The F1 thread

sinbaadi

euan said:

Rich people buying their place on the grid is a core principle of motorsport. It’s inauthentic to not have it 

Exactly.  What are the odds that Lance Stroll just so happens to be one of the best drivers in the world?  Nikita Mazepin?
Obviously they are/were not, and they are 2 of hundreds or thousands that pay/paid to play, often for their entire career.  To get to the point where a team goes "that driver could help us succeed, we should actually pay him more than the sponsorship he brings to drive for us" is huge.

Cols

Motor racing is the only one I can think of where the participants are really expected to bring a budget to the team as a matter of course, either directly or indirectly.  Even Hamilton wouldn’t have made it to F1 without McLaren heavily supporting his progress through the junior formulae.  

Stroll and Perez are the clearest examples of coming with money - Pop Stroll paid $80 million to Williams prior to his Formula One debut, and then bought an entire damn team - but a large part of the grid is there with sponsor backing as part of the deal.

TimmyO

Cols said:

Motor racing is the only one I can think of where the participants are really expected to bring a budget to the team as a matter of course, either directly or indirectly.  Even Hamilton wouldn’t have made it to F1 without McLaren heavily supporting his progress through the junior formulae.  

Stroll and Perez are the clearest examples of coming with money - Pop Stroll paid $80 million to Williams prior to his Formula One debut, and then bought an entire damn team - but a large part of the grid is there with sponsor backing as part of the deal.

Even before he bought the team he did stuff like buy a 2nd sim, so there was the team sim, and Lance’s sim 

stickyfiddle

DRS is confirmed as going for 2026. 

Z-mode and X-mode will replace it, fully driver controllable and no limits on where you are to other drivers. Only restriction will be on what sections of track you can use the "no grip" aero.

They've also mentioned a push-to-pass mode but not sure if that will be only for the guy behind.

https://www.racefans.net/2024/06/06/z-mode-and-x-mode-how-formula-1s-new-active-aero-will-work-in-2026/

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Details of the 2026 F1 car concept/rules announced by the FIA today:

https://www.fia.com/news/new-era-competition-fia-showcases-future-focused-formula-1-regulations-2026-and-beyond

There's a lot of stuff there, but some brief standout features:

• Cars smaller and lighter, including slightly narrower tyres
• "Active Aerodynamics" with drivers able switch between "Z-mode" for higher downforce in corners and "X-mode" for lower drag on straights
• More electric power in the power unit, including a "Manual Override" for attempted overtakes (basically a 'push to pass' function)
• Smaller/lower-powered diffusers to reduce ground effect, and downforce reduced in general all over

Never know how these things will pan out in practice, but the ideas seem interesting at least. Fingers crossed!

euan

Bring on the button mashing 

stickyfiddle

30kg isn't enough but is a good start. 

20cm off the wheelbase and 10cm off the width is good. 

Less grip from smaller tyres and downforce is generally a good thing as it also means longer braking zones, which in turn should give more variation between drivers when they're pushing it 

Fingers crossed! 

TimmyO

Interesting. I guess it’ll mean more likelihood of having to pit for a replacement front wing in the event of minor damage to it 

sinbaadi

stickyfiddle said:

30kg isn't enough but is a good start. 

20cm off the wheelbase and 10cm off the width is good. 

Less grip from smaller tyres and downforce is generally a good thing as it also means longer braking zones, which in turn should give more variation between drivers when they're pushing it 

Fingers crossed! 

Are they still trying to help cars follow closely or have they given up on that? 

Reducing mechanical grip and the "saviour" that was ground effect, seems to suggest that they have. 

To be fair it was never going turn them in to a pack of 220mph Formula Fords was it?

stickyfiddle

sinbaadi said:

stickyfiddle said:

30kg isn't enough but is a good start. 

20cm off the wheelbase and 10cm off the width is good. 

Less grip from smaller tyres and downforce is generally a good thing as it also means longer braking zones, which in turn should give more variation between drivers when they're pushing it 

Fingers crossed! 

Are they still trying to help cars follow closely or have they given up on that? 

Reducing mechanical grip and the "saviour" that was ground effect, seems to suggest that they have. 

To be fair it was never going turn them in to a pack of 220mph Formula Fords was it?

I think they're still trying, but lessening the emphasis on ground effect and focussing overall on just giving them less grip and therefore losing less when close behind someone. 

