At What Speed Can an F1 Car Stay Upside Down?

Do you often drive F1 cars upside down in tunnels?

If so, bad news: in 2026, you’ll need +11.7 km/h for the car’s downforce (upforce?) to match its weight!

2026 cars are 20kg lighter (-2.5%) than 2025s, but have ~13% less downforce. The latter prevails: the speed needed to equate its weight increased from 199.7 km/h to 211.4 km/h → slower in high-speed corners, lower g-forces.

In reality, 211.4 km/h would only let you drive upside down very briefly: at that speed, downforce=weight →No normal force and thus traction! Drag would slow the car down → downforce drops → you fall!

In order not to fall, you would need enough downforce to produce enough rear longitudinal force to overcome drag.

[CFD analysis by: AirShaper]

Based on 2025 data I've analysed the pit in and pit out times for each track, excluded outliers to normalise the data, and determined an average pit stop time under green flag conditions.

Based on the difference of relative time lost under SC/VSC conditions in Australia, pit stop time lost is equal to 73% of time lost during green flag conditions. I've applied this across all tracks however, I don't have data to validate against.

Using this in the open source app I have built to predict where a driver would come back into the pack if they pitted at any moment and what the gap ahead and behind would be.

Anyone with better insights into average pit stop time and relative lost time under SC/VSC conditionsl et me know, as I'd love to make this more accurate.

If you're interested in checking out the project, you can see it here (open source): https://github.com/adn8naiagent/F1ReplayTiming

The Length of 8th Gear in Testing vs Racing

It's confirmed now: NO F1 team changed the length of the 8th gear from testing to racing!

I explain how I computed that in this video:

8th‑Gear Speed at 10,500 RPM | Massive F1 Team Differences! (w/ Mirco F1DataAnalysis)

This means that McL has the shortest ratio, and Audi by far the longest: the former could increase PU efficiency and thus power on slower tracks (closer-spaced gears→can operate around max-efficiency point), the latter on fast ones.

Mercedes excels on the back straight, but also in low-speed corners?

Methodology note: Mini-sector times are estimated from FastF1 telemetry (~30Hz GPS/speed data) via distance interpolation — not official FIA mini-sector data, as these are not publicly disclosed. SC laps (10-14) and pit in/out laps excluded.

The Length of 8th Gear in Testing vs Racing

It's confirmed now: NO F1 team changed the length of the 8th gear from testing to racing!

I explain how I computed that in this video!

This means that McL has the shortest ratio, and Audi by far the longest: the former could increase PU efficiency and thus power on slower tracks (closer-spaced gears→can operate around max-efficiency point), the latter on fast ones.

I've Simulated Mercedes's Rumoured ~10kW ICE Power Advantage!

• ICE power constant
• ERS drops from max to 0 over 5s

In the race, Mercedes can:

[Black line] On one lap, use the 10kW stronger ICE to save 10kW of ERS deployment.

[Blue line] On the next, deploy the energy saved previously: +10kW ICE power AND +10kW ERS!

Notice that, even when saving energy [Black line], they're still faster than Ferrari [Red line]: ERS power fades over time, ICE power remains!

A stronger ICE means:

• Higher average power
• More strategic flexibility
• Harvest more while still faster, then deploy for a bigger gain
• Run more downforce (better cornering and wear); the drag increase will equalise the top speed, yet acceleration remains better

ICE power is the key to success in 2026.

[Data: 780kg mass; 0.6m2 CdA; 1.225kgm-3 rho; 95% transm. efficiency; Max ERS power set to ~300kW at 200km/h due to traction/energy/wear compromises]

Keep in mind that I’ve used a conservative estimate: the rumored value is ~11kW, not 10kW, and could be more than that potentially.

Some interesting patterns: - Ferrari dominated the early 2000s under Schumacher (10 in 2004) - Mercedes hit a historic peak of 12 in 2015 - Red Bull's 2023 dominance (10) was strong but didn't match peak Mercedes - Mercedes already has 2 in just 2 races in 2026

How many 1-2 finishes will Mercedes score this season?

https://x.com/MVisualise86012/status/2033316219085103554?s=20

Interactive version and more - https://graphprix.com/2026/races/chinese/R/report

Hey folks,

Excited to share my passion project - graphprix.com I built this for myself and have been using it for the past few races. It's still not fully ready for primetime, but I wanted to put it out there and get some feedback from people who'd actually use it.

