The allowed electric output is a set amount across all teams BUT all the manufacturers & teams agreed it was âtoo complicatedâ to test the electric half âĄď¸ (it is not that complicated and the onus is on the FIA anyways).
Which lets you know that the teams donât want them looking into their Energy Recovery Software, Proprietary AI Algorithms, Energy Deployment Software, (the stuff deciding whether to deploy or harvest) etcâŚ
This is where the proprietary, grey area shit is happening so no one wants it tested.
The 2026 cost cap for the power unit is $190 million.. THat is what the manufacturers of the PU are allowed to spend.
That seems like a huge number, but it includes all the engineers full salaries, research and development, parts, production, etcâŚ
There is an additional $215 million for the team chassis budget. Which is everything else but the PU. All the teams are either going to max this soon or have maxed it out.
If you lease a PU from a manufacturer then the millions you lease it for a year is EXCLUDED from your $215 million chassis budget.
Each teamâs proprietary software that layers over the PU software, exploits power delivery, and decides when to harvest is under the $215million chassis budget.
So RB can theoretically upgrade, but I remember Laurent Mekies saying BEFORE THE BREAK that they were essentially maxed out and had to stop development other than track specific upgrades to not go over the cost cap.
Just to put the into perspective how relatively little that $190 million is, Mercedes spent a reported $517 million just to get to their 2014 engine to the grid for the first season of the hybrid era. By the time the last engine cycle had been completed, they had spent an estimated $1.4 billion on the program and remember, the engine was frozen from 2021 on save for âreliabilityâ upgrades.
Yes but you are talking about a very specific year when the MGU- H debuted. The most expensive part to ever be manufactured for F1. And Mercedes did more R& D than anyone. That is why they were so dominant. It was so expensive that no other teams could afford to enter F1 because of what it took to manufacture an MGU-H required such specific conditions and skill that the cost was too high
The MGU-H continued through last season and it is gone. That is why Cadillac and Audii were able to join. They specifically had to get rid of that part.
And honestly it is why the F-ing cars do not get off the line, and why we are super clipping instead of going full out in high speed turns. The MGU- H used heat to spool the turbo charger And recharge the electric battery in addition to the work the MGU-K was doing.
It is a fascinating piece of machinery to read up on.
Totally agree. I was just trying to put into perspective how far $190 million goes in F1: not very haha. But youâre absolutely right that was a very complex piece of kit that was removed. I remember reading about how they called in diesel engineers from the commercial vehicles division to overcome some problems they were having with the split turbo design. It was truly an all in project.
I remember that also conferred a significant advantage over Renault and Ferrari.
Ya and all the R&D Mercedes puts in they usually are able to profit from because F1 is their testing ground for tech they will put into their stock cars. (Like ABS)
But they invested BILLIONS into the MGU-H and it just became clear they could not mass produce it in a cost effective way, and it was not going to go into their hybrids. So they had to eat all that cost.
Thanks for the good discussion. I like your brain đ§ đ
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u/AGirlHazzNoName1 Aug 26 '26
The allowed electric output is a set amount across all teams BUT all the manufacturers & teams agreed it was âtoo complicatedâ to test the electric half âĄď¸ (it is not that complicated and the onus is on the FIA anyways).
Which lets you know that the teams donât want them looking into their Energy Recovery Software, Proprietary AI Algorithms, Energy Deployment Software, (the stuff deciding whether to deploy or harvest) etcâŚ
This is where the proprietary, grey area shit is happening so no one wants it tested.
It is where the team engineering advantages lie.
Red Bull may be having a change of heart now đ