2026 Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai, March 13-15

[langedweil]

I know the Mercedes look dominant again after this sprint qualifying but I would still like to see what happens over the course of the whole weekend before jumping to conclusions. Too many people jump on this forum to project so much negativity without any constructive criticism.

There is always a level of intrigue in any aspect of F1:
Is Mercedes gap down to just battery deployment / mapping, noting several teams use the same engines?
Is the Merc better in qualifying or will it have race issues?
Is McLaren better in qualy trim?
Is the Red Bull struggling more here for any reason?
Will the ADUO help other engine teams claw back performance?

Ooh I like it, trying to create excitement when there isn't any.

Exactly ... however way you try to frame this horror series now, it doesn't take away there is single notion of racing other than boost passing in a straight line. DRS wasn't great, but lifting (or superclipping, whatever) half way straights and no brake usage in some corners (harvesting) exceeds the DRS annoyance by a tenfold.
It's a software/GPU match now .. nothing more.

And imho the gaps don't really bother me, they will come down eventually. It's just the complete lack of gladiator-esque driver performances .. they are as important as a bottle of water at the moment.

[autodoctor911]

What is the way that the harvesting strategy is implemented? Drivers use a dial to select programs? Is there a button for regen braking on the wheel? It would be cool if they made it completely manual. Where there is a dial and a button and that's it. Or make the brake pedal control the regen by pulling up on a pedal that the foot can slip into. Or the first part of travel is regen then the regular brakes start working. Maybe even put a detent like a 2 stage trigger so you don't accidentally get brake applications during acceleration or neutral cornering. That would make the cars even harder to drive. Can you imagine having to balance the throttle and regen at the grip limits

[pantherxxx]

any chance to outsource all the whining to a separate thread?

No.

I agree. Team personnel like engineers and designers read the race threads carefully and they get extremely important and critical ideas about their performance from all this whining. I fully support keeping it in race thread.

There's freedom of expression, and that's the point of online forums. And we need to say it everywhere not just here, but everywhere that these rules are a joke, and this is not real racing. They're ruining F1 with this bs, multiple drivers said the same.

[Artur Craft]

Mercedes will cruise to another 1-2

I think Ferrari can win.

I think Isaac and Andrea will have a hard time keeping up with their team mates, as well as the other cars with Mercedes and their suspicious engine

[Raleigh]

I predict that Ferrari will win the sprint race.

how do we tell him…

Let's revisit this after turn 1...

Ferrari has much better race pace relative to the qualifying gap and in a sprint there is no Ferrari strategy to go wrong.

[Seanspeed]

I know the Mercedes look dominant again after this sprint qualifying but I would still like to see what happens over the course of the whole weekend before jumping to conclusions. Too many people jump on this forum to project so much negativity without any constructive criticism.

There is always a level of intrigue in any aspect of F1:
Is Mercedes gap down to just battery deployment / mapping, noting several teams use the same engines?
Is the Merc better in qualifying or will it have race issues?
Is McLaren better in qualy trim?
Is the Red Bull struggling more here for any reason?
Will the ADUO help other engine teams claw back performance?

Ooh I like it, trying to create excitement when there isn't any.

I get it, these power trains are absolutely sucking the raw excitement out of the sport, but I'll still have to agree with them that there ARE still some interesting aspects to follow. I'll still be watching, though I'll probably go back to skipping practice after these initial few race weekends. If there was absolutely nothing compelling, we simply wouldn't watch, but I'm guessing most of us still will as bigger fans of the sport.