Are 2026 F1 regulations broken? How to fix them?

[vormelifriik]

The only solution I see is to lower the MGU K deployment to an amount where it's optimal to drive flat out on the straights and in the corners. Simulation will tell you the exact kW (take worst cast track as your target). Yes the cars will be slower but at least you can drive the cars flat out. DRS (front and rear) would have to make a comeback to allow for overtaking. Leave the energy deployment completely up to the drive via a button like KERS used to be in 2012 era.

For the following year engine output would have to increase to make the cars faster overall.

Currently we are heading towards a complete disaster in Melbourne, reminds me of 2016 quali rules. Senior people said from the start it would not work, people argued lets try, the results were that the rules were scrapped immediately.

In the future I and perhaps other 90% of fanbase would love to see return of high revving engines that create a wow effect. Greenwashing via sustainable fuels can continue to save the sport from embarrassment.

If you truly want to save on C02 emissions F1 has to optimize its travel / logistics as it outputs way more than any F1 car does during the season. Last years calendar was ridiculous on the front.

[gearboxtrouble]

The only solution I see is to lower the MGU K deployment to an amount where it's optimal to drive flat out on the straights and in the corners. Simulation will tell you the exact kW (take worst cast track as your target). Yes the cars will be slower but at least you can drive the cars flat out. DRS (front and rear) would have to make a comeback to allow for overtaking. Leave the energy deployment completely up to the drive via a button like KERS used to be in 2012 era.

For the following year engine output would have to increase to make the cars faster overall.

Currently we are heading towards a complete disaster in Melbourne, reminds me of 2016 quali rules. Senior people said from the start it would not work, people argued lets try, the results were that the rules were scrapped immediately.

In the future I and perhaps other 90% of fanbase would love to see return of high revving engines that create a wow effect. Greenwashing via sustainable fuels can continue to save the sport from embarrassment.

If you truly want to save on C02 emissions F1 has to optimize its travel / logistics as it outputs way more than any F1 car does during the season. Last years calendar was ridiculous on the front.

This is the most realistic path forward imho. Lower the deployment cap for the race while keeping the full harvesting and storage potential. You can run qualifying with the full 1000 hp. It's too late to boost the fuel flow for 26 but they should set it 30% higher for 27 and allow the teams to re homologate the ICE and a smaller MGUK for the 27 season. Something like 700 hp from the ICE and 300 hp from the MGUK should suffice to allow the cars to push everywhere.

[eyelid]

I don't see that realistic at all. First of all they won't admit their failure, so they will keep this 50-50 split and do and try everything and plus tinkering to get that formula work. This size of batteries and electric motors is the de facto standard now.

It would make electricity and hybrid tech look bad if they admit the failure. that's not the option on automotive industry and politics.

[De Wet]

I hope F1 loose a ton of supporters in 2026...

[.poz]

The only inviting aspect of the technical regs for newcomers was the removal of MGU-h as that is a bit of complex technology to master for newcomers and costly without much real world application.

I disagree

The complexity of the MGU-H stemmed from the fact that it had to perform two often conflicting tasks: recovering energy and maintaining optimal boost pressure for the engine. This effectively made both hardware design and software management extremely complex.

The solution was simple: decouple the compressor and the turbine, powering the former with a small, dedicated electric motor and leaving the latter with the sole task of maximizing energy recovery

[Rikhart]

Another great video by Yellistener:



The amount of silly fiddling about these regulations need is completely over the top, it's idiotic. I several years they never tried to simulate how it would work? Why didn't they listen to the people warning them it would be this bad?

[dialtone]

According to what was said in the youtube stream of Autoracer.it the reason why the split is still 50/50 is that Mercedes blocked changes to it. Despite Vasseur over 1 year ago not only talking about the start procedure but also that the straights in Monza were going to run out of power.

So whoever is complaining about the split at the moment, you can certainly look at a certain guy that basically got everything he wanted out of this ruleset, and the FIA that is a highly incompetent judge.

This is the video with the pointer where they talk about Mercedes blocking the rule change to 60/40 or 70/30.

[feni_remmen]

Im sorry to say that the real choke here is that they should have allowed front regen and the stipulated that the only way to engage any regen is during the application of more than say 25% of the maximum braking force (or an arbitrary value of pedal pressure being applied to brake pedal). The regen values should be variable and adjustable, but only available part way into a stopping event to prevent the drivers “riding” the brakes to engage it.

The cars should not be able to regen in any other situation but moderate to maximum stopping events.

This is the only way they will prevent lift and coast being the optimal way to use regen.

To make this work they'd need front regen as it’s the only way to get the maths to work out! I’d give them free rein, And we’d get to see an old style technology war!

[Badger]

I'd have gone crazy with the rules. 1.4l V4-TH with a spec MGU-H, dual axle regen, and a 300 kW MGU-K. And kept normal DRS. An efficient small "angry" engine with plenty of harvesting capabilities. This thing we have now is just so... meh.

[FW17]

I dont understand why lift and coast for recharge is unpopular among drivers.

Instead of braking from 340 kph at 100m now they are at 300 kph but going to much later like 75m, still demanding to pick a later point and play chicken with the corner apex.

