2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

[amr]

It's a game of cat and mouse. Merc slowed down to prevent making the case for ADUO for other teams. Ferrari realised this, and also that they can't really catch and overtake, and it's better to slow down and be just about in the Merc pit window with "protected" tyres while making the case for ADUO. Kimi just did not realise this, is young and eager and no match for the old foxes like Rus Lec Ham. Ham was free to push as he was not damaging the ADUO case since he was not the leading Ferrari.

ADUO is tested on a dyno, no? I don't understand how sandbagging in a race performance would affect this. Merc's rationale for sandbagging was probably to preserve the long stint on the hard tyres + engine life.

I looked into it.
The technical regulation specifies:
"For each ICE supplied by the PU Manufacturers, an average power will be calculated. The methodology to calculate this power can be found in the document FIA-F1-DOC-Cxxx."
I don't know if it's true, but I don't think that customer teams have ICE dynos. So I don't see how this would be measured on a dyno.

Thinking of it, Merc might be saved by the fact that their customers did not shine as much as they did regarding the PU. So they might be able to make the case that it is not the PU that gives them the edge, but rather the integration.

[avantman]

This is quite telling that in the Grand Prix thread people are talking about rules, cars, the batteries harvesting and top speeds, nobody discusses any of those amazing battles, incredible overtakes and defending maneuvers, which we saw so many , Just shows how hollow and meaningless all of that was.

[upsidedowntoast]

This is quite telling that in the Grand Prix thread people are talking about rules, cars, the batteries harvesting and top speeds, nobody discusses any of those amazing battles, incredible overtakes and defending maneuvers, which we saw so many , Just shows how hollow and meaningless all of that was.

F1 official social media has been actively deleting comments and stuff criticizing the new regs. It's honestly truly tragic.

I hope they have an emergency fix for next year where they do something like reduce the peak harvesting rate and allow greater fuel flow on the ICE side to account for the power deficit.

[motobaleno]

I'm looking at important race laps telemetry russel vs leclerc (if this site would be more user friendly I would have attached figures):definitely Mercedes is doing something weird with the battery...something like impulsive on off deployment...I see the result of a perturbative analysis in those graphs...they are minimizing a function...Other teams are not up to this yet. As a matter of fact we consider a battery as a fuel tank...X liters in implies always X liters out no matter how do you extract them...but inside a battery you have complex chemical going on: extraction method could change a little bit that X. A very important bit.

[avantman]

This is quite telling that in the Grand Prix thread people are talking about rules, cars, the batteries harvesting and top speeds, nobody discusses any of those amazing battles, incredible overtakes and defending maneuvers, which we saw so many , Just shows how hollow and meaningless all of that was.

F1 official social media has been actively deleting comments and stuff criticizing the new regs. It's honestly truly tragic.

I hope they have an emergency fix for next year where they do something like reduce the peak harvesting rate and allow greater fuel flow on the ICE side to account for the power deficit.

It is tragic indeed. What’s even worse they knew what all this will look like 3 years ago, Horner and Verstappen called it exactly as it is. But they still did do nothing. Mercedes selfishly and arrogantly vetoed any potential proposals their rivals could make, which would’ve prevented the current fiasco. I am afraid, they will do that again.

[upsidedowntoast]

This is quite telling that in the Grand Prix thread people are talking about rules, cars, the batteries harvesting and top speeds, nobody discusses any of those amazing battles, incredible overtakes and defending maneuvers, which we saw so many , Just shows how hollow and meaningless all of that was.

F1 official social media has been actively deleting comments and stuff criticizing the new regs. It's honestly truly tragic.

I hope they have an emergency fix for next year where they do something like reduce the peak harvesting rate and allow greater fuel flow on the ICE side to account for the power deficit.

It is tragic indeed. What’s even worse they knew what all this will look like 3 years ago, Horner and Verstappen called it exactly as it is. But they still did do nothing. Mercedes selfishly and arrogantly vetoed any potential proposals their rivals could make, which would’ve prevented the current fiasco. I am afraid, they will do that again.

