As the year goes on I figure we’ll have a bundle of 2026 topics to discuss and it will make sense to keep them separate to the ongoing season news. First thing of note is that in order to prepare for the new rules, we get 3 test sessions next year. The first runs from 26th to 30th Jan in Barcelona - teams can choose three of the five days to run. This is a behind closed doors event. Two more traditional sessions then in Bahrain, 12-14 Feb and 18-20 Feb. Power units have to be Homologated by 1st March.
Good shout to have this thread! The PU chat in particular will be key- do we know what the rules are around improving engine performance after they are homologated? My admittedly light reading across the web in the last year or so seems to suggest… Red Bull power trains- lots of talented people have joined, but Horner has said it might have teething problems before bearing fruit. It’s an enormous project for RBR. They’ll definitely get it right at some point but question is can they deliver first time up? If they do it will be very impressive but Horner has played it down. Audi PU is apparently behind the others. I suspect that they will be a slow burner and is why Sainz turned them down. Mercedes HPP- confidence does appear to have been emanating from there in recent months. I suspect they’ll be close to if not the benchmark. Ferrari- I haven’t heard much yet on this front. Honda- some media reports I think misquoted the boss and suggested they were behind. However- a very trusted -Honda source over at the F1 Technical forum quashed that and indicated they are pretty advanced now and on track. He’s been an awesome source of info since they were fixing the original PU problems with the McLaren back in 2015 and was very confident ahead of 2021 and 2022, so il keep an eye out for further rumblings!
I’ve not done the best job of remembering to post here, but so far everything has largely been speculation rather than data based. Saw this video today, which has some good data based summaries of how current performance is varying.
Few more things I’ve picked up recently. Fuel/lubricant supply. Because the current fuel is effectively “pump fuel” fuel sponsorships are effectively badging the fuel linked to the engine supplier. In 2026 it’s expected that many teams will develop their own fuels, so e.g the Petronas and Gulf fuels used in Merc and McLaren may differ leading to potentially significantly different performance for the same engine. Chassis regs have been loosened up a bit to allow more exotic materials and also to specify the outcome rather than the solution. Means teams can innovate to pass the crash tests, rather than the current situation where there’s e.g. a design for the side impact prevention structures that just has to be integrated to pass. The aim is to allow weight to become a bigger variable with the competition driving the weight down, whilst maintaining safety. Expect to see a lot more use of additive manufacturing (3D printing type technologies).
Wasn't the difference in fuels McLaren's original problem when the regs changed in '14 and why they changed to Honda?
You might be right originally, although I understand nowadays, the fuel is standardised by the engine manufacturers - it might have changed at some point to keep costs down (engines only have to be validated with one fuel) and/or as the FIA clamped down on stuff like oil burn. Although I think things are still a bit more varied when it comes to lubricants because some of the customer teams do their own gearbox. I’d thought it was more to do with the advantages that Works status was giving Merc in terms of integration, but also in terms of access to the different PU modes and Ron thinking they needed to be a works team to get back to the front.
My understanding is that the fuel was a differentiating factor in performance yes, but that in the early days of hybrid the manufacturer (Merc) were not obligated to share all software details (engine modes). So whilst hardware was the same, I don’t think everyone knew how to mine the performance through the software settings.Obviously the manufacturer did. There’s a story somewhere from a guy at Lotus who told a tale on the missed apex podcast of being given an engine mode by a Merc HPP support guy so they could challenge Vettel for position in a race, that felt so much better than anything they’d used or been given before and then weren’t allowed to use again. It’s one of the reasons I utterly detest 2014 and 2015 in particular. Totally biased rules that favoured a manufacturer, given them a total edge over customer teams and then the stupid token rule that prevented other manufacturers from improving their initial engine product (eg Honda). An utter farce - as we saw when Mercedes went 3 seconds a lap quicker than anyone in Bahrain when they let HAM and ROS fight. If you remember Ron Dennis’ interviews - and whilst he was lately mocked for jumping to Honda too early- he basically said you couldn’t win a championship without “access to the source code”- and in 2014 when he signed with Honda that was true. Unfortunately, Honda weren’t ready and latterly the rules changed to allow customers the same PU performance and access, which is a key reason why McLaren have been able to take the fight to Mercedes in recent years. Heaven only knows what we’re gonna get in 2026 engine wise.
