The long-rumoured agreement will see Toyota provide design, technical and manufacturing services to Haas. The F1 team’s announcement of the tie-up said that it would also ‘offer technical expertise and commercial benefits’ in return.

Toyota hopes the agreement will open a pathway for its young engineers and drivers to access F1. Toyota Gazoo Racing engineers and mechanics will take part in the team’s aerodynamic and track testing work. They will also help to design and manufacture carbon fibre parts.

Haas is a multinational F1 operation, with facilities in Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. Its Italian design office in Maranello is tied to its status as a Ferrari power unit customer; Haas conducts its wind tunnel aero testing from Ferrari’s in-house facility. Its Banbury base in the UK houses its operational functions, such as vehicle performance management, control systems work, logistics and race support. Kannapolis in North Carolina is home to the team’s marketing, accounting and administration activities.

‘I’m hugely excited that Haas F1 Team and Toyota Gazoo Racing have come together to enter into this technical partnership,’ said Haas F1 team principal Ayao Komatsu. ‘To have a world leader in the automotive sector support and work alongside our organisation, while seeking to develop and accelerate their own technical and engineering expertise – it’s simply a partnership with obvious benefits on both sides.

‘The ability to tap into the resources and knowledge base available at Toyota Gazoo Racing, while benefiting from their technical and manufacturing processes, will be instrumental in our own development and our clear desire to further increase our competitiveness in Formula 1. In return we offer a platform for Toyota Gazoo Racing to fully utilise and subsequently advance their in-house engineering capabilities.’

Toyota ran a works F1 team from Cologne – now the site of factory WEC and WRC efforts – from 2002 to 2009. It remained involved in the championship after that as a background player, providing McLaren with access to its wind tunnel until the British team built a new one in-house last year. Haas will not use Toyota’s wind tunnel under the new partnership, with the team confirming it will continue to use Ferrari’s facility only.

‘We are pleased to announce that Haas F1 Team and Toyota Gazoo Racing have concluded a basic agreement to enter a technical partnership such as Haas vehicle development,’ said Tomoya Takahashi, president of Gazoo Racing Company. ‘We would like to express our gratitude to Mr. Gene Haas, Mr. Ayao Komatsu, Mr. Stefano Domenicali (CEO – Formula 1), Mr. Fred Vasseur (team principal – Scuderia Ferrari), and all our existing partners of the team for their exceptional cooperation and understanding in this collaboration.

‘By competing alongside Haas F1 Team at the pinnacle of motorsports, we aim to cultivate drivers, engineers, and mechanics while strengthening the capabilities of Haas F1 Team and Toyota Gazoo Racing, and we desire to contribute to motorsports and the automotive industry.’

Despite the new Toyota tie-up, Haas will remain a Ferrari power unit customer until the end of 2028, taking it through the transition into the new technical regulations which arrive after next year.

The post Haas F1 Team Enters Technical Partnership With Toyota appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

Newey will join the Silverstone-based outfit on 1 March 2025 after his departure from the Red Bull Technology Group. The Briton has recently shifted his focus from Red Bull’s F1 programme to its RB17 hypercar project that he has been heavily involved in.

Newey’s title will be managing technical partner of Aston Martin F1 team. He will also become a shareholder in the business.

He will join a leadership structure that currently consists of executive chairman Lawrence Stroll, team principal Mike Krack, technical director Dan Fallows and incoming CEO Andy Cowell. Aston Martin also recently signed Ferrari’s technical leader Enrico Cardile in the new role of chief technical officer.

Newey brings to Aston Martin a wealth of experience in F1, having started out with March in the late 1980s. He then moved up the grid, taking at Williams and McLaren, before joining a nascent Red Bull team in 2006. Newey-designed cars during his 19 years at Red Bull achieved seven drivers’ and six constructors’ championship titles, and 188 race wins.

‘It’s the biggest story since the Aston Martin name returned to the sport and another demonstration of our ambition to build a Formula One team capable of fighting for world championships,’ said Stroll. ‘As soon as Adrian became available, we knew we had to make it happen.

‘Our initial conversations confirmed that there was a shared desire to collaborate in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Adrian is a racer and one of the most competitive people I have ever met. When he saw what we have built at Silverstone – our incredible AMR Technology Campus, the talented group of people we have assembled and the latest wind tunnel in the sport – he quickly understood what we are trying to achieve.’

Newey’s signing marks the latest step in a push from Aston Martin to strengthen its technical leadership and push for F1 race wins and titles. The team finished fifth in last season’s constructors’ standings and has struggled to keep up with Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes this year.

Newey said during a press conference that he was ‘flattered’ to have ‘a lot of approaches from various teams’ once his departure from Red Bull became public in May.

‘I felt as if I needed a new challenge,’ he added. ‘Towards the end of April, I decided I needed to do something different. I spent a lot of time with Mandy, my wife, discussing what’s next. Do we go off and sail around the world or do something different – America’s Cup or whatever? So we took a bit of time out.

‘I felt I have been lucky enough to have achieved what I aspired to from the age of 10 or 12, which was simply to be a designer in motor racing. I can honestly say everything else has been a bonus, having achieved that straight out of uni. I never, of course, expected anything like what I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with. You have to be honest with yourself and keep yourself fresh. I felt I needed a new challenge.’

Newey added that discussions with Stroll, and the Aston Martin team’s leadership structure, persuaded him to make his ultimate choice. He was given a tour of the outfit’s new F1 headquarters at Silverstone in June.

