2026 F1 regs

[kambites]

budgie smuggler said:

Hard to imagine there will be much more while they keep increasing battery sizes.

Are they increasing battery sizes? I'd missed that bit.

[Muzzer79]

kambites said:

MustangGT said:

They need to lose c. 150 kg in my opinion.

The current cars are about 720kg excluding fuel and driver; I don't think 570kg is viable without significantly compromising safety, which is not going to happen.

In 2004, an F1 car was 605kgs including the driver.

Maybe I'm not technical enough but I don't think a 2004 F1 car was unsafe, save for adding the halo. The Halo is 7kgs.

They should be under 650kgs, IMO, but the thing compromising that isn't safety - it's the hybrid gubbins, which isn't going anywhere.

[budgie smuggler]

kambites said:

budgie smuggler said:

Hard to imagine there will be much more while they keep increasing battery sizes.

Are they increasing battery sizes? I'd missed that bit.

I believe they are removing the MGU-H and increasing the power of the MGU-K and battery size to (somewhat) compensate.

eta- sorry i was bullstting there apparently the capacity of the battery is staying the same
https://www.planetf1.com/features/explained-2026-f...

[kambites]

Muzzer79 said:

Maybe I'm not technical enough but I don't think a 2004 F1 car was unsafe, save for adding the halo. The Halo is 7kgs.

F1 crash safety has improved pretty dramatically since 2004. The monocoques are vastly stronger now and have complex crumple zones built into them to pass the modern crash tests; the roll-over bar is far stronger than it used to be; they've added the mandated side-impact structures; obviously as you say the halo has appeared (and whilst the halo may weigh 7kg, it added around 15kg to the car due to the requirement to beef up the areas where it mounts);... I'm sure there have been other safety improvements that I can't think of off the top of my head too.

Also, as you allude to, the power-trains now are probably at least 50kg heavier than they were in 2004.

ETA: The bigger fuel tanks since the refueling ban probably don't help either.

Edited by kambites on Wednesday 15th November 15:31

[MustangGT]

kambites said:

F1 crash safety has improved pretty dramatically since 2004. The monocoques are vastly stronger now and have complex crumple zones built into them to pass the modern crash tests; the roll-over bar is far stronger than it used to be; they've added the mandated side-impact structures; obviously as you say the halo has appeared (and whilst the halo may weigh 7kg, it added around 15kg to the car due to the requirement to beef up the areas where it mounts);... I'm sure there have been other safety improvements that I can't think of off the top of my head too.

Also, as you allude to, the power-trains now are probably at least 50kg heavier than they were in 2004.

ETA: The bigger fuel tanks since the refueling ban probably don't help either.

Edited by kambites on Wednesday 15th November 15:31

The bigger fuel tank could be reduced if the car was lighter, perhaps?

[callyman]

Lighter and smaller, that's a step in the right direction..

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/tags/2026-regul...

Edited by callyman on Thursday 6th June 20:25

[Sandpit Steve]

Good spot Sir, and this will end up being a very long thread.

Not sure I’m sold on the 30kg weight reduction as being in any way significant, but definitely looking forward to proper active aero.

The more hybridised powertrains will also allow a lot more driver involvement in the power deployment over a lap, which should give opportunities for both attacking and defending.

[Cold]

The 10mm width reduction will almost certainly mean Monaco will become an overtaking fest.

[Diderot]

Cold said:

The 10mm width reduction will almost certainly mean Monaco will become an overtaking fest.

[Scoobydrew95]

I wonder if they have resolved the issues of the simulations where the cars just kept crashing, Due to the active aero IIRC? I'm guessing they must have if they've now released a general outlook on what it will be.
Also mutterings of it being a 2.0l? Not generally sure why, with the increase of the electric side. (probably just rumors)

But yeah 30kg is something positive to talk about.

[thegreenhell]

Cold said:

The 10mm width reduction will almost certainly mean Monaco will become an overtaking fest.

10cm not mm

[TheDeuce]

Cold said:

The 10mm width reduction will almost certainly mean Monaco will become an overtaking fest.

Try again...

C'mon now, we've had the metric system nearly 60 years

[thegreenhell]

Scoobydrew95 said:

I wonder if they have resolved the issues of the simulations where the cars just kept crashing, Due to the active aero IIRC? I'm guessing they must have if they've now released a general outlook on what it will be.
Also mutterings of it being a 2.0l? Not generally sure why, with the increase of the electric side. (probably just rumors)

But yeah 30kg is something positive to talk about.

