Is the 2026 Regulation going to achieve it goal?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sulland

I think the new regs have not slowed the new cars enough.
Whn a new cartype is coming in, they need to cut at least 5 sec a lap on average on all tracks.

The very capable engineers will cut the aprox 2-3 sec a lap we see now will almost be gained in 2026.

The easiest way to easy cut more is to make tyres harder. Not sure how many shore this years C1 and C5 tyre are. But he easiest is to tell Pirelli to make all tyres 3 seconds slower.
Little cost for the teams, and will give the the needed effect.

In addition will harder tyres will give a bonuseffest by showing who are the best drivers, since cars will become harder to drive!

---

At preseason testing, the best time was 3 seconds from the 2025 quali time. That was surprising, knowing the top teams were sandbagging. In the last three races, some people have found evidence that Mercedes is sandbagging. Hence, they may be capable of 2025 times already.

Is hard tyres the best way to slow them down? I don't think so. Even with hard tyres, Mercedes would still be within 3 seconds of 2025 times. And it is possible now for the FIA to implement, as Pirrelli tested harder tyres for 2026 but chose not to use them for the races we have seen so far. Introducing harder tyres than was agreed with the teams at this point would not go down well with the teams. It will only increase criticism of the regulations, which are taking a battering at the moment.

The funny thing is that the cars are not actually that fast. It is the battery deployment that gives the impression that they fast relative to other cars without battery. Compared to the 2025 cars, the 2026 car drive power fluctuates from 500HP to close to 1000HP. On average, they probably top out at around 800HP on the straight due to battery levels and tyre wear. In reality, they are slower than the 1000HP 2025 car on the straight but faster at the corners.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nitrodaze

The funny thing is that the cars are not actually that fast. It is the battery deployment that gives the impression that they fast relative to other cars without battery. Compared to the 2025 cars, the 2026 car drive power fluctuates from 500HP to close to 1000HP. On average, they probably top out at around 800HP on the straight due to battery levels and tyre wear. In reality, they are slower than the 1000HP 2025 car on the straight but faster at the corners.

---

This is a gross twisting of reality. On very long straights, the cars from last year might go slightly faster, but the acceleration curve of the new cars and initial speed advantage gets them down the straight in less time.

https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/co...aces/#lightbox

You can clearly see where the new vs last era cars have advantages. The new cars accelerate hard, but might lose out at the end of the straight. There is not a single corner trace that shows the new car quicker in a corner. The same was true in China and Albert Park. On the tracks that don't allow much harvesting, the older car might make it down a straight slightly quicker, but those tracks are fairly rare.


The downforce reduction alone will make these cars slower in corners until they manage to claw it back. But the aero drag reduction makes them accelerate much quicker than before.


Another trace on China qually laps. Notice where each car has an advantage. In particular notice the final straight starting at about the one minute and five seconds mark. Kimi and Oscar are at the same speed, and you can advance and see how quickly Kimi accelerates vs Oscar until it reaches about a 15 kph advantage. At the end of the straight Kimi is out of energy and Oscar takes a lead of a similar advantage, but it's much more brief. Overall Kimi makes up time on the straight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN2gnrHaLSs


Australia should be one of the worst tracks for harvesting, and quite a few are significantly better. China should be at or near the top 3-4 as well. So the season opening races already gave a fairly solid look at worst and best case scenarios for harvesting and energy deployment.
https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/co...aces/#lightbox

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by airshifter

This is a gross twisting of reality. On very long straights, the cars from last year might go slightly faster, but the acceleration curve of the new cars and initial speed advantage gets them down the straight in less time.

https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/co...aces/#lightbox

You can clearly see where the new vs last era cars have advantages. The new cars accelerate hard, but might lose out at the end of the straight. There is not a single corner trace that shows the new car quicker in a corner. The same was true in China and Albert Park. On the tracks that don't allow much harvesting, the older car might make it down a straight slightly quicker, but those tracks are fairly rare.


The downforce reduction alone will make these cars slower in corners until they manage to claw it back. But the aero drag reduction makes them accelerate much quicker than before.


