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Fast cars, lightning reflexes, and the unknown future-- this is Blind Corners. News and chatting about the latest topics around the Formula 1 World Championship. Hosted by Bryce Castillo. Putting the 'theory' in critical racing theory since 2023.
[This transcript has been generated]
I've rounded up all of the important news ahead of this week's Austrian Grand
Prix. I'm Blind Bryce Castillo, and this is Blind Corners.
First off, some topical news. Last time, I pretty confidently argued that Alpine
were going to lose their right of appeal, that they lodged for Pierre Gasly's penalty back in Monaco.
It turns out I was the one that lost. Alpine discovered that FOM,
the official timekeepers for Formula One, incorrectly measured or used the incorrect
measurement for the Monaco pit lane.
They had calculated it with a distance of 26.92 meters, but the real pit lane
is 26.15 meters, 0.77 meters shorter than reality.
Because that miscalculation made the very accurate system very inaccurate,
the stewards rescinded Gasly's penalty because he was the only one who had a
pit lane speeding penalty at the checkered flag.
Everyone else who got those speeding penalties had already served their time.
When you serve their time during a race, you can't undo it. There's no undoing,
the whole spaghetti of this thing.
McLaren and Mercedes both announced that they would be appealing the appeal
or appealing the decision, but Mercedes just a day or so ago canceled their
appeal after having discussions with the FIA and FOM.
Which indicated that there would be some proactive solutions for this issue going forward.
I don't see where McLaren have been given a date for their appeal,
and they haven't announced that they've canceled their appeal.
So that might be in limbo for now. But if Mercedes talked to the FIA and the
FOM and they said they felt good about whatever that conversation was,
maybe that's enough to put the teams at ease for now.
And in the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend, the Red Bull Ring has constructed
four new garages in the pit lane.
And it sounds like the pit lane could now be about 140 meters longer than usual.
So hopefully the FOM have got all their rules, all their yardsticks and all
their rulers. They're going to get an accurate distance.
Last time we talked about the Aduo system, the additional development and upgrade
opportunities catch-up system for the engine makers.
It was Red Bull who were decided that their engine was the baseline for engine
performance and that all of the other engines were going to be allowed to get
upgrades this season and next.
Ferrari, who were granted two of these upgrade opportunities this season and
next, have announced that they're going to bring their first engine upgrade
this weekend to the Red Bull ring.
Presumably, Ferrari have been preparing to be given an upgrade,
so this is a quick turnaround after that decision.
Ferrari's power unit technical director Enrico Gualtieri has been keen to temper expectations, though.
He said, quote, This upgrade is not a major step, and it will not,
on its own, change the competitive order.
So this is a quick upgrade, but not a life-changing upgrade.
After Lewis's shock win last week in Barcelona, all eyes are on Ferrari to see
if they'll deliver again, but also that win came because of a lot of retirements.
None of the other Aduo engine makers have announced their plans for upgrades.
It's kind of a shame that this Aduo system has meant that a lot of the engine
makers have spent most of the season talking about how bad their engines are.
And the decision to say that the Red Bull engine is the baseline when that doesn't
match the reality of the track is a really weird quirk of this Aduo system that
I think there's always going to be an excuse to describe it.
And because the FIA want to avoid gamesmanship, they have not announced what
specific measurements that they're using for the engine, but we do know that
it's primarily based on ICE horsepower.
Also this weekend, McLaren will, quote, test an experimental rear wing throughout
Friday's free practice sessions.
And the race understands that the rear wing will go into competitive sessions later this year.
This is now the third upside down wing on the grid after Ferrari and Red Bull.
It's worth noting that Mercedes have still been like the hands down fastest
car this season. And they don't have a rotating upside down rear wing.
They have reliability problems. That's another thing. I do wonder,
like, how many teams are going to invest in a rotating or an upside down rear wing.