It's also Audi's fault for making them get rid of MGUH. At the end of the day everyone in this sport plays the political game to get themselves the best advantage. Welcome to F1. At least it's not as bad as it used to be in the days where Flavio Briatore had more power.

[venkyhere]

Alright, I know we are stuck with rules that are not pleasing, but is there any comparisons in the data that people are making? Better ways to compare the cars? What metrics are people looking at?

Would like to see SoC v time plot (actual, not the estimate that they show in the broadcast)

[motobaleno]

actually if they really wanted to implement almost 50% hybrid factor in F1, to respect its spirit (the pinnacle...) they should have done at the maximul level: back and front regeneration PLUS MGU-H. that would have been the only "proper" way.

[AR3-GP]

actually if they really wanted to implement almost 50% hybrid factor in F1, to respect its spirit (the pinnacle...) they should have done at the maximul level: back and front regeneration PLUS MGU-H. that would have been the only "proper" way.

I agree with this. This would have made F1 cutting edge rocketships. They would have blown away last year's cars.

[FittingMechanics]

Here’s something I don’t understand: why did so many drivers complain about no battery at the start? Shouldn’t they be charging all the way to the grid and then again on the formation lap (during which it’s surely ice only)? What am I missing?

I don't get that either.

Only idea I have is that the PUs themselves decide when they deploy, the drivers are mostly out of the loop, so if you do a lot of burnouts/aggressive driving the PU uses up energy for that.

I would have thought they would just switch on "recharge only mode" but maybe some teams had bugs or drivers made mistakes.

Maybe we are missing something.

[FittingMechanics]

actually if they really wanted to implement almost 50% hybrid factor in F1, to respect its spirit (the pinnacle...) they should have done at the maximul level: back and front regeneration PLUS MGU-H. that would have been the only "proper" way.

I agree with this. This would have made F1 cutting edge rocketships. They would have blown away last year's cars.

But what are people complaining about. Is it just super clipping that makes cars lose speed at end of straights or is it the nature of tactical fights with the energy? I saw people complaining about both.

If you had MGU-H and both axle recharge you would still get "yoyo overtakes".

[AR3-GP]

If you had MGU-H and both axle recharge you would still get "yoyo overtakes".

No, you wouldn't because it would be so much easier to keep the battery topped up with mgu-h and both axle harvesting. This formula is "energy starved". That's why the yoyo overtaking happens. Driver uses his boost button, and then his energy level craters and there's a laptime penalty for getting it back up.

[FittingMechanics]

If you had MGU-H and both axle recharge you would still get "yoyo overtakes".

No, you wouldn't because it would be so much easier to keep the battery topped up with mgu-h and both axle harvesting. This formula is "energy starved". That's why the yoyo overtaking happens. Driver uses his boost button, and then his energy level craters and there's a laptime penalty for getting it back up.

If you kept recharge limits the same it would be the same. But if you had much more energy, that you can use energy for most of the lap then yes, no yoyo but I don't think even then you'd have that much energy.

[AR3-GP]

If you had MGU-H and both axle recharge you would still get "yoyo overtakes".

No, you wouldn't because it would be so much easier to keep the battery topped up with mgu-h and both axle harvesting. This formula is "energy starved". That's why the yoyo overtaking happens. Driver uses his boost button, and then his energy level craters and there's a laptime penalty for getting it back up.

If you kept recharge limits the same it would be the same. But if you had much more energy, that you can use energy for most of the lap then yes, no yoyo but I don't think even then you'd have that much energy.

Absolutely, the recharge limit should be unlimited under braking imo. I don't get why it has to be capped at 350kW. They shouldn't even have disc brakes. Just an automatic emergency brake in case both MGU-K fail.

If they really want to do something cool with the efficiency and sustainability, these cars should not have any disc brakes. Everything should be harvested from both axles when stopping. This would also allow them to cut the fuel consumption in half. 35kg fuel tank instead of 70.