‘Lawrence’s passion, commitment and enthusiasm is very endearing and persuasive,’ said Newey. ‘If you go back 20 years, when team principals were owners of the teams… in this modern era, Lawrence is unique in being the only properly active team owner. That’s a different feeling, when you have someone like Lawrence involved like that. It’s an old-school model. To have a chance to be a shareholder and a partner is something that hasn’t been offered to me before. It became a very natural choice.’

The post Aston Martin Confirms Newey Signing appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

Designed to give young drivers a platform to climb the single seater ladder, it includes updated safety features and similar styling to current-generation Formula 1 and Formula 2 machinery.

The car, which has been developed around a Dallara carbon monocoque, will be powered by a six-cylinder, 3.4-litre naturally aspirated Mecachrome engine producing around 380hp at 8000rpm. It uses a six-gear longitudinal gearbox from 3MO, instead of the Hewland unit found in the latest FIA Formula 2 car that was launched last year. The paddle shift is driven by a Marelli electro-hydraulic command.

Marelli is also supplying the vehicle control unit, which has been carried over from F2. The car is compatible with virtual safety car (VSC) systems and features a drag reduction system (DRS) to aid overtaking on straights.

The championship is planning to run its new car on 100 per cent sustainable fuel from Aramco. New 16-inch Pirelli tyres will be used, with three compounds available.

The car completed 2000km in testing before its unveiling at the Italian Grand Prix. The first shakedown was undertaken at Varano in Italy by Tatiana Calderon, as was the case for the current F2 machine. Formula 3 teams will receive their first car before the end of the year and then receive a further two cars in January. The 2025 FIA Formula 3 season begins at Albert Park in Australia on March 14-16.

‘The 2025 F3 car has been designed to provide exciting racing, with a lot of overtaking opportunities,’ said FIA F3 CEO Bruno Michel. ‘We have also worked to ensure this new car fits all types of drivers, taking into account the FIA’s requirements regarding the steering effort. With this in mind, we have enhanced our car’s driveability and comfort to further ensure the new generation car is more inclusive.’

The new FIA Formula 3 car will be valid for three seasons, up to and including 2027. It sits one year behind F2, which last year introduced a new car that will be valid until the end of 2026.

The post New FIA Formula 3 Car Unveiled for 2025 Debut appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

The resurfacing, part of a recently-completed €21 million (US$23,400) facility upgrade project, paved the full 5.739km lap in fresh asphalt. Many drivers have been vocal about the replacement of kerbs that helped give Monza an ‘old-school’ feel, but the new track surface is also playing a key part in the weekend. Before the Italian GP, F1 tyre supplier Pirelli predicted (based on a July track inspection) that track temperatures could reach 50degC in sunny conditions. This is because the new, black surface reflects more light from the sun as heat than its predecessor. The track surface smoothness causes more grip. Both of these factors increase degradation, defined as the deterioration of a tyre’s performance over time due to the impact of heat on the rubber.

Pirelli’s temperature estimation turned out to be true, as the track surface in Practice 1 – just after lunch on a glorious Friday – hovered between 49.6 and 51.9degC. In second practice, held between 5 and 6pm, the range was 41.6 to 48degC.

Central to the degradation challenge is that the new track surface generates graining. Graining occurs when the inner part of the tyre (the carcass) is colder than the outer surface of the tyre. This imbalance creates movement in the rubber that prompts small pieces to detach and stick to the surface, forming irregularities that reduce grip and contribute to rapid tyre degradation. Graining often occurs in cold conditions, but can also appear on a new track surface.

‘The adhesive grip is quite high, so the tarmac is grippy, said Pirelli’s chief F1 engineer Simone Berra. ‘But, on the other hand, the tarmac is very smooth. The mechanical grip of the tyre is not that high. That [imbalance] is why we are generating this level of graining. The adhesive grip is okay, but the hysteresis grip is not high.’

According to Berra, graining will inevitably occur after a couple of laps. Teams can try to delay it until slightly later in the stint, but they will all face it at some point at Monza. The low-downforce nature of the track doesn’t help because any aerodynamic load changes to ease pressure on the tyres will sacrifice too much crucial speed. At other tracks, graining occurred either on the front or rear axle, enabling teams to manage their tyres accordingly. However, at Monza, the graining has been present at both ends. It is a difficult balancing act.

‘If you are suffering from understeer and generating graining on the front axle because you are protecting the rear, you are using the rear axle to rotate the car,’ said Berra. ‘But then you are generating graining on the rear axle. It is very difficult on this circuit, compared to others, to find a good compromise to protect one axle [so that] it’s fine. At Spa, we had high graining on Friday in practice. But, in the end, it was just on the front axle. The teams worked a lot to protect the front axle, and it ended up, on Sunday, being a good race without graining being an issue and a one-stop [strategy] was possible.’

The new track surface will influence how teams approach their tyre strategy during Sunday’s 53-lap race. They are still expected to favour the one-stop approach, rather than pitting twice to spend less time on more degraded rubber. They will probably only shift to a two-stop if the graining doesn’t improve as the track evolves over the weekend.

Pirelli has brought the same compounds to Monza as last year: the C3, C4 and C5. These are the hardest tyres in its slick range. The C3 (softest) and C4 (medium) compounds were used extensively on Friday, with teams preferring to save their harder tyres for the race. The pace difference (or delta) between C3 and C4 in practice was around half a second, correlating to Pirelli’s simulation.

‘We are seeing high levels of degradation compared to 2023,’ said Berra. ‘At the moment, we are not thinking about going to a two-stop race. Even the teams are not thinking about it. They are keeping two hard compounds for the race; they want to be safe in case degradation values are higher, or there is a safety car, and they can exploit this window to pit and put a new set [on]. I think the degradation level and thermal management of the tyre will be the key to complete the race on a one-stop.’

