P1 with Matt and Tommy - Our reaction to the 2026 F1 regulations

Episode Date: June 6, 2024

The much-anticipated 2026 regulations have finally been unveiled, so let's talk about them. We're talking changes in car sizes, a sparkly new DRS system and loads more!You can sign up to our Patreon here! You'll get access to exclusive episodes you won't hear anywhere else, every P1 episode ad-free, full driver interview videos, early access to merch, tickets & more!Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. Another emergency. Everybody flocking to their audio and visual platforms to tune in to the P1 podcast because, yes, the 2026 Formula One regulations. Obviously there's been a lot of chatter about it, but it's kind of like a confirmation of where we're at at the moment with the cars. Because there's been a lot of murmurs, a lot of things about simulators, not corresponding to what it should be for these kind of cars. And they've not really said whether or not they actually are working too well in the simulator.

But this is what we've got, Tommy, in front of us. We've got information. We've got pictures. And most of all, we've got vibes. We have. And another thing was there was talk of, you mentioned, about drivers being outspoken. I think one of them was in particular match for Stappen saying that he did it on the simulator and thought it was terrible and all this kind of stuff.

there was talk that the regulations might be delayed for another year and things like that. And we were going, oh, no, because obviously we're in this year of Red Bull dominance, sorry, era of Red Bull dominance. But they've written 2026 all over the car and really hyped it up. So I assume we won't have a delay. Like it certainly seems that way. Yes, very exciting. Or not, depending if we get a nine-driver championship fight next year,

because that's usually what happens at the end of Formula One regulations. I'm getting so much deja vu from 2022 when they announced it. And it was like, this is it, the new regs. Surely, like, everyone's going to, you know, we're going to see Hasse winning races and this is going to be the best thing ever. And here we are. You can't win every race. So we'll see.

Certainly can't. Right, let's look into the first thoughts then on the look of the car. Before we get into the nitty-gritty details of the changes, let's talk about what it looks like. Looks a little bit more Formula 2 than previously, going down the route of all kinds of things that will get into Active Aero and a lot of things that I'm reasonably excited about. But from a looks perspective, it's not too drastically different that you know, you kind of gasp when you see the picture. but it is a strip back again. They're going to have less downforce, so they don't look as mean.

But honestly, they could look like a shoebox for all I care. If we got great racing, I could not care less what they look like. But I'm not too disgusted or anything by the look of them. I'm sure we'll get used to them very quickly, and they aren't that drastically different in my opinion. No, they aren't. They look fine.

Like, I'm not sitting it and going, oh my god that's the coolest thing i've ever seen i'm equally not going oh my god that's absolutely hideous it's just kind of they look they look fine uh you know the the front wing is very different uh and the rear wing actually that the the kind of front and rear wing remind me of that kind of mid-2000s era it feels like it's going back to that but the rest of the car does look very similar to how it's been but exactly as you said and i made this example as well of 2012 Start of that season. These are the ugliest Formula One cars we've ever seen.

The step noses are horrible. And you say 2012 to any F1 fan. And all they think of is the seven different winners in the first seven races and an absolute banger of a season where the championship went down to an amazing finale in Brazil. I could not care less. How they look. Give me good racing, please.

Absolutely. So those are our first thoughts. Let's get into the first question from Meek Simminks. Are they actually smaller? and more nimble than the current cars. Well, let me throw you with some facts, or at least what the FIA deem facts, before the F1 teams have a good old play with them.

So they're 30 kilograms lighter than the current F1 machinery. The wheelbase is being reduced from 3,600 millimeters to 3,400 millimeters. The width of the cars are dropping by 100 millimeters from 2,000 to 1,900, and the maximum floor width will be reduced by 150 millimeters,

which, you know, I don't know. know if they're going for big numbers and just, you know, because obviously millimeters, any time you hear millimeters you go, that is absolutely tiny. But they're like, hey, but it's a big number. So it might sound like they're getting a lot smaller. They're not. They are not getting, you know, they're not 25% smaller or something that I'm sure myself and a lot of F1 fans have dreamed of.

