Just getting in there to make sure the thread title is proper and correct! 🤣
I'm not going to predict anything for next season - far too many variables!
yes, going to be interesting. wonder how safe Merc are going to play it after their ground effect debarcle?
bet all the big teams are nervous as they try to continue their domination of the top of the leader board. hoping chevy are close enough to be at least competitive from the off
I thought with the new aero rules the cars will not contain spoilers.
A car spoiler is an aerodynamic device designed to improve a vehicle's performance by disrupting airflow to increase traction and stability, especially at high speeds.
...so pretty much every surface of an F1 car is a spoiler!
I saw this after I'd posted!
Gripping stuff was a better title though 😉
Will contain movable spoilers?
The only prediction I'll make is that someone will get it all wrong and look like clowns, quite likely Audi but Ferrari wouldn't really be a surprise either.
Gripping stuff was a better title though
It was a good title, I'll give you that - but tradition is tradition! And if I recall you started the WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS one! 😀
The only prediction I'll make is that someone will get it all wrong and look like clowns, quite likely Audi but Ferrari wouldn't really be a surprise either.
With that in mind we could have Max, Oscar and Charles fighting over a 2027 seat with whoever nails the new regulations. Who would you pick if all three where available!?
You know that won't be Ferrari though despite their early start on development! 🤣
Who would you pick if all three where available!?
I'm pretty sure that every team boss would have Max at the top of their list.
How bad are we expecting Cadillac to be? Off the pace, way off the pace or F2 off the pace? At least Bottas should give us some good entertainment.
How bad are we expecting Cadillac to be?
I expect them to finish last in the constructor's championship. Even if they turn up at the first race with a mid-field car, I doubt that they will be able to develop it fast enough to stay there. I'm expecting a very high rate of development through the season given how much the regs have changed.
He's baaaaaaaack...
And centre stage for the final Mercedes team photo!... 🤣🤣
There are lots of rumours that Mercedes already have 2026 sewn up as they are so far ahead with *engine development, but given how badly they dropped the ball the last time the regs changed, I'll probably take that with a pinch of salt.
*Powertrain development is probably more accurate as with the removal of the MGU-H the key thing in getting these cars to perform will be electrical energy storage, harvesting and deployment.
Merc may be ahead with the PU but they're also supplying McLaren who beat them with their own PU this year and Aston who should have a bit of a lift from Newey. Given the lousy performance of Mercs chassis and aero for most of the past rules cycle I wouldn't be remotely surprised if they're not the best Merc powered team.
Aston are Honda powered in 2026.
Doh! Well maybe Williams will beat Merc too. Alpine? Not so much.
Merc may be ahead with the PU but they're also supplying McLaren who beat them with their own PU this year and Aston who should have a bit of a lift from Newey. Given the lousy performance of Mercs chassis and aero for most of the past rules cycle I wouldn't be remotely surprised if they're not the best Merc powered team.
From what I read, they got led down a blind alley by incorrect data from their wind tunnel, then persisting with and subsequently scrapping that concept put them so far back they never caught up with the leaders.
There is so much changing next year that I can't even take a guess.
Will be interesting to see if anybody has found a Brawn 2009 type loophole in the regs...
From what I read, they got led down a blind alley by incorrect data from their wind tunnel,
I think the problem was that they got fantastic downforce figures in the wind tunnel, but that required the car to be run very low to the ground. The wind tunnel data was correct, it just wasn't possible to recreate it on real circuits with bumps.
It’s hard to see how Lewis can have a worse season next year. Not impossible unless Ferrari really make an appalling car that neither can drive
From what I read, they got led down a blind alley by incorrect data from their wind tunnel,
I think the problem was that they got fantastic downforce figures in the wind tunnel, but that required the car to be run very low to the ground. The wind tunnel data was correct, it just wasn't possible to recreate it on real circuits with bumps.
That's true as well but not what I was thinking of, they had correlation issues from some kind of misconfiguration.
Not sure if Merc ever revealed what really caused it, but the rumour was the rolling road surface was too smooth or too rough. Something like that.
On Valteri - anyone see his farewell video to Mercedes? Sorry I don't have it to link to, but it was very funny - worth looking out for
scrapping that concept put them so far back
With the benefit of hindsight, the W13 a car that everyone remembers as being woeful, Lewis scored Three 3rd places and five 2nd place finishes and they ended up second in constructors with 515 points. No other Mercedes car of this regulation has been as successful, despite the fact that Hamilton and Russell both won in the W15.
The drivetrain manager at Brixworth has gone on record saying that they hadn't realised when they agreed the engine spec that it was in fact going to mean an entirely new engine. Most of the things that made the PU106 series of engines so monstrous have either been banned or are regulated black boxes controlled by FIA.
Doh! Well maybe Williams will beat Merc too.
Honda.... The engines that powered RB to 4 consecutive world championships.
On Valteri - anyone see his farewell video to Mercedes? Sorry I don't have it to link to, but it was very funny - worth looking out for
https://youtube.com/shorts/579GgLZo7nY?si=9yiBpEDP6heUDTln
Honda.... The engines that powered RB to 4 consecutive world championships.
Honda basically shut down their engine development department and reassigned all the engineers to other projects when they decided to quit a few years back and Red Bull took over the engine program. Next year's engines will be clean sheet designs so Honda have had to start everything from scratch.
My only prediction is Ferrari build an absolute pig of a car, Fred will be sacked by Australia, Lewis walks after Monza.
Obviously not officially confirmed, but I'll be glad to see the last of Marko.
https://twitter.com/ChrisMedlandF1/status/1998335957418836127
Can't say i'll be sorry to see him go, part of a pretty awful management culture that was allowed to develop at RB.
More RB news. It would appear that Gianpeiro Lambaise is retiring as Max's race engineer. Still in the team, just doesn't want to have to travel to the GPs anymore "personal reasons"
Helmut has officially left...
More RB news. It would appear that Gianpeiro Lambaise is retiring as Max's race engineer. Still in the team, just doesn't want to have to travel to the GPs anymore "personal reasons"
Now being reported as he is staying as Max's race engineer next year
https://racingnews365.com/max-verstappen-set-to-retain-gianpiero-lambiase-as-race-engineer
Despite the popularity of this thread I can't understand the hype around F1.
Stringent rules. Rich kids. Monaco. Tax avoidance. Gulf states.
A massive ****athon in all aspects of what is wrong with the world.
Despite the popularity of this thread I can't understand the hype around F1.
It's like a soap opera that's been running for decades. The action on track is usually not that exciting, but the unfolding of a season often is, 2025 being a prime example. There are villains (Bernie and Flav and Helmut) and heroes and you have to know the history of the teams to understand what is actually happening. The drivers get the headlines, but if you look at the records of the engineers like Ross Brawn, Adrian Newey, and James Allison, there is a handful who have dominated the last few decades.
Despite the popularity of this thread I can't understand the hype around F1.
Stringent rules. Rich kids. Monaco. Tax avoidance. Gulf states.
A massive ****athon in all aspects of what is wrong with the world.
I feel the same about football, but I don't feel the need to post that on the football thread