Not sure if I’ve got your meaning. I think you’re right that it’s now an energy flow rather than a mass flow limit, but a more energy dense fuel still means you’d be flowing less mass for a given energy requirement and need less mass at the start of the race? It does mean you’d be injecting a smaller quantity of fuel, which I’d guess would be increasingly challenging to control the more precision you need.
2026 Watch
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Not sure if I’ve got your meaning. I think you’re right that it’s now an energy flow rather than a mass flow limit, but a more energy dense fuel still means you’d be flowing less mass for a given energy requirement and need less mass at the start of the race? It does mean you’d be injecting a smaller quantity of fuel, which I’d guess would be increasingly challenging to control the more precision you need.
Not sure how much to read into it but some (unverified) rumour that Audi used 3 PUs on their shakedown last weekdue to reliability issues.
There was chatter that Cadillac (Ferrari PU) may have had a bit of challenge too.
Might all just be a slow January giving rise to BS stories but one to monitor once we go testing.
Enjoying the break from it all actually so be nice to see what the initial picture looks like once they go to race one.
Yeah I’m not putting much stock in those kinds of rumours to be honest, especially with Ferrari it seems everyday there’s a “it’s going to be amazing”, “it’s going to be a disaster” story being put out there for clicks.
If true, the Audi story would be worrying, because they have put it out there that these first engines are a “safe design” in order to ensure they get early mileage.
For the Cadillac one, I heard from someone who was in the area they didn’t run in the morning as planned, and ended up only doing <50km against a 200km target (they booked for a filming day, but ended up being able to claim it as something lesser so again seems to be based in facts). Without something more conclusive about what the cause was, I don’t think it really tells us anything about the Ferrari PU though, it’s a brand new team, they could easily have all sorts of team-side teething issues.
Haas early contenders for livery of the year?
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RB being shaken down at Imola - check out the airbox!
I noted the image rights were reserved, I’ll see if I can find a public domain image later.
www.the-race.com
I noted the image rights were reserved, I’ll see if I can find a public domain image later.
First images of 2026 Racing Bulls revealed from Imola shakedown
The Race can reveal images from Racing Bulls' 2026 F1 car's first on-track running during a shakedown at Imola
www.the-race.com
Interesting air box as you say plus wheels seem different too. I believe that they can now use any supplier not just BBS, but they also seem to have a dish on the rimRB being shaken down at Imola - check out the airbox!
I noted the image rights were reserved, I’ll see if I can find a public domain image later.
First images of 2026 Racing Bulls revealed from Imola shakedown
The Race can reveal images from Racing Bulls' 2026 F1 car's first on-track running during a shakedown at Imola
Good spot with the wheels, wheel covers are banned in 2026, so this looks like a creative substitute?
Seeing a liveried one on track I do quite like the look of the cars, they look much smaller and more nimble, although these early basic versions all look a bit “F3 like”. I’m assuming once people start to show off their final aero they’ll be a lot more complex and that effect will be lessened.
From the BBC
Mercedes chief designer John Owen is to leave the team later this year.
The 52-year-old has been with the team since 2007, when it was Honda, and been a key figure in championships won under the name Brawn in 2009 and Mercedes from 2010.
The team won the drivers' and constructors' titles as Brawn and then seven drivers' and eight constructors' championships as Mercedes from 2014-21.
A Mercedes statement said Owen would leave "after assuring the transition to his successor" and then have a period of gardening leave.
There was no information on what his next career step might be.
Engineering director Giacomo Tortora will become director of car design, a group overseen by deputy technical director Simone Resta, the team said.
Owen worked at the Swiss Sauber team, where he became senior aerodynamicist in 2004 before his move to Honda. He started his career at the now-defunct racing-car manufacturer Reynard.
My question is why ?
Has he / his team dropped the ball and they know they will struggle this year ?
Or has he simply been poached by another team , hence the mention of gardening leave ?
Mercedes chief designer John Owen is to leave the team later this year.
The 52-year-old has been with the team since 2007, when it was Honda, and been a key figure in championships won under the name Brawn in 2009 and Mercedes from 2010.
The team won the drivers' and constructors' titles as Brawn and then seven drivers' and eight constructors' championships as Mercedes from 2014-21.
A Mercedes statement said Owen would leave "after assuring the transition to his successor" and then have a period of gardening leave.
There was no information on what his next career step might be.
Engineering director Giacomo Tortora will become director of car design, a group overseen by deputy technical director Simone Resta, the team said.
Owen worked at the Swiss Sauber team, where he became senior aerodynamicist in 2004 before his move to Honda. He started his career at the now-defunct racing-car manufacturer Reynard.
My question is why ?
Has he / his team dropped the ball and they know they will struggle this year ?
Or has he simply been poached by another team , hence the mention of gardening leave ?
I hate the wheel covers .
Glad they can choose other wheel manufacturers as well .
Can we please also have an alternative tyre supplier ?
I'm not sure on different tyre suppliers unless the teams can choice at each race which tyre manufacturer they want to use.
Maybe I'm thinking back to the era when Bridgestone worked so closely with Ferrari to develop tyres that were almost exclusively tested on the Ferrari at their track. The other teams using Bridgestone had to have what they were given.
I sort of feel that if F1 had multiple tyre suppliers then there might be favoritism especially if money starts getting involved.
Just reading stuff suggesting that Ferrari have used steel cylinder liners not ali. Something about the steel can take higher temps which doesn't really add up to me as the pistons will be ali so they won't be able to take the same heat as the steel liners?