But lighter, more nimble. They have tried to make them a little bit smaller whilst also trying to pack everything in that they're trying to do to be. make them the most relevant from sustainability and engines and all that sort of stuff that we'll get onto. But they are, by fact, smaller. Yeah, yeah, they are a bit smaller. Like you say, they didn't go with the, if they'd have led with the narrative of the Formula One cars

will be 10 centimetres thinner, you'd be like, oh. But 100 millimeters, that sounds massive. That seems like a lot, doesn't it? but it's not really. Let's just hope. Because, yeah, thank goodness they are lighter, because with all safety features, they're getting added, of course, and the hybrid systems and all that,

the car's getting heavy and heavier. That is the biggest problem with Formula One now. In my opinion, and a lot of people's opinions as well, that they are too big, and it's not just Monaco, it's other circuits. We're going to race at Montreal, which we were just talking about in our predictions, that we've not seen a great race there in so long

and cars are sort of getting too big for a lot of these classic circuits. So it's good that they've reduced it a bit. But then you can argue that we did have big wide cars back in the 90s and stuff they could overtake a lot easier. It's more down to their aerodynamics and things like that. Although it is funny that they've reduced the front tires and rear tires and make them a little bit smaller as well. But they said that they hope that it doesn't.

significantly reduce the grip. And what I'll say to that is, reduce the grip, please. I don't want them to be scale electric's cars. Like, I want them to be fighting. You know, it doesn't need to be as extreme as, like, indie car, which I absolutely love, just for, just like, I absolutely love just to cover that off.

But like, even if it doesn't go that extreme that they're wrestling in cars, I need to see a bit of that. Because as soon as we get, those slippery conditions or whatever, you see the driver's fighting, you get more unpredictable results, you see more overtaking,

more passing. So they don't need to kind of push, in my opinion, I know it sounds great on paper, they go, oh yeah, we've got, you know, look how fast they are and all this kind of stuff.

But even though it sounds an insane thing to say, because a lot of casual Formula One fans of people that don't watch Formula One, it's like, sure, the whole point of Formula One is it's really, really quick. but actually I'd take them being slower in less impressive cars because I want to see driver skill

and I think that's something the sports kind of lost a bit in recent years. Yeah, and also as well, if we're talking about five seconds a lap slow or whatever it might be, to the naked eye, you're not going to even really notice that much unless you have a side-by-side comparison and we're getting Siri involved apparently with the podcast as well there, Tommy.

You're getting so excited. You leaned on Siri there. But yes, I'm happy for a loss of grip. I'm happy for, they were kind of suggesting in a little way, a little bit of a way with the video that they put out that it might be a bit more. They're going to be difficult to drive in some ways or whether that will actually be the case. Who knows? But that's what we want to see.

That's when it's the most exciting. I don't get it. It's just, yeah, just give us something. Yeah. Oh, look at this poll app of Lewis Hamilton a few years ago and he's just turning his steering wheel like this. It goes where he wants it to go all the time, and then it's a lap. And then ultimately, less mistakes equal, less retirements, unpredictable results, less action.

Because if everything is the peak of performance, and every Formula One driver can push, and it is like a scale electric's car, everyone is going to be braking at the exact limit, they're going to be accelerating at the exact amount and all this kind of stuff. you're not going to get passing and overtaking if there's no variation in the breaking zone

and people are breaking at different times and there's a challenge there. So yeah, fingers crossed that we do see a bit more, a bit more of that and drivers having to fight, although from what Max's initial talk of the simulator was, we want them to fight, but not just spinning off on acceleration from the sound of it. That would be quite something, wouldn't it,

in the first race, if it lights out and away we go and it's that meme where they all crash into each other. Well, hopefully that doesn't happen. And I'm sure that they're all very clever people in Formula One. I'm sure that they will figure it out before then. Next question, AIMA underscore Ali. How does the DRS work now?

Well, this is very interesting. And this is very exciting, in my opinion. So the FIA say that the 2026 cars will be switchable between two configurations to either minimize fuel consumption. or to maximize cornering performance. So the all-new active aerodynamic system involves a movable, not just rear wing, but front wing as well. That's right. DRS on the front, kind of. This will also allow for greater cornering speeds with one wing angle deployed.

