Welcome to Tuesday’s edition of the RaceFans round-up.
Comment of the day
@DiezCilindros is not optimistic about the FIA’s planned rules changes for next year:
I think we should go for smaller, shorter and lighter cars, less aero-dependant and with smaller tyre size. Just much less grip. I believe the lesser the grip, the better the racing (as in wet races).
And I’m not sure 2026 regs are going on that direction. I think modes X and Z are just the opposite: lots of grip in the corners (as I assume teams will set up their cars with maximum downforce) and very small slipstream in the straights. Override mode will cause the straights with less than 800-900 meters will see no overtakes at all, and in very long straights the speed differential may be too dangerous. I’m not for it.
But the point of the topic (teams fighting closely) is different from the regulation: a technical reshuffle always creates the risk of getting one team to dominate, and it’s just pure luck to get a dominant team with no resources (Brawn) that fades quickly and we get the close fight within a few races, or two dominant teams (Mercedes and Ferrari 2017) that fight with each other… or just a total annihilation (2014). It’s impossible to know 1 year in advance which kind of situation we will get. I think it’s just luck.
@DiezCilindros
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Nick, KoolKieren and Alexandre Araujo!
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
El Pollo Loco
14th January 2025, 0:54
Indeed, RE: COTD. Speaking of which, their next gen. spec renders are embarrassingly crude. That’s even a bad effort for 15 years ago.
Jere (@jerejj)
14th January 2025, 6:37
Smaller by length-width dimensions, overall lighter, marginally smaller tyres by width, are indeed what will literally happen in 2026, so COTD is contradictory regarding these aspects.
With all other referred aspects, we’ll see.
Diez Cilindros (@diezcilindros)
14th January 2025, 6:47
What I mean is all these mods will be neutered with mode Z, because now you don’t go full downforce in every corner and in 2026 you will.
Jere (@jerejj)
14th January 2025, 9:27
I failed to comprehend what you implied.
Greg
14th January 2025, 16:46
The cars of 2026 are marginally smaller than the current ones, for this decrease in size to have significant results they would have to reduce to sizes similar to those of the cars from the 90s.
El Pollo Loco
14th January 2025, 20:40
And that lack of meaningful reduction in size is rendered not only meaningless, but in the wrong direction by how heavy these new cars will be.
anon
14th January 2025, 20:47
Greg, the cars of the 1990s were actually quite a lot wider than the cars will be in 2026, so if we wanted to implement your approach of matching the cars from the 1990s, we’d have to scale the size of the 2026 cars up.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
15th January 2025, 3:22
@jerejj Didn’t seem contradictory to me, but I read COTD to mean smaller, shorter, and lighter than what is coming. It is possible he meant what you read though I guess.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
14th January 2025, 7:38
Announcing the signing of an 8-year-old might be a record low…
Has Helmut Marko signed up Max and Kelly’s expected child yet?
MacLeod (@macleod)
14th January 2025, 7:50
@bullfrog Funny you said that and indeed he/she has already a spot but Max said in the last RB podcast (I think) he hopes this their child takes no drivers job but something in the organisation.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
14th January 2025, 9:35
Indeed. Please allow children to be children. Let them have fun, grow up, learn and THEN we will see if they are up for it. Imagine dealing with this pressure at 8 years old and having to give up your dream at 12 because you didn’t live up to the hype (yet). It is of the best interest of the teams to sign the next superstar, but it is not in the interest of the child.
MichaelN
14th January 2025, 15:50
I’ve seen this in another individual sport I used to pariticipate in. It starts really early, and it’s usually the result of a father disappointed in his own life putting his hopes of a vicarious do-over on his kid. At least motorsport is so expensive that it rarely goes anywhere, but many other sports allow families to pursue these hopeless attempts way into the teenage years, at which point school and family relations are seriously strained.
Sports are great, but the sports we see on TV are like the top 0,001%. That’s not a healthy goal to have, and definitely not something to push unto someone else.
El Pollo Loco
14th January 2025, 20:45
No. We need them working in factories again by the age of 6. Bolivia knows what it’s doing at least. They’ve got children working in one of the world’s most dangerous and unhealthy mines in the world. Speaking of which, we should hold a Grand Prix there.
not sure why it initially posted as a new comment below*
SteveR (@stever)
14th January 2025, 11:32
Yep, was going to post the same thing. This is getting ridiculous.
Kroxigo
14th January 2025, 15:05
Why? Im sure the family is happy for the financial support.
El Pollo Loco
14th January 2025, 20:44
No. We need them working in factories again by the age of 6. Bolivia knows what it’s doing at least. They’ve got children working in one of the world’s most dangerous and unhealthy mines in the world. Speaking of which, we should hold a Grand Prix there.
SteveR (@stever)
15th January 2025, 3:12
Keith, why not put a ‘comment’ link and count as you do with other posts?