The moment you lift off the throttle for a few seconds is going to give butterflies in the stomach while they weight for car to transition from + to -ve g

[Rikhart]

I dont understand why lift and coast for recharge is unpopular among drivers.

Instead of braking from 340 kph at 100m now they are at 300 kph but going to much later like 75m, still demanding to pick a later point and play chicken with the corner apex.

The moment you lift off the throttle for a few seconds is going to give butterflies in the stomach while they weight for car to transition from + to -ve g

I think the biggest issue drivers have is having to drive so far off the car's limit, just to nurse the battery. Alonso said some corners they will take at 50km/h less than they could so they don't drain the battery...

[Stu]

I dont understand why lift and coast for recharge is unpopular among drivers.

Instead of braking from 340 kph at 100m now they are at 300 kph but going to much later like 75m, still demanding to pick a later point and play chicken with the corner apex.

The moment you lift off the throttle for a few seconds is going to give butterflies in the stomach while they weight for car to transition from + to -ve g

I think the biggest issue drivers have is having to drive so far off the car's limit, just to nurse the battery. Alonso said some corners they will take at 50km/h less than they could so they don't drain the battery...

I’m not quite sure that I buy that totally. This would only ever be the case if not doing it would create a scenario where they lose more time from reduced top speed, surely. In the most recent seasons we have seen a huge amount of driving to a delta in order to avoid a single extra pit stop (and Alonso has been a master at this on occasion). The cars will undoubtedly be slower through the corners than last year, but for reasons unrelated to the PU (less downforce, less rubber & narrower track). There have been zones where they have been clipping for the last decade, this will be slightly different.

[Badger]

I dont understand why lift and coast for recharge is unpopular among drivers.

Instead of braking from 340 kph at 100m now they are at 300 kph but going to much later like 75m, still demanding to pick a later point and play chicken with the corner apex.

The moment you lift off the throttle for a few seconds is going to give butterflies in the stomach while they weight for car to transition from + to -ve g

I think the biggest issue drivers have is having to drive so far off the car's limit, just to nurse the battery. Alonso said some corners they will take at 50km/h less than they could so they don't drain the battery...

I’m not quite sure that I buy that totally. This would only ever be the case if not doing it would create a scenario where they lose more time from reduced top speed, surely. In the most recent seasons we have seen a huge amount of driving to a delta in order to avoid a single extra pit stop (and Alonso has been a master at this on occasion). The cars will undoubtedly be slower through the corners than last year, but for reasons unrelated to the PU (less downforce, less rubber & narrower track). There have been zones where they have been clipping for the last decade, this will be slightly different.

With this power split that is going to be the case very often. And when these cars start clipping they slow down massively unlike the previous regulation where "clipping" was still like 80% power.

[feni_remmen]

I think the biggest issue drivers have is having to drive so far off the car's limit, just to nurse the battery. Alonso said some corners they will take at 50km/h less than they could so they don't drain the battery...

I’m not quite sure that I buy that totally. This would only ever be the case if not doing it would create a scenario where they lose more time from reduced top speed, surely. In the most recent seasons we have seen a huge amount of driving to a delta in order to avoid a single extra pit stop (and Alonso has been a master at this on occasion). The cars will undoubtedly be slower through the corners than last year, but for reasons unrelated to the PU (less downforce, less rubber & narrower track). There have been zones where they have been clipping for the last decade, this will be slightly different.

With this power split that is going to be the case very often. And when these cars start clipping they slow down massively unlike the previous regulation where "clipping" was still like 80% power.

Conceptually I don’t mind the idea of what’s likely to be required to succeed with this formula.
We are going to see drivers succeed on the basis of who can drive a single lap the fastest way possible. That’s the way it’s always been.
What will be different is we are going to see everyone heavily compromising their ultimate pace in any locations around the track for the payback at another point on the circuit. Even that could be said to be normal except in this case no one will be going at full speed at the best bits, because it gives you so much benefit to convert that to energy for later. Like I said earlier, forcing regen into stopping events makes getting the power back hard. Anyone can regen with lift and coast. It will just make it a defensive endurance run.
To be honest I enjoy long strategic dependent events more than wheel to wheel, so this is interesting anyway.

[feni_remmen]

I'd have gone crazy with the rules. 1.4l V4-TH with a spec MGU-H, dual axle regen, and a 300 kW MGU-K. And kept normal DRS. An efficient small "angry" engine with plenty of harvesting capabilities. This thing we have now is just so... meh.

And to add to this, i think this would work with no DRS and free development of the regen systems.

The most important change is to ensure that regen is only available during stopping events. And allowing the power to be used anywhere any how. It would be nice to imagine deployment must be unmapped and linear with the accelerator pedal, but that would be a bit a bit too much!

Batteries and regen motors should be free, but the easy fix now is to just introduce limits on when they can use regen.

So long as energy deployment is limited and controlled and regen is freeish, the strategies will be frustrating.

We need scenarios that encourage wide disparities across the grid. These rules are effectively like putting a fuel flow restrictor on a power plant that needs twice the fuel and then letting them have a small petrol tank downstream! So the opposite of 2009. Crazy!