My 2c on the ground effect & diffuser changes specifically is twofold - 1) it reins in the current frontrunner, which is typical of these sorts of rule change, and 2) it should help with visibility in we weather, as the diffuser kicking so much water into the face of the guy behind seems to be a major issue made worse by the current cars. 

Paul_C

Dodge

^ That's shocking.

Cols

Paul_C said:

That’s a great illustration of how much they’ve bloated.  A 20cm reduction in wheelbase and 30kg weight loss is a step in the right direction, but it’s really just rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

Boromedic

Listening to the Chequered Flag Montreal preview podcast and it appears the Perez deal was inked before Imola and he then proceeded to have his two worst races.... Wonder if it's going to come back and bite them...

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Meanwhile, in Montreal currently....

https://twitter.com/autosport/status/1799117222843232698

Cols

Boromedic said:

Listening to the Chequered Flag Montreal preview podcast and it appears the Perez deal was inked before Imola and he then proceeded to have his two worst races.... Wonder if it's going to come back and bite them...

They must have anticipated that; Perez has some previous form for nodding off once his contract is secured.

Rumours still persist that Sainz is locked in at Williams for next year.  If true it would be the most baffling choice since Damon Hill decided that Arrows would be the place to be for 1997.

stickyfiddle

Cols said:

Boromedic said:

Listening to the Chequered Flag Montreal preview podcast and it appears the Perez deal was inked before Imola and he then proceeded to have his two worst races.... Wonder if it's going to come back and bite them...

They must have anticipated that; Perez has some previous form for nodding off once his contract is secured.

Rumours still persist that Sainz is locked in at Williams for next year.  If true it would be the most baffling choice since Damon Hill decided that Arrows would be the place to be for 1997.

Vowles is the key if it’s true. He’s been clear their focus is on surviving 24/25 so they can get everything lined up to properly deliver on the new regs. If that pays off they have a good shot at being much nearer the front. 

Boromedic

Cols said:

Boromedic said:

Listening to the Chequered Flag Montreal preview podcast and it appears the Perez deal was inked before Imola and he then proceeded to have his two worst races.... Wonder if it's going to come back and bite them...

They must have anticipated that; Perez has some previous form for nodding off once his contract is secured.

Rumours still persist that Sainz is locked in at Williams for next year.  If true it would be the most baffling choice since Damon Hill decided that Arrows would be the place to be for 1997.

Vowles has pulled a blinder off he has got him, and yeah Sergio is definitely a bench filler ain't he.

markr76

stickyfiddle said:

sinbaadi said:

stickyfiddle said:

30kg isn't enough but is a good start. 

20cm off the wheelbase and 10cm off the width is good. 

Less grip from smaller tyres and downforce is generally a good thing as it also means longer braking zones, which in turn should give more variation between drivers when they're pushing it 

Fingers crossed! 

Are they still trying to help cars follow closely or have they given up on that? 

Reducing mechanical grip and the "saviour" that was ground effect, seems to suggest that they have. 

To be fair it was never going turn them in to a pack of 220mph Formula Fords was it?

I think they're still trying, but lessening the emphasis on ground effect and focussing overall on just giving them less grip and therefore losing less when close behind someone. 

My 2c on the ground effect & diffuser changes specifically is twofold - 1) it reins in the current frontrunner, which is typical of these sorts of rule change, and 2) it should help with visibility in we weather, as the diffuser kicking so much water into the face of the guy behind seems to be a major issue made worse by the current cars. 

All the guys at the FIA who come up with the regs are interested in is making it so the cars can follow each other closely. They wrongly think this is all that’s needed to get exciting racing. Even though all the teams are telling them otherwise. They don’t want to listen to the teams though as they believe the teams are only interested in themselves and not the sport. 

I think the main reason for changing the reliance on ground effects with the new regs is so that the cars don’t have to be so stiff. Which is a big problem with these current cars. For the ground effects to work correctly the cars need to sit a lot closer to the ground. So the need for stiffer cars is necessary. But cars that are too stiff get bouncy and as a result the racing is worse for it. Thus has been a big problem for the whole grid, some more than others. But the whole grid has struggled with it. 

I think with the size of the cars, we’d all like to see smaller cars straight away. But one of the reasons they are bigger is for driver safety. But the FIA also get a lot of kick back from the teams too. Aerodynamicists like the car a bit bigger as it gives them more space to put extra aero bits on the cars,  

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Just caught up with the qualy highlights - wow, what a session! Thrilled for Russell, but slightly disappointed Hamilton couldn't knit together a better lap at the death to be up on the front couple of rows. 

And what the hell happened to Ferrari?!