Sadly, it’s all true, and we’ve reached this level: System 1 is making ready for a radical change beginning in 2026, with the introduction of recent rules aimed toward enhancing the spectacle on the monitor via the implementation of an “override” system. Primarily, a BoP. The aim is to create a efficiency balancing system (Steadiness of Efficiency or BoP) to create a synthetic efficiency hole between the automobiles, thus facilitating overtaking and protecting competitors alive.
It goes with out saying, nevertheless, that this resolution has already sparked differing opinions amongst trade consultants and followers. The goal is to align System 1 with new sustainability and leisure wants, however the worth to pay is clearly a contest distorted in its essence.
The center of the change will probably be a single ECU managed by the FIA, which is able to management the facility and gasoline consumption of each the thermal and electrical engines of every automotive. The ECU will set a most energy restrict: 400 kW for the thermal engine and 350 kW for the electrical one. By means of the override command, the system will have the ability to quickly scale back the facility of the main car, permitting the chasing driver to keep up excessive energy ranges for prolonged intervals, thus creating pace variations particularly designed for overtakes.
The adoption of the BoP in System 1, disguised as a device to favor overtakes, represents a historic change, probably second solely to the entire electrification that additionally threatened to reach within the highest class of world motorsport (and whose danger will not be but fully dominated out). This method, in actual fact, establishes a typical efficiency restrict, flattening the variations between groups and steering the competitors towards an more and more managed and uniform administration of the automobiles. If you happen to choose, you’ll be able to simply label it as a real manipulation of technical values.
This maneuver will even scale back engineering creativity and the individuality (already very restricted) of the automobiles, limiting the house for technical innovation in favor of a System 1 pushed by electronics and computing.
Allow us to do not forget that, as established in earlier months, from 2026, there will probably be an actual revolution (already decided) concerning the facility items. The brand new rules, additionally specializing in sustainability, will introduce substantial adjustments in vitality administration and gasoline utilization. The electrical engine energy will improve to 350 kW, with a battery regeneration capability rising from 2 to 9 MJ per lap.
On the identical time, the thermal engine will endure an influence discount, dropping from 550 kW to 400 kW, whereas gasoline consumption will probably be restricted by even stricter rules. Moreover, the turbocharging system will probably be lowered, with a turbo stress restrict set at 4.8 bar.
The brand new energy items will even should adapt to energetic aerodynamics (the third main novelty of the 2026 rules), which is able to enable real-time changes to the automotive’s aerodynamic setup to optimize traction and vitality effectivity, however this will even be managed via centralized software program that can restrict the design freedom of the groups.
The conclusions and feedback on these selections might sound superfluous. For many who love motorsport, all of that is bordering on miserable. The times when on-track battles have been genuine and the values of the drivers could possibly be matched with the technical designs of the automobiles in a clear and engaging combat on the monitor are nearly extinct. Actually, all this additionally is available in response to the necessity to scale back environmental impression, an more and more central theme in motorsport. Nevertheless, it’s respectable to ask whether or not manipulating the values on the monitor is actually important for the acknowledged sustainability aim, or whether or not it’s extra of a advertising technique to keep up public curiosity.
System 1 (which now solely carries the title of the game we keep in mind) is more and more turning into a problem of software program and digital administration. And maybe this step (which comes after the architectural restrictions of engines in 1995, the ban on in-season testing in 2009, the introduction of DRS in 2012, and the arrival of energy items in 2014) marks the definitive farewell to the game we as soon as knew.
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