2026 F1 Cars - General Thread

[Tommy Cookers]

Yes weight does affect top speed along with power and drag.

the drag is the sum of aerodynamic drag and mechanical drag aka 'rolling resistance'
mechanical drag is proportionate to weight (and pseudo-weight aka aerodynamic downforce)

btw the 50/50 percentage is already between 55/45 and 60/40

[ChrisM40]

Im confused by peoples calculations. The power required to overcome air resistance increases with the cube of the speed. While there are other factors if we take Totos claim of 400kph as the real max with 1000bhp then with 500 from the ICE alone you only get 317kph. Ive seen other sources say the max with ICE alone is estimated to be 315-330.

To hit 355 with ~500bhp they would need a max of 450kph, which seems highly unlikely in any aero config on these cars.

I do have a contact at Aston, so i'll ask him. I have been trying not to bother him since he's.. probably busy.

[ChrisM40]

OK got a response back, that doesnt really answer the question but has useful information. He says that the active aero 26 F1 car still has a 'far higher' Cd than a similarly powerful road car like a Bugatti/Koenigsegg (vague and we knew that much), but the CdA will probably be 'somewhat comparable' in the absolute lowest drag set up with active aero deployed, 'a bit higher'. Rolling resistance will be much higher on the F1, enough to have an effect. Its not likely they will ever run that low a drag set up.

One thing he said was that the rules are written to assume they could maintain 355 at some point in the regulation cycle at most tracks in ideal conditions, but it doesn’t mean they will this year. The idea of the rules is that on very low drag circuits with long straights they shouldn’t drop lower than the 345 non overtake mode target with ICE power alone as long as they had electrical power to get them there, the overtake mode may not work that well everywhere. At tracks with shorter straights it shouldn’t matter as the electrical power should last. The issue is if the drivers get it wrong or have to use the electrical power to defend/attack and dont have enough.

What we may see is 2 battling drivers being quite a bit slower than an unchallenged driver, even compared to how that worked out in the past because they will be making much less efficient use of the more significant electrical power than they would in the previous hybrid eras.

PS.. what we saw from Ocon in Barcelona (hitting 355) would be him using overtake mode on the straight, not normal mode.

[michl420]

Last year they cars going 340 with ~1000 hp.This year Ocon said 350 with ~550 hp. If this is true I am surprised about this low drag.

[ChrisM40]

Last year they cars going 340 with ~1000 hp.This year Ocon said 350 with ~550 hp. If this is true I am surprised about this low drag.

Ocons 355 was with overtake mode, so full power.

[AR3-GP]

Speaking to a select group of media, including GPblog, Lando Norris commented: "It was fun to drive. It's different, of course. When you're on a qualifying lap and you have to lift off a little bit.
"It's certainly not what you've grown up doing, it's not what you do in karting, it's not what you've ever done. So there's some different challenges: when you're starting a lap and yeah, mentally you're like, 'okay, here we go.'
"And you don't go flat out at the last corner because you're saving the battery. And then you go over the line and then you lift again. That's certainly not how you would normally think that you start a qualifying lap, but that is just the challenge that we have."

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/f1-champ ... et-used-to

[brakeboosted]

Last year they cars going 340 with ~1000 hp.This year Ocon said 350 with ~550 hp. If this is true I am surprised about this low drag.

Thats not true. You get the full 350 kw up to 337.5 kph with override mode which I assume he was using. Then the electrical energy tapers off to 0kw from 337-355kph @ 20kw/1kph iirc.

[FittingMechanics]

Cars weren't limited by drag, it was mostly because of gearing and length of straights.

I am pretty sure 2025 cars could reach 400+ if they had the gearing and long enough straight.

[Badger]

Cars weren't limited by drag, it was mostly because of gearing and length of straights.

I am pretty sure 2025 cars could reach 400+ if they had the gearing and long enough straight.

Open wheel cars not limited by drag?

It simply doesn't make sense to carry a longer final gear precisely because of drag.

[FittingMechanics]

Cars weren't limited by drag, it was mostly because of gearing and length of straights.

I am pretty sure 2025 cars could reach 400+ if they had the gearing and long enough straight.

Open wheel cars not limited by drag?

It simply doesn't make sense to carry a longer final gear precisely because of drag.

The straights are not long enough and you can't change the gear ratio between races, so it is faster overall to have shorter final gear than what drag would allow.

[Badger]

Cars weren't limited by drag, it was mostly because of gearing and length of straights.

I am pretty sure 2025 cars could reach 400+ if they had the gearing and long enough straight.

Open wheel cars not limited by drag?

It simply doesn't make sense to carry a longer final gear precisely because of drag.

The straights are not long enough and you can't change the gear ratio between races, so it is faster overall to have shorter final gear than what drag would allow.

With a Cd of 0.7 or more, a frontal area of 1.5 sqm, and 800 kg of weight you are not getting to 400 kph even with 1000 hp (which assumes infinite deployment).

And that's only a theoretical top speed, which takes a long time to get to... because of drag.

[venkyhere]

Open wheel cars not limited by drag?

It simply doesn't make sense to carry a longer final gear precisely because of drag.

The straights are not long enough and you can't change the gear ratio between races, so it is faster overall to have shorter final gear than what drag would allow.

With a Cd of 0.7 or more, a frontal area of 1.5 sqm, and 800 kg of weight you are not getting to 400 kph even with 1000 hp (which assumes infinite deployment).

And that's only a theoretical top speed, which takes a long time to get to... because of drag.

My guess is Cd is close to 1

[Badger]

The straights are not long enough and you can't change the gear ratio between races, so it is faster overall to have shorter final gear than what drag would allow.

With a Cd of 0.7 or more, a frontal area of 1.5 sqm, and 800 kg of weight you are not getting to 400 kph even with 1000 hp (which assumes infinite deployment).

And that's only a theoretical top speed, which takes a long time to get to... because of drag.

My guess is Cd is close to 1

Well I wanted to be conservative for the sake of argument.

[michl420]

Cars weren't limited by drag, it was mostly because of gearing and length of straights.

I am pretty sure 2025 cars could reach 400+ if they had the gearing and long enough straight.

In Las Vegas 2025 they need the last 800m of the straight to get form 326 kph to 330 kph (11500 rpm, qualy).
They were drag limited and, somehow, will be this year too.

[AR3-GP]

Cars weren't limited by drag, it was mostly because of gearing and length of straights.

I am pretty sure 2025 cars could reach 400+ if they had the gearing and long enough straight.

In Las Vegas 2025 they need the last 800m of the straight to get form 326 kph to 330 kph (11500 rpm, qualy).
They were drag limited and, somehow, will be this year too.

In 2026, qualifying top speeds will be energy limited, not drag limited. It won't ever make sense to drive at the drag limit. They will want to recover energy at high speed instead.

Imo, the overtake mode is also a fool's errand. It's better to overtake without using it.