New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nThis was the heavily hybridised F1 engines at their very worst, incapable of rising to the challenge of the ferocious layout.<\/p>\n
Worse than that, though, is the way the configuration of long straights and fast corners revealed the seemingly unknowable but simultaneously all-powerful dark arts of the engine algorithm, whose shadowy hand is having a material impact on the championship.<\/p>\n
For the first time, the public got a glimpse of the depths of discomfort the drivers have been experiencing all season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWelcome to F1 2026,\u201d Max Verstappen quipped. \u201cSometimes it can be a jungle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton smashes the wall in P3! | 01:08<\/p>\n
LET\u2019S GO OVER THE BASICS<\/p>\n
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps was always going to be one of the worst layouts for these engines.<\/p>\n
The long straights are part of the equation, with the cars flat-out for more than 75 per cent of the lap\u2019s 7.004-kilometre distance.<\/p>\n
A fully charged battery lasts only around 11 seconds in 2026. They\u2019re completely exhausted less than halfway between La Source and Les Combes and again between Paul Fr\u00e8re and Bus Stop. At the weekend the batteries were expiring just after cresting Raidillon and well before reaching Blanchimont.<\/p>\n
Without battery power, a Formula 1 car produces just 400 kilowatts, solely from its turbocharged V6 internal combustion engine.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s less than the 456 kilowatts produced by the V6 turbo in a Formula 2 car.<\/p>\n
That lack of power has a compounding effect on the battery state of charge. Spa-Francorchamps has few big braking zones to replenish the battery, and with the cars travelling slower even through the high-speed corners, there is less opportunity again to charge the battery.<\/p>\n
For example, last year\u2019s pole lap included Lando Norris lifting into Pouhon, the fearsome downhill double-left. This year it was easily flat not because of car performance but because pole-getter Antonelli entered the corner 30 kilometres per hour slower than Norris did last season. What might have been an opportunity to recharge is now just another battery-depleting straight.<\/p>\n
By the time Antonelli approached Les Fagnes, he was 40 kilometres per hour down relative to Norris a year earlier.<\/p>\n
The gaps were smaller at other corners, but every one of them was tackled unsatisfactorily slower in 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can imagine, of course, that that is not very exciting to drive,\u201d Verstappen said. \u201cBut honestly, I don\u2019t want to sit here and complain again, because probably someone will shoot me outside the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m mentally just adjusting to it, and I\u2019m trying to make the best out of it, even though it\u2019s not what I like or what I love to do in Formula 1.\u201d<\/p>\n
The problem, though, is the goalposts keep changing.<\/p>\n
Gasly suffers wild crash in Belgium | 00:27<\/p>\n
BUT THERE\u2019S A DEEPER PROBLEM<\/p>\n
In some sense, the less the 2026 engine is talked about, the better. That\u2019s not backhander; there are myriad extremely complex elements of performance in every Formula 1 car that are unknown or not understood to outside observers, but that\u2019s never negatively affected the enjoyment of the spectacle in the past.<\/p>\n
We could apply the same logic to the engine \u2014 that, at the end of the day, the cars still reach remarkable speeds when the driver presses the accelerator. The quirks of the engine rules aren\u2019t always obvious to the casual observer, and they don\u2019t need to be.<\/p>\n
But the extreme Spa-Francorchamps layout revealed the uncomfortable truth that the above assumption isn\u2019t correct. The connection between the driver\u2019s right foot and the engine isn\u2019t as direct as you might\u2019ve thought.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s now a black box sitting between them deciding how the engine should behave.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been true sine the first hybrid motors of 2014, but it was to a much lesser extent in 2014\u201325, when the hybrid element was much less powerful and therefore much less decisive to overall performance.<\/p>\n
This year the computer has beefed-up authority, and it\u2019s what George Russell says is preventing him from contending for the championship.<\/p>\n
Since Silverstone he\u2019s been complaining that his Mercedes engine isn\u2019t generating the same sort of performance as Antonelli\u2019s motor, and given both Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps are power-sensitive circuits, that deficit was preventing him from contending for pole and victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought we found the problem,\u201d Russell said, per The Race, after qualifying half a second slower than Antonelli in Belgium.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought it was something with the brakes; it wasn\u2019t the brakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we thought it was my driving style with the throttle \u2026 now we\u2019re very confident it\u2019s not the driving style.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a serious issue at play here. The team are working so hard to resolve it, but every lap I do, when I see I\u2019m down anywhere from 0.2 seconds to 0.6 seconds in the straights, it\u2019s pretty infuriating.\u201d<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t about power output per se; it\u2019s not down every straight. In Belgium the deficit appeared only between Paul Fr\u00e8re and Bus Stop near the end of the lap.<\/p>\n