Another trace on China qually laps. Notice where each car has an advantage. In particular notice the final straight starting at about the one minute and five seconds mark. Kimi and Oscar are at the same speed, and you can advance and see how quickly Kimi accelerates vs Oscar until it reaches about a 15 kph advantage. At the end of the straight Kimi is out of energy and Oscar takes a lead of a similar advantage, but it's much more brief. Overall Kimi makes up time on the straight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN2gnrHaLSs


Australia should be one of the worst tracks for harvesting, and quite a few are significantly better. China should be at or near the top 3-4 as well. So the season opening races already gave a fairly solid look at worst and best case scenarios for harvesting and energy deployment.
https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/co...aces/#lightbox

---

I agree with your assessment. Due to the power boost from the electric motor, the 2026 cars accelerate from a standstill faster than the 2025 cars. Over a straight, the 2025 cars would catch and pass the 2026 cars before arriving at the corners. At the corners, the 2026 cars are considerably faster through the corners. But over a full lap. The 2025 cars would be ahead by a sizeable margin at this stage of development. I fully expect this to change as we go deeper into the season and the regulation era.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by airshifter

This is a gross twisting of reality. On very long straights, the cars from last year might go slightly faster, but the acceleration curve of the new cars and initial speed advantage gets them down the straight in less time.

https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/co...aces/#lightbox

You can clearly see where the new vs last era cars have advantages. The new cars accelerate hard, but might lose out at the end of the straight. There is not a single corner trace that shows the new car quicker in a corner. The same was true in China and Albert Park. On the tracks that don't allow much harvesting, the older car might make it down a straight slightly quicker, but those tracks are fairly rare.


The downforce reduction alone will make these cars slower in corners until they manage to claw it back. But the aero drag reduction makes them accelerate much quicker than before.


Another trace on China qually laps. Notice where each car has an advantage. In particular notice the final straight starting at about the one minute and five seconds mark. Kimi and Oscar are at the same speed, and you can advance and see how quickly Kimi accelerates vs Oscar until it reaches about a 15 kph advantage. At the end of the straight Kimi is out of energy and Oscar takes a lead of a similar advantage, but it's much more brief. Overall Kimi makes up time on the straight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN2gnrHaLSs


Australia should be one of the worst tracks for harvesting, and quite a few are significantly better. China should be at or near the top 3-4 as well. So the season opening races already gave a fairly solid look at worst and best case scenarios for harvesting and energy deployment.
https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/co...aces/#lightbox

---

I agree with your assessment. Due to the power boost from the electric motor, the 2026 cars accelerate from a standstill faster than the 2025 cars. Over a straight, the 2025 cars would catch and pass the 2026 cars before arriving at the corners. At the corners, the 2026 cars are considerably faster through the corners. But over a full lap. The 2025 cars would be ahead by a sizeable margin at this stage of development. I fully expect this to change as we go deeper into the season and the regulation era.

The 2026 cars are slower in corners. I've yet to see a speed trace of any competitive lap that shows the new cars faster in cornering. In very slow corners they might come fairly close due to the advantage of the cars being smaller and thus having the ability to use different lines.In some cases the new cars do look fast in corners, but I think this is also the size and driver style changes as much as the cars being fairly nimble. Any corner with a straight long enough to deploy on after has many of the cars "squaring off" the racing line more than in the past, so they can get on full power again.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by airshifter

The 2026 cars are slower in corners. I've yet to see a speed trace of any competitive lap that shows the new cars faster in cornering. In very slow corners they might come fairly close due to the advantage of the cars being smaller and thus having the ability to use different lines.In some cases the new cars do look fast in corners, but I think this is also the size and driver style changes as much as the cars being fairly nimble. Any corner with a straight long enough to deploy on after has many of the cars "squaring off" the racing line more than in the past, so they can get on full power again.

---

A few websites with the traces for Australia and china show that the 2026 cars drop power on approach to the corners due to clipping, while the 2025 cars can carry speed well up the apex of the corners. The 2026 cars rotate around the corners more efficiently and rocket out of the corner faster than the 2025 cars due to the electric motor boost. I have looked at the traces for Russell and Leclerc for both years at both tracks and they show that the 2026 cars recover lost ground through the corner, but lose out to the 2025 cars on the straight and through fast corners.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nitrodaze

A few websites with the traces for Australia and china show that the 2026 cars drop power on approach to the corners due to clipping, while the 2025 cars can carry speed well up the apex of the corners. The 2026 cars rotate around the corners more efficiently and rocket out of the corner faster than the 2025 cars due to the electric motor boost. I have looked at the traces for Russell and Leclerc for both years at both tracks and they show that the 2026 cars recover lost ground through the corner, but lose out to the 2025 cars on the straight and through fast corners.

