Is it true it’s just the start? I assumed it would be car speed based and therefore affect pit stops? Interestingly 50is pretty close to the minimum on track speed (Loews hairpinin Monaco)on the first lap if it was car speed based, it would probably have some impact there.
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I read about this too. I wonder how well thought through these changes are. Sure there are bound to be teething issues but not convinced they anticipated these. Is it likely to make a charge from the back of the pack by Max or some of others more difficult.
Max is supposedly not impressed by it all.
I hope they haven't ruined the spectacle.
I guess there might some sandbagging going on.
Good point, I think it's just grid starts, but they do seem to be revving to get out of the pits. I was wondering about the Lowes hairpin but I think it's just start as it's being said that Ferrari vetoed a change to the start lights sequence. It looks like Ferrari may have cottoned on to the difficulty starting off the grid and may be using a much smaller turbo to reduce lag.
I read the rules, you’re right it’s just starts. I wonder what the thinking was here and what they were trying to achieve? I could guess they were fearful of too much performance off the line, but that could surely have been mitigated with a torque rise rate restriction from the MGU-K, below 50kph?
If all the teams were in the same situation, it seems like removing that rule would be an easy fix, but if Ferrari have made compromises based on it, it seems unfair to remove it for this year at least.
If all the teams were in the same situation, it seems like removing that rule would be an easy fix, but if Ferrari have made compromises based on it, it seems unfair to remove it for this year at least.
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I'm guessing that all the Merc PUs are using restricted maps to try and avoid a ban due to hot compression ratio - not that I think they will get a PU ban as it would hurt so many teams, it would look very poor on the rule makers.
I think Red Bull seem to have an energy harvesting advantage although I'm not sure as energy harvesting is capped at 8MJ per lap. So either the other teams can't get close to that target or Red Bull are using more ICE power to harvest. So far I do think they have done an outstanding job on their first PU, although I don't know how much 'help' they had via Honda. I seem to remember Red Bull pushing Honda in their early days to go into the grey areas of the rules to get more power/reliability so I guess they gained knowledge from that.
IF Aston can sort out cooling then maybe they will come good, or at least close their 4 second gap that they keep mentioning. I do think it's very diplomatic of them to suggest that a big part of their issues is the in house gearbox. Takes the spotlight away from Honda and Adrian.
Ferrari are an interesting one, they appear to be using a small turbo so they can get off the line and reduce lag, they read that section of the rules
.Their long runs look good, I would like to think they are the dark horse (pun intended) and they could have a decent car.
We might get some more clues from tomorrow.
Just read that for straight line charging the MGU-K is caped at 250kW not the 350kW max! This is to prevent sudden deceleration at very high speeds!
It appears that McLaren are hoping this cap will be lifted so they can harvest at the full 350kW on straights. They say it will mean charging faster and less need to lift and coast! I think if McLaren are asking for the increase then all of the Merc customers would be happy with that. I would be surprised if it gets changed as I'm sure other teams have designed their systems to only cope with 250kW harvesting at high speeds.
As time goes on, this is sounding like teams may have had lots of design choices due to the rules that other teams are now trying to change to their advantage.
FIA etc are having a meeting this week to discuss hot compression ratios, start procedures (longer red lights for turbo spool up) and maybe the 250kW cap? Can only see the possibility of the red lights timing changing due to safety concerns, other stuff maybe a change for 2027.
It appears that McLaren are hoping this cap will be lifted so they can harvest at the full 350kW on straights. They say it will mean charging faster and less need to lift and coast! I think if McLaren are asking for the increase then all of the Merc customers would be happy with that. I would be surprised if it gets changed as I'm sure other teams have designed their systems to only cope with 250kW harvesting at high speeds.
As time goes on, this is sounding like teams may have had lots of design choices due to the rules that other teams are now trying to change to their advantage.
FIA etc are having a meeting this week to discuss hot compression ratios, start procedures (longer red lights for turbo spool up) and maybe the 250kW cap? Can only see the possibility of the red lights timing changing due to safety concerns, other stuff maybe a change for 2027.
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For better or worse the FIA probably just has to kick the can down the road and see what happens, they can’t make a change now and then find out they’ve handed e.g. RedBull a huge advantage by hobbling Merc.
The good thing from their point of view is that it looks like the teams at the front are deserving, if Verstappen, Norris, Piastri, Leclerc, or Russell wins the championship - even in a way that’s not very F1, it’s completely different than if Audi had somehow aced it and Hulkenberg wins every race and the championship.
The good thing from their point of view is that it looks like the teams at the front are deserving, if Verstappen, Norris, Piastri, Leclerc, or Russell wins the championship - even in a way that’s not very F1, it’s completely different than if Audi had somehow aced it and Hulkenberg wins every race and the championship.
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I guess there’s a reasonable amount of cruising around in testing, but even so that’s really impressive.
Some info on the hot compression ratio meeting:
The FIA have announced a vote has been submitted to all power unit manufacturers asking should compression ratio be measured at both ambient and representative operating temp - they have 10 days to reply!
