OV9

GG. wrote: Thu Feb 19, 2026 8:21 pm How long into a race before it involuntarily sheds weight by ejecting the flapping wing into the car behind?

Well, my guess it that it won't rotate back round one time into a fast corner, then the car and driver will be going straight to the scene of the accident*

*phrase courtesy of Martin Brundle.

Mito Man wrote: Thu Feb 19, 2026 5:25 pm The Ferrari genuinely has a lot of innovation. It’s got a blown diffuser too! I’m trying to save my excitement because it’s Ferrari

Indeed! Ferrari have an uncanny knack of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Also Mercedes might decide to turn the wick up and vanish off into the distance.

Ferrari quick off the mark on the practice start again.

One bonus thing about the Ferrari wing is that it (briefly) acts like a massive air brake as it rotates back around into a braking zone.

Several people seem to think it’s legal within the regulations.

But yeah, I can imagine if it becomes detached at any point, even in practise, it will be banned pretty quickly.

So Alonso's back in a car with a dodgy Honda engine. It'll be a repeat of his second stint with McLaren.

I was watching a podcast from The Race yesterday on their view of the regs and it was so depressing I turned off after about 5 minutes.

Has anyone seen the supposed new opening sequence for the TV broadcast. I'm hoping what I saw was actually a joke and not the real thing

Yes of all the songs from the F1 film they picked the worst!

The Honda thing is hilarious. What a POS. They made exactly the same mistake as they did in the original hybrid era. Single cylinder test engine works fine - the whole V6 shakes itself to bits. And then Alonso. The most cursed man in motorsport He’s been hit twice by lightning.

I saw a clip of the press conference, jeez Newey looked like shit. Just because you can be a good team principal Adrian, doesn't mean you should be. A man of his engineering talents shouldn't be wasting one minute of time with non-engineering when the car is a bag of shit.

Said clip.

I've owned a Fiat Panda twin air so if they want a last minute driver replacement with engine vibration experience, call me

Someone made the Simpsons meme I was thinking of!

I don’t care how close the racing is, cars randomly losing 30mph on the straights while their foot is buried to the floor is shit no matter how you dress it up.

I’m tempted to buy nowTV for a month and get up to watch the chaos live

The onboards round Melbourne look terrible. It’s like the braking zones are 500 metres long now. At least it’s not really visible with the trackside cameras. I presume there will be a lot more overtaking which is the aim but it’s not really racing if someone is blasting past with a battery boost.

integrale_evo wrote: Fri Mar 06, 2026 6:57 pm I’m tempted to buy nowTV for a month and get up to watch the chaos live

VPN to an Aus node and use the Channel 10 free to air stream or hook into one of the many rebroadcast streams (while practising good internet hygiene)

Despite some media claims of the F1s sounding better with the new regs I didn't get that impression from coverage and I cannot hear them from my house unlike the Carrera Cup cars.

Looks like the predictions were right really. Wonder what time Max would have done in Q3, but probably nothing to trouble Merc.

Ferrari not as good as they had looked, I think Fred needs them to go forward in the race or he's going to come under increasing pressure.

Surely a grid pen for Kimi though? That was a bad fuck up with the fans.

Only seen the results. What happened to McLaren? Thought they’d be right up there with the Merc engine.
And Hadjar out qualified Verstappen?!

Mito Man wrote: Sat Mar 07, 2026 8:46 am Only seen the results. What happened to McLaren? Thought they’d be right up there with the Merc engine.
And Hadjar out qualified Verstappen?!

Vertsappen's rear axel locked under braking on the first lap in Q3, so he was a passenger and was out immediately.

McLaren apparently were working on some technical/ recovery issue before Q3, not sure whether they fixed it, but they generally looked a bit meh. Racing Bulls looked very competitive. Audi had a technical issue at the end of Q2, but before that Bortoletto looked half decent.