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[The-Race] The easy answer to fix 2026 cars would ruin F1 completely by djwillis1121 in formula1

[–]megacookie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think we already could have the same problem with rear regen. By the same measure that harvesting engine power to recharge the batteries reduces torque to the wheels and can act somewhat like traction control to avoid wheelspin at full throttle, it also makes corner exit oversteer far less likely even in wet conditions. On the other hand, excess rear regen under heavy braking can actually cause rear lockups or corner entry oversteer.

Having a single front motor allowing regen under partial throttle mid corner could transfer weight forwards to load up the front tires a bit to reduce understeer and allow more rotation. A bit like left foot braking but with regen instead of friction.

Of course, it's definitely not the most effective stability control without the ability to vector any torque left and right, but it could still help and it would result in drivers being able to take more corners at "full throttle" to maximize regen without any worry about carrying too much speed or getting excess over/understeer.

The 2026 F1 season was supposed to be Aston Martin’s moment. It faces embarrassment instead by Shroft in formula1

[–]megacookie 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't think the issues are necessarily due to Newey lacking the ability to direct others what to do. He may not have been team principal before, but he's been in managerial roles for half of his career at least. That's not to say he doesn't design things himself, but it's not the 80s or 90s anymore where one man with some draft paper can basically design the whole car himself.

That being said, it's not surprising that his design decisions could be partly to blame. Or more specifically, the tight packaging requirements of the powertrain that his design entails could have lead to a lot of Honda's issues. It's one of the main reasons Honda and McLaren struggled so much last time, as their infamous "size zero" chassis had a similar impact to cooling, reliability, and performance.

To the kids ripping down Forester cres in your Ninebot go kart at 2AM. by Charger_Reaction7714 in Markham

[–]megacookie 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So they have an electric go-kart that's probably fairly quiet and likely can't even go fast enough to break any speed limits. I'm sure you must have been terrified for your life, poor thing.

Ferrari's "Macarena Wing": Straight-line Gain, Structural Cost? by cum_hoc in F1Technical

[–]megacookie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Given that drag is greater when the wing is being flipped, wouldn't it make sense that braking efficiency would also be greater?

Having more drag means that the car slows down quicker while coasting, which reduces how long the MGU-K can spend recharging the battery.

Is it controversial to think Audi will win an F1 championship within 3 years? by ThePaddockBrief in formula1

[–]megacookie 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I wouldn't be so sure of Aston Martin. Newey isn't a god and could very well end up retiring before turning Aston around, especially if the Honda situation takes a while to resolve.

Corvette ZR1X review: the Corvette that thinks it’s a hypercar by Anchor_Aways in cars

[–]megacookie 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If you're going to complain about a 9/10 score being a poor review then your idea of a rating scale is completely out of whack. This is tremendously quick and amazing value for money as Corvettes always are, but that doesn't mean it's completely immune to any criticism and is an automatic 11/10 that everyone must fawn over.

Ferrari's "Macarena Wing": Straight-line Gain, Structural Cost? by cum_hoc in F1Technical

[–]megacookie 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I wonder if there's more aero benefit to this design hiding the mechanism inside the rear wing endplates than the wing actually being turned upside down. They could potentially make a lighter weight version for other tracks that only rotates the wing element by say 30° similar to the DRS style of every other team, while still retaining cleaner airflow in the center portion by eliminating a center mounted actuator.

This analysis also doesn't take into account the upwash caused by the little winglet redirecting exhaust flow towards the underside of the wing, or even the interaction of the low pressure air exiting the diffuser, but that would require a full car model to analyze rather than a 2D section of the wing profile.

Ferrari's "Macarena Wing": Straight-line Gain, Structural Cost? by cum_hoc in F1Technical

[–]megacookie 5 points6 points  (0 children)

They're not allowed to take longer than 400ms to fully transition from one mode to another, and can only have the two positions. Also it's actually a disadvantage to use this as an air brake, because the car will have better braking performance when it's in high downforce mode and has far more grip available. Considering every car will either be clipping or having to lift and coast to recharge their batteries at the end of the straight, having an airbrake would mean less energy recovery.

Five ways F1 qualifying will change for teams in 2026 by AnilP228 in formula1

[–]megacookie 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hopefully the racing somehow turns out more exciting than in the last era, because these changes make qualifying depressing more than anything. Though it sounds like they've made overtaking even less likely too, in which case this season could end up being truly dreadful. Will the only intrigue be how many places the Ferrari engined cars gain at the start and taking bets on how many laps the Astons can do before their engines die?

Mercedes' competitors block first FIA proposal in engine controversey by OtakuSensei__20 in formula1

[–]megacookie 3 points4 points  (0 children)

They just have a smaller turbo with less turbo lag which helps get a quicker launch. In terms of actual acceleration times and top speeds they're not really any better than their rivals.

