Is the 2026 Regulation going to achieve it goal?

[Nitrodaze]

I've been looking at the regulations here:
https://www.fia.com/system/files/doc...2026-02-27.pdf

The diagram on page C64 shows the limits and, while there is 9MJ recharge available per lap, the battery capacity available is only 4MJ. The actual capacity of the battery will be more than this as they don't last very long if they are cycled from 0 to 100%. If we assume they cycle the battery between 20% & 80% then the actual capacity of the battery will be around 6.7MJ.

They've got 4MJ capacity that they can discharge as much as they like but they can only put 9MJ back in per lap so the temptation is going to be to take 4MJ out and then try to top the battery up wherever they can before taking out what they've just put back until they reach the 9MJ charge limit.

I wonder, somewhat counter intuitively, if the solution is to reduce the 4MJ battery capacity limit. OK - there will be less energy to deploy so the cars will be slower but they'll spend less time recharging so we'll see less of the "clipping" modes that hamper straight line speed. It might make for closer racing without the hazardous speed differentials that are currently possible.

That is one of the suggestions presented to the FIA. Someone worked out a 36:64 split instead of the current 50:50 split. Unfortunately, a battery-related change would result in a sizeable drop in overall speed, which would move the performance of F1 cars towards that of the F2 cars, which would make us ask what progress do these 2026 regulations bring to modern-day F1. Slower F1 is not progress.

But then, the FIA have a bigger issue relating to safety and the risk of fatality from the closing speed differential between the cars with a good battery charge and those that have run out of battery. On tracks lined with unforgivable armco barriers, such as the street circuits, a Bearman-like situation may have a much more serious outcome. The question of why the battery is unable to provide power over a full lap comes about again.

The FIA's dilemma is that increasing fuel flow to increase ICE power output and reducing battery power dependency defeats two of their aspirations in this regulation. The biofuel is stupendously expensive; increased fuel flow would increase teams' spending. It would also increase the carbon footprint for this season.

Not mentioned much is the issue of AI software deciding to boost power on behalf of the drivers. The machine learning software are quite immature in their learning so they make poor decisions, which threaten the safety of drivers or sap performance in a crippling way.

It would be better in 2027, at ther moment it is looking like a fancy dogs diner.