While the Monza track surface is fresh for now, its characteristics will soon change, for new asphalt usually evolves very quickly. Since F1 is the first major series to race at Monza (and there had only been a few GT car tests before the GP) high evolution was expected in practice. Pirelli observed a high rate during FP1 and some stabilisation in FP2.

‘We didn’t have much pick-up, which is clear sign that the track can improve and evolve, become more grippy, for the next sessions,’ added Berra. ‘I think the evolution will continue throughout the next few days, especially during the race. For example, I would expect the second stint to be easier to manage than the first stint.

‘The teams cannot really work to improve the graining. They just have to wait a bit for the track evolution and improvement on track conditions. We do think they can improve a bit for Sunday. I don’t think it will disappear completely like it did at Spa.

‘You can make a difference if you are able to manage the tyres better [than others], especially with this level of graining. Here, in the past, it was easier to manage just the thermal deg [because] the graining, in general, was very low.’

The post The Challenges of Racing on a Brand-New Track Surface appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

Alex Albon’s qualifying result was expunged after the FIA found his car’s floor body to ‘lie outside the regulatory volume’ mentioned in Article 3.5.1a of the technical regulations. That line in the regulations identifies a floor body reference volume, which consists of several measurements that are further defined in Point 5 of the rulebook appendix.

Williams didn’t dispute the accuracy of the FIA measurement system at Zandvoort and accepted its sanction, but pointed out that its own measurement system produced a different result.

Ahead of this weekend’s Italian GP at Monza, Vowles explained what Williams did next, both to ensure the car was legal for the race at Zandvoort, and to maintain compliance for subsequent F1 rounds. For the former, Williams removed the surplus floor body material from Albon’s car with 400-grit sandpaper to ensure it could race on Sunday. Albon went on to finish 14th after starting from the back row, but the British-Thai driver reckoned he could have finished in the points without his qualifying DQ.

‘[The] investigation still ongoing, which tells you how complex the problem is,’ said Vowles. ‘We have two sign-off methods at the factory. The first is in a jig, fundamentally, that is replicating the legal floor width. It fits within that. In other words, it is legal to the width of the jig. The second is on-car, in the factory, which was completed on Tuesday. Both of those checks revealed that the car was effectively legal.’

To double check the width ahead of the Italian GP at Monza, Williams conducted one further measurement on Thursday that showed the car as being ‘slightly over’ the FIA’s limit.

‘By slightly over, I mean decimals of a millimetre,’ added Vowles. ‘However, we did two things. You are always adjusting the floor to make sure it is aerodynamically in the correct region. I personally believe that one of those adjustments put the floor into a region where it was slightly more illegal than that. That pushed us over the limit.

‘With these situations, you’re always trying to get things to about zero. You don’t want to be under by two millimetres. It’s not important everywhere on the floor, but there are a few regions where it is important.’

According to Vowles, the rear section of the floor where the width was beyond FIA limits is not one of those more important areas. The floors on current F1 cars are responsible for producing downforce through ground effect, as air is accelerated through Venturi tunnels carved into the bottom of the car.

‘[It] is not important aerodynamically whatsoever at all,’ claimed Vowles. ‘We could have easily been under that. What it ultimately comes down to is we didn’t do a good enough job scanning and replicating the exact procedures the FIA do. When you’re talking about decimals of a millimetre, it doesn’t [take] much to move you out of that position.’

The Dutch GP was a tumultuous event on the other side of the Williams F1 garage too, as Logan Sargeant crashed heavily in third practice. The impact with the left-side metal barrier, after the American put his car’s right wheels on wet grass, caused a fire that destroyed some components. Sargeant was then dropped from the team on Tuesday and replaced by Williams junior Franco Colapinto, although Vowles was adamant the crash did not influence the timing of his decision.

The accident was, however, damaging because Williams had brought a substantial upgrade package to the Dutch GP, which included the new floor geometry.

‘If you have attrition or an accident that happens when the update kit is about four races old, you can write it off to a certain extent because you can replace it with new,’ said Vowles. ‘When it happens about 200km in, that’s painful. [It is] the most painful time for the team to have attrition – it hurts.

‘We have an amount planned into the budget. Where it’s more hindered me, is we have more updates coming and we’re now spending time building componentry that I wish we wouldn’t at this point in time. [It is] distracting us away from the future.

Albon described the Dutch GP package as the first half of a two-pronged attack towards the end of the season.

‘In terms of balance, not really anything to say,’ he commented. ‘Just a bit more load. All the numbers came back positive. They were up, so that’s nice. I think we’re more in the mix with the midfield. It’s still close and we would need a bit more to get in front of everyone.

‘This is part of a double package, so we’re waiting for a second part of it a bit later into the season, and hopefully that will just tie up some of the balance problems, because we’re not just missing load, we’re missing a bit of balance as well.’

The post How Williams Responded to Albon’s Zandvoort Qualifying DQ appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

While the development is set to inform the engineering direction for next year’s car, it is unlikely to be the same kind of upgrade as in 2023, when the American-owned team radically changed its concept to an outwash aerodynamic solution. Haas picked up the wooden spoon in last season’s standings; its change of direction for round 19 at Austin arguably came too late to have a substantial impact on its campaign.

One of the priorities for new team principal, Ayao Komatsu, when he replaced Guenther Steiner at the start of this year was to bring more upgrades to the track sooner. The idea behind this approach was to give Haas a better chance at keeping pace with its rivals in the bottom half of the table.

