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<\/p>\nFormula 1 testing has debuted new ways of using the cars’ rear lights to signal how the MGU-K is being used to deploy power or charge the battery.<\/p>\n
F1 has introduced a range of new lights for 2026 as part of the big car and engine rules overhaul.<\/p>\n
This includes the addition of amber lateral safety lights on the car’s wing mirrors, which act to warn other drivers when a car has slowed to below 20km\/h or stopped on track – and will come on when a car is stopped in neutral during race starts but turn off when first gear is selected.<\/p>\n
More interestingly, though, is how the rear impact structure light – which has changed to an oval shape to save around 180g – has multiple functions depending on the car’s battery state.<\/p>\n
There are three different ways this can be used. A single flash denotes the MGU-K is delivering less than the full 350kW of power; two flashes means the MGU-K is not delivering any power but isn’t recharging; and multiple fast flashes means the MGU-K is recharging while the engine is still running flat-out – more commonly known in the F1 paddock as ‘super clipping’.<\/p>\n
This is where the driver remains on full throttle but the MGU-K is switched into generator mode, works against the combustion engine, and that resistance is used by the MGU-K up to 250kW – not the full extent of its power – to charge the battery.<\/p>\n
The rear wing endplate lights, which flash red, mirror the pattern of the rear impact structure lights.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This briefly caused some confusion in last week’s test when one of those lights failed on the Williams so only one was flashing – making some people wonder if this signalled something else entirely – when it should have been both.<\/p>\n
The red rear impact structure light is also used for other reduced-speed scenarios such as a safety or virtual safety car, double-waved yellows, the speed limiter being engaged, or as a rain light when the car is using intermediate or wet tyres.<\/p>\n
The light can also still turn blue if the driver does not have a full superlicence, like when a driver only eligible for a free practice licence stands in during FP1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 1 testing has debuted new ways of using the cars’ rear lights to signal how the MGU-K…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-488517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}