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Anyone excited about the 2026 F1 season?

Looks like there are a few teams with cars ready to go this year and a few teams needing new cars and a mid-pack. Typical F1. The rules change has changed the leaders of the pack. Lots of upgrades coming for a few months.
 
Blue Shadow said:
Looks like there are a few teams with cars ready to go this year and a few teams needing new cars and a mid-pack. Typical F1. The rules change has changed the leaders of the pack. Lots of upgrades coming for a few months.
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The "big 4" are still on top but, I agree, the order has changed.

Quite a bit of excitement for GR during Q3, apparently they had to turn the car off and turn it on again. I'm not really a Merc fan but the crew is doing some amazing work. I can't believe they rebuilt Antonelli's car in time last week and getting GR out on the track with enough time to put in a good lap was another example.
 
Haas and Williams have points so they will get a pay check but it seems the teams are all over the place with performance using the new rules. Only Cadillac and amazingly Adrian Newey’s Aston Martin have not gotten points, yet.

So let’s do one more race next week and then go back to the drawing board for a month, skipping the two Middle East races, to give teams a chance to make some serious upgrades as needed. I’m sure there are many in the pipeline and for a couple teams this break is not welcome but other teams are loving this schedule update.
 
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Another interesting race especially considering the first-time race winner. But Kimi did almost toss it all away with a couple of laps to go. I imagine several hearts skipped a few beats in the Merc garage! It does seem like the Merc has the best package and even though the Ferraris get better starts and manage to lead for a few laps.

A McLaren double DNS??!! Oh how the mighty have fallen. Actually four cars didn't start and I think that speaks volumes about just how ridiculously complicated these cars have been legislated into becoming. Mechanical attrition was becoming more and more rare but this season and its new rules have flipped that particular script.

The Honda engines are shaking the Aston Martins to bits when they are not rendering their drivers too numb to drive.
 
RVT1K said:
Another interesting race especially considering the first-time race winner. But Kimi did almost toss it all away with a couple of laps to go. I imagine several hearts skipped a few beats in the Merc garage! It does seem like the Merc has the best package and even though the Ferraris get better starts and manage to lead for a few laps.

A McLaren double DNS??!! Oh how the mighty have fallen. Actually four cars didn't start and I think that speaks volumes about just how ridiculously complicated these cars have been legislated into becoming. Mechanical attrition was becoming more and more rare but this season and its new rules have flipped that particular script.

The Honda engines are shaking the Aston Martins to bits when they are not rendering their drivers too numb to drive.
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All that said, I am still very excited about the new tech. F1 is good for trickle down into consumer models, one of the reasons Ford got back into building P/Us
 
Well you got two of the four top teams actually at the top so far but at the end, the 2 Mercs were roughly together and 20+ seconds ahead of the Ferraris who were very close and then about 20-ish seconds ahead of the rest. McLaren was a double DNS and Verstappen was a DNF. So Merc v. Merc, then Ferrari v Ferrari then the rest - weird but some good racing also. So I agree, hopefully other teams will improve and bring things closer. I hope we don't get long-term Mercedes domination.

4 DNS and 3 more DNF.

Strange that both McLarens did not start because of "electrical problems with the PU" where the PU (Power Unit) is provided by Mercedes. Neither car had issues until they started the cars for the race itself. I'm not suspicious or anything but always thought it was somewhat of a conflict of interest for one team to provide their drive train to direct racing competitors. Last year was the first time since I've been watching that the team using another team's drive train beat that other team - i.e. McLaren (with Mercedes engine) ahead of Mercedes in 2025.

Sky commentator Bernie Collins pointed out that since Mercedes designed the new car and new drive train as a combined total system, they would have an advantage over the other teams who would need to integrate the Mercedes engine with their own cars. Same with Ferrari. So the two most wealthy and experienced teams that also come with complete car - engine systems are dominating so far. Hopefully others will catch up as they improve the cars and the integration with the PUs - it took McLaren a few years to do that with the previous regulation cars.

I was not expecting great things from Cadillac right away but was hoping they would be better than dead last - although in China, they finished the race and so beat the 7 who did not finish.
 
Well Max isn’t a contender in Japan and he’s not happy, just complaining. Good ole Max. Just what you would expect.

Kimi’s quick.
 
Reading live commentary from BBC about Max. Without disclosing positions one commentator said “ That was very tame, I was expecting more frustration from Verstappen.”. I guess she doesn’t think Max has matured, either.
 