‘I would say that’s something we still need to work quite hard on,’ Komatsu said at pre-season testing, referring to Haas’ pace of producing new parts. ‘I don’t think our lead time is one of the best in the field.’

A quicker rate of progress for the team, which spreads its operations between Banbury in the United Kingdom and Maranello in Italy, was achieved this season. It rolled out a suite of five performance-related updates to round five in China. That was topped up with front and rear end changes for Imola, before another comprehensive package arrived in time for round 12 at Silverstone.

‘After [Monza], you have Baku and Singapore,’ said Komatsu. ‘It doesn’t make sense to bring a package to them, and after that, it’s Austin. That coincides pretty well with the shutdown as well. After we’ve finalised the Austin package, we are free [to focus on] 2025.’

When asked what Haas’ priorities are for the Austin package, Komatsu pointed towards the team’s most recent major technical change for the British GP in July.

There, Haas introduced seven performance-related adjustments, including a new floor designed to increase the ground effect suction that keeps the car planted through corners. The sidepod inlet was given a longer upper lip to facilitate cleaner airflow to the rear, which in turn required the sidepod to protrude further rearward. During the Silverstone race, Nico Hülkenberg finished sixth to equal Haas’ best result of the season, matching his position at the previous round in Austria.

‘It’s similar to Silverstone,’ said Komatsu of the planned Austin upgrade. ‘We worked on the floor and bodywork and found performance. Those assumptions of what we expected in the wind tunnel [and] CFD [testing] that materialised at Silverstone… [it will be] continuation of that, and a couple of other areas which we find interesting. That is the next stage.’

One of the problem areas for Haas this year has been speed through medium-speed corners, although Komatsu pointed out that certain slow-speed corners can also be a thorn in its side when certain variables are at play.

The team is yet to find out what is causing its lack of pace through the medium-speed turns.

‘We clearly improved high-speed,’ said Komatsu. ‘There are some parts of the car that suggest why high-speed correlation wasn’t great before. We improved [that, however] medium is still poor. I personally don’t have an explanation. In low speed, we are at least competitive. But you can look at Zandvoort: [at] Turn 9 and Turn 10, everybody was complaining because of the wind and track surface. But I think we suffered more compared to the others.

‘So, it’s not just in medium-speed corners where we are poor. In certain slow-speed corners, with certain characteristics, we are poor as well. There are many areas that we need to understand. I don’t pretend to understand everything. But we are working on that.’

It doesn’t necessarily bode well for the next two races on the streets of Baku and Singapore, where there are several 90-degree corners to contend with. However, Haas is hoping that the Austin upgrades can put it in a better position for the run-in. It currently sits seventh in the championship standings on 27 points, seven behind RB.

Regarding this weekend’s Italian GP, held at the fast Monza track, Komatsu suggested that Haas has a better chance than in previous years considering its increased focus on low-downforce capabilities for the VF-24. On last year’s visit to Monza, Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen finished one lap down in 17^th and 18^th.

‘It’s very difficult to predict how competitive or uncompetitive you are going to be at each event,’ Komatsu acknowledged. ‘At Spa, I didn’t think we were going to be that uncompetitive [finishing 14^th and 18^th]. At Zandvoort, we clearly underperformed in qualifying and didn’t get much out of the car.

‘Here [at a] low-downforce track… it’s always [been] a bit difficult because we never had a competitive low-downforce package. This year we have a reasonable low-downforce package, but the new [track] surfaces and changes to the kerbs, how we get on top of it, is a big unknown.

‘I still think we can fight close to the points; that’s always our target. But it’s very difficult to predict accurately.’

The post Haas Plots Further VF-24 Upgrade for United States GP appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

Central to simulator testing is the simulator driver, who is typically a professional racer in their own right. Despite not being regular faces at grand prix events, they have a significant part to play in what transpires at the track. So, what does the life of an F1 simulator driver entail? We asked the Aston Martin F1 team’s Nick Yelloly, who has been virtually testing F1 cars for a decade, to find out.

How much time does the job demand?

Yelloly has been an F1 simulator driver since 2014, working for three iterations of the same team lineage: Force India, Racing Point and Aston Martin. Seven or eight years ago, he would carry out more than 70 days a year, although the number has reduced slightly since.

‘When I was racing in Carrera Cup or Supercup in Germany, I had much more spare time for it than I do nowadays,’ says the Brit. ‘Nowadays I’ll do 40 to 50 days a year.’

That is still a lot when you consider that Yelloly is also a BMW factory driver, this year competing in the nine-round IMSA SportsCar Championship and various high-profile GT races. That leads to around 20 days per year at the BMW M Motorsport simulator in Munich, in addition to track testing responsibilities. When everything is put together, it is rare for him to have more than two or three days at home during the European racing season.

Yelloly’s racing programme with BMW has priority over his F1 simulator role, but he still needs to be flexible in case Aston Martin gives him a late call-up. The F1 team has several simulator drivers to choose from in addition to main drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, such as reserve drivers Felipe Drugovich and Stoffel Vandoorne, or Aston Martin F1 junior Jak Crawford. This means there is some flexibility depending on schedules.

‘I am very flexible when I’m at home and will, at the drop of the hat, be able to go into the simulator and test things,’ says Yelloly. ‘If I’m free on a race weekend, I’ll do race support. For Hungary, we had a few new parts, and I was there until almost 2am. That tends to happen when we have new parts, because we need to extend test sessions more often. Generally, I’ll try to fit in one or two sessions a week.’