Lower drag and greater straight line speed will be possible when the second angle is deployed. So this new system can be used in zones like those used for the current DRS overtaking aid. So how I'm seeing that is that we're going to be able to be able to be deployed. seeing that is that we're not just going to have conventional straight DRS detection zones. We're going to have maybe places where aero is really important, perhaps, and then there might be an active aeros section or something. That's how I kind of, at least decipher this, is that it's not just as standard as overtakes will only happen in a straight line nowadays, because both cars will have that active arrow on the front and the rear, but it's then, my understanding

was that was fine, but then it's more, and then it's throwing in the power, the added power that the car behind will have in that detection zone. Lots of things. Yeah, so you make it, so you make the cars more challenging, less downforce in that moment. And like you say, the DRS, my biggest complaint about DRS, we've said it many times that it is absolutely necessary in modern Formula One because it is good to see the. the cars stay closer, but the bad side of DRS has always been those slam dunk overtakes where people just fly past another car on the straight and it doesn't feel like a real overtake.

You want to see people outbreaking people into corners and things like that. And it does feel like fingers crossed from what they're kind of teasing that this could be more of a thing that you're actually getting people overtaking in corners and different parts of the circuits because that's what you want to see. Yeah, so it sounds like they're trying to take the pressure off the power unit, and that's why they're introducing this front and rear wing deployment for when they're on the straits, but then there is this additional choice of the two configurations and also an additional boost of power for the driver behind when they're in particular

DRS, we're going to call them zones. That's my understanding. A lot of talking and a lot of chatter. two F1 fans based on vibes. So hopefully that's accurate. But I'm sure as things get tied up in the coming year or so, there'll be more clarification on how they're going to use that, whether it's going to be a certain amount of times rather than just being able to unlimited deploy and all kinds of stuff. So exciting, though. I like the fact that they're trying something new. We're not just got the DRS zones, which to be honest with you, in these generation of cars

really aren't working. We're seeing DRS trains like never before. So yeah, it's getting worse, isn't it? Excited. And I'm surprised Tommy that you haven't sort of been jumping off your chair, to be honest, by the fact that they were sort of teasing an indie car, sort of pushed a pass system. And you're just sat there like, yeah, you know, I can take it or leave it. You've been praying for this, bro. No, no, no. You've been manifesting ritual, candles. I want more energy from you, Thomas. Sorry. Yeah, I mean, just if that is the case and that is how it's going to work,

just sign me up because I've always wanted that because the other thing about DRS is kind of defenseless motorway passes and it doesn't feel like there's a driver skill involved whereas if it is more like this push-to-pass mechanism the thing I love about IndyCar is that you know you can use it to defend an attack this one it seems like the power boost will be from the car behind but it won't it means that they're going to have to they'll have more power and hopefully make the move into the into the corners and things which on paper sounds absolutely great

and of course they're not going to say it might not work but from from everything they're saying it does it obviously sounds a lot better just I really I really hope it's good because because I like in my brain I I'm thinking back to, oh my God, these new cars are so good. And they've not, other than those first kind of half a season of 2022, it's not delivered what's promised because the pessimist in me and it's mainly because we've seen it so many times is however much Formula One, people working in Formula One are incredibly clever.

They're also incredibly annoying because they love to ruin it for everyone by making their cars really, really quick and ruining all these regulations that are meant to help overtake and they do not care when they're designing their cars what the fans think. They just want to make the quickest car and the car that's impossible to overtake

and will win the race easily in the most boring way possible. So there's always that fight amongst regulations and the clever boffins that will go, well, actually, there's this loophole that can ruin the entire regulations

and we're absolutely going to go for it. God, I can't remember the last time I heard the word. Boffing, that's crazy. That's like a, that is a throwback to school right there. Next question from Pierre Pruss. Will it be an engine formula again? So, got some notes for you here. So while power from the hybrid unit has dropped from 550-ish kilometers,

or kilowatts, sorry, to 400 kilowatts, the battery element has risen significantly from 120 kilowatts to 350. So it's basically a 300%. increase in electrical power. And so the amount of energy that can be recuperated during the breaking phase is also doubled to 8.5MJ, millajoules. Millajoules, yeah.