The problem is the battery running out of charge early.<\/p>\n
It took until this weekend for Mercedes to accept that there is a problem, though team boss Toto Wolff maintained on Sunday that around half Russell\u2019s gap to Antonelli was down to driving.<\/p>\n
The rest?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are unable to explain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Piastri responds to rumours | 01:14<\/p>\n
THE DARK ARTS OF THE ENGNIE ALGORITHM<\/p>\n
In a way, it all comes down to driving style but in a sense somewhat alien to how we\u2019re used to talking about it.<\/p>\n
Charging the battery is dependent on the inputs of the driver \u2014 when they hit the brakes or lift off the throttle. How a driver brakes, steers and lifts and presses the throttle are extremely important.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been clear that Russell is less confident than Antonelli with this year\u2019s car. Going slower through the corners means charging less and deploying more, which means there\u2019s less power available for the straights.<\/p>\n
McLaren boss Andrea Stella also posited to Sky Sport Germany this weekend that Russell\u2019s smooth driving style \u2014 much like Piastri\u2019s silky approach \u2014 is not how the new generation of car wants to be driven.<\/p>\n
What frustrated Russell, however, was that he felt he was driving broadly identically to Antonelli this weekend in qualifying \u2014 and the telemetry more or less backs this up \u2014 but was still finding big discrepancies.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s not the only one.<\/p>\n
Stella noted there were uncanny similarities between Russell\u2019s lap time relative to Antonelli and Piastri\u2019s lap time relative to Norris.<\/p>\n
Both sets of drivers were almost exactly equal at Paul Fr\u00e8re but then had their deficits balloon down the ensuring full-throttle section of track.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we try to analyse this, it gets immediately quite complicated,\u201d Stella said, per Racer.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo operate these power units, you don\u2019t operate them in an open-loop way, whereby I would be able to have an offline simulation [at the factory] and say, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s how the electrical power will be deployed [at this track] and it will always be [the same].<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a large component of the controller that operates the power unit that happens with live calculations, and the power unit kind of forward-thinks, forward-calculates what it has to do based on some… I don\u2019t want to get into too much technical description or technical IP, but there\u2019s a lot that happens as the car goes [around].<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is why it\u2019s not so easy to understand what kind of calculations have been made as the car was going around. There\u2019s always kind of a reason \u2014 I\u2019m sure we will understand the reason \u2014 but at the same time you need to be able to anticipate and make sure that the operation of the power unit unfolds as expected.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, the black box between the throttle and the engine is constantly evaluating where and how the car should deploy its electrical energy and where and how it should recharge.<\/p>\n
The team gives it its basic parameters for what it should do when, but the computer must have some freedom to make its own decisions based on variables that can\u2019t be controlled \u2014 variables like drive behaviour or unexpected grip conditions.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s constantly learning and adapting to the driver as they drive \u2014 but that means a driver struggling to understand what the car is doing, like Russell, is aiming at goalposts that are constantly moving.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not only for the influence it has in the power-limited sections \u2014 in the straights \u2014 but also because it affects the braking points,\u201d Stella continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have an additional amount of harvest with the super-clip before braking, then you are approaching the braking point 10 kilometres per hour slower, and your braking point changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is quite difficult to master for the drivers and is one of the reasons I\u2019m sure the drivers talk about the difficulties from a driving point of view to exploit the power unit. It\u2019s not only to get the most out of the power unit, but also because the variations of the power unit affect the references as you approach the corner.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt definitely kind of learns, but the variations that are significant and relevant are so small that they may happen from one lap to another, even if you have learned from the previous laps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cam Waters aiming for the Championship? | 01:03<\/p>\n
