even at that.

I very much disagree. Mercedes had too much pace, as you said. They shouldn't have given them free air and a pit-stop time advantage as well.
The drivers holding them back was their best chance, and forcing them to use up their tire. They did it with great success until the VSC. The long VSC gave made it easy by Mercedes going in first, which guaranteed that they would come out in front of them. It was a gift they rejected.

Ferrari gave up on a losing battle against Mercedes and made sure they secured 3rd and 4th with that call.

The optimal decision at that point of the race.

Why fight rocket ships. Mercedes then Cruised to victory with minimal power to make sure they don't look too good.

Toto's smirk meant game over for the other teams 2026.

[hollus]

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/gg/AM ... 600-rj-mp2

Image not working for me, not even the link.

[TeamKoolGreen]

Hamilton allegedly has a new engineer? He sounds like a clone. Giving him cringy atta boys over the radio

[Shrieker]

The opening stint was good ngl, and then merc said, naaaaaaaah.

[mzso]

Ferrari gave up on a losing battle against Mercedes and made sure they secured 3rd and 4th with that call.

The optimal decision at that point of the race.

Why fight rocket ships. Mercedes then Cruised to victory with minimal power to make sure they don't look too good.

Toto's smirk meant game over for the other teams 2026.

To win. They gave up a reasonable chance at winning.

Toto's smirk meant game over for the other teams 2026.

The same way Leclerc was champion, as proclaimed in in early 2022

[upsidedowntoast]

Everyone was freaking out that it was going to be another 2014 after qualy and that obviously was not the case when race day came. Qualy was an outlier where all of Merc's competitors ran into bad luck here and there: Ferrari with the deployment software, Max with the crash. The real gap would have been 0.2-0.3s which is perfectly reasonable and closable at different circuits and with in-season development. Even Merc themselves admitted they were "surprised" during qualy and after the main race said "yeah this competitiveness and race start advantage from Ferrari was closer to what we expected".

[bluechris]

Everyone was freaking out that it was going to be another 2014 after qualy and that obviously was not the case when race day came. Qualy was an outlier where all of Merc's competitors ran into bad luck here and there: Ferrari with the deployment software, Max with the crash. The real gap would have been 0.2-0.3s which is perfectly reasonable and closable at different circuits and with in-season development. Even Merc themselves admitted they were "surprised" during qualy and after the main race said "yeah this competitiveness and race start advantage from Ferrari was closer to what we expected".

M8 don't fall with what Toto and his boys say, they have huge engine advantage but we can catch up a bit for sure.