Between unprecedented overtaking and strategies, Norris: “The races will have more action”

2026 is a new Formula 1, but not distorted for this reason. The protagonists are the new cars, more powerful when exiting corners and at the same time more difficult to tame, characteristics that liven up both the driving and the strategies. Furthermore, a crucial element is energy management, which however does not devalue the talent of the qualifying driver. If anything, this offers an extra variable to attempt overtaking, as explained by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in a small press conference at which FormulaPassion was present. Driving becomes more difficult The distinctive feature of the new power units is the tripled power of the electrical part, fully available already at low speeds. The drivers speak of surprising acceleration out of corners, but also difficult to control, as Oscar Piastri says: “When you are at full power, out of corners you have a lot of horsepower, even more than last year, but also less aerodynamic load and a smaller contact patch between the asphalt and the wheels, being narrower. Therefore, you have more power and less grip.” All this leads to the cars breaking down more easily, requiring more attention from the driver: “Obviously, higher power surprises you much more quickly. Not that we didn’t have a lot of it before, but when you have less grip, less load and more power, things happen faster. Even the skids will be faster.” Lando Norris echoes the Australian: “New cars are fun. They are more powerful and require more effort, which means you have to work harder to control the car and fight with it.” According to the world champion, many sections will no longer be able to be tackled flat out and will instead be limited by grip, rewarding those who stop often to put on new tyres: “In Barcelona, last year turns 3, 9 and the last were practically tackled completely, while this year you almost have to brake. These are points that in previous years were easy, whereas now they become real corners. This is a positive thing and you could see more action in the race. There could be different strategies, because while last year these areas were not they were limited by grip, but now, when you fit a set of new tyres, you can gain much more in those points”. Unprecedented overtaking The other major theme of the new cars is energy management. For drivers it’s not just a matter of understanding where, when and how much to lift the foot, but also when to push and use the boost button, which corresponds to a more aggressive mapping of the hybrid. Piastri explains: “Even with the previous engines there was energy management, but its relevance and consequences are now three times greater. For example, we already had the boost button, albeit with a different name, but it was much more difficult for you to find yourself in trouble by using it.” The boost button, in fact, guarantees an instant increase in horsepower, but drains the battery and compromises the power available in the following section. Norris says: “What you’ll see will be generally more chaotic races, depending on where the drivers use the boost button. Even in Barcelona, there are some straights where you wouldn’t normally rely on battery power as much, for example between turns 5 and 7. But if you used the boost button there, you’d gain a lot of horsepower and you could overtake someone in turn 7, where that normally wouldn’t happen before. The only thing is that you’d be in trouble on the turn 10 straight.” The Englishman continues: “You might see someone overtake not necessarily because they have more pace, but because they were able to recharge their battery properly for one or two laps. When you chase, the advantage you had with DRS now lies in the possibility of having a slightly more charged battery.” Traveling in the wake, in fact, reduces resistance to progress and consumption, allowing you to recover energy and prepare a counter-overtaking: “There could be more maneuvers with greater speed differences, but those in front might have to defend themselves more than in the past and this will create more chaos”. Watch out for departures Another element is the use of the hybrid to combat turbo lag. The new power units do not have the MGU-H, the second electric motor which until last year allowed the speed of the turbo to be controlled, keeping it at the optimal working point. Now, however, at low speeds the compressor tends to slow down due to the reduction of exhaust gases through the turbine, with the thermal engine which, consequently, loses power at low speeds. “Before, to balance the turbo, you used the battery,” comments Norris. “Using it together with the combustion engine, you had a nice sprint. Now it’s much more complicated. As soon as you start using the battery to help you in any situation, you deprive yourself of it for the rest of the ride.” New cars can use the powerful electric motor to compensate for the loss of thermal power at low speeds, but in doing so, the battery drains quickly. It will therefore be very interesting to see the approach of teams and drivers to the starting phases, as Norris observes: “Yes, maybe [usando l’ibrido] I could have a better start, but at some circuits I could also run out of battery before I even get to Turn 1, for example in Mexico. There will be complications. At the moment it’s treacherous, mainly because you have to reach the ideal operating point of the turbo and you don’t have the battery to compensate for the drops in power.” The approach in qualifying On the eve of the new regulations there was fear of the possibility that the drivers could downshift the gears in a straight line to recover energy. The first tests have partially confirmed this hypothesis. “Sometimes yes, it’s possible”, confirms Norris. “The biggest challenge now is how to recharge the battery in the best possible way and this comes down to using the gears to make it work the engine at the right speeds”. Another practice to do this is to lift the foot before the braking point, but nothing new, according to Oscar Piastri: “We had already done lift and coast before, simply for different reasons and not necessarily in qualifying. If I had to guess, I’d say this will probably be the main difference.” Doing lift and coast on the flying lap, however, won’t be necessary everywhere. Norris explains: “There will be some tracks where you’ll still go flat out, while on some longer ones, like Baku, Spa and Silverstone, you’ll go more in that direction [del lift & coast]. You release the accelerator for a second, but then still try to brake as late as possible. You still have to understand how to push yourself to the car’s limits as much as possible.” The world champion reassures those who fear that the fight for pole will become a pure engineering exercise: “I wouldn’t say that. I think you still need to understand how to drive the car as fast as possible. It simply adds a complication. In the past it didn’t matter what you did, you had to get back on the gas as soon as possible, whereas now sometimes that’s not always a good thing. There’s certainly an additional engineering component at play, but it’s not all based on that. It’s still up to the pilot to make these decisions and control everything. It only makes our lives more difficult. You may make more mistakes and get it wrong more often. This is the challenge.”