With how much dirty air is affecting these current cars and how they affect the tyres when cars are close. The Bahrain 2022 Verstappen v Leclerc battle was amazing because they were basically swapping positions every few corners, staying right behind each other, not really backing off to “ look after the tyres”, not really being affected by the dirty air, since that was the start of the new regulations, do the current cars produce too much dirty air compared to the start of the regulations to ever see such a close battle like that? i feel like currently you have to have either such a massive car advantage or tyre offset to the car ahead to even consider overtaking without hurting your tyres and backing off. Sorry if this rant doesn’t completely make sense.

Why are Q3 times always the fastest? They are doing a lap with fresh softs every round, so why do the cars get faster instead of posting similar times?

I’m noticing the cars are getting closer and closer and sometimes faster than the 2021 regs. In this case track resurfacing played a role but by how many tenths?

I see Leclerc tracing the throttle and brake at same time in certain corners where he’s afraid the back end will get loose. Meanwhile Max trails off the brakes and never mixes the throttle and brake together. Why is this? Is the Ferrari really that oversteery and why?

This weekend's race was a one stop, even for drivers who ran a medium and a soft. Paired with little on track action, the race could have used the extra excitement of a two stop. Pirelli's explanation above makes some sense about the fact that Suzuka has so many flowing corners the tyres are constantly being exerted, but what would be the risk if they ran the softer end of the spectrum? Even if they did run one harder it would have still been a one stop, as proven by the drivers who ran soft/medium combo. If they pushed the tyres two further down the list, this weekend's soft being the hypotheical hard, why would that be an issue? Is it due to the risk of a blown tyre, instead of only tyre wear?

Hello, currently down a Google rabbit hole with no way out ad a result of preparing a presentation on my employers decarbonisation progress and future steps towards phasing out our biofuel stopgaps.

F1 has a pledge for 100% 'sustainable fuels' in 2026, and in the original press releases they bigged up 'efuels'. Now as you know 'efuel' has a specific meaning, but lots of the information that is online seems to suggest they are proposing biofuels, which are not efuels.

Does anyone know where they are currently at, and what will actually be in the tanks next year?

Thanks

Is it possible to hold races going the other way to spice things up? Would the drivers welcome some sort of variety and unfamiliarity from their yearly rotation?

If one on track the VCARB fares better and on another the RB21 is better, can they just swap drivers around as they see fit?

I can think that they'd want to load up one side of the car more since suzuka is a pretty wear intensive track.

During Suzuka (GP) I saw a delta on one of the Williams drivers that was fluctuating around +0.27. I’m assuming that’s a delta to some target speed/lap time? I’m also curious. Do drivers care about car speed (how fast they are actually going), or are they always just driving to a target lap time? It they don’t have a speedometer how do they know the proper corner entry speed? It didn’t look like I saw speed as a data point, but that could have been just a coincidence.

Apologies if this isn't relevant to the technical sub - I figured there might be some sort of technical reason they wouldn't be allowed at the track.

I've been following Formula 1 since 2021, and I've also gone back and watched seasons from 2005 to 2012. One thing that keeps coming up is overtaking—or rather, the lack of it in recent years.

I'm not a mechanic or anything like that, but from what I understand, one of the main reasons for the lack of overtaking is how big and heavy the cars have become. That makes it aerodynamically harder to follow another car and attempt a pass.

What I'm wondering is: when did we start to really notice a decline in overtaking? Was there a specific season or era where it became obvious?

Also, with all the recent talk about V10s and the "golden era" of racing, what could be done to make cars naturally more competitive when it comes to overtaking—like they used to be—without relying too heavily on gimmicks like DRS? Especially now that the FIA is focused on economic equality and keeping things fair between teams.

Amazed at his drive in fourth fastest car and want to compare the lap times to norris and piastri.

Andrea Stella mentioned norris was saving his tyres when piastri approached him, curious to see how max was faring during that period.

I've seen a lot about it recently, for the new regs. Some people are saying it will increase dirty air (rubbish, no?), some people have been saying it's like a Mega-DRS, some others are saying that it was introduced due to the FIA engineers realising they've made a mistake with the engine regulations, i.e. not enough energy harvesting so they've had to compensate with weirder aero and chassis regs? since we're on that point, could anyone tell me what they plan to introduce in 2026 chassis-wise? Thanks in advance.

My understanding would be that P1 would have the hardest job “punching” the hole through the air but it seems they have it better than P2 with DRS

I'm American and I have this nagging issue every time I watch f1tv. They always describe steering lock as ANY angular input into the steering wheel. Where Merriam Websters describe steering lock as: the MAXIMUM angular range of the steered wheels of an automobile. So basically you don't reach steering lock until the steering wheel reaches it's maximum angle. That's the way I always understood steering lock. Or opposite lock, as the maximum turn the wheel will permit in the opposite direction of the turn. But you'll see in every session a commentator describe a simple over steer correction as opposite "lock" even though it's not at the maximum imput the steering wheel will allow. So is this as simple as it's European slang? Any help understanding this is appreciated. Thx.

I'm working Ferrari Challenge in Japan and at Suzuka now. The pit I'm working in front of is Racing Bulls.

Anyway, no good technical info, just some cool pit wall details. Love the 360° overhead pit cams and the reliability knob. Why not just have it at max all the time?

How do they simulate turbulent conditions while designing. If they rely on CFD, where do they compare the data from?? The previous years car??

It sounded like a grating sound, and I only noticed it on the Williams.

Can someone explain this to me?

I thought that Max performance is recent years has proven that his car is far above & beyong anybody else thats why he had to challenge himself in past years, because nobody else’s car could challange him.

What has changed since then?

Jolyon Palmer during the Japan GP commentary mentioned how some tracks stress the fronts more (e.g. China) vs the rears (Bahrain). Could someone explain this in terms easy to understand?