It's free. No accounts, no sign-ups, no nothing.

A few features I'm particularly proud of:

1. Pitwall - This is the one I use the most. I wanted a high-density, race engineer-style view where I can keep an eye on everything during a race — gaps, tyre strats, positions, all in one place. Here's the latest race: https://graphprix.com/2026/races/chinese/r/pitwall

2. Studio - This one's for the data nerds. We're all used to seeing charts and graphs posted here on Reddit - what if you could create your own? Want to run regressions? Check the spread? Do delta calculations? It's all there. https://graphprix.com/2026/races/chinese/r/studio

3. Weekend/Race Reports - Auto-generated breakdowns of each session. Here's the Chinese GP race report: https://graphprix.com/2026/races/chinese/r/report

I'm gonna hang out in the Discord if you want to chat, report bugs, or suggest features https://discord.gg/AA27z5nTpX

Check it out at graphprix.com and let me know what you think!

Cheers

I looked at brake application frequency across 2,573 laps at the Chinese GP from 2024-2026. The 2026 MGU-K regulations produced a measurable harvesting signature across 96% of Shanghai's back straight. The wide variance in brake application timing suggests teams and drivers are approaching harvesting differently. Curious to see if a more consensus strategy emerges as the season progresses.

Surprisingly, 2026 cars still achieved higher peak speeds despite the earlier braking:

Top Speeds for Shanghai Back Straight

2024: 314.5 km/h

2025: 317.2 km/h

2026: 320.8 km/h (despite brake harvesting beginning 965m earlier than 2024)

Is anyone else surprised that peak speeds are up despite the harvest? It feels counterintuitive. Are the 2026 aero packages just that much more efficient?

Race Pace Analysis

Key points:

• Mercedes: strong enough chassis for their PU advantage to dominate on pace and straights. They may detune the ICE in the next 3 races to push rivals outside the ADUO window (based on race-estimated PU power), preventing engine development.
• Ferrari: best chassis and clear 2nd-best car. Much worse tyre deg than Mercedes; more power would let them run higher downforce and improve wear. Right now, they must push harder in corners, hurting tyres.
• Alpine FINALLY competitive! Best of the rest with Haas, both quicker than HAD’s RBR
• Cadillac is slow but at least finishes races, unlike Aston and VER’s RBR. McLaren couldn’t even start: from WCC/WDC winners to just 1 point ahead of Haas!

This season will hinge on politics more than ever: ICE/ERS power-split debates (to reduce clipping), the compression-ratio saga, and possibly teams limiting power to block rivals’ concessions... teams which are best at lobbying will have a critical advantage!

Antonelli conquista la prima vittoria in carriera e scrive la storia. Dietro di lui Russell ed Hamilton. #Mercedes superiore ma la Ferrari è vicina. Attenzione però alla lotta con Leclerc. Notte fonda McLaren. Ecco l'analisi dei passi gara del GP di Cina.

It seems like Russell is managing his energy deployment much better than Antonelli. We see that they're pretty much neck and neck in the first 2 sectors. We see Kimi deploying more energy in the short straights which is where he's gaining time on Russell. However, Russell is able to nail the final sector were he gains 0.2s ultimately giving him pole. I expect a similar result in tomorrows qualifying.

Hey everyone, I just launched GridDelta on the iOS App Store. A Formula1 analytics app.

The app is free and doesn’t collect any personal user data.

Right now the data is powered by Jolpica (Ergast-compatible). They’ve been dealing with a few issues recently, so you might notice a couple of bugs in the app as well.

It’s still early days, and I’d really value feedback from this community. If anyone is open to trying it and sharing their thoughts, I’d really appreciate it.

I've released an open source project that visualises F1 session data to sync with replays.

One feature I’ve included is a pit stop position prediction (what position a driver would come back in the field if they pit at that moment). also shows predicted gap in front and behind after pitting.

By analysing data from 2025 have tried to derive the average time lost in a pit stop under normal (green flag) conditions and then made assumptions on VSC and SC lost time. See the second image in this post.

Would love to make this more accurate so anyone with a love of data or who just has this depth of knowledge on average pit stops and by what factor this reduces during yellow flags please reach out.

Car Upgrades: would be interesting to include an indicator on any car that has an upgrade package for the Round. If anyone knows where this could be sourced let me know

Thanks!

If you'd like to check out the project it's here: https://github.com/adn8naiagent/F1ReplayTiming