Motorsport Off Topic Thread

The 2026 engine regulations have finally been signed off by the FIA.
I expect we'll see announcements from Porsche and Audi very soon.

Wonder if we'll see any other unexpected returns like Honda or even BMW who McLaren were rumoured to be talking to
 

Will that help with the porky weight of the cars? 10 years ago they were 640kg. This year - 798kg. That's an entire American extra.

Not happy with the loss of MHU-H, so that's completely wasted development time and money. Shame, it was actually interesting tech for harvesting energy.

Triple the MKU-K output - that'll be about 470bhp then. Good. No mention of battery capacity though. But they then say when boosting the cars with still have over 1000bhp. How much are they expecting the reduced fuel flow to effect the engine power output? Going from 850bhp to around 500-550 maybe. Which means if you run out of battery power you're left with less power than a Formula 2 car.

Doing some back of the napkin maths, the current battery can provide the full 160bhp for around 33 seconds. So they'll really need to up the battery otherwise it'll only provide 11s per lap at full 4kw deployment. But can still only harvest 2kw per lap from the MGU-K. Interestingly the MGU-H had unlimited harvesting.

Not overly impressed in total. But they will have made VW happy.
 
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I was just watching that. This made me chuckle...

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I don't think the MGU-H has any every day consumer trickle-down benefit and is a complex development cost (100krpm motor, gets very hot etc etc.). Should help with the budget constraints.

I hope they do away with the regen/battery strategy aspect but I suspect managing the electrical side will play into the spectacle more. It depends on the battery capacity as you say.
 
Will that help with the porky weight of the cars? 10 years ago they were 640kg. This year - 798kg. That's an entire American extra.

The weight needs to come down, so does the wheelbase.

The removal of the MGU-H, after all this, is irritating. Dead-end tech now :mad:

Reducing fuel load onboard rather than restricting fuel flow would be my preference. Just give them an amount of fuel (check tank capacity at random), let 'em use it how they want.

De-limit the MGU-K harvesting.
 
The weight needs to come down, so does the wheelbase.

The removal of the MGU-H, after all this, is irritating. Dead-end tech now :mad:

Reducing fuel load onboard rather than restricting fuel flow would be my preference. Just give them an amount of fuel (check tank capacity at random), let 'em use it how they want.

De-limit the MGU-K harvesting.
Yeah, the MGU-H has become something that we don't hear about. When was the last time we'd heard that one had failed? MGU-K is still a regular failure point. Oh, and placing it inside the monocoque next to the fuel and batteries. Genius! Now they just need to stop them catching fire.

Although, they may have dumped the MGU-H as a way to prevent the workarounds that at least one team had in the deployment limits. Energy from the MGU-H didn't need to to to the battery and would be shunted by the control electronics to go straight to the MGU-K. Extra little bit of power without the deployment limits being touched.

If they keep the same fuel amount and have reduces peak fuel flow to 80% of current max, then in theory if they load up with fuel they should be able to run at max flow for longer. Currently 100kg of fuel at 100kg/h - 66minutes at full ICE power. Dropping that to ~80kg/h fuel flow gives ~82 minutes at full ice power. Close to a full race distance at most tracks.

I suspect they'll reduce the fuel loads as well so that there's space for the MGU-K and so they have to have fuel management in race.

The harvesting limit should have been removed a couple of years ago. Keep the deployment limits though, or even raise them.

[edit]
Oh and you might be interested in this. ;)

 
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I'd be wondering why Aston kept going into the race with no fresh tyres, turns out they're doing a clever thing. New rules on tyre heating for this year have limited the teams from putting tyres through multiple heating cycles prior to the race. By re-using used tyres they can put the tyres through more complicated heating programmes.

More explanation in the video:

 
I'd be wondering why Aston kept going into the race with no fresh tyres, turns out they're doing a clever thing. New rules on tyre heating for this year have limited the teams from putting tyres through multiple heating cycles prior to the race. By re-using used tyres they can put the tyres through more complicated heating programmes.
Ahh, that explains their excellent performance this year, it's clearly working well :cry:


.. oh, wait
 
Looks like Kimi is doing a one off race on a NASCAR road course, will be interesting to see how he compares to the regulars. Would expect him to do well with the next gen car equating a bit more closely to a modern race car than the previous cars plus Trackhouse in general have been going well this season


Race is about to start. And it’s wet. Should be entertaining. Also got Kyvat and Rockenfeller amongst the road course ringers.
 
Haas confirming Antonio Giovinazzi will run for them in FP1 in Italy and the USA, possible replacement for Schumacher?

Maybe, but he was confirmed as a reserve driver for all three Ferrari powered car prior to the season starting so him getting an FP1 run doesn't necessarily mean anything. You expect reserve drivers to be given some running time during the season and I wouldn't be surprised if Ferrari's deal with Haas required them to give him some time.

Still if he performs well it'd put further pressure on Mick, but I don't think he's a particularly likely candidate to replace Schumacher: Gio wasn't terribly impressive in his time in F1, and he doesn't have a lot of money behind him. I reckon the most likely replacement for Mick - if he goes - is Zhou, letting Alfa take Pourchaire.
 
Best way of testing to see if the Ferrari inspired design alterations are working as intended by running the Ferrari sim driver who worked on them, but it does put pressure on Schumacher to sign whatever deal Hass are offering.
 
Haas confirming Antonio Giovinazzi will run for them in FP1 in Italy and the USA, possible replacement for Schumacher?

Maybe, but he was confirmed as a reserve driver for all three Ferrari powered car prior to the season starting so him getting an FP1 run doesn't necessarily mean anything. You expect reserve drivers to be given some running time during the season and I wouldn't be surprised if Ferrari's deal with Haas required them to give him some time.

Still if he performs well it'd put further pressure on Mick, but I don't think he's a particularly likely candidate to replace Schumacher: Gio wasn't terribly impressive in his time in F1, and he doesn't have a lot of money behind him. I reckon the most likely replacement for Mick - if he goes - is Zhou, letting Alfa take Pourchaire.
Best way of testing to see if the Ferrari inspired design alterations are working as intended by running the Ferrari sim driver who worked on them, but it does put pressure on Schumacher to sign whatever deal Hass are offering.
Interestingly he DOESN’T count as a Rookie due to how recently he was a full time driver so Haas still need to offer a rookie two FP1 sessions to someone by the end of the year. Not sure if there’s a penalty if they don’t and what it is though.
 
Interestingly he DOESN’T count as a Rookie due to how recently he was a full time driver so Haas still need to offer a rookie two FP1 sessions to someone by the end of the year. Not sure if there’s a penalty if they don’t and what it is though.

There's no specified penalty, I think it's the kind of rule they expect to just be followed. In Haas's cases, wouldn't running Fittipaldi count? He seems the most likely choice for them.
 
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