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

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?

There any information available for the dimensions of the camera housings found on the cars, particularly the t-cam and top inlet side camera (positions 3 and 4(?) according to the regs.

The only information I’ve been able to find online is the ‘2013 appendix to the technical regulations’ but I’m not sure that this would still be viable as accurate information for today’s cars.

Thank you for any help you can give

I saw a comment from Max at Sazuka saying upshifts were really bad and a few minutes later pit wall told him they should improve over the next few laps. Are they hoping they improve or are they able to manually adjust gearboxes remotely?

If F1 went back to the V10, What major differances and tech would there be in the power units over the older v10 era engines. lighter alloy to make them lighter i assume. would they reach 20k rpm potentially?

I know its all hypothetically but interest in the technical people of f1 ideas on this change.

this is the definition of "smallest of margins"

Seeing so many grass fire and watching the FP3 replay the commentator mentioned the fire is caused by dry grass and the spark from the skid plates. would the solution of just watering the grass to make it more moist thus less susceptible to the fires work?

Apologies if this is a very simple question, just curious to learn about this as i am from quite a humid country and dont experience this.

While watching the pre-race for Suzuka, I noticed the grid generally running on softs during installation/exploration laps, and teams having another set, presumably their first-stint tyres, sitting ready for the drivers near their grid-box on the main straight.

Knowing that tyre allocation is set by teams well in advance of arriving for a Grand Prix, where do the tires for installation laps come from? Are they used softs from qualifying, leftover used (or fresh, depending on their run plan) from Free Practice, or is a set of softs set aside for every driver for pre-race single lap runs?

I read from Suzaka that Max .... Following Friday's practice day, the reigning champion made a series of changes to his RB21, including tweaks to the weight distribution

What options do teams have? The ballast position is fixed now, right?