If they are using steel then there has to be an alternative explanation - maybe expansion rates or better cooling - remember they are using synthetic fuels so maybe their fuel supplier has developed a high power fuel that burns hotter? Then again I thought fuel flow was limited by energy stored not by volume or mass?
It's starting to hot up a it and get interesting.
As you can tell I'm looking forward to this season more than I have for a few years.
If they are using steel then there has to be an alternative explanation - maybe expansion rates or better cooling - remember they are using synthetic fuels so maybe their fuel supplier has developed a high power fuel that burns hotter? Then again I thought fuel flow was limited by energy stored not by volume or mass?
It's starting to hot up a it and get interesting.
As you can tell I'm looking forward to this season more than I have for a few years.
Unless the car is late, you’d think that it’s too early to be firing him because they’ve dropped the ball on performance, no one would really know that yet? I think more likely he’s gone somewhere else. Audi or Cadillac must still be building up, or maybe even RedBull as a a replacement for Rob Marshall?
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This is just a livery launch, obviously silver and Audi has a long history, but I can’t help but reminded of McLaren looking at the front.I quite like the front half and I quite like the back half, the two together, I’m not really sure about!
The launch chat is hugely ambitious, but also humble and cognisant of the challenges ahead. When Audi does something in motorsport it does tend to get stuff spectacularly right eventually, but F1 is a different beast and I can’t help but feel that being based in Switzerland is always going to be a challenge that most other teams don’t have.
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My wife says the front reminds her of McLaren .
I agree about the Swiss location , but they have got quite a lot of ready to go infrastructure there already .
Perhaps part of the buyout was to keep the Swiss base ( and staff ) there ? Peter Sauber always came across to me as a decent bloke .
Yeah, I was thinking more about attracting the best people. It’s the same issue as Ferrari really. For the headline staff maybe you’re paying enough that you can encourage folks to move. If want someone at a working level with some specific skills, I think it’s a lot easier to attract someone from RedBull to Merc than it would be for them to convince someone to move to Hinwil, so you’re picking from a much smaller group. I understand they’ve added a UK base, but then you’ve got the “not all under one roof” challenge.
I read today that they need more space at Hinwil and they don't even have a dedicated video conference room there or at Audi's engine facility. So its not easy to have video conferences between the two.
They have ordered a new simulator so have to find space for that - I'm sure they have worked that out before ordering it though
They have ordered a new simulator so have to find space for that - I'm sure they have worked that out before ordering it though
I read today that they need more space at Hinwil and they don't even have a dedicated video conference room there or at Audi's engine facility. So its not easy to have video conferences between the two.
They have ordered a new simulator so have to find space for that - I'm sure they have worked that out before ordering it though
From Autosport .
As Audi prepares for its first ever season as a Formula 1 manufacturer, it has had to transition from Sauber's status as a long-time Ferrari customer team to a full-works entity.
Part of that transition has involved the union of the Sauber Engineering facilities in Hinwil and Audi's powertrain facilities in Neuberg. In the prelude to 2026, chief operating officer and chief technical officer Mattia Binotto spoke of the need to install permanent conference-call facilities in both factories to ensure both camps had a clear line of communication between the Swiss and German bases.
Binotto, who had oversight of both powertrain and chassis projects in his oeuvre at Ferrari, believes that Audi's Neuberg facilities are very much up-to-scratch for the demands of modern F1. Conversely, the Italian believes that the current infrastructure at Hinwil, however, is currently in need of an update and is lacking space for the full scope of what Audi needs from the factory.
In years past, Hinwil was considered one of the more technologically advanced facilities on the F1 grid; Kimi Raikkonen's move to McLaren for 2002 is said to have at least partly funded the team's then-state-of-the-art wind tunnel and supercomputer, which ultimately led to BMW taking a majority shareholding between 2006-2009.
But, as teams have swelled in numbers across the past couple of decades, allied to Audi's recruitment drive for its first season in F1, Hinwil is in need of expansion. Binotto says trying to shoehorn the team's incoming new simulator into the current facilities is not a reasonable scenario.
"I think in Neuburg the infrastructure is all what we need. We are at the level. It's a great infrastructure. We've got all the dynos and the space required," Binotto explained.
"In Hinwil, on the opposite, I think still we are lacking space for what we need. We have ordered a brand new simulator, but we need a building for it because the simulator is big. So we need to build that.
We need to expand our manufacturing capacity because in F1 it's important certainly the composite to be manufactured internally for the speed, for the quality, for the cost of the budget gap. So we need to expand manufacturing.
"We need more desks for engineering. So overall we need more space. And together with Audi, as I said before, fully committed, we are looking for enlarging our buildings, our campus, and our current facilities."
Regardless, Binotto believes that Audi has the ingredients needed to be successful in F1. The team has set itself a five-year plan to be competitive - although F1 history is littered with failed five-year plans and 100-race targets to start winning regularly.
Audi's first priority is to ensure that its new R26 is finishing races, and that its powertrain can be developed into one that can challenge the established manufacturers - assuming it cannot do so from the beginning. From there, the team will have to continue building upon that momentum.
"It is always difficult to compare to the others I don't know the others," he added.
"I know who is Audi, what is Audi, and I think we have got a great team with great energy which is fully focused on our future and our success.
"And I can tell you that I am convinced that we've got all what is required to become successful one day. And I am pretty sure that we will be."
We want you to move to one of the most beautiful countries, with a really low tax rate....
I don't think it's that hard of a sell tbh.