What does a simulator test consist of?

No two simulator sessions are the same, but there are certain types of session that reoccur during an F1 season.

‘It’s very dependent,’ says Yelloly. ‘You’ll have typical car performance days, sometimes you’ll have tyre development days, purely for correlation. Other times you’ll be doing pre-event work to get the basic set-ups ironed out for the race drivers before they come in. So, it’s broken up into three or four types of session.’

A standard car performance engineering session will focus on trying out new parts that have been modelled for the car. If they work as intended or bring lap time gains in the simulator, they are taken through into production.

‘Typically, it will be about trying new parts that they create in their software and modelling before we go and put them in the wind tunnel, or even CFD, to see if directionally that is correct or not,’ says Yelloly. ‘We can see if it’s bringing the tools or drivability that we may have been lacking, and creating load in the areas that we need. In F1, you need as much load as you can get without the drag. It’s quite a fine trade-off, and some configurations work better at some tracks than others. A lot of different aero and ride height scans are done between races, depending on track grip level and downforce expectations.’

Aston Martin has a core team running the simulator, supported by a larger group of staff in the performance engineering department who can request items that can be tested and signed off before going onto the real car.

How does a sim driver contribute on race weekends?

The personnel at the track constitute only a portion of an F1 team’s staff count during an F1 grand prix. An army of engineers will be watching along at the factory, processing data and returning their findings. There will also be a simulator team in constant communication with the track squad, trying out set-up options that can’t be completed in the limited practice time available.

These race weekend simulator sessions are more intense than your standard engineering or tyre runs, for there is the added pressure of an event schedule to follow. Unsociable working areas can be expected for those at base, especially if it’s a flyaway race in a remote time zone.

‘We will do some pre-emptive set-up work to predict what they may ask for at the track,’ says Yelloly. ‘Sometimes, it isn’t the direction they want to go, but it could give them extra information on ways not to go for Free Practice 2. The main running that we try and dial in, at least for performance, will be one of the first couple of runs in FP2, because that’s when most teams tend to do their performance running.

‘We’ll start working on correlation, making sure grip levels are correct, and ride height and downforce levels are aligned. Once we’ve done that, we will listen in to debriefs, driver comments and engineer thoughts. There are so many different departments in Formula 1 that it’s quite a sizeable debrief length. As that’s happening, we will start to get test requests from the track. I like to think of it as them using us as an extended test session, for stuff they couldn’t get done in FP2 or ideas they have. Each direction they would like to try, they will send to us, and we give our feedback on yes or no, in terms of balance, feeling, drivability, general lap time consistency, and whether it’s more of a qualifying set-up or race style.’

The number of requests sent to the simulator team sometimes enters double digits across the two Aston Martin AMR24s. These can cover a wide range of topics spanning aerodynamics and mechanical matters. After testing an item or set-up option, the simulator team will relay their findings to the track team.

‘At that point, they either say it’s fine, or they can send more options if they are looking into more specific areas,’ says Yelloly, who acknowledges that pressure is high on the simulator team in these scenarios.

‘It can be quite tough,’ he adds. ‘We are structured in time limits, as to when they get their test requests across. After that, we usually don’t get out of the simulator until we’re done. At Hungary, it was three or four hours constantly doing laps. No matter what time it gets to, you’re going to struggle! Luckily the 24-hour race weekends that I’ve done plenty of seem to help with that.’

As professional racers, all simulator drivers are physically fit, but that doesn’t mean it’s not tough.

‘In a simulator you haven’t got adrenaline, which keeps you going in a racecar,’ notes Yelloly. ‘So you have to just be able to run on fumes, which you do at the end of a 24-hour race. I actually think my simulator work in the early days probably helped me with my endurance career, to start with. And then it’s helped full circle.’

Does a sim driver need a particular driving style?

Adaptability is the key word. F1 race drivers usually conduct several hours of simulator testing to prepare for a grand prix, yet there is still a need for dedicated sim drivers to go through the full mountain of items that a team needs to test. Simulator drivers must be able to mimic the driving style of the race drivers, to ensure their findings about a particular part or set-up will correlate with the real-world experience. If they can’t mimic those very detailed, individual actions, there is a danger their feedback could lead the trackside engineers down the wrong path.

‘It’s something that I learnt to do quite early on,’ says Yelloly. ‘Even the different gear usages: some people may attack the corners more and not worry about the exit much, and vice versa. Also, different lines and corner radii that each driver takes, I have to adapt to them. How I do it, is I go about my normal driving, and then I’ll ask if this is the correct [approach] to Alonso or Stroll. [The engineer] will give me feedback – “you need to carry in more speed or turn in a bit later” – and I’ll be able to fix it and mimic what they were doing. When you first start copying someone else, it’s a bit unusual and different. But now I’m at the stage where it’s relatively comfortable. Having worked with them for a few years, you know how to go about it.’

Do they ever get to drive a real F1 car?

Yes, and Yelloly has done. In fact, it’s necessary for the driver’s understanding between what is being experienced at the track, and what he feels during his many hours in the sim. This is especially important when F1 goes through technical regulation overhauls, as it did between the 2021 and 2022 seasons and will do again in 2026.

‘[A real-world test] usually tends to occur once there’s been a rule change,’ says Yelloly. ‘The first time I drove was in 2016, then it was 2019 when we had the bigger tyres and more downforce. And again, a few weeks ago in a PR day, they had me driving the ground effect car, just to have an idea of how it feels inside the cockpit and how it reacts. We also have bigger rims now than when I last drove an F1 car.’

How accurate are current F1 simulators?