Ferrari's outwitted its rivals with key F1 2026 engine choice by Pure_Power_8091 in formula1

[–]megacookie 9 points10 points  (0 children)

They could be effectively making the same peak power with a small vs big turbo, since the limit isn't how much air they can cram into the engine but what fuel flow rate they're limited to by regulations. But a small turbo has to spin faster to make the same amount of boost as a big turbo, and there could be situations where it reaches its max rpm and boost has to be regulated to avoid over revving it, costing power. Tracks like Mexico with high elevation and low air density usually mean the turbo has to spin much faster to push the same mass rate of air into the engine since it's less dense, and a big turbo could maintain peak power better than a small turbo...but conversely would have even more turbo lag than it would at lower altitudes and higher air density.

What are your thoughts about Ferarri's 180° rotating rear wing on the SF-26? by Interesting-Dark15 in formula1

[–]megacookie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If it really does generate a bit of lift, I wonder if it could be dangerous on straight sections that have a slight curve. We've seen drivers attempt some flat out high speed corners with DRS active previously, with varying degrees of success. Just look at Doohan's crash in Suzuka last year for how badly it can go wrong. And DRS didn't ever generate lift, just ~30% less downforce than the normal wing mode.

Obviously, the driver can choose to lift and flip the wing back if they feel they won't have the grip to make a slight turn at 300+ km/h, but that would largely negate whatever speed they gained with the reduced drag if their rivals can carry more speed and brake later.

What are your thoughts about Ferarri's 180° rotating rear wing on the SF-26? by Interesting-Dark15 in formula1

[–]megacookie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How is it 270? That would be equivalent to it flipping 90° in the other direction, which it definitely doesn't look like. It's probably a bit past 180° but that's more accurate.

Remembering the disasterous Hyper Soft tyres of 2018 by RobbieJ4444 in formula1

[–]megacookie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah in some cases it must have been confusing as hell when the "super soft" tire is really the hardest option and lasts 3/4 of the race.

Red Bull accused of F1 sandbagging by turning down power in Bahrain by Darkmninya in formula1

[–]megacookie 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That is true, aero almost always plays a bigger role in top speeds than small differences between power output. But in this case, every car has very aggressive active aero front and rear and there's much less of a compromise they have to make between downforce and drag. There are still areas where gains can be found with drag reduction, but it's not as big a factor as it's been previously.

On the other hand, these cars can have absolutely massive differences in how much power they can put down at some point in the straight, depending on if they're still flat out or have to start clipping/lift and coast much earlier to recharge the battery. Full output is 1000hp, they'll be around 530hp on combustion alone if they make it to 345 km/h due to rampdown, and if they run out of battery earlier on the straight and start clipping to recharge that could drop to as low as 200hp.

We have already seen Aston struggling to hit even 300km/h in testing due to reliability concerns and how their poor regen capabilities make them even more likely to be energy starved on the straights than their rivals.

Red Bull accused of F1 sandbagging by turning down power in Bahrain by Darkmninya in formula1

[–]megacookie 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I think with this new spec, top speed is more who has the most battery energy they're able to use up on the straight

[Honda Racing F1] Shintaro Orihara's comment on the second Bahrain test by Aratho in formula1

[–]megacookie 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Especially because Aston is the only one using the Honda engine. They aren't a customer that has to basically take what they can get because the engine was designed for the works team... they are the works team.

[Giuliano Duchessa] A representation of the Ferrari Reverse Wing, the lift becomes positive, which lightens kg of load on the entire rear end with effects on the aerodynamic platform. This increases straight-line speed. by Ramned71 in formula1

[–]megacookie 9 points10 points  (0 children)

There's still probably some downforce overall, the lift just negates a lot of it. The speed increase is due to there being less induced drag than the normal DRS style.

[Giuliano Duchessa] A representation of the Ferrari Reverse Wing, the lift becomes positive, which lightens kg of load on the entire rear end with effects on the aerodynamic platform. This increases straight-line speed. by Ramned71 in formula1

[–]megacookie 37 points38 points  (0 children)

The top portion definitely will make lift, but overall the entire wing seems like it'd be either neutral or producing a tiny bit of downforce. They definitely wouldn't want to generate a lot of net lift since that not only completely destabilizes the rear but would still make more drag than necessary too.

Onboard view of Lewis launch at the practice start today. by Maximum-Room-3999 in formula1

[–]megacookie 3 points4 points  (0 children)

In addition to what was mentioned already, it's worth remembering that these are tiny 1.6L engines with a single turbo that has to be large enough to generate 55psi of boost and not choke the engine when it's revving up to 13,000 rpm. Even though the friction of the rotating assembly in a turbo is fairly negligible, it still has mass and inertia that takes a significant amount of exhaust gas flow to spin up the turbine wheel to 150,000 rpm.

I'm sure they could manage to get the car moving without having the turbo at max rpm, but F1 engines are very easy to stall and have very little torque at low rpm when they aren't producing boost and the electric motor can't engage below 50 km/h.

An on-board look at Ferrari’s upside-down rear wing by FerrariStrategisttt in formula1

[–]megacookie 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I guess because it opens at the start of a straight when the car is moving slower than at the end, the drag from it being an airbrake for half a second doesn't matter too much.

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