Formula 1’s chief technical officer has revealed new details of the biggest overhaul of the series’ regulations in a decade.
Peak power, yes, the cars will have a thousand horsepower. On average, though, because of the conservation of energy and fuel flow limits. They will have an average power output of less than 600 horsepower, closer to 530 if I recall correctly. Enineering Explained made a good video about it. So overall I think saying the 2026 cars will also have 1000 hp is sort of misleading since it will only have that power available for very short amounts of time.
Honestly I really despise the whole Fuel Flow Limit thing, along with having tyres that have to be nursed too much I feel.
It depends. They have go limit the power of the cars somehow, and fuel flow limit is i think a good way to do that, because it promotes efficiency. Things like taking away electric energy recovery from the turbo seems stupid in contrast because it removes efficiency
Interesting. Genuine question, what are the main reasons for limiting the power? Is it due to safety?, managing costs? Theoretically, with so few engines allowed per season now, wouldnt it curb alot of the stuff that was happening with insane qualifying trims in the 80’s as an example?
I think the main reason is safety, yes. With more power you can add more downforce while not loosing out on top speed. I think 5 to 6 Gs of lateral acceleration in corners is already enough :D
As for your second question: technology, especially turbo technology and precision machining has come a long way within the last 40 years. I think the most extreme cases of qualifying trim in the 80s were 1.5 litre engines with 1200-1500 hp, and they literally only lasted for one single lap, or around 5 km.
Todays engines are 1.6 litres running at 900-1000 hp while doing multiple thousand km. Additionally, using more than 3 engines outweigh the penaltys with the performance gained.
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A lot of people don’t realize a major objective of technical regulations is to intentionally slow the cars down and keep them below a particular speed.
I’ll be surprised if these cars get over 250 km/h at their fastest. Then again, I don’t have access to their testing data, so take that with an ocean of salt.
Honestly I expect the overall laptime to be about the same as current after a couple seasons. I’m just guessing too though.
They’ll probably gain some speed in low/medium speed corners, and lose speed in high speed sections. Although additional active-aero will help some.
Makes sense, since we’ll likely see tighter lines taken on corners.
They still have access to 1000 BHP for short periods, while weighing less and having less downforce that will almost certainly result in less drag for most cars. I would not expect peak speed to be that much slower than now, just average speed over the lap.
Sure the drop to 6 gears from 8 (if it goes ahead) is going to hurt but not being able to use all 1000 BHP on the straight at somewhere like Monza means you’ll just be a sitting duck all day long, RB have shown that when they had their biggest DRS advantage.
Yup. They’ll start off much slower but after a few years they’ll be rapid again.
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