The lack of real-world F1 testing nowadays has placed heavy emphasis on teams purchasing and developing the most accurate simulator possible. It is one of those unseen battlegrounds away from the track: investing in simulators is worth it because a better simulator should give more precise feedback on car characteristics that translate to good engineering decisions.

The term ‘latency’ is often used to describe simulator performance. This is the delay between something happening in the virtual environment and the driver being able to recognise that it is happening. Top-of-the-range simulators today boast latency of around 3-5 milliseconds.

‘Every simulator will have some subtle form of latency, whether that’s from the platform or tyre model behaviour,’ explains Yelloly. ‘When we had our current simulator installed, we did a lot of work on trying to minimise that and getting the car feel correct, in terms of how it slides, what type of slide it is and how fast the car or tyre recovers. Then, [F1] changed the style of the car to ground effect and a different tyre. So, we had to do a different step to make this closer again, which we’ve managed to do.’

Yelloly has driven multiple high-grade simulators, including the F1 rigs at Mercedes and Williams, and says the current Aston Martin one is at ‘a very good level’. The team has a new sim on the horizon, as it gradually equips its state-of-the-art new factory at Silverstone.

‘We have a great simulator team at Aston Martin that are constantly trying to improve things and looking for the next step forward, whether it’s immersion or how the simulator moves,’ says Yelloly. ‘There are so many different modelling, software and hardware tools that you can use to gain all these little feelings for the drivers. It’s cool and exciting to be a part of.’

How involved is the sim driver in a team’s season?

Although simulator drivers rarely attend F1 races – Yelloly says he’s only been two or three times – that doesn’t mean they are detached from the team’s progress throughout a campaign. It’s not simply a case of the driver being given parts to blindly test before the engineers take their feedback and squirrel away to make changes for the real car.

‘I feel quite involved, if I’m honest,’ says Yelloly. ‘I’m definitely not a face at the circuit. But, if I go in on the Monday, I will have usually worked the Friday, so I will know what items we were trying to get correct into qualifying. I’ll then have quite detailed reports when I’m back at the factory on how things went, driver comments, and how we went about trying to fix them from an engineering point of view.

‘Then, we will correlate the Saturday and Sunday, usually on the Monday, to make sure we are fully up to speed on what we are doing. And then we will try to progress to the next circuit…’

In the world of F1 where teams are constantly developing upgrades to improve performance, there is never a shortage of work on the simulator side. It is a vital process to validate the bright ideas from engineers before they are applied at the track.

Header image courtesy of Mercedes

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In a Q&A session, the chief executive and chief technology officer at Audi Formula Racing go through the bench testing that has been completed so far and what’s to come.

The German manufacturer is joining F1 in 2026 under a new technical regulations cycle, which includes refreshed hybrid power unit rules. The 1.6-litre V6 internal combustion engine has been retained, but the MGU-H has been dropped and the MGU-K has been uprated to produce almost three times the amount of power as the current electrical system. Audi is developing its powertrain in-house at Neuberg, but components are also being built at Hinwil, the current base of the Sauber F1 team in which Audi is purchasing a 100 per cent stake.

On what has been achieved so far

Adam Baker, Audi Formula Racing CEO: ‘After just two years, our power unit, consisting of a combustion engine, electric motor, battery and control electronics, is running dynamically on the test bench. Successfully marrying the various components into a single unit is the result of hard work and great teamwork. The Audi power unit has already covered simulated race distances on the test bench. We gained a lot of testing time with the individual components in 2023 and were able to incorporate the experience gained into the next construction stages in parallel. Significant milestones and goals have been achieved, which gives the entire team a good feeling.’

Stefan Dreyer, Audi Formula Racing CTO: ‘We implemented a very ambitious modernisation and expansion of our test facility. Today, we have 22 state-of-the-art test benches at the site. Our new development tools are state-of-the-art and have enabled us to achieve a steep learning curve. By testing on the test bench under simulated racing conditions we gain important insights in this phase of the project. After the successful race distances with the power unit we will soon be doing the same with the entire drive system, which means the combination of power unit and transmission. At the same time, we are going full throttle with performance development in order to achieve the goals we have set ourselves.’

On the tracks that have been used in bench testing

SD: ‘We run the power unit on the test bench with different layouts from the current F1 calendar, depending on the purpose of the test. For example, Las Vegas is interesting for our development team in terms of overall energy management. Several alternating fast and slow corners and almost two kilometres of full throttle driving on the Las Vegas Strip provide the perfect development environment for fine-tuning the combustion engine and the ERS (Energy Recovery System) components.

AB: ‘Hearing the Audi power unit being simulated today on tracks like Spielberg, Singapore or Las Vegas, not only gives everyone involved goosebumps, but also gives us the feeling that we are a big step closer to our first race in 2026.’

On setting up the F1 development team

SD: ‘It was particularly important to establish a broad base in all areas, to create a good foundation for the development of the individual components – combustion engine, electric motor, battery, control electronics, software – to coordinate them with each other at an early stage. Our experience from previous motorsport projects with high-voltage technology, Le Mans, Formula E, but also from the current Dakar project, has helped us a lot.

‘We have already proven in the past that we can develop conventional, hybridised and purely electric drivetrains. Nevertheless, the challenge in Formula 1 is a completely different one in terms of cutting-edge technology and competition. This also applies to our partners and suppliers – we are experiencing a very strong commitment from all sides.’

On the work to come 

SD: ‘Intensity is a good keyword for our performance development. The regulations allow a total of three test benches for single-cylinder tests, for example, which are not limited by the FIA in terms of operating times. We use this maximum number at the facility as intensively as possible for the development of combustion processes for internal combustion engines.

