Henk_v wrote: ↑25 Jan 2025, 12:28
Just a thought; it seems the consensus is focus will shift to 2026 soon and teams will sacrifice 2025 to get ahead on the new regs.
If you have a shed full of new toys to develop, I'd say they let 2026 slide in favour of 2025.
They know they have unfulfilled potential under these regs and they'd better get to grips with their new toys with stuff they are familiar with. They can be almost certain some competition will slack the second half of the season.
Remember when these regs were introduced? At least 8 teams bet on the wrong concept. The best concept took half a season to figure out and then some teams spent 3 years recovering from bad choices.
So why not focus on 2025 with certain gains instead of 2026 with a big chance on getting it wrong. Slap a car together and prepare for a mid season shift to 2027 with the ability for a full redesign if concept?
I see a real risk of them being caught (like merc was) in 2026 with their pants down their legs; getting the concept wrong and nothing will correlate to get out of the mess.
I think decisions like this are more complicated than appear. Switching focus to next year early is no guarantee of success. Teams rarely find success by accident or chance. Success in F1 comes from having a team where all members collaborate well, and more importantly, understand what makes a fast car, and how they need to develop it to be faster. What ever team is best at this, will win the championship
Change comes about by first knowing where you are, then where you want to be, and finally, then working out what you need to do to get there. For this reason, the journey will be different for each team, & teams will have different goals for both 2025 and beyond
Although on the surface there are big visual changes between 25 & 26 cars, and forgetting the PUs are a world apart, the reality is that there are still substantial similarities. They are both ground effect cars, where getting the best out of the floor and how the floor interacts with the ground and the chassis through the suspension is still going to the most important aspect.
In fact, in 2026 there is going to be even more importance given to the floor, as the percentage of downforce generated by the floor is going to increase, and the percentage obtained from wings is going to decrease
There is no point in a team switching early focus to '26 if for example, you still don't understand how to get the best out of this years car. You need to test your learning in the real world, and you can only do this by developing the 2025 car. This will then allow you transfer this learning over to 2026 later in the year
The thing is, Aston Martin may be in a slightly unique position here, with Newey & Cardile joining the team, they may well feel they have the knowledge to build a fast car already and just need time to do this. They may therefore feel it's better to start work early on 2026, if 2025 success is out of reach when they start
ill find my way out