2026 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, March 27 - 29

[DGP123]

It might be possible to get cars alongside one another into the 130R. If the leading car runs out energy and the trailing car has used the overtake mode then it could be close. It depend on how early they reach 290km/h before the 130R. Then I would have to assume that if you use overtake mode in the back stretch you would be vulnerable on the start/finish straight.

It's probably better to use overtake mode on the front straight since it's very unlikely that there is room to pass anywhere in the 1st sector. You could back off and charge the battery fully just by dawdling on the racing line through the esses.

Exactly how I see it.

Never really been a fan of Suzuka. Just doesn’t create good racing. After the first phase, gaps will be huge.

[SB15]

Any thoughts of Redbull and how they could do better here? I don't think we need to really think about the Mercedes and Mclaren's being way up there in the front.

[AR3-GP]

Exactly how I see it.

Never really been a fan of Suzuka. Just doesn’t create good racing. After the first phase, gaps will be huge.

Suzuka is circuit that requires a very high efficiency from the PU and the aerodynamics. It's even more important with the 2026 cars so it's going to be magnified over a race distance. There will be nowhere to hide if you have an inefficient package. I like the place for what it represents. It's the pinnacle in terms of demands on the driver and the technical package. F1 needs at least some circuits like this to balance out the calendar imo.

[venkyhere]

It's probably better to use overtake mode on the front straight since it's very unlikely that there is room to pass anywhere in the 1st sector. You could back off and charge the battery fully just by dawdling on the racing line through the esses.

This.
"dawdling on the racing line through the esses" - the soul of Suzuka is lost. Hoping against hope that it's not the case.

[LM10]

Any thoughts of Redbull and how they could do better here? I don't think we need to really think about the Mercedes and Mclaren's being way up there in the front.

Forgot Ferrari?

[DJ Downforce]

Can we please not have a thread full of complaints again. Perhaps a separate thread can be made for that? Or these people who hate this formula so much could stop watching for a while?

F1technical is site for purists

you should visit some sites recommended by your influencers who start every sentence with 'o my god'

If you feel a F1 car with 600hp for 80 sec of a 88 sec lap exciting, pls enjoy

Even a F2 car has more hp

Do the "purists" prefer to watch GE boats which stay in the same position they qualified all race? Drs was just as artificial as the battery management.

I fully agree that these regs aren't perfect especially qualifying but it seems some people are just complaining for the sake of it.

And my point is that the purists could discuss this in a separate thread...?

[SB15]

Any thoughts of Redbull and how they could do better here? I don't think we need to really think about the Mercedes and Mclaren's being way up there in the front.

Forgot Ferrari?

Nope

[DJ Downforce]

Any thoughts of Redbull and how they could do better here? I don't think we need to really think about the Mercedes and Mclaren's being way up there in the front.

Red bull will be very solid here. Likely nipping at Ferrari's heels and definitely ahead of McLaren.

[MJL]

Hi! I ran my lap model at Suzuka and here are the results. Please note that they are not 100% realistic because I just treat ICE and MGU-K as independent variables while they should be controlled by drivers input (this is something that I still work on but can't force it to work). Anyway, the algorithm identified the Esses and Spoon as big harvesting zones. And there's weird artifact before 130R where the straight line mode closes and MGU-k is not deploying any more so the speed drops rapidly, I think the top speed is also too high there, I should add more drag on straight line. Anyway, what are your thoughts? Does it look realistic enough for first try?
I can't embed the image:
https://imgur.com/a/d9R9l91

[AR3-GP]

Hi! I ran my lap model at Suzuka and here are the results. Please note that they are not 100% realistic because I just treat ICE and MGU-K as independent variables while they should be controlled by drivers input (this is something that I still work on but can't force it to work). Anyway, the algorithm identified the Esses and Spoon as big harvesting zones. And there's weird artifact before 130R where the straight line mode closes and MGU-k is not deploying any more so the speed drops rapidly, I think the top speed is also too high there, I should add more drag on straight line. Anyway, what are your thoughts? Does it look realistic enough for first try?
I can't embed the image:
https://imgur.com/a/d9R9l91
https://imgur.com/a/d9R9l91

This is very interesting. Most of it is consistent what I would imagine. I think the one thing that doesn't pass the "sanity" check is that the 2026 car is slower through the hairpin than the 2025 car. That is probably not going to be accurate. From what we can see in China qualifying comparisons to last year, the 2026 car should be faster in the hairpin. It is lighter and nimbler. Unless that is a harvesting artifact, that is one thing that is probably not accurate.

Unless there is some kind of physics reasoning for the slower 2026 car in the hairpin, you could probably put a minimum speed constraint in the hairpin. No less than the 2025 car. That could change the solution.