The relationship between Max and the Brit press has been contentious.

Personally I would rather see my drivers angry over being slow than resigned to the fact.

Merc obviously has the best package right now with the only real question being which driver will be in front..Kimi or George.

I'm hoping LeClerc and Ferrari can pull one off this weekend.
 
Suzuka is such a cool track. F1 needs more places like that and less street courses.

Turns out Kimi was the one out front when the checkered flag came down. It was good to see Oscar not only start but finish a race.

Personally I think this package that the FIM put together is a dumpster fire. Here's a quote from Lando:

“Honestly some of the racing, I didn't even want to overtake Lewis. It's just that my battery deploys, I don't want it to deploy, but I can't control it,” Norris said when asked by Motorsport.com.
“So, I overtake him, and then I have no battery left, so he just flies past. This is not racing, this is yo-yoing. Even though he [Hamilton] says it's not, it is yo-yoing.”

There was also the "incident" between Bearman and Colapinto that was 100% a result of the current package. And something that was predicted.

Now there will be a long break before the next race. We'll see what happens between now and then.
 
RVT1K said:
Suzuka is such a cool track. F1 needs more places like that and less street courses.

Turns out Kimi was the one out front when the checkered flag came down. It was good to see Oscar not only start but finish a race.

Personally I think this package that the FIM put together is a dumpster fire. Here's a quote from Lando:

“Honestly some of the racing, I didn't even want to overtake Lewis. It's just that my battery deploys, I don't want it to deploy, but I can't control it,” Norris said when asked by Motorsport.com.
“So, I overtake him, and then I have no battery left, so he just flies past. This is not racing, this is yo-yoing. Even though he [Hamilton] says it's not, it is yo-yoing.”

There was also the "incident" between Bearman and Colapinto that was 100% a result of the current package. And something that was predicted.

Now there will be a long break before the next race. We'll see what happens between now and then.
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I had noticed already in the first two races the yo-yoing - I called it slinky effect.

But I just heard that Bearman was in an unwanted (car-commanded) boost when he (50-G) crashed and I'm not sure but I think Colapinto was in a car-commanded recharge slow down - causing an effective brake check on Bearman.

That these cars are apparently controlling themselves like this is unbelievably stupid and dangerous - people already hurt. This situation has not been clearly reported in the Sky F1 coverage.
 
TSmith8605 said:
I had noticed already in the first two races the yo-yoing - I called it slinky effect.

But I just heard that Bearman was in an unwanted (car-commanded) boost when he (50-G) crashed and I'm not sure but I think Colapinto was in a car-commanded recharge slow down - causing an effective brake check on Bearman.

That these cars are apparently controlling themselves like this is unbelievably stupid and dangerous - people already hurt. This situation has not been clearly reported in the Sky F1 coverage.
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That seems to be one of the consequences of the new rules package. This notion of the car "learning" when to charge and when to dump power is just dumb to me. I'm just not a fan of the hybrid concept in racing in general. Street cars..sure, just not in race cars. Even the last generation of cars were ridiculously complicated. And while tech from racing often trickles down to street cars, I don't feel it is the reason to go racing. So I don't agree with the idea of F1 being forced into being some sort of trail blazing.
 
So which team is gonna get their homework done over this extended Easter break? We know some teams may be able to better their positions and maybe some will drop back, but it seems all but one have a good bit of work to do.
 
Blue Shadow said:
So which team is gonna get their homework done over this extended Easter break? We know some teams may be able to better their positions and maybe some will drop back, but it seems all but one have a good bit of work to do.
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Merc has a pretty big head start at this point. That double DNS for McLaren will be tough to overcome if Merc stays consistent.

Ferrari has been looking good but just doesn't seem to have the race pace. They need to stop Hamilton and Leclerc from squabbling on-track, too.

Although there certainly be upgrades brought to Miami, I don't think anyone is allowed to make changes to the engines. And isn't there a cost-cap in place as well?
 
RVT1K said:
Although there certainly be upgrades brought to Miami, I don't think anyone is allowed to make changes to the engines. And isn't there a cost-cap in place as well?
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This implies stagnation. I don’t know if that is possible in F1 with this much time between races.

RVT1K said:
Ferrari has been looking good but just doesn't seem to have the race pace. They need to stop Hamilton and Leclerc from squabbling on-track, too.
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If Ferrari were capable of fighting other teams then their drivers could do that instead of the teammate squabble they are engaged in.
 
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