2025/2026 Hybrid Powerunit speculation

[AR3-GP]

Detune the MGU-K enough and it simply isn't worth it to give up the speed for the acceleration boost out of the following corner, even if you don't reach the harvesting allowance.

Are we sure about that? I'm trying to understand if anything really changes. You always want to dump energy into the first part of the straight, so that you carry it all the way along. If you detune the MGU-K, it just means they'll need less of the superclipping, but they'll always do just enough I think?

[FW17]

750 hp constant is enough for bring back good racing.

If the FIA feels there is too much grip, they should limit the size of rear wing further.

[padajacaba]

Furthermore, the total power reduction is limited to a maximum of 600kW and the resulting electrical DC power of the ERS-K must remain above −250kW.

I would change the underlined sections to 350kW (or whatever deployment is reduced to) "must not be negative".

This would, likely, need to be accompanied by an increase in fuel flow to increase ICE power.

I'd let them reduce by around 400kW, but that's pretty much my take too. 50kW clipping would still allow a decent amount of recharge in on straights (not all that different from what the amount the derated to in the MGU-H era) and leave about 500hp at the wheels, which would be enough to keep these cars over 300kph with the wings open. It would mean less total recharge over a lap, so maybe combine with slightly reduced allowance and we'd probably see very different deploy strategies - going to a longer, more consistent burn rather than max power out of certain corners.

Real curious to see how it goes at China next week. Melbourne, by my estimates, is one of the worst tracks for this new power unit and Shanghai is one of the best. I don't think we'll see much super-clipping at all given that they should be able to get near the recharge limit without it on the longer lap with more braking zones and more part-throttle mini-sectors.

[mzso]

The driver has no input into that decision to slow the car down in the fast corners. We're going to see cars slow similarly in Eau Rouge and Copse and it will be awful. The rules need to be adjusted to effectively end super clipping on any track.

The adjustment we need is a reduction in peak output large enough to remove the incentive to clip through fast corners or at the end of straights.

Or clip always above a certain speed at lower rates and no one will be the wiser.

[karana]

It seems many have the belief that there is a benefit to drive slower through a fast corner in order to harvest more if there comes a long straight after. I really don't think that is the case. You would lose lots of time through the corner itself for very small amounts of energy and be also slower at the beginning of the straight. The extra energy will likely not even be enough to make up for the lack of speed and definitely not to make up for the time lost in the corner and the time lost up to the point where you caught up to the speed you would have by just driving as fast as possible.

In a way that is as if you claim it is better to super-clip in the middle of a long straight to have more energy to deploy for the rest of the straight.

There likely will be fast corners that will be taken slower than theoretically possible when the corner is close enough to an actual braking zone (like 130R in Suzuka). The super-clipping then might already start before the fast corner, but in that case it is pure 'coincidence' in the sense that it would happen even if the fast corner would be a straight. The fact that drivers drove slower through T12 in Bahrain had nothing to do with it being a corner.

[bananapeel23]

It seems many have the belief that there is a benefit to drive slower through a fast corner in order to harvest more if there comes a long straight after. I really don't think that is the case. You would lose lots of time through the corner itself for very small amounts of energy and be also slower at the beginning of the straight. The extra energy will likely not even be enough to make up for the lack of speed and definitely not to make up for the time lost in the corner and the time lost up to the point where you caught up to the speed you would have by just driving as fast as possible.

In a way that is as if you claim it is better to super-clip in the middle of a long straight to have more energy to deploy for the rest of the straight.

There likely will be fast corners that will be taken slower than theoretically possible when the corner is close enough to an actual braking zone (like 130R in Suzuka). The super-clipping then might already start before the fast corner, but in that case it is pure 'coincidence' in the sense that it would happen even if the fast corner would be a straight. The fact that drivers drove slower through T12 in Bahrain had nothing to do with it being a corner.

Driving 30 km/h slower for one second in a 250 km/h corner in order to run 30 km/h faster for one second in a 125 km/h corner saves a ton of time.

[gearboxtrouble]

It seems many have the belief that there is a benefit to drive slower through a fast corner in order to harvest more if there comes a long straight after. I really don't think that is the case. You would lose lots of time through the corner itself for very small amounts of energy and be also slower at the beginning of the straight. The extra energy will likely not even be enough to make up for the lack of speed and definitely not to make up for the time lost in the corner and the time lost up to the point where you caught up to the speed you would have by just driving as fast as possible.

In a way that is as if you claim it is better to super-clip in the middle of a long straight to have more energy to deploy for the rest of the straight.

There likely will be fast corners that will be taken slower than theoretically possible when the corner is close enough to an actual braking zone (like 130R in Suzuka). The super-clipping then might already start before the fast corner, but in that case it is pure 'coincidence' in the sense that it would happen even if the fast corner would be a straight. The fact that drivers drove slower through T12 in Bahrain had nothing to do with it being a corner.

As far as I understand it, super clipping can only happen when the engine is at 100% throttle. That means it can only be done in fast corners usually taken flat out, acceleration zones and active aero zones. Of the three you absolutely want to maximize acceleration zones because that feeds back and makes the following active aero zone faster so that you vmax quicker and can super clip extra in low drag mode as well as harvest more in the braking zone. That leaves you having to harvest in fast corners at full throttle by default - its just the optimal way to minimize laptime. Add to that the fact that its nearly impossible to pass in those corners and its even better to do so in the race. Adopting this strategy would also let you take even more downforce off the car because its unnecessary to hit these lower max cornering speeds and that reduces drag the rest of the time.

[FittingMechanics]

Detune the MGU-K enough and it simply isn't worth it to give up the speed for the acceleration boost out of the following corner, even if you don't reach the harvesting allowance.

Are we sure about that? I'm trying to understand if anything really changes. You always want to dump energy into the first part of the straight, so that you carry it all the way along. If you detune the MGU-K, it just means they'll need less of the superclipping, but they'll always do just enough I think?

It will always be faster to extract energy at the end of straight where you will soon dump it into brakes and deploy it at lower speed after the next corner.

Ek = ⁠1/2 * m * v^2

Formula is quite simple. Any Joule you extract at high speeds is worth more on following straight (and laptime benefit multiplies as you carry the speed for the whole straight). If you had to brake afterwards it is even more valuable as you'll get more kph by deploying at lower speed.

I don't think they are ever dipping below the apex speeds so the idea that it would not be worth to harvest because the power would be lower is wrong. They will fine tune their harvest to reach apex speeds in fast corners (like Russel not braking in T9 in AUS) and benefit from energy afterwards.