It is a millajoules. Oh, God, I've smashed it. I don't know. Have a look. I did know this. Mega joules. Sorry, it's Megast megal. Yeah, yeah.

So I abated you. I knew that the whole time. No, I didn't. That's why I've got a B in science in my GCCs. And the new regulations have led to commitments from existing suppliers, from Ferrari. Mercedes and Renault while enticing Honda to return and encouraging the arrival of Aldi and Ford, the latter entering through a partnership with Red Bull power trains.

So in a nutshell, yes, it is an engine formula and it is, that's why the big teams, you know, the Ferraris and the Mercedes and all this kind of, that's the ones that we're expecting to be very quick in 2026, although Hamilton said, no, Mercedes, you are not going to be quick in 2026, I'm going to try my hand somewhere else. Yes, that's the feeling is that it's going to be more about that. And especially when we've got less downforce, less things maybe for the teams to manipulate that side of things. Yeah, it's going to be how quick they are. It will, which is an interesting topic that we had about when Adrian Nui was leaving.

Obviously, there will be that aerodynamic side. But Mercedes, for example, we saw they had a huge head start in 2014 because they had this amazing power unit. unit and we saw that it very much was down to the power unit because you saw that all the other teams that did well at the start of 2014 were all Mercedes powered cars and it really was a really extreme version of an engine formula. The hope of this is that it kind of all these teams coming in there won't be a big performance gap. I really hope that is the case because that's what what scares me about these engine formulas because ever since the hybrid have been introduced as someone who loves the lovable underdogs of Formula One back in the day.

We've kind of missed that where you don't get a salber somehow having this unbelievable season or being really good at a certain track or something anymore. It really has just been the elite of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull throughout the whole hybrid air and how it's changed. It's always been those being the top three teams, really, and everyone else has struggled to catch up. So, fingers crossed. Maclaren fans be throwing their fists in the air right now.

They will, but they are, I guess they've caught up now. And that's more not the great look of Mercedes is it and how people have caught up. But throughout the whole start of the hybrid era, it was just like those teams that were just Formula A, you know, stuff that comes to mind was you look back at any timing tower from that era and you can see that Formula B was a whole lap down on the rest of the field or the midfield.

And then it was Formula MacLauran Honda below Formula B. Yeah, exactly. The pain of a new regulation change will always be that one team might get it right and we're, and it is what we've seen this example in 2022, which was be careful what you wish for because we all wanted the Mercedes domination era to end and then it was, flipped on its head completely and then we got another extreme thing. So

please all teams just get these engine regs right. Although from all these rumours there is obviously a lot of hype around a certain red team who might not have to change their engine as much and all the regulations

seem to be going very nicely in Ferrari's favour but we'll have to wait and see. Oh, well. Can't wait for that one to unfold. Ready for that one. So in a nutshell, I am pleasantly excited, I'd say, for the 2026 regulations. I'm sure we'll all be wishing that we could keep the current regulations when we do get an amazing season next year.

Oh, you know it's going to happen again because it happens every year they're about to do a big change. Because everyone commits so hard into the next regulations, you have that one year where everyone's sort of, yeah. it's not, no one's like putting all the effort into it. That's exactly what happened with 2021 and we were all going, no, keep it now. So it'd be fascinating to see if that changes when we have, you know, 2025 and it is Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris and Charlerc and Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonzo all battling for the title together. You thought you could throw in Fernando Alonzo like we wouldn't notice.

Sorry, I had to. That is wild. And Logan Sargent. And yeah, come on. Come on. Apparently Carlos Seines has taken his seat, mate. So we'll see about that one. But we'll get on to that another time.

Tommy, what are your final thoughts? Even though I think you've already done that, but maybe just do another one. What's your final thoughts? Final thoughts? I am really excited. Really hoping these are good and don't get baited into how the cars look.

Because ultimately, it doesn't matter. It's how they perform. It does not matter at all. So thank you everybody. Hope you enjoyed this emergency podcast. Let's know your thoughts on what you think on these 2026 cars. And we'll see you very soon for the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend. Lots of love.

Bye. Racing. Yay. P1 is a Stack production and part of the A-cast Creator Network.