\u2018IT SUCKS\u2019<\/p>\n
Stella\u2019s explanation was the most detailed an eloquent yet of the way the 2026 engine rules work.<\/p>\n
Piastri, though, might have followed up with the season\u2019s bluntest and most straightforward assessment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sucks,\u201d he said, per Planet F1. \u201cI can\u2019t really say it any other way than that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got qualifying grids decided by computers behaving or misbehaving, it\u2019s a pretty crap way of going racing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you come in from a qualifying session, you look at all the corners and go, \u2018I\u2019m on par with my teammate [here] and I\u2019m 0.2 seconds behind at the end of it\u2019, it\u2019s not a very nice feeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe engines are so complicated. They are sensitive to everything, and even things you do on an out-lap can dictate what happens.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very tricky way of going racing.\u201d<\/p>\n
That trickiness was on full display on the first lap at the weekend\u2019s race, where Russell \u2014 but also all the Mercedes-powered drivers \u2014 found himself unexpectedly lacking battery charge exiting La Source.<\/p>\n
Finding himself without power after Raidillon triggered him to riskily put himself around the outside of Lewis Hamilton at Les Combes, where his race ended in minor but devastating contact.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuite frankly, it was dangerous,\u201d Russell said of his depleted battery, which effectively turned his Mercedes into a Formula 2 car attempting to fend off a pack of Formula 1 cars.<\/p>\n
Antonelli, having experienced the same thing but to a lesser magnitude, sympathised with his teammate.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing honest, with George this weekend there was a slight loss, and sometimes you just don\u2019t understand,\u201d he said. \u201cI had the same in Australia, for example.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be a little bit down to driving, but sometimes the system just does something a little bit different. It\u2019s very complicated.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, especially on tracks like this that are very energy-demanding, if you start driving differently, then for the system it\u2019s a bit crazy, so it is tricky.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charles Leclerc agreed, having earlier this season complained about small lifts of the throttle \u2014 for example, when controlling a snap of oversteer \u2014 would result in the engine refusing to offer full electrical power down the following straight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese power units are so complex that there are some days when you scratch your head trying to understand why you are losing so much on the straights,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just very difficult but also very frustrating sometimes for a driver because, even when you are doing your best, there are things in the background that change constantly, and that\u2019s not so nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not every circuit is going to be like Spa-Francorchamps, which stands alone among F1 tracks even without the complexity of these engines.<\/p>\n
This weekend\u2019s Hungarian Grand Prix, for example, is expected to look much more like a normal weekend given the batteries should have no trouble keeping their charge around the slow and twisty layout. Even the average track \u2014 Barcelona-Catalunya is usually touted as such \u2014 doesn\u2019t look quite as bad.<\/p>\n
But there will be more tracks that bring out more of these black-box problems.<\/p>\n
Worse is that this fundamental aspect of the engine formula is unlikely to be expunged even with the rule tweaks due in 2027 and 2028.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The changes] are not going to fix those specific issues,\u201d Piastri said. \u201cIt\u2019s to do with how the engine\u2019s calibrated, how the engine learns. It\u2019s kind of ingrained into these engines.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the words of Grand Prix Drivers Association director Carlos Sainz: \u201cWhoever saw these simulations in 2022, 2023 and didn\u2019t look at it and say, \u2018How can we even accept that?\u2019 needs to review what happened there, because it should have never happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teams will get better and programming their engines and at understanding where these anomalies occur. Drivers will develop a better understanding of what their engines want.<\/p>\n
After that, the FIA is determined to fast-track a new engine formula by 2030, work on which is slowly beginning.<\/p>\n
Until then, the drivers are condemned to the jungle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 1 left one of its greatest cathedrals feeling godless on Sunday night. The annual pilgrimage to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-815633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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