---

Corner entry and corner exit are not cornering speed. If you have any telemetry showing a higher apex speed with the new cars, I'd love to see it. If they exist most likely very low speed where aero isn't in the picture, as I've stated in the previous post. Japan was close at the final chicane and Degners, but 2025 was still quicker.

Almost the entire delta between the 2026 and 2025 cars at Suzuka was through the S's.

I saw a post somewhere that has Colapinto doing 170km/h, 10364 RPM in 4th, and Bearman doing 262kn/h, 9843 RPM in 7th. I don't know if this is legit but those speed differences are mad if true.

Was Colapinto clipping or did he have a problem?

If this accident was result of the new regulations then there is a lot to discuss by the teams over the break. It looked bad. Bearman limping away was a credit to the vehicle safety no doubt.


Aside from this, the pole lap was 2 seconds slower than last year and there were no "edge of the seat" corners like we normally see in Japan.

If it isn't faster then its a backward step - to me.

The 2 Degna (sic) corners looked boring to me instead of seeing cars on the fine line of destruction as per usual.

I read a thread, on the F1 site I think, that had Kimi's pole lap cut away from the onboard at Spoon corner. People are saying it is done so as not to show the clipping at 130R. The replies are nuts.

The peasants are grumbling and that is never a good sign...


My personal verdict on the new regulations is that they need work, much work. As much as the commentators try to make it interesting, the racing is not better and looks visually too gentle. I don't want to hear how many megawatts a driver managed to dig up from going slower. That should be the domain of combine harvesters under lights. I was never a fan of KERS or DRS or grooved tyres - I remember them like a toothache. I am slowly getting that same toothache from these latest electric marvels.

There is an old saying - Just because you can, doesn't mean you should...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by airshifter

Corner entry and corner exit are not cornering speed. If you have any telemetry showing a higher apex speed with the new cars, I'd love to see it. If they exist most likely very low speed where aero isn't in the picture, as I've stated in the previous post. Japan was close at the final chicane and Degners, but 2025 was still quicker.

Almost the entire delta between the 2026 and 2025 cars at Suzuka was through the S's.

---

Far a change, we are saying the same thing haha. How weird is that???

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Whyzars

I saw a post somewhere that has Colapinto doing 170km/h, 10364 RPM in 4th, and Bearman doing 262kn/h, 9843 RPM in 7th. I don't know if this is legit but those speed differences are mad if true.

Was Colapinto clipping or did he have a problem?

If this accident was result of the new regulations then there is a lot to discuss by the teams over the break. It looked bad. Bearman limping away was a credit to the vehicle safety no doubt.


Aside from this, the pole lap was 2 seconds slower than last year and there were no "edge of the seat" corners like we normally see in Japan.

If it isn't faster then its a backward step - to me.

The 2 Degna (sic) corners looked boring to me instead of seeing cars on the fine line of destruction as per usual.

I read a thread, on the F1 site I think, that had Kimi's pole lap cut away from the onboard at Spoon corner. People are saying it is done so as not to show the clipping at 130R. The replies are nuts.

The peasants are grumbling and that is never a good sign...


My personal verdict on the new regulations is that they need work, much work. As much as the commentators try to make it interesting, the racing is not better and looks visually too gentle. I don't want to hear how many megawatts a driver managed to dig up from going slower. That should be the domain of combine harvesters under lights. I was never a fan of KERS or DRS or grooved tyres - I remember them like a toothache. I am slowly getting that same toothache from these latest electric marvels.

There is an old saying - Just because you can, doesn't mean you should...

---

Agreed, the 2026 regulation looks great on paper but not so great in practise. We are set up for some very interesting politics and wrangling over the next few weeks. The FIA and FOM. are on their back foot now. They would not be able to explain away Bearman's accident for sure.