If the vote goes in favour of a change then new rules would come in 1st August, giving Merc 6 months to change the design.
To me the complication is that as it's part way through a season they will have used multiple ICE units, maybe even all of their 3 allowed. So are they still allowed to use those 3 for the rest of the season or do they get 3 new modified ones after 1st August?
The FIA have announced a vote has been submitted to all power unit manufacturers asking should compression ratio be measured at both ambient and representative operating temp - they have 10 days to reply!
If the vote goes in favour of a change then new rules would come in 1st August, giving Merc 6 months to change the design.
To me the complication is that as it's part way through a season they will have used multiple ICE units, maybe even all of their 3 allowed. So are they still allowed to use those 3 for the rest of the season or do they get 3 new modified ones after 1st August?
Seems like Ferrari are showing off some of their interesting designs.
Looks like they have moved the diff back, unlike most teams who move it forward for better weight distribution, so they can utilise a 'hole' in the regs that allows it to have a sort of scoop behind the exhaust exit. Believed to create downforce for the rear diffuser plus it's a bit like the old blown diffusers but on a smaller scale. I'm guessing it's more beneficial due to using the ICE to regen via high revs entering corners?
The second new part, that's visible, is the upper flap on the rear wing! They have it not just opening up on straights but it actually flips over through 180 degrees. It's being suggested that this could actually create slight lift at the rear but I'm not that convinced that's the reason for it as they need the rear down force to accelerate in the early parts of the straights. I'm wondering if it's in some way just reducing drag, maybe even stalling the lower wing too?
Looking at this years Ferrari they really seem to be taking a radical view of the rules. They spotted the turbo spooling issues on the start very early in development, exhaust blowing, and flipping the wing and that's just what we know about! Not to mention the reliability of the PU.
Could the last 2 be red herrings just to throw the other teams down a blind alley?
What will they bring on the final day?
Could this be Ferrari's year????
Looks like they have moved the diff back, unlike most teams who move it forward for better weight distribution, so they can utilise a 'hole' in the regs that allows it to have a sort of scoop behind the exhaust exit. Believed to create downforce for the rear diffuser plus it's a bit like the old blown diffusers but on a smaller scale. I'm guessing it's more beneficial due to using the ICE to regen via high revs entering corners?
The second new part, that's visible, is the upper flap on the rear wing! They have it not just opening up on straights but it actually flips over through 180 degrees. It's being suggested that this could actually create slight lift at the rear but I'm not that convinced that's the reason for it as they need the rear down force to accelerate in the early parts of the straights. I'm wondering if it's in some way just reducing drag, maybe even stalling the lower wing too?
Looking at this years Ferrari they really seem to be taking a radical view of the rules. They spotted the turbo spooling issues on the start very early in development, exhaust blowing, and flipping the wing and that's just what we know about! Not to mention the reliability of the PU.
Could the last 2 be red herrings just to throw the other teams down a blind alley?
What will they bring on the final day?
Could this be Ferrari's year????
I was initially concerned about Cadillac and 107%, but that was based on the possibility that someone (not Ferrari) having a engine advantage of a few percent and the the Cadillac car being 5% off, which wouldn’t have been unreasonable for a first car. The reality is despite today’s times neither seems to be true, unless someone’s holding back an extra second or two. Aston I think are capable of doing a back of Class B time say 3-4% off, reliability and consistency is their main issue.
yeah, it works out at over 6 seconds around Bahrain, and everyone managed that, though Aston Marussia don't look like they can do it for a GP.
It’s certainly an interesting development and set of compromises. With the cars going so slowly through the corners and straight line mode on the straights, it seems like an odd situation to want to add more fixed downforce unless it’s really efficient?
Lift creates drag, so unless they can use the two in combination to - as you say - stall the rear wing, this doesn’t feel that effective. I guess if the wing is creating the same drag as a normal open active aero position the lift will unload the tyres at the highest speeds for a small rolling resistance reduction and some rear tyre cooling - it might be one of those things that looks significant, but only confers a marginal gain. Ferrari seem to say this was an experiment so it will be interesting to see if they or anyone take it further.
I have to say, I do wonder if the smaller turbo thing might be quite important in terms of the year. Initially I was expecting overtaking to be quite easy this year with big differences in deployment and so figured, leading into the first corner wasn’t going to be as valuable as in recent history. It seems to be emerging that with Active aero destroying the slipstream effect and there not being sufficient energy to use overtake mode, it’s actually really hard. If the Ferrari is going to have a big start line advantage, it may be a benefit at a lot of tracks and if at most of those it doesn’t really hinder them it could be an real advantage over a year.
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If you remember back to the story about running non homologated fuel in testing. I learned that’s not about being able to use a different fuel, but that the homologation includes supply chain certification and manufacturing process certification in order to verify the “sustainable” aspect. The “allowance” means those parts don’t need to be adhered to, which reduces cost and is more practical for the large amounts that need to be created for testing. So the fuel is chemically identical, just achieved a different way.