2026 Regulations - Critique thread

[hollus]

Yes, but he could have half backed off as he closed in, to 50% throttle, so he would not spend any battery, and close to the corner, to 30%, so he would even recharge. And he would about have been even-steven in terms of distance behind and charge levels, coming into the corner, would he not?

[daren_p]

Yes, but he could have half backed off as he closed in, to 50% throttle, so he would not spend any battery, and close to the corner, to 30%, so he would even recharge. And he would about have been even-steven in terms of distance behind and charge levels, coming into the corner, would he not?

That I'm not too sure, based on his comments & what some of the others drivers have said, even small lifts have caused the battery to do strange things.

[hollus]

Stay behind, don’t spend energy, then harvest. Then be behind and have your normal deployment.
Vs spend energy, pass, have no energy, get passed.
You end up in the same spot and position and distance and speed, with the same energy after that second straight, in both scenarios.
The pass might have bern silly and pointless, but it was not a net loss. And it was not inevitable.

And I shall stop here, I am a bit off topic in this thread.

[SB15]

50/50 split would've kinda worked if the cars had front axle harvesting! Unfortunately it doesn't! So a 70/30 split with a 50% reduction in deployment would be way more beneficial. I know someone mentioned that you can also unrestrict the fuel flow rate so that way the cars can produce more power from the ICE... now that may exaggerate Mercedes engine advantage even further doing so, but at least the drivers won't be as punished for taking more risk in qualifying.

[mrsweet]

Stay behind, don’t spend energy, then harvest. Then be behind and have your normal deployment.
Vs spend energy, pass, have no energy, get passed.
You end up in the same spot and position and distance and speed, with the same energy after that second straight, in both scenarios.
The pass might have bern silly and pointless, but it was not a net loss. And it was not inevitable.

And I shall stop here, I am a bit off topic in this thread.

Are you really off topic? Isn't that the crux of the whole issue. The passing means absolutely nothing.

[hollus]

Some passing does mean something, some does not. Passing/overtaking is redefined, not eliminated. It is different, but positions do and did change, so at least some passes come in odd numbers rather than even numbers.
Is it that important if the number of immediate position swaps is 1,3, 5 or 7? It is a net one, an extended battle with one outcome, and if it is 2 or 4 swaps, it is a net zero passes and a failed overtake.
This is normal in motoGP, and somehow there it is cool?

[Zynerji]

Would issuing the teams a standardized turbo/mguh from 2025 be impossible to integrate by half season? This is bad.

[mrsweet]

I'll admit I haven't watched any motogp races in about 15 years but I'm not sure what it has to do with F1 racing. Nascar has loads passing and lead changes, I don't think anyone is suggesting that f1 emulate them. Net change of position isn't what keeps me glued to my seat. When passing is difficult it makes the passes interesting and impressive. When it is easy they mean nothing.

[gearboxtrouble]

My biggest problem with the regs can be expressed in 3 words - "extreme energy starvation". Everything from the fast corner lico to the superclipping on the straights to the lack of driver agency in power output to the energy delta driven yo yo overtaking can be explained by the lack of energy input. The only harvesting that doesn't impact the quality of the product negatively is brake harvesting because it doesn't change what would otherwise be natural for the car and driver. All other harvesting makes things worse. Yes we did have lico in the last engine formula but that was just a drop from 1000hp to 930hp because of the massive ICE power and MGUH. In 26 you go from 1000hp for the 11s (at best) a lap you have battery to 550 hp on ICE only to 250 hp when superclipping all at the same full throttle. Even the MGUH would only improve that by ~80hp or so because the ICE is simply not powerful enough to make these regs workable, At minimum you'd need a 75/25 energy split to guarantee that in most situations, there would be enough brake energy available to harvest and when it wasn't the drop off to the ICE wasn't that noticeable with the active aero on.

[DDopey]

Stay behind, don’t spend energy, then harvest. Then be behind and have your normal deployment.
Vs spend energy, pass, have no energy, get passed.
You end up in the same spot and position and distance and speed, with the same energy after that second straight, in both scenarios.
The pass might have bern silly and pointless, but it was not a net loss. And it was not inevitable.

And I shall stop here, I am a bit off topic in this thread.

You make it sound like they can fully control it, I am not to sure about that if I read the comment from Lando or the lap analysis of Leclerc. I think its much more complicated it then that, I think when used differently, the algorithms go haywire.

[LM10]

A formula which makes drivers purposefully go slower in corners (even though their cars are built to handle much more than that) in order to be faster overall is just unacceptable. And that’s my biggest problem with the current regulations. I wouldn’t even care much about the ridiculous superclipping.

For modern F1 - which has been the pinnacle of motorsport for decades and specifically known for it’s highly sophisticated aerodynamics producing tons of downforce - the primary goal has always been to be as fast as possible in the corners.
Every single driver back then in karting when they were little kids wearing diapers pushed the corners. It’s in their DNA and I don’t believe any one saying that he prefers this style of driving over the “normal” one.

[NL_Fer]

Would issuing the teams a standardized turbo/mguh from 2025 be impossible to integrate by half season? This is bad.

Could add a (standard) GU-H. A separate unit in parallel with the Turbo. But this would unlock again a development race to generate as much exhaust gas for the GU-H. I don’t think you get the teams on a single opinion here.

[Sevach]

A little bit of humor.

[Tommy Cookers]

... Could add a (standard) GU-H. A separate unit in parallel with the Turbo. But this would unlock again a development race to generate as much exhaust gas for the GU-H....

the 'exhaust' gas actually a lean-combustion gas expanded over the piston crown via the now-notorious '16:1' geometry
how is this done ? and to what end ? (this 'exhaust gas race')
3 years ago Honda told us that MGU-H output had fallen (with the bio-alcohol increase to 10% and higher CRs)
an 'exhaust gas race' is another name for a 'running leaner-than-2026 race' .....
however much the exhaust gas is in quantity it has all been pushed into the ICE by something doing work on it

ok there is since 2014 some burning in the dwell post-cylinder pre-turbine
in-cylinder burning is as always about 95% (despite endless blather about 'combustion efficiency')
what we actually have is unprecedented in-cylinder CONVERSION efficiency (conversion of heat to work)

[CMSMJ1]

A formula which makes drivers purposefully go slower in corners (even though their cars are built to handle much more than that) in order to be faster overall is just unacceptable. And that’s my biggest problem with the current regulations. I wouldn’t even care much about the ridiculous superclipping.

For modern F1 - which has been the pinnacle of motorsport for decades and specifically known for it’s highly sophisticated aerodynamics producing tons of downforce - the primary goal has always been to be as fast as possible in the corners.
Every single driver back then in karting when they were little kids wearing diapers pushed the corners. It’s in their DNA and I don’t believe any one saying that he prefers this style of driving over the “normal” one.

If the regs didn't change then i could see a team building a car with significantly less downforce to pull the cars closer to being grip limited in these harvesting corners/zones. This would give even faster straight line speeds and maybe be watchable as the cars would be on their limits in corners and even faster on the straight and gain laptime.

Not what we were used to seeing, but maybe it might be fun