2026 F1 Cars - General Thread

[Just_a_fan]

Continuously variable aero sounds like an awful idea.

Agreed. And the catastrophic failures could be deadly to drivers and fans.

Any such system would need to be designed to fail "high downforce". That would mitigate most failures.

[mzso]

F1 SPRAY GUARD Howmay be in real

It has its own thread.

[wuzak]

F1 aiming for a 50kg weight reduction for 2026

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/sat-f ... /10517806/

Seems there will be an awful lot of trimming of dimensions to get the 50kg saving, especially if rumours about much heavier batteries and cooling packages are to be believed.

[BlueCheetah66]

Only a 50kg weight reduction is so disappointing. I was expecting much more. It is basically back to the 2021 level which is still too heavy.

[mzso]

F1 aiming for a 50kg weight reduction for 2026

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/sat-f ... /10517806/

Seems there will be an awful lot of trimming of dimensions to get the 50kg saving, especially if rumours about much heavier batteries and cooling packages are to be believed.

I'd applaud that. But somehow I don't think it will be too significant. And the cars will still behave like very fast buses.

Only a 50kg weight reduction is so disappointing. I was expecting much more. It is basically back to the 2021 level which is still too heavy.

Well if the length would be much shorter it could mean a lot. But I don't see it happening.

[wuzak]

F1 aiming for a 50kg weight reduction for 2026

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/sat-f ... /10517806/

Seems there will be an awful lot of trimming of dimensions to get the 50kg saving, especially if rumours about much heavier batteries and cooling packages are to be believed.

I'd applaud that. But somehow I don't think it will be too significant. And the cars will still behave like very fast buses.

Only a 50kg weight reduction is so disappointing. I was expecting much more. It is basically back to the 2021 level which is still too heavy.

Well if the length would be much shorter it could mean a lot. But I don't see it happening.

I think it was suggested that the maximum wheelbase would be 300mm shorter - 3,300mm, down from 3,600mm.

I would hope for even shorter.

What worries me is that the cornering performance will be reduced, but the straight line performance will not be raised enough to compensate.

[organic]

Personally I don't care if the cornering speeds get worse. The cars have to get more raceable and less unwieldy first and foremost

[Astro85]

Is it possible to get smaller and faster cars than today's monstrosities?

[mzso]

What worries me is that the cornering performance will be reduced, but the straight line performance will not be raised enough to compensate.

And why is that worrying. Laptime doesn't translate to good racing.

Is it possible to get smaller and faster cars than today's monstrosities?

Naturally. But we're unlikely to get them.

[Zynerji]

We need a new pinnacle series. F1 is hopeless for so many reasons. These 2026 cars don't sound interesting -at all- to me.

I took a year off in 2018. Maybe it's time for a few more.

[wuzak]

What worries me is that the cornering performance will be reduced, but the straight line performance will not be raised enough to compensate.

And why is that worrying. Laptime doesn't translate to good racing.

It is if they are no faster than the cheaper, single make, non-hybrid F2 cars.

Which is a concern that the 2014-2016 F1 cars had, which lead to the current "monstrosities", as Astro85 calls them.

The 2014-2016 F1 cars were slower in corners than the cars that proceeded them, but they were also a bit faster in a straight line.

[vorticism]

Speaking of car length.

[mzso]

What worries me is that the cornering performance will be reduced, but the straight line performance will not be raised enough to compensate.

And why is that worrying. Laptime doesn't translate to good racing.

It is if they are no faster than the cheaper, single make, non-hybrid F2 cars.

Which is a concern that the 2014-2016 F1 cars had, which lead to the current "monstrosities", as Astro85 calls them.

The 2014-2016 F1 cars were slower in corners than the cars that proceeded them, but they were also a bit faster in a straight line.

You can always make F2 even slower.
Or run F1 on F2 regulations. Which has happened before.

[mzso]

Speaking of car length.

Yep. I don't think all of them are representative, on the McLaren/RB image the difference seems too little, for example.
Also these ones:



(At least the first is from this forum.)

One can dream, but I don't think the cars will get noticeably shorter. This is the FIA we're talking about. Everything takes years, and even then it's compromised or a complete failure.
The beneficial effect of the oh-so-big 2022 changes were already largely neutralized last year, yet they plan on acting on it for 2025. After which everything is trashed. There's like 99% chance the teams will successfully lobby for the changes to be skipped by then, because of the brand new formula looming. Which in turn probably be delayed a year, as always... So we will have another three years of centipede racing.

[vorticism]

It has always been that way, even prior to aero dependency. Constant overturn of race positions has never been seen in F1 and is rarely seen in motorsport aside from a few examples like certain eras of stock/touring cars and maybe two wheelers. Yet the meme still gets pushed. In fact in the early days no one could watch 90% of the racing because there were no cameras nor displays to allow this. The point then as now is still: lap faster than the competitor. Not spend x seconds per lap within two car lengths of competitor.

I don't mind long cars, I'm more concerned about heavy cars due to the ongoing institutional mission creep.