I haven't heard the 2.0l rumour, but it probably originates from them being unable to harvest enough electrical power over a lap to recharge the battery at the rate they need to achieve the targeted 50:50 split between combustion and electrical power. The engines are going to have to work a lot harder, not only to propel the cars along but also act as an electrical generator. They want a lot more electrical power available to deploy, but they've removed one of the main generators of that electrical power in MGU-H, and won't be able to make up the shortfall through kinetic recovery alone.

Some teams have already said they don't think they'll achieve the 30kg weight reduction. The cars will be a bit smaller, but the batteries and e-motor will be much bigger and heavier, and some of them are struggling to hit the current weight limit.

2026 has potential to be another 2014 where one team does a much better job with all this new technology than all the others, and we'll see a much greater field spread again, then a few years for them all to close up again. It's going to be interesting to see from a technical perspective, but I have my doubts it will do anything but make the sporting side even worse than it is now.

[CT05 Nose Cone]

Concept doesn't look bad, hopefully the regulations will force the teams to actually paint them as well.

[Big Nanas]

thegreenhell said:

I haven't heard the 2.0l rumour, but it probably originates from them being unable to harvest enough electrical power over a lap to recharge the battery at the rate they need to achieve the targeted 50:50 split between combustion and electrical power. The engines are going to have to work a lot harder, not only to propel the cars along but also act as an electrical generator. They want a lot more electrical power available to deploy, but they've removed one of the main generators of that electrical power in MGU-H, and won't be able to make up the shortfall through kinetic recovery alone.

Some teams have already said they don't think they'll achieve the 30kg weight reduction. The cars will be a bit smaller, but the batteries and e-motor will be much bigger and heavier, and some of them are struggling to hit the current weight limit.

2026 has potential to be another 2014 where one team does a much better job with all this new technology than all the others, and we'll see a much greater field spread again, then a few years for them all to close up again. It's going to be interesting to see from a technical perspective, but I have my doubts it will do anything but make the sporting side even worse than it is now.

I thought the issue was that the battery size will remain the same, but the electrical motors will now be significantly more powerful. Meaning they won't have enough energy stored in the battery to deploy on the longer states.
But I could be basing that on a technical video that could be out of date by now.

• edit*

The article says that the PU specs were released two years ago, so this must still be relevant.
I've posted this a couple of times, but this is really a super deep dive into the differences between the current PU and '26. (There's maths and whiteboards, but it's very accessible)

Engineering Explained:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxDQBVzXWt4

Edited by Big Nanas on Thursday 6th June 16:50

[Big Nanas]

This sounds interesting, although Crofty is going to have a seizure trying to shout about it during a race - not exactly easy to explain for the casual viewers.

"How does it work? Well, while the energy deployment of the leading car will taper off after 290kph, reaching zero at 355kph, the following car can benefit from the ‘MGU-K Override’ which provides 350kW all the way up to 337kph – that works out at around 0.5MJ of extra energy.

It can be used anytime a driver is within one second of the car in front."

[kambites]

Definitely a step in the right direction regarding the size.

Interesting to see that DRS as an overtaking aid is no more and they're going to have a short-term power boost for the following car instead. I wonder if it'll feel any less artificial.

[Big Nanas]

Scoobydrew95 said:

I wonder if they have resolved the issues of the simulations where the cars just kept crashing, Due to the active aero IIRC? I'm guessing they must have if they've now released a general outlook on what it will be.
Also mutterings of it being a 2.0l? Not generally sure why, with the increase of the electric side. (probably just rumors)

But yeah 30kg is something positive to talk about.

The PU specs were agreed a couple of years ago. The same 1.6 V6.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/more-ef...

[Sandpit Steve]

CT05 Nose Cone said:

Concept doesn't look bad, hopefully the regulations will force the teams to actually paint them as well.

We can all blame Toto Wolff for that one, when he did the interview about weight saving and said that they asked everyone in the team how they could save weight over the winter - and the winners by far were the marketing department, who managed to go from 6kg to 3.5kg of paint and stickers, as the engineers were saving a few grams here and a few grams there.

Now everyone’s on the ‘let’s not paint the car if we can avoid it’ train.

[Sandpit Steve]

thegreenhell said:

Cold said:

The 10mm width reduction will almost certainly mean Monaco will become an overtaking fest.

10cm not mm

Oh no, not the 1900mm wide front wing.