‘So far, we have achieved all the targets we set ourselves for performance and efficiency in this phase. In addition, our fuel development has been running since 2022 with a strong partner who has many years of experience in Formula 1. This is a really decisive factor for our project, as the new sustainable fuel for 2026 will have even greater competitive relevance.’

AB: ‘There have been special milestones almost every month since the start of the project in spring 2022, for example the start of construction for our infrastructure expansion, the start of testing for the single-cylinder, the first test bench run of the electric motor and the V6 engine and the first race distances with the complete power unit.

‘The fact that our entire team can fully concentrate on the development of the power unit for 2026 is an advantage for Audi. The remaining time until 2026 is all about achieving our development goals in terms of maximum overall vehicle performance with full focus. It will remain exciting until the first race – and after that, of course, too.’

On how F1’s cost cap rules influence operations

AB: ‘Like all other Formula 1 teams and power unit manufacturers, we were faced with the challenge of setting ourselves up accordingly. It’s all about cost-cap efficiency and cost-cap conformity. One advantage was that we were able to start on a blank sheet of paper, so to speak, creating our own company, Audi Formula Racing GmbH, for the project. We had a clear picture of structures, systems, processes and the right mindset right from the start.

‘The topic of finance has a direct impact on performance due to the cost cap. There has never been such a direct link between operational efficiency and sporting success in Formula 1. The fact that we can operate at the limit of the cost cap with PU development puts us on a par with our competitors.’

On the importance of Neuberg, a site with existing motorsport facilities

SB: ‘The infrastructure created by Audi for motorsport in 2014 has been a very good basis. It has put us in a position to start Power Unit development in 2022. To adapt this infrastructure to the Formula 1 use case, we built a new building for additional test benches, state-of-the-art workshops and laboratories in parallel with our development activities. All new test benches are now in operation and enable us to continue development at full throttle.’

On the recruitment drive for a German-built power unit

AB: ‘The local proximity to our parent company Audi in Ingolstadt is a great advantage for us in many ways. There are many technical experts in the region, especially for the development of drivetrain components. The other F1 Power Unit manufacturers are based in the UK, France, Italy and Japan. If you want to bring in employees from competitors, they usually have to move to another country – that’s a challenge, but it’s no greater for us than for anyone else. People not only have to be prepared to change employer, but also the country.

‘The fact that we were successful in recruiting experienced engineers and technicians from all other power unit manufacturers shows that our project and the location are attractive – also for international experts and talents. We now have a broad mix in the team with employees from 23 countries.’

SD: ‘Not only do we have a broad international base, but we have also strengthened our existing motorsport expertise at Audi Sport with external F1 expertise. This has helped to accelerate our learning curve considerably. Everyone is giving the project maximum speed and is eagerly looking forward to entering Formula 1. Motivation is extremely high, and we sense a strong team spirit.’

On the split operations between Neuberg and Hinwil

SD: ‘On the technical side, we are already working in a genuine factory team mode across both sites. The focus here is on integrating the power unit with important details such as thermal management. There is also close cooperation on the gearbox.

‘We develop the internals in Neuburg, while the structural parts such as the gearbox housing and rear axle are produced in Hinwil. Testing of the complete drive, consisting of the Power Unit and transmission, then takes place on our powertrain test bench. This division is expedient in terms of performance and expertise.’

AB: ‘We made an early start with the 2026 concept team in Hinwil back in January 2023. This work is now being intensified with the current chassis regulations. Our goal is clear: to fully exploit the advantages and possibilities of a factory team in terms of packaging and integration of the power unit.’

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After announcing the 2026 power unit regulations two years ago, the global motorsport federation has worked on the rest of Formula 1’s technical roadmap. The vision for 2026 is to improve ‘raceability and close racing’ according to an FIA statement. Downforce will be reduced by 30 per cent and drag by 55 per cent, as the rule makers seek to make it easier for cars to follow each other while minimising the impact of ‘dirty air’.

The chassis will be smaller and lighter than the current 2022 generation of Formula 1 cars. The maximum wheelbase has been shortened from 3600mm to 3400mm and width has slimmed from 2000mm to 1900mm. The maximum floor width will be reduced by 150mm. The FIA has confirmed a minimum weight of 768kg, down 30kg from today’s machinery. Tyre mass is set to be around 46kg, putting the car and driver weight at 722kg.

The 18-inch wheel size will remain unchanged, however tyre width will be reduced by 25mm on the front and 30mm on the rear. The goal is for grip loss to minimised.

On the aerodynamics side, there will be less reliance on generating downforce through ground effect, which was one of the pillars of the 2022 rules. From 2026, Formula 1 cars will have partially flat floors and a less effective diffuser, reducing teams’ reliance on stiff and low set-ups.

Formula 1 is also making big changes to its active aerodynamics. Cars have used a drag reduction system (DRS) as an overtaking aid since 2011, but from 2026 it will be used by all cars at all times. The revised active aero system will involve movable front and rear wings. It is designed to increase cornering speeds with the standard ‘Z-Mode’ deployed, while on the straights drivers will switch to an ‘X-Mode’ low-drag setting for optimised straight-line speed. The lower beam wing has been axed, while the rear wing is set to feature three elements. A two-element flap for the front wing’s active aero system will be fitted, while the front wing will be 100mm narrower than today.

The role of DRS as an overtaking tool will be assumed by the Manual Override system, which boosts the amount of electrical power for a chasing car. Electric power deployment of a leading car will taper off at 290km/h, reaching zero at 355km/h, whereas the chasing car will use the MOS to get 350kW of electric power up to 337km/h, plus 0.5MJ of extra energy.

‘If you are within a given distance, before the end of a lap to the car in front of you, then for the following lap, you will be given the possibility to use more electrical energy than your opponent,’ adds FIA single seater technical director, Jan Monchaux. ‘And that boost of electrical energy is there to replace what used to be the rear wing opening, to give a car that extra push to potentially go and try to overtake.’

Elsewhere in aerodynamics, front wheel arches will be removed as part of efforts to improve wake performance. Wake control boards that use in-wash will be positioned on the front of the sidepods to help control the wheel wake. Teams will be allowed to start aero testing in January.

On the safety front, a two-stage front impact structure will be mandated. This is to prevent incidents where the structure detaches close to the survival cell after an impact, leaving it exposed in case of a second hit.

The 2026 concept also offers improved side impact protection around the cockpit and fuel cell without adding weight. Roll hoop loads will increase from 16G to 20G and test loads will go up from 141kN to 167kN. Homologated rear endplate lights will be made brighter than today, while lateral safety lights will display a stationary car’s energy recovery status.

The full 2026 Formula 1 technical regulations will be published once they have been ratified by the FIA World Motor Sport Council at its next meeting on 28 June.

‘With this set of regulations the FIA has sought to develop a new generation of cars that are fully in touch with the DNA of Formula 1 – cars that are light, supremely fast and agile but which also remains at the cutting edge of technology, and to achieve this we worked towards what we called a ‘nimble car’ concept,’ said FIA single seater director, Nikolas Tombazis. ‘At the centre of that vision is a redesigned power unit that features a more even split between the power derived from the internal combustion element and electrical power.’

‘On the chassis side we have managed to reduce the size and weight of the car by 30kg resulting in a much more dynamic car. In addition we are introducing two exciting new features to enhance racing – active aerodynamics to achieve very low drag on the straights and the Manual Override system that will provide drivers with an on-demand burst of battery power when close enough to the car ahead of them.

‘Lighter, more powerful and more focused on driver skill, the 2026 FIA Formula 1 technical regulations have been designed to provide closer racing among drivers, increase the competition between teams and improve the spectacle. In addition, we have opted for a higher electrical component of the power unit, a more efficient car overall, and fully sustainable fuels, as part of our drive towards a more sustainable future for our sport.’

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Aston Martin has implemented the largest number of updates with nine, while Mercedes has also made a suite of changes for the first European round of the season. Some teams developed upgrades to be applied at the first six flyaway rounds, such as McLaren in Miami, but this weekend marks the biggest collective display of changes for the Europe-based organisations.

Reigning champion Red Bull has fitted its points-leading RB20 with performance upgrades to the floor, front wing and nose. The Milton Keynes-based outfit undertook CFD simulations to see how it could extract more load from the floor edge, and found that it could do this by repositioning a section under the rear wing. It also found that it could bring the upper surface of the floor down slightly to improve airflow to the components behind.

The leading edge of the front wing endplate has been repositioned and flap elements have been redesigned to extend the chord (the distance between the leading and trailing edges). Extending the chord means that Red Bull can extract more load from the flaps. As an offshoot of revising the flap elements, Red Bull also adjusted the nose box fairings.

‘I think the visibility of the upgrade is maybe not as apparent from outside, but it’s something interesting for us,’ said Red Bull technical director Pierre Waché on Friday, when Max Verstappen had a couple of off-track moments in practice. ‘What we put on the car now [and] how we develop the car will depend on our tools [and our] response to the performance.’

Ferrari is marking the first of two home races with a comprehensive set of updates. A key change is the introduction of a new sidepod inlet. The SF-24 started the season with an underbite-style inlet to direct air for cooling the internal components at the rear of the car. The new inlet, which now has an upper lip that protrudes slightly further than the lower one, is designed to improve flow quality over the floor edge.

Airflow-related changes to the floor edge and engine cover have also been made. The engine cover volume is smaller than it was before, improving flow quality towards the coke bottle-shaped rear section of the car. An expansion of the diffuser offers a load increase in that area. Ferrari has also updated the SF-24’s front and rear wings. The latter now has a swept flap tip and enlarged mainplane to endplate roll junction.

Ferrari started the Imola weekend strongly as Charles Leclerc topped both practice sessions on the first day of running.

On the Aston Martin AMR24, the central section of the front wing has a revised shape and relationship to the first wing element. This is designed to alter the loading distribution on the wing’s lower surface, and has led to a new nose being fitted.

Lower surface load has also been increased on sections of the floor, while the diffuser has been modified to improve airflow characteristics. A revised central trim at the centre of the engine cover is smaller than the previous version that Aston Martin ran with. This modification has been made for cooling purposes.

Additionally, the external fairings of the rear suspension have been revised. This appears to be an aerodynamic measure as the rear corners of the car affect air flow around the rear wheel.

Mercedes has brought two performance-related upgrades to Imola, as well as three circuit-specific changes pertaining to the 4.9km track.

Looking at the performance side, the Brackley-based team has made a minor modification to the floor fence alignment that is aimed at improving the quality of airflow to the rear of the floor and onwards to the diffuser. Mercedes has also modified the volume of the tunnels carved into the underfloor to generate downforce through ground effect. This changes the trajectory of the vortex generators positioned along the floor edge, increasing load on these parts.

Despite Imola being its home race, the RB squad is the only team that has not declared any updates for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Click here for a full list of each F1 team’s declarations.

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