Weren't 2026 engine power predictions in the ~650 sustained range? I thought the expectation was similar harvesting to now since the MGU-H was doing most of the harvesting in the current cars, while the ICE would be dropping to around 400KW?FW17 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 25, 2024 2:38 amFrom 2006 to 2013 cars had about 750hp. 2026 engine and the mgu can match that for the entire lap.
The difference is the 150kg of additional empty weight in comparison to 2013 cars. But starting weights in 2013 was 800 kgs, 2026 cars would be 830 kg just 30kg difference.
Does fuel burning really improve ERS performance enough to sustain 750 HP? that's like 6MJ of deployment/harvesting over a 1:30 lap with 66% time on throttle.
I guess when you start considering time on throttle the 2026 regs suddenly seem a whole lot less awful than the apocalyptic performance we were imagining when they were first announced. Obviously fuel burning helps a ton, but still. Like yeah 9MJ over a 1:30 lap is just 225kW, but when you only spend 3/4 of the time on throttle you suddenly have nearly 300kW over the entire lap. That isn't bad at all. Obviously harvesting won't be anywhere near 9kW, so you may only get 150kW on average, but thats still nearly 800HP.
I think my anger may have been misplaced, the 2026 regulations actually look pretty cool, especially with the chassis regulations making up for some of the shortcomings.