Per the rules, they're totally legal this year. It doesn't even sound like the
FIA are going to try to clamp down on this. But I don't think that it is an
impossibility to think that these wings could get outlawed next season or the season after that.
And if that comes to be the case, then investing time and money into a rotating
rear wing is like a diminishing return.
But I love these rear wings. I love the rotation. I love them so much.
They are so cool. They're inventive.
They're like engineering creativity it's so cool i
uh it's so cool i want to see more i want to see what i liked about the red
bull one which they say they came up with independently of ferraris the red
bull one flips the opposite way and it seems like it makes a larger slot gap so i want to
see if like mclaren which way will mclaren's wing turn will it have as large of,
a gap how fast will it will it turn fast enough,
we don't know it's cool it's a moving part on a car.
Keeping it on the future here, the race got team simulations on how the upcoming
2027 and 2028 engine formulas will race.
And these simulations show a potential four-second gain by 2028,
which could put F1 cars back in the window to start breaking track records again.
By 2028, the ICEs will have increased fuel flow rates, batteries will be bigger,
and they will be harvesting more energy.
And these combine into a simulation picture where the cars are faster down the
straights, They spend more time at their top speed.
There are less energy conservation games that have to be played.
Now, these simulations don't take into account changes to the tire compound,
track condition changes.
They take some amount of aerodynamic progress into account, but,
you know, that's a variable.
It's definitely a computer saying that the new rules are good and they're so
handsome and they're really pretty.
It would be good, you know, having the cars back at like track record speeds,
seems ideal for the fastest car category in the world.
Now, if all this engine formula talk this season has got you down,
this could turn that around.
Nicholas Tombassus, FIA's single seating director, gave an interview to the
Spanish language soymotor.com and was asked about Aduo. He was asked about the
current engine formula.
And there was a quick question at the end about a FIA designed power unit.
Tombassus said that having an FIA engine would be helpful in the case that the
number of engine suppliers ever dips too low.
I don't think anyone would want to see F1 move to spec engines because the whole
The thing about F1 is that there's not many spec parts, especially no one wants
to see an engine that the FIA designs and controls.
So that's one interesting story, and I think that ties into this.
FIA president, not president for life, Mohamed bin Slaim, announced that the
next Formula engine will be a V8 with, quote, light hybrid, sustainable fuels, and no turbos.
The turbos part is especially interesting to me. MBS says that the idea is to
reduce costs, weight, and complexity, and he argues that the turbo presumably
works against those principles.
This seems like a really specific sticking point because it was a few months
ago that Audi were in the news saying that whatever the next engine formula
is, there needs to be a turbo in it.
Turbos are common in high-end cars, so it's understandable that the engine manufacturers
would want to continue using turbo technology.
Now, MBS argues that these changes to the engine formula could reduce engine
costs by about half, down to 700,000 euros from 1.5 million.
He also gave a wild line that I didn't particularly like.
In fact, what he said was, a heavy car isn't good for the driver and it's not any safer.
Which also doesn't pass the smell test. And frankly, it sounds like what he
wants to do is take the safety devices and safety mechanisms and find a way
to make them lighter, nay, potentially weaker.
Don't think that this would mean like getting rid of the halo,
but I could see a world where they decide the halo needs to be lighter or that
the monocoques need to be smaller or lighter, that the crash impact structures
might need to be lighter.
I'm not an engineer. You can't trust. I'm not.
I would not bet on this the way I bet on the Alpine thing. But I feel that's
what it sounds like he's saying. It sounds like he's saying the cars are heavy
because there's all this fucking safety devices on it.
So let's make them lighter and fucking more dangerous. I don't know how you
read that. That's the obvious reading it on its face.
That's all the news that matters ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix.
If I missed anything, it wasn't important. That's the only reason why.
We will be back after Austria for the Great Britain Grand Prix next weekend, July 3rd through 5th.
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I've been blind Bryce Castillo, and this has been Blind Corners. Meow.