F1 2026 thread

You can put me in the stupid camp then!

The “progress” argument is always made but IMO emotion is what racing is all about. Looking back almost everything F1 has done to “evolve” the sport has made it more boring.

At Finali Mondiali in Daytona I had the joy of watching many years of F1 cars blast around the speedway. Without question the crowd favorite and most applauded were the v10’s and v12’s. Next best was the 333sp’s.

IMO the current F1 cars are like decent looking women with a high IQ and a healthy 401k. The v12’s are the smoking hot dancers you gladly empty your bank account for

 

Ferrari gears up for first EV with opening of new E-building
New facility at Maranello will house production of ICE and hybrid cars, as well as firm's first full EV

Ferrari gears up for first EV with opening of new E-building | Autocar

 

Saw that on YouTube. There's several videos with one of them with Vigna in it.

 

It's going to be hearbreaking for some ...

 

It's like Louis Vuitton going faux leather.

It's like going to a 5 star upscale restaurant and ordering grass fed meat only to get vegan induced meat.

To me, it's a waste of money given Ferrari's image. Vigna even said that they will stick with F1, WEC and Sailboating......Ferrari won't go into Formula E.

 

I have news for you: Vuitton already uses faux leather and manufactures in China too !!!

 

Well, I just can't see a fully EV Ferrari selling for $500k USD. It uses the same technology as a Tesla for way way less money.

Everyone in the EV market uses lithium ion batteries and gets those batteries from China.

Ferrari is about speed, exclusivity, history and craftsmanship. Ferrari's first SUV stands for "Pure Blood" and why not? It's a 6.5ltr NA V-12 with ALOT of horsepower and it's "mid-engine" from the front.

 

Ferrari's R&D department may start designing their own electric motors, in titaniun casing, lighter, more powerful and efficient than the others, and built their own batteries to obtain higher range.
The rest of the cars would be like now highly luxurious, with bespoke interiors, and dashboards like jewelry shops, which added to the exclusivity, will still justify the high prices.
Electric motors can deliver A LOT MORE power than ICE, and with their ENORMOUS instant torque give acceleration so fierce as to send the drivers all giddy !! Just read some EV test reports !!
It's a mistake to think future EVs will be like washing machines!

 

The law of diminishing returns applies to everything, including cars. Chasing more performance with the expectation of correlating levels of enjoyment is a fool's errand. With all of that comes more weight and insulation from the road. None of that is more enjoyable than my 181 hp MX-5 or my 100 hp TR3, which are more fun to drive than my 550 (sacrilege in these parts, perhaps) and the 435 hp '17 Mustang GT/CS that was replaced by the both of them.

All of the talk about EV performance is simply more of the same numbers **** swinging contest, only this time, the cars are silent and far less visceral.

 

News flash! Electric cars are blindingly quick, and that’s it. To me they are like a novelty act, or carnival ride. It’s fun for a few times, but then you look around and say, what a sh*t box. Go for a ride in a Tesla plaid. It’s fun for the first few times and then you realize you’re in a piece of crap, with no soul, or design, or build quality. Likely the most fun I’ve ever had was in 1973 Porsche 914 with a 1.7 liter 4 cylinder. It was light, clever, and perfectly balanced. There’s nothing like a 4 wheel drift on a set of 165/15’s with 80hp!!

 

This guy gets it.

 

Well, there's nothing like the sound and visceral experience of a V10, V12 or V16. Cosworth is in high demand for these engines like the Valkyrie, Mclaren T50, and Bugatti Tourbillon(tour-bee-yawn). Yes this new Bugatti now incorporates 3 electric motors-->2 in the front to drive the front wheels and one in the back....kinda like an Audi R18 from WEC. The motor itself in this new Bugatti produces 1000hp and revs to 9000rpm. The remaining 800hp is from the electrical motors. But the foundation is the high revving high output V10's thru V16's engines and people with money buy them and sell them out.

Btw, here in the states, there's a recent survey that 46% of previously bought EV's would go back to ICE vehicles.

Did you know our government got billions(really the taxpayers) in producing electrical charging stations in 2021 and guess how many they have built to this day on 2024?........only 7 of them!!!!!

 

The way one makes forward progress on the "Formula" is to begin the the maximum sizes for the car,
AND THEN discard stuff that cannot be fit inside the typical aerodynamic envelopes of cars fitting those sizes.
if those be the batteries--then sobeit !
And when the batteries are gone, so are the MGUs !
Now that you got rid of "that much weight" you scale the rest of the car accordingly.

 

Sounds like a good starting point.

 

Maybe Stella isn't used to see cars slowing down for corners ?

 

There is an interesting proof in Race Car Aerodynamics (Katz) that air flowing around and through a vehicle cannot generate downforce as fast as cornering speed increases, thus there is a limit to cornering speed. Both DF and cornering force increase quadratically.

 

2026 Pirelli F1 tyres will be compared to what F1 cars run on now.

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Indeed, there is nothing like a 4-wheel drift in a 1700 pound car with 1.3 liter mid-mounted motor and 72HP on 145-45/15s.

 

Mitch you know your cars!!

 

https://scuderiafans.com/2026-f1-rules-how-balance-of-performance-will-be-introduced-disguised-as-override-mode/

2025 will be my last year as an F1 fan if this farce is introduced as noted in the article. Clearly the end of one of the the world's greatest racing series. Thanks for the memories.