2026 - Offseason

[Bagwan]

I knew I could rely on you for a "nutshell" appraisal .
Thanks for that .

[airshifter]

We won't know for sure until we know for sure Bagwan, but I'm expecting the cars to be decent overall, with some obvious changes to the way they produce lap times. At this point many are expecting lap times a second to second and a half slower on average, and I doubt that will be very far off.

Acceleration on straights should be quicker all around with the active aero, and for that reason the overtake mode (within a second similar to DRS) might not be deployed as often on straights resulting in the DRS fly by passes we have seen. With the new regs once within a second that extra energy can be used over the lap, not just on a straight. If they blow it all to get a DRS style fly by pass on the straight, it might leave them more vulnerable due to energy stores being depleted. I'm somewhat expecting that the use of the overtake mode will take more driver savvy and racecraft as compared to DRS, at least I hope so.

Some are expecting a lot less dirty air than the previous regs, but TBH they will find a way. At the start of the season it might be lesser, but I don't see it being much better than the start of the outgoing regs.... which really was much better than regs prior to that.



There are some really crappy videos of the Audi on track at Barcelona already, it's not long before we start finding out who got it right.