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Let’s preface my commentary with the fact that next year is an ENTIRELY NEW “SMALLER” CAR…including a New PU…(including triple the electric power…going from 120 to 350).
New Team & MajorTeam Re-alignment…including changes in principals/ownership.
New PU providers and PU team-alignment…Like Aston to Honda (I think?), RB to Ford. Audi as a “Team”…& this is one is hilarious to me: Ferrari powered Cadillacs!
So, with all that…
Horner’s departure may be about him going somewhere-else and RB just letting him go now.
Max going anywhere-else would be based on him believing that said team can give him a race winning car.
If Mercedes has a back-up/test driver that’s likely already involved in the “new” car…would they let him go…?
There are a few drivers that’ve shown their genius…like Albon…who’s continually racing for points in a car that’s pretty damn hard to get points with (see Sainz). All the while…there are some seriously sketchy cars out there…just ask Max. Hell, and I hate saying this…even Stroll has good days (WTF, did I just say that?).
So, I’m seeing plenty of potential for “a crazy year” right now as far as the musical chairs of race team politics is concerned.
I won’t be too surprised if a driver contract or 2 gets broken in all of this.
My guess, either Max told Red Bull he was leaving and it was Horny's fault so they fired him.. or.. Max said "him or me" so they fired him. All the stuff with Jos and Marko (both of whom Max has immense trust in) makes me think it's option 2, but time will tell.
Williams announced a couple of races back that, they're not investing in any more upgrades for this car.
I'd not be surprised to hear that redbull is doing the same.
And you're right.
Next year's car is a huge change.
(No DRS)
And I've said before that, this year is basically a throw away season.
We saw the same thing in the season before the hybrid era.
Mercedes threw in the towel very early on that season, and came out and dominated the ensuing seasons.
IMO,
Williams, Aston Martin, and hopefully Sauber/Audi will be launched up into the mix up front.
Couple points to clarify things a bit - Red Bull engines next year are their own, Ford are just providing support on electrics and may have paid enough money to have the engines badged as RBPT-Ford (Red Bull PowerTrains).
Aston are going to Honda with a full works deal (like Red Bull had up to 2021).
Unlikely Horner goes anywhere else (although Cadillac maybe, possibly eventually) because everyone else has a team principal in place and not many of them actually like him.
Rumour is that the new engines for 2026 are in a bit of a bad spot and cars could be considerably slower, there's rumours about the cars running out of battery on long-straights because the rules on harvesting energy are so tight meaning they could be as much as 30mph down. Mercedes right now seem to have a weight of opinion in the pit lane as having best solved that and potentially having a major advantage, which is why there's so much music about them and Max joining up.
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Just popped in to say hello to my fellow F1 fans and what a bomb drop. Like Twigster stated, Ford and RB aligned but in a different way. Also, this plays heavy on RB and the drivetrain as Horner was pushing that all along away from Honda. RB is in a tight spot and it is clear that enough was enough and Christian had to go. He will land elsewhere in a year or two's time and turn that program around. For Max moving forward, he would need to see improvement in the actual car and its design.
26 engines are struggling, they just need to go back to the V10 and scrap this idiotic battery design
But…what kind of message does a V10 send when we’re trying to…Save The Planet! 🤣
I guess there’s some sort of revolt in the F1 PU community that’s pushing the idea of a V8 with a “lesser electric unit”…damn…wouldn’t that be AWESOME?
Meh, never happen. Why? Because the cars would sound TOO DAMN AMAZING!
Surely it’s the turbo that kills the sound, not the electric motor?
The exhaust note comes from the amount of cylinders and the hertz frequency it resonates with the human ear aka why a V10 note sounds harmonious vs a 4cylinder. The battery simply provides more power when deployed. I personally like the sound of the 6 cylinder cars, but the battery has got to go. For F1 they are heavy, and simply battle the entire point of an F1 machine in the first place.
Nailed it.
I don’t know that the UBER-expensive-wine sipping intellectualistas at the FIA will be able to let go of their “Good for the Planet” hybrid BS…
The comment about “less electric” was aimed at the rumored problems they’re having with getting enough energy storage for the new 2026 electric system’s needs. More IC/less Elec…means less storage and therefore less battery and thus less weight and certainly less $ needed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA-Z3ncTdUY&ab_channel=Maisteer
Here's a great video about how F1 sound is made, he shows how he did it on a inline 4 at the very very end (like during credits rolling).
It’s not a problem of storage, that’s been solved a long time ago and doesn’t affect things like Le Mans either. It’s the FIA directives on how much energy can be harvested per lap that’s the difficulty.
Also in defence of the FIA (which I hate doing right now because MBS is a massive twat) it’s not them that’s unwilling to look at V10’s/V8’s etc. The manufacturers were the ones pushing for the 2026 engine regs and they were also the ones that nuked the V10 suggestion.
It still is a stupid design and yes they pushed it because it spread down across the manufacturers platform (non race). It isn’t hard to figure out how and why. The FIA is a glorified AMA who is owned by the manufacturers and sponsors.
The FIA is way more corrupt than the AMA could ever even remotely hope to be, some of the back door handshake stuff that goes on within the FIA is genuinely staggering especially higher up.
Interesting read between the lines here ...
https://youtu.be/kCh7HOg0EeQ?si=KjBL1c_JcKvxRJpf
Brundell Sky interview.
It has been reported that they’re running out of energy much sooner than then current system and having regen and storage capacity issues with the “350” system
Pit Row
There's a lot of reports kicking around, but broadly speaking you're on the right track with the problems. Being able to store enough energy to give a 355bhp boost isn't problematic in itself, but being able to harvest enough power to keep recharging it between straights/corners and then re-deploy all 355bhp the next time you hit the loud pedal is the challenge as well as being able to sustain it for a long straight (Monza/Saudi being perticular challenges because there's not so many 'harvesting' areas).
The FIA have been constantly changing the regs to try and mitigate the risk of this happening, firstly they started putting in stuff that would see the power added drop off via a curve rather than just the battery dumping everything and suddenly dropping 355bhp off when it hit the 'empty' phase. In the last update to the technical regs in June this year they've put in limits for how much can actually be recovered under braking etc. The cars will be limted to 8.5Mj per lap, with that dropping to 8Mj on tracks where it's not possible to get to 8.5 (Monza). This likely is intended to stop anyone that's worked out how to fix that 'so much in, so much out' equation from having a huge advantage and to try and keep things relatively even but it also likely means the only times we are going to see the cars in full-attack is going to be qualifying.
The engines are also likely going need to be kept at higher RPM through corners to keep things spinning so they can keep charging energy, so there's a chance some teams are going to look to direct exhaust gas again for aero benefit.
Basically - It's a bit of a fudged set of rules that may mean next year someone has a big advantage. It also might be a bit shit for spectators to try and understand what's going on and that's before you get into the whole active aero 'X mode/Z mode' shit...
On dish network they just added about 150 new streaming channels and on one of them its classic F1 races so I have been recording races from the last 15-20 years, lots of drivers I totally forgot about in some of the races.
Was at RA yesterday, not racing car isn't back together, but the French brothers had their 97 Benneton cars out. Judd V8 screamers ...
Was a nice day.
It's race week.
Spa - one of, if not the best circuit on the calendar. Love this track.
It’s funny…but, as a guy that’s been around the electric car industry since GM veered into it almost 30 years ago…
Most those energy/regen/storage problems you’re talking about are at the heart of consumer hybrid and electric vehicles…and the cost of batteries…as of late…ain’t helping, either.
As you’re indicating, energy storage requirements have been a moving target and teams have made their frustrations known.
Spa
FP1
Sprint Qualifying
Poor Hamilton out in the first round again, he is dragging Ferrari down. 😎 I home he retires so they can get a strong 2nd driver next year.
So,Red Bull got rid of 3 VERY HIGHLY PAID individuals…and moved a coupl’a existing people around to fulfill the changes along the pit wall/keep things running; but, they don’t appear to have hired any “Top Shelf” replacements.
Also, as I recall…Red Bull stated that they’re done with the current car…aka, No More Updates (tho, the rear “wing” does look a tad different as of late…yes, “wing”! It is Red Bull, ya know?)
They’re apparently not spending much on driver development & we’re all wondering why Tsunoda is still in the 2nd car, right?
Here’s what I’m getting at: I’m seeing a bunch of cost-cutting moves.
Norris on pole with a 1:40.562
Piastri +0.085
Leclerc +0.338
Verstappen +0.341
Albon +0.639
Russell +0.698
Tsunoda +0.722
Hadjar +0.748
Lawson +0.766
Bortoleto +1.825
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