[LeQuick]

Can we please not have a thread full of complaints again. Perhaps a separate thread can be made for that? Or these people who hate this formula so much could stop watching for a while?

F1technical is site for purists

you should visit some sites recommended by your influencers who start every sentence with 'o my god'

If you feel a F1 car with 600hp for 80 sec of a 88 sec lap exciting, pls enjoy

Even a F2 car has more hp

Do the "purists" prefer to watch GE boats which stay in the same position they qualified all race? Drs was just as artificial as the battery management.

I fully agree that these regs aren't perfect especially qualifying but it seems some people are just complaining for the sake of it.

And my point is that the purists could discuss this in a separate thread...?

No it wasn't because DRS was equal for all cars, with this horror show it's more like a lottery.

[MJL]

Hi! I ran my lap model at Suzuka and here are the results. Please note that they are not 100% realistic because I just treat ICE and MGU-K as independent variables while they should be controlled by drivers input (this is something that I still work on but can't force it to work). Anyway, the algorithm identified the Esses and Spoon as big harvesting zones. And there's weird artifact before 130R where the straight line mode closes and MGU-k is not deploying any more so the speed drops rapidly, I think the top speed is also too high there, I should add more drag on straight line. Anyway, what are your thoughts? Does it look realistic enough for first try?
I can't embed the image:
https://imgur.com/a/d9R9l91
https://imgur.com/a/d9R9l91

This is very interesting. Most of it is consistent what I would imagine. I think the one thing that doesn't pass the "sanity" check is that the 2026 car is slower through the hairpin than the 2025 car. That is probably not going to be accurate. From what we can see in China qualifying comparisons to last year, the 2026 car should be faster in the hairpin. It is lighter and nimbler. Unless that is a harvesting artifact, that is one thing that is probably not accurate.

Unless there is some kind of physics reasoning for the slower 2026 car in the hairpin, you could probably put a minimum speed constraint in the hairpin. No less than the 2025 car. That could change the solution.

There's no specific reason, probably a modeling artifact/error. maybe the racing line is slightly off, cause track model resolution matters a lot in high curvature regions. In fact I had a similar problem in China with a hairpin, so I will investigate that in details, thanks for noticing! Another possible reason is poor tire model. In high speed turns it can be compensated by modeling more downforce, but at low speed it mostly depends on tire model. I also run a simple "bicycle" model with no suspension or left/right weight transfer or going through curbs, so that might be another reason.

[DJ Downforce]

F1technical is site for purists

you should visit some sites recommended by your influencers who start every sentence with 'o my god'

If you feel a F1 car with 600hp for 80 sec of a 88 sec lap exciting, pls enjoy

Even a F2 car has more hp

Do the "purists" prefer to watch GE boats which stay in the same position they qualified all race? Drs was just as artificial as the battery management.

I fully agree that these regs aren't perfect especially qualifying but it seems some people are just complaining for the sake of it.

And my point is that the purists could discuss this in a separate thread...?

No it wasn't because DRS was equal for all cars, with this horror show it's more like a lottery.

The point is that the drs was artificial racing too. You pressed a button to close the gap.

The GE racing post 2023 was just boring. I bet there will be a lot more overtakes at the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix compared to last year's event here.

Feel free to unblock me on Twitter to discuss further

[DJ Downforce]

Hi! I ran my lap model at Suzuka and here are the results. Please note that they are not 100% realistic because I just treat ICE and MGU-K as independent variables while they should be controlled by drivers input (this is something that I still work on but can't force it to work). Anyway, the algorithm identified the Esses and Spoon as big harvesting zones. And there's weird artifact before 130R where the straight line mode closes and MGU-k is not deploying any more so the speed drops rapidly, I think the top speed is also too high there, I should add more drag on straight line. Anyway, what are your thoughts? Does it look realistic enough for first try?
I can't embed the image:
https://imgur.com/a/d9R9l91
https://imgur.com/a/d9R9l91

Thanks for this, very interesting stuff.

[LeQuick]

Do the "purists" prefer to watch GE boats which stay in the same position they qualified all race? Drs was just as artificial as the battery management.

I fully agree that these regs aren't perfect especially qualifying but it seems some people are just complaining for the sake of it.

And my point is that the purists could discuss this in a separate thread...?

No it wasn't because DRS was equal for all cars, with this horror show it's more like a lottery.

The point is that the drs was artificial racing too. You pressed a button to close the gap.

The GE racing post 2023 was just boring. I bet there will be a lot more overtakes at the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix compared to last year's event here.

Feel free to unblock me on Twitter to discuss further

It's nothing like the situation we have now, where neither driver nor spectators know what's truly going off. And to top it off this carries over to the purist of spectacles in qualifying, I mean drivers claiming they have gone quicker in a